Editor's note: When the late Richard D. Olson, Ph.D. passed away recently, the comic book collecting community lost an invaluable advocate and resource, and The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide lost an influential contributor from the ranks of the Overstreet Advisors. A few weeks ago, we shared one of his recent contributions to the Guide about the birth of Buster Brown. Here we present an article he recently wrote about the Yellow Kid.
His final article will appear in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #53 in July.
By Richard D. Olson, Ph.D., Gayle A. Olson, Ph.D., and Hans K. Pedersen
Following the 1875 lead of Allen and Ginter, the first tobacco company to put cards as premiums in their cigarette packages, other American companies followed suit with premiums of their own, as did some British companies. The National Cigarette and Tobacco Company in New York City used cards but also offered pinback sets made by Riley-Klotz, as well as Whitehead and Hoag, both of Newark, NJ, of birds, animals, people, and anything else they thought might be popular starting in the early 1890s. A person buying a pack of their cigarettes could pick a numbered button from a large bowl of them on the counter and try to build a set. In an attempt to increase business in the highly competitive New York City market dominated by James B. Duke’s American Tobacco Company, in 1896 they hired R.F. Outcault to create a set of 16 pinbacks featuring the very popular newspaper comic character, the Yellow Kid. A numbered pin was given with each purchase of a pack of Admiral or High Admiral Cigarettes.
The standard 1-1/4” diameter pinbacks each had a different picture of the Yellow Kid that included a humorous saying. The original buttons are quite distinctive and can be recognized by the blue publisher’s information centered at the bottom of the face of the button beneath the Yellow Kid. The three-line legend reads, “Copyrighted 1896, Otis F. Wood, N.Y.” The reverse has a paper insert stating the pins were given with High Admiral Cigarettes and were produced by Riley-Klotz Mfg. Co. They were also given with the purchase of other National products.
The pins proved to be very popular, so the National Cigarette and Tobacco Company hired Outcault to create additional pins making the new set consist of 39 pins. The new pins replaced the blue legend with “High Admiral Cigarettes” on two lines. The reverse contained the same paper insert. The pins continued to be popular, and the set was reprinted several times, often with some changes in the pin but not the art. Figure 3 shows a unique set of pin #1 in each variety. With each printing, the entire set was published, making the lowest numbers the most common pins. The next variation used a shiny black reverse with High Admiral Cigarettes printed in letters large enough to fill the back. The fourth variation used a new creation, an easel on the back instead of a pin and a wire rim framing the front. The easel back variety is difficult to find and the most popular variation in the group. Figure 4 shows what is probably the only complete set of 39 easel back pins. The pins continued to be popular and R.F. Outcault was hired to create many more illustrations leading to the set now containing 94 numbered pins. Some pins still advertised High Admiral Cigarettes, but others promoted Admiral Cigarettes. Two font sizes were used on the reverse legends on some of the pins above #39. The reverse was now a filled tin back with printing on it that advertised Yellow Kid Cigarettes around the edge and the NY Journal in the center. It appears that at least one later printing was released without the center legend on the back, and is probably an error variety. The set of the six different varieties of the first pin is the only one known to exist.
It is open to speculation why the set stopped with pinback #94. The higher numbers are rare, so they clearly were not reprinted very often, if at all. It appears that interest in the pins was waning. In any case, Outcault was now hired to create a new set of pins featuring the Yellow Kid with flags of different countries and these were numbered #101-160 and advertised either Admiral or Yellow Kid cigarettes and announced the pin was part of the Flag Set. The pictured set is composed of only the Yellow Kid Cigarettes variety, but all of the pins also exist as the Admiral Cigarettes variety.
In conclusion, it is interesting to note that the first comic character pinback was published over a century ago in a massive set of 160 pins, complete with many different publication varieties but all featuring Outcault’s Yellow Kid. The pins were extremely popular and helped sell Admiral, High Admiral, and Yellow Kid Cigarettes. Their success led to other companies doing the same thing but on a smaller scale. Several newspapers, for example, published sets featuring the characters in their paper. The Evening Ledger set of 13 colorful pins is both rare and especially attractive. More recently, both DC and Marvel published pinbacks featuring the characters in their comic books. Even private individuals have made special pinbacks reflecting their interests in the hobby for their friends. Clearly, comic character pinbacks have been a great addition to the hobby.
