Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 25, 2023 | 1 comment

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to Christopher Reeve…

You may or may not know who Gary Gerani is. But you definitely know his work. He was instrumental in creating hundreds of pop-culture trading card sets for Topps and other companies.

We’re talking huge ones, like Star Wars, Star Trek and Planet of the Apes. Well, Gary’s begun work on a five-part series of books chronicling the history of all of these sets and Volume 1, covering the 1970s, is out now.

“For years, nostalgia fans have asked me to provide some kind of definitive list of all the trading card products I worked on… not only for Topps, but ultimately for Upper Deck, Inkworks, DuoCards, Artbox, and others,” Gary wrote recently on Facebook. “Hundreds of card sets and other collectibles were created and issued during this heyday period, and these are pretty much on the record, thank goodness. I can tell you for a fact that there were countless worthy projects we worked on that never saw the light of day.

“So, before my going-on-70 brain cells begin to evaporate, I thought it made sense to finally get these creative memoirs down on paper, in some kind of book series (one volume just wasn’t enough to cover five decades). This meant, for the first edition, I had to re-live my early years at Topps in the 1970s, recalling all the cheesy but wonderful items that we actually produced, along with the ones that ever got past the planning stage. It’s a pretty cool insider’s look at the making of all this stuff, and where our poor heads were at while we were making it.”

Among those sets were the ones for 1978’s Superman: The Movie. I’ve been wanting to excerpt Gary’s book here for awhile but ultimately decided the best way to do it was as a tribute for the late Christopher Reeve’s birthday — he was born 71 years ago on Sept. 25, 1952.

So dig this EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT from The Card King Chronicles Vol. 1: The ’70s covering the superhero movie that set the template for the dozens that would come over the next several decades, Superman: The Movie:

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Gary Gerani’s The Card King Chronicles Vol. 1: The ’70s lists for $30 and can be purchased here.

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MORE

— SOMEWHERE IN TIME: Christopher Reeve’s Greatest Role Beyond SUPERMAN. Click here.

— 13 QUICK THOUGHTS: Why CHRISTOPHER REEVE Was the Greatest SUPERMAN Ever. Click here.