These Joe Palooka cards (3.5x4.5") were the Criss Cross Card Company's original prototypes. The Joe Palooka comic strip, created by Ham Fisher, featured the gentlemanly, blond, cowlicked heavyweight champ, and made its debut in 1930. At its peak, it was carried in 900 newspapers. The colored cards were sold in penny arcades in amusement parks, like the Exhibit Supply Co. cards of Chicago. These prototypes were most likely constructed by cutting out comic book panels and gluing them to the card stock. The cards that were attached to the yellow panels placed into the glass front of the dispensing machines for display purposes. The cards were sold at 3 for 5 cents. They are in excellent condition, and at nearly 8 decades old, are now valued keepsakes. 

Size: E.S.