Bubble gum cards made their return three years after the end of World War II with Bowman launching its first set. Printing in black-and-white may have saved some money at a time when color printing was still a costly challenge and acceptance from youngsters was no sure thing, but it leaves today’s collectors a bit disappointed.
The 1948 Bowman set includes a few key rookie cards: Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, young Yankee teammates, got their first mainstream cards and despite debuting before the war, Stan Musial’s “official” rookie card is also included.
In the second part of an ongoing weekly series, digital artist Marina Amaral has created a colorized version of the 1948 Bowman Musial. Based in Brazil, Marina specializes in taking black and white photographs and transforming them through research into colorized versions. She has worked with historic photos from decades past as well as sports images.
If you missed the first in the series, you can check out the colorized version of the 1947 Bond Bread Jackie Robinson here.
You can learn more about Marina Amaral’s work on her website.
If there’s a black-and-white card you’d like to see brought into full-color, drop us a note ([email protected]).