ROSAN'S FAMOUS MONSTER CARDS 1963

If a monster trading card set could ever be called a "cult classic", Rosan's 1963 Famous Monsters would be it. File these under so bad they're good, folks. I mean, these cards are excruciatingly hard to take seriously. But still, even though they are passed over by many collectors because they are hard to find in high-grade condition, they command a pretty fair price on the market. They're rough, they're tacky, but they're lovable.

Produced by Rosan, the card set is "so crude that it kind of hearkens back to the days when primitive and amateur was good enough to keep us interested," says Kurt Kuersteiner of monsterwax.com. "It definitely captures the frontier days of monster cards."

"Rosan was a company based out of Brooklyn, New York, and they were horrible," adds Marty Quinn. "I don't think they put much thought or any kind of money into producing their card sets. I think their main thing was just trying to catch a little bit of the horror lightning that was going on at the time."

Presented today are the first dozen cards of the set, along with a couple examples of the card-backs. When you look at them, you'll see that the foregoing has rung as true as Quasimodo's Notre Dame bells.

More next week.