Tuesday, October 15, 2019

1992 Ghost Rider II - Glow-in-the-Dark spotlight

Time to look at another offering of glow-in-the-dark trading cards.

1992 Comic Images Ghost Rider II - Glow in the Dark inserts

Did you know there were some pre-war glow-in-the-dark tobacco cards from overseas? Yep! I'll feature those on the blog soon.

I could be mistaken, but as far as I'm aware, there were no glowing trading cards after those '38 tobacco cards until 54 years later, when this 10-card insert set for Ghost Rider came out in '92.

There were a lot of gimmicks in the early 90s, and the comic book industry always seemed to be a step ahead of the sports card industry with funky stuff like this-- shiny/refractors, die-cut, clear, glow-in-the-dark, etc.. all appeared on comic book covers before baseball cards, as far as I can tell.

Back to this set, it's called 1992 Comic Images Ghost Rider II (I assume the "II" is to differentiate itself from the 1990 Comic Images Ghost Rider release, a set that's much harder to find). The 1992 release has a base set of 80 cards, and one insert set: Glow in the Dark, which came one per pack. I picked up the 10-card set on eBay a while back for a few bucks.


The cards feature a glowing border, plus all the "flame" areas (around his skull and tires) also glow. Perhaps they could have done a bit more to make the pictures look cooler in the dark, such as outlining the rest of the action, but again, this was an early use of glow-in-the-dark technology on cards, so they get a pass. Still two big thumbs-up from me on these.


I never really got too much into Ghost Rider, even during my dip into comic book collecting in the early 90s, but I still thought he was pretty badass. How could you not?! He's a frickin' chain-wielding dude on a motorcycle with a flaming skull for a head!


The backs each have a little write-up. Punisher and Cable make cameos. Funny how there's an artist named Mark Texeira... not to be confused with former baseball player Mark Teixeira.

Other glow-in-the-dark trading cards featuring comic book characters would follow in the mid 90s and into the early 00s. More on these later.
Thanks for reading.

7 comments:

  1. I totally remember these cards from back when. They used to be quite a big deal too.

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  2. I think I have an unopened box somewhere. NOt sure which series it is. I thought it was fun just to keep sealed.

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  3. Hey, a set that I actually own! These may not have been the best glow-in-the-dark cards ever produced, but even after all of these years I think that they still look pretty cool.

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  4. I don't remember these at all, but I love how you did this post. Sweet cards!

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  5. I never read any of the Ghost Rider comics, but I did open a few packs of this product when I worked at the card shop back in the day. I'm wondering if I even knew that these were glow in the dark. Cool set.

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  6. Replies
    1. These used to be about a buck or two each, but I know Marvel cards have been hot lately, so they might've gone up a bit recently.

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