Grumpy Cat

Back when Grumpy Cat, né Tardar Sauce, was taking over the interwebs I was there for it.  I'm probably what you'd call a "cat person" and I thought the memes were pretty damn funny.  I think my favorite was captioned "That shit better be fancy feast".  Whomever was behind the Grumpy Cat marketing machine did an excellent job as she was everywhere -yes, Grumpy Cat was a female- I even had an official Grumpy Cat t-shirt that I proudly wore as the antisocial that I am.

In 2015 Grumpy Cat, and Arizona native, "threw" out the ceremonial first pitch before and Diamondbacks / Padres game.  I like using the '86 Topps baseball inspired design for celebrity pitches.  If Grumpy Cat was still with us I'd hope she'd absolutely hate this card.

Joe Dirt

Joe Dirt is one of those late '90s / early '00s comedies that I didn't realize how much I liked.  Also, I never remember taking note of what a good message the movie has --while being cloaked in lowbrow humor.

If you've read this blog in the past you might remember that my affinity for trading card design, for the most part, comes to a halt in the early '90s.  Joe Dirt came out in 2001 and I have no idea what trading cards looked like by then.  I know they were shinier with foil stamping, but that's about all I know.  So I had to choose a vintage-inspired design that I thought would be a good fit for the movie. 

In looking at the movie's poster I noticed the Joe Dirt type logo has something of an orange gradient fade coloring which made me think of the 1988 Topps football design with its gradient color fades that coordinated with the different NFL teams.  I chose to color the frame the same as that movie poster font logo.  I did that for the 6 character cards in the mini-set and then made 3 "Classic Scene" cards with a blue gradient fade coloring to set them apart as a subset.

1988 Topps football

The card backs are inspired by the '88 Topps football card backs, but not a 1:1 match.  I freestyled a bit to pack as much into the back of these cards as possible. 



I also did an additional David Spade card as a bonus card to the set. 

Mamba Forever

When Kobe Bryant perished in a helicopter crash this past January I was affected by the news as much as any celebrity death in my lifetime.  I remember sitting on my sofa in shock not really believing it could be true.  "Not Kobe, anyone but Kobe!"  I kept expecting to see a breaking update that Kobe had actually survived having jumped out of the helicopter moments before it crashed in true "Mamba Mentality" fashion.

As I've written on here before basketball is my favorite sport.  I grew up with the Bad Boy Pistons, so I pretty much hated every other team and star players because there was this notion that they hated us.  I've carried that type of fandom throughout my life.  I don't like the hoops darlings that the NBA tries to sell.  I like guys that are gritty, win at all cost non-prima donna types.  Kobe was that in my eyes.  He wanted to be the best as opposed to teaming up with the best.  I also was drawn to him because he was a thinker who was always intensely studying the world around him.  Couple that to the fact that he always came off as a "real" dude.  So many superstars I feel are cliché spouting cornballs.

I drew parallels with myself and Kobe Bryant. We're the same age and are both fathers of four.  From all accounts he was every bit the dad as he was the basketball player, if not more, and that devastated me to think about his three girls that lost their superhero of a father and a sister that was also on that ill-fated helicopter ride.

I made a Kobe card back in 2017 when I was plugging in celebrity ceremonial first pitchers in a 1986 Topps inspired design.  I've improved on my cards since then so I revisited that card and gave it new life with some touch ups and a card back commemorating his ceremonial pitch for the Dodgers back in the year 2000.

When Kobe passed away I was asked if I was going to do a card of him.  I didn't rule it out, but to just hurry up and do a card because he died seemed like bad form to me.  It had to be the 'right' card if I were to make one at all.

I've expressed my love for the 1991 Score subsets on here before.  One that I've always wanted to recreate was the Master Blaster subset -- there was also the K-Man and Rifleman subsets which were essentially the same thing with a different color laser burst background.  Like my reservation on a new Kobe card, it had to be the right Master Blaster card and not just any ol' picture thrown in there.  I finally came across some images that satisfied the prerequisites of being the 'right' fit.  The pictures, I assume, are media day pictures and probably for a cross marketing promotion done between the Lakers and Dodgers.

1991 Score

The two cards work in tandem to pay tribute to both Kobe's #8 and #24 eras.  I spent a lot of time on these particular cards and am satisfied that they're fitting tributes to a legend taken far too soon. 

Crime Is A Disease

If you've been me for while you'll know Sylvester Stallone is one of my favorites.  I don't know if there's a Stallone movie I don't enjoy.  Cobra is certainly not an exception.  It's a perfect example of an over-the-top 80's action movie, lots of violence with Stallone playing something of a renegade human terminator cop.  I remember as a kid the "Night Slasher" character really freaking me out.

This 4 card mini-set is done of the 1986 Topps baseball design as Cobra was released on this day in 1986.

Celebrity First Pitchers

I've done a number of celebrity first pitch cards in the 1986 Topps inspired template and have a number of them pending autographs through the mail.

These are a little bit different from a lot of cards I do.  For one, they're not year specific.  And two, they're the actual celebrity and not a character from a tv show or movie.

I'll be updating this post as return signed successes come in.

UPDATE: 01/28/18

UPDATE: 9/26/17

You Keep For Your Collection, I Know You Like It.

I'm a a HUGE fan of The Karate Kid franchise, well, the first three movies at least.  So, expect to see other Karate Kid customs on here is what I'm saying.

For this one I took inspiration from the 1986 Topps Baseball design as a tie-in to the year The Karate Kid II was released in theaters.  I figured this would not be a complex design to emulate, and by and large, it wasn't.  Except when it came to the font.  I couldn't find a font to match the original cards so I had to recreate the "Okinawa" from a number of different cards to get all of the letter.  As a little bonus I added the symbol that can be found on Chozen's Karate gi where the player position would normally be.

I sent a copy to Yugi Okumoto to be signed, as well as one for him to keep as is my custom - sort of a way of saying "thank you" for the autograph.  With my signed custom I also got a little note thanking me for his copy.   Needless to say that made my day.