Wacky Packages - 1967 To 1969

1967 To 1969

The very first Wacky Packages series was produced in 1967 and featured 44 die-cut cards that were similar in size to baseball cards (2.5” × 3.5” or 64 × 89 mm). This series featured parodies created by Spiegelman and primarily painted by Saunders. Two of the cards – "Cracked Animals" and "Ratz Crackers" – were pulled from production after an initial run and have since become extremely rare. This series was followed by a somewhat different Wacky Ads line in 1969, featuring gags and roughs by Lynch and Deitch with finished paintings by Sutton. These cards, approximately three-by-five inches (76 × 127 mm), were designed more like miniature billboards with a die-cut around the parodied product, so it could pop out of the horizontal billboard scene. Card #25 "Good & Empty" was removed from the initial release, after Leaf Brands sued. There were two different versions of the "Ads": the long perforations (believed to signify the 1st printing), and short perforations (possibly for the second printing) as well as an early 5-cent wrapper for the first printing and a 10-cent wrapper for the second print.