Cartoon Glasses
Unlike comic books, I began collecting cartoon and character glasses not because I owned them as
a child, but probably because I didn't. My parents' success in teaching my sister and I nutritious
eating habits unfortunately meant few trips to fast food restaurants to pick up the great 1970's
Pepsi cartoon glasses. Instead, I had to enviously enjoy those glasses collected by family friends.
I first rediscovered these glasses at a toy show during the late 1980's. Like so many other collectors,
I began by putting together the 1973 Pepsi Warner Bros. set. Since then, my collecting interests have
changed and expanded greatly. Although there are still hundreds of Pepsi glasses I still need (see my
want list), I've begun to focus on more off-beat and older glasses. Because many of these are fairly
scarce and hard to find, they are unfortunately relatively expensive. As a result, I have the most
expensive ones stored in a safe-deposit box. I've included pictures of some of these glasses, and
many other favorites, so both I and other collectors can enjoy them while they're safely locked away.
Because I'm first and foremost a collector of comic books who specializes in superhero titles, it
should not be a surprise that I'm most interested in glasses that feature the same characters. Perhaps my favorite regularly distributed superhero glasses belong to the 1964 Superman set put
out by Polaner jelly. There are six scenes in the set, each of which appears on two different size
glasses, 4 1/4" and 5 3/4" tall. There are also six possible color combinations for each size.
Some fanatics want to find all possible scene, color, and size combinations. I would be happy just to
find one scene in each size. Still not an easy task, and I'm not even close on the larger size.
Anyway, the glass pictured is a large "Superman Uses his X-ray Vision" with the original jelly and lid.
Pretty scary. I can't imagine what's growing inside. Still, it makes you realize how cool these
great graphics must have looked while on store shelves in 1964. It must have been enough to make
any kid nag their parents to death while going through the grocery.
If you collect comics, you know that books from the late 1930's and 1940's are both the rarest and the
most valuable. It is always exciting to find comic book memorabilia from this period, so you can
imagine my excitement when I saw this gem listed in an auction. Few people realize that Captain Marvel
was more popular and outsold Superman during this period, until DC Comics' lawsuit against Fawcett
Comics finally put the good Captain out of business. As a result, Capt. Marvel and his cohorts were
more extensively licensed than any other characters in the 1940's and 1950's. Still, this decal glass is
exceptionally rare. I've never seen another and have yet to hear from anyone who has one. Rumor
has it that there is also a Capt. Marvel Jr. glass. Is there also a Mary Marvel glass? The three
characters were often licensed together, so one can only hope. I'd love to hear from anyone who knows about this
glass or a possible set.
The picture above shows two glasses that are among my favorites. Although it looks like there are three glasses,
the picture is actually composed of three scans: the one on the left shows the back, which is identical
to both glasses. They are extremely hard to find and, because
the gold paint is fragile, are even rarer in good condition. Not much is definitively known about them,
although consensus has it that they were in-house items commisioned by DC Comics. Not only do both
glasses show DC's "big three" (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), but the taller of the two
has the the Silver-Age version of the Flash. In addition, they also depict less popular characters
like Judy ("A Date with Judy"), the Crow ("The Fox and the Crow"), Tomahawk, and Mutt
("Mutt and Jeff"). The characters shown suggest that the glasses are from the early 1960's. This
was supported by a dealer who reported that Joe Kubert, an artist at DC, told him that they were part of
a three glass set given by DC Comics to their staff as a holiday gift in either 1961 or 1962. The
third glass in the set may be a shorter tumbler, rocks or old-fashioned glass. Once again, I'd welcome
any information on these.
The next two glasses are as important to me as the DC promos. They are early Looney Tunes glasses from
the 1930's. Although some Disney glasses from this period can be hard to find, Looney Tunes glasses
are much rarer. It's great to see early depictions of these Looney Tunes
characters from the very beginnings of modern animation, before they evolved into the modern versions
that we are so familiar with. The first one shows an
early version of Elmer Fudd. The "LSC" copyright stands for the Leon Schlesinger Company, which
owned the rights to the Looney Tunes characters before they were sold to Warner Bros. There is at least
a Porky Pig glass that belongs to the same set.
I have my parents to thank for this unbelievable glass. It, too, is from
the 1930's and shows an early version of Porky Pig. This does not belong to the same set as the above
Elmer Fudd. The glass is slightly tapered and has slight ridges in it.
Although this glass was known to exist in blue paint, and is incredibly scarce even in that color, the red is
virtually unknown. The person who sold it to me actually found three of them at the same garage sale
and sold off the other two several years ago. So, there's at least two others out there. I'm interested
in acquiring any early Looney Tunes or Merry
Melodie's glasses. Let me know if you have any available.
