“To know the HORRORS OF WAR is to want PEACE. This is one of a series of 240 True Stores of Modern Warfare. Save to get them all,” as published by Gum Inc.
A fitting statement for a personal discovery in the bubble-gum history of trading cards. Originally released February 17, 1938 by the Philadelphia-based Gum Inc., The HORRORS OF WAR anti-war trading cards were manifested by J. Warren Bowman, the company’s then president.



Bowman art directed horrific war accounts working closely with the George Moll advertising agency in Philadelphia. The HORRORS OF WAR is a large set -- 288 cards divided into two series. The original set has 240 cards that focus on the Spanish Civil War, Ethiopian War and the Chinese-Japanese War. 48 Cards came later as a supplemental release. Among these cards are three that show Adolf Hitler, the beginnings of WWII history.



By May 9, 1938 Gum Inc. reported sales of 50 million packets. May 20, 1938 the Japanese government seized 500 boxes of the gum in Yokohama and protests to Washiongton that the cards depict “false scenes of Japanese cruelties in China.” J. Warren Bowman described, “That was a good joke on the Japanese,” announcing, “I am making $44,000 a week on these cards and predict I will sell 100 million packets by year end.” He was right.



Each politically charged, often grotesque and violent card was meticulously detailed on the front with a simple hand ruled border with rounded corners. In compliment to the embattled scene on the front is an appropriately titled, numbered and historical account printed on the back of each card. Tiny-typography guides you through the fifteen-lines (or so) of detailed accounts chronicling the atrocities of a bloody offense/defense colorfully illustrated on the front.



Now, let’s jump in history to September of 1993. Helen Steinbacher hired a locksmith to open a family safe that belonged to her late husband Charles, who had worked for 30 years as the art director at George Moll ad agency. Once opened, Helen discovered over 600 artifacts, including rough pencil sketches of cowboys, tracing paper overlays of tanks and battleships, but her true discovery was the entire collection of 2 3/8 by 3 1/8 inch gum card miniature paintings of the 1938 HORRORS OF WAR painted 1 to 1 scale.



It was immediately revealed by Tom King, a young artist at the George Moll ad agency,” Charlie Steinbacher had a masterful sense of color, his skill with an airbrush and the perfect way he would outline the figures in each finished painting to make them crisp.”



Helen and her family hit the jackpot, revealing The World in Arms (48 card series depicting military equipment, ships and planes; preliminary sketches for Wild West, a 180 card series on Hollywood cowboys; War Gum, a 60 card series started in 1942 but halted in 1943 when chicle, sugar and card stock became unavailable; and much more.



The 1938 HORRORS OF WAR trading cards resonates with many collectors. Seeing these cards up close and realizing their significance in history and their commercial application is intriguing. Many people have and will debate the relevance of these cards, but there is no doubt that Charlie Steinbacher’s style, colorful and simplified depiction changed the field of editorialized illustration and comics forever.



HORRORS OF WAR is the first of a multi-story investigation about the ambiguity of terror for a curated art show entitled, “Horror Show,” a new exhibit of work by Mark Murphy in 2014.