Pogs were a thing in the nineties. Lots of things were a thing in the nineties, but pogs couldn’t be more nineties unless they were wearing acid wash jeans that are torn at the knees with a flannel button down tied around its waist and listening to Pearl Jam.

Pogs were the rebranded name for a game called Milk Caps. Originally I was going to write a brief history of the fad that involved its early days in Hawaii and how a guidance counselor/teacher named Blossom Galbiso used them as a way of teaching math and how the game grew in popularity and how it eventually spread to the mainland and became a bonafide , but that’s really not the point of this post. I was also going to go over how the is played, which is weird, but weird in that way something is weird because you’ve never actually done it. The thing is the point of this post are the Superman related pogs, so I figured I would get to those sooner rather than later. If you want a solid description of everything I just wrote about check out the Wikipedia entry.

Anyway, Skybox got in on the sweet, sweet pog action and in 1993 they put out a set called DC Comics Skycaps, and Superman got a healthy representation.

(There was also a set of Batman: Knightfall Skycaps in 1993. I am assuming these exist because Topps still had the Batman license for trading cards and DC wanted a trading card set, to which the people at Skybox were like, “But we have pogs!”)

The art for these pogs was taken from a few different sources. The Superman, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Supergirl pogs are from the official DC Style Guide of the time period. Lex, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Guardian are from the 1992 DC Cosmic Card line. Ma and Pa Kent, Brainiac, Parasite, and Metallo are, as far as I can tell, from the comics, though I am not 100% sure on Brainiac.

Because these pogs…sorry…SkyCaps were released in 1993, characters from The Death and Return of Superman were also part of the line-up.

The art for these was definitely taken from the comics. Or at least things you could find in the comics. Eradicator, Cyborg, Superboy, and Steel are all from the posters that came with the collectors editions of their first full appearances. Doomsday looks to be by Tom Grummett, but (and boy is this embarrassing) I can’t quite place it.

Finally, there were Chase SkyCaps that were essentially the symbols of the various Supermen and the one, true Superman.

More to follow…