Comic Images was one of the most popular trading card manufacturers of the 90's, releasing a variety of art-based sets across the decade. By 1993, the company was creating sets with a 90-card base set, a 6-card chase subset (3 per hobby box) and a rarer 3-card chase subset stated to have an insertion rate of 1 per box though they seemed rarer than that at the time.

Several of the rare subsets of the various sets that came out around 1993 were termed "spectrascope," which offered a 3D effect. Earlier this year, I started seeing uncut 3-card strips of the cards for sale but without the spectrascope effect. I understood them to be "unfinished" cards in that they were extras after the company had all the chase cards they needed for the packs plus whatever might be needed to replace damaged cards. I have since been told that these strips were actually printed on different stock than the chase cards inserted in packs and you can see that looking at them edgewise. The spectrascope cards also have a more bendable quality you don't get with regular card stock. You could say that these strips are either error cards or prototypes/test cards.

When you measure the cards on the strip, you notice that the middle card is 2 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches while the card on either side is 2 5/8 x 3 1/2 because the strips were later cut from a larger sheet and trimmed on the sides by a dealer so that they would fit in a 3-pocket binder page. Some were trimmed into singles to fit in a 9-pocket page.

It appears that these strips weren't widely known about because you don't see most of them listed in older, more comprehensive price guides nor even the excellent online equivalent, Jeff Allender's House of Checklists.

This one shows the 3 rare cards that were planned for the "Ania" set (1993) plus a released chase card. As it turned out, Comic Images cancelled the set but the chase cards had been printed by that time (3 spectrascopes and 3 chromiums). They were available at the 1993 Philadelphia ComicFest. I don't know if that means they were for sale there but they were later given away according to several sources.

Were collectors interested in these strips in the 90's? I don't recall anyone ever talking about them back then. Comic Images started giving away at least one by the late 90's. I received an Olivia III (also from 1993) one when I showed my Comic Images Collectors Club card at their booth at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con.

Edit: I have edited some of the text as per more recent information.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: catskilleagle,

Here's the blank-backed 3-card strip from the "Adventures in Fantasy by Michael Whelan" set (Comic Images, 1993).

Here's the one for Gil Elvgren Calendar Pinups Series 1 (also from 1993):

The other thing I thought about after looking at other oddball cards is that the uncut sheets that had these strips might have been proof sheets - samples to check for print quality, typos, or other quality control issues before the final product (or even a promo) is printed. Proofs are often printed on stock that the final product is not printed on and they are often blank-backed. They are not always marked as proofs. Sometimes the printing company is printed or stamped on the back.

Proofs of trading cards are harder to find because they are meant for in-house review only and usually thrown out after they have served their purpose. Sometimes they are kept by employees and even presented as gifts within the company. Like error cards, not every collector is interested in them.