# Bazooka Joe bubble gum

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## Summary

Bazooka bubble gum was launched in 1947 by Topps of Brooklyn, and from 1953 each piece came wrapped in a Bazooka Joe comic strip. The full story.

## Description

Bazooka is an American bubble gum that was sold around the world: a piece of gum in a red, white and blue wrapper, with a tiny comic strip inside starring Bazooka Joe.
A post war bubble gum
Bazooka bubble gum was launched in 1947, shortly after the Second World War, by the Topps Company of Brooklyn, New York. It was most likely named after the bazooka, the rocket weapon used by the United States Army in the war, which itself took its name from a musical instrument. The gum came in red, white and blue packaging and originally sold for a penny.
Bazooka Joe
In 1953 Topps changed the packaging to include a small comic strip with each piece of gum, starring a character called Bazooka Joe. There have been more than 1,535 different Bazooka Joe comic wrappers to collect. As well as the cartoon, each wrapper carried a fortune and an offer for a premium, a small prize you could send away for. The older comic strips were larger than later ones.
Comics in bubble gum were not new. Fleer's Dubble Bubble came with its own comic strip, the Fleer Funnies, whose first characters appeared in 1930: see Walter Diemer, the accountant who invented bubble gum.
Bazooka around the world
Bazooka was sold in many countries from the 1960s, often with the Bazooka Joe comics translated into the local language. In Canada the cartoons appeared in English or French. In Israel the gum was made under licence, with the cartoons in Hebrew. In Spain it was sold as Chicle Bazoka, with one o, from the mid 1960s, with the rhyming slogan chicle bazoka, siempre en la boca: Bazooka gum, always in the mouth.
The end of the comics
In 2012 the makers announced they would stop including comics and use brain teaser puzzle wrappers instead, to modernise the brand, though the comics continued in Argentina. Bazooka Candy Brands was part of Topps until Topps was bought by Fanatics in 2022, and in 2023 the private equity firm Apax Partners completed its purchase of the business.
Flavours
Alongside the original, Bazooka has come in flavours such as Strawberry Shake, Cherry Berry, Watermelon Whirl and Grape Rage, and in sugar free versions. For how bubble gum is made, see how is bubble gum made?

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