Commemorative Thanksgiving Custom Cards

Last year when I made this commemorative Halloween 1984 card I wanted to follow it up with a Thanksgiving card, but I guess I ran out of time.

The Dutch Dooley card is the card I had in mind.  It's a hockey card playing on the scene where Ed O'Neill brings Ethan Embry out of his boarding school gagged and bound to a hockey stock.  

My only intention was to make the Dutch card.  But, it didn't feel right to stop there.  You see our family's tradition is to watch BOTH Dutch and Planes, Trains And Automobiles on Thanksgiving.  Put it this way, if I don't watch them both might as well not even have the turkey.  It would be like leaving the house with one shoe on, it just wouldn't feel right.

I year matched both movies with the card designs.  So, Dutch in 1991-92 Upper Deck hockey inspired frame (a PCb. first) and PT&A in a 1987 Topps inspired design.

My goal with the Planes, Trains card was a design where I could put both Del and Neal on the same card.  So for them I went with the league leaders design that I also used for the Over the Top card.  They're both deserving of their own cards but I wanted to keep it to two commemorative Thanksgiving cards total.  Plains, Trains is actually deserving of it's own custom set and PCb. could use more John Candy representation.  Maybe a future project?

Whoooaaa Bundy II

Like I went into explaining in my last post, I like to leave cards alone once they're done... but, here is another exception to that rule.

I was contacted about doing an Al Bundy football card for a private signing.  Since I'd already made an Al Bundy football card some time back I suggested using that one.  That card was agreed upon but the requester wanted a card back.  Since the card was made in 2018 when I was just using my logo stamped back, it did not have its own unique reverse.  My philosophy was for the longest time that it was all about the card's front side.  That was especially true for the fact that I was originally making these cards exclusively for myself in an effort to see if I could get them autographed.  Once you've got the card autographed who the hell cares what's on back, right?  Well, I've come to see the error of my ways and I've realized that a custom card's back can nearly have a much charm as the card's front if given equal time and thought.  

So, I agreed to do a back for this card.  Just because, I looked to see if perhaps there were any usable Al Bundy football pics I might have missed the first time around.  I knew I was going to use the same 1966 Topps football inspired design (four touchdowns in the '66 championship game, baby!) but I was wanting to remix this card a bit for this requester's private signing.  Low and behold I found an image that I dare say is as good, if not better with this card.  

1966 Topps football

After completing the back I pretty much fell in love with this card.  I actually didn't want to put it out there because I didn't want to, in a sense, kill the original Al football card.  But, I guess they both have to exist because basically I just really like the way this came out.  I think that all of us that grew up with Al "Touchdown" Bundy can appreciate yet another custom of this legend. 

Bundy Ball

I've previously expressed my love for Ed O'Neil and Married... with Children so it was only a matter of time before I made some more custom cards from one of the greatest tv shows of all-times.

The Bundys played in a mall softball league on a team that was sponsored by the New Market Mall where Al worked as a shoe salesman.  The New Market Mallers was referenced in two episodes; Season Two's "How Do You Spell Revenge" and Season Five's "The Unnatural".  The two cards above are from the latter.  This is an episode where the Mallers, and Al's own family, are dogging him for his poor play and showing no appreciation for Al's past Maller softball glory.  The team decides to bring in a muscle bound ringer, "Sven Hunkstrom", to replace Al and give the Mallers the edge in the league's championship game.  Sven is inadvertently knocked out by Al's neighbor nemesis Marcy whom is umping the game leaving Al as the team's only hope.  After some ass kissing from his family Al steps up to the plate, calls his shot Babe Ruth style and knocks one out of the park securing the championship for the Mallers.  I specifically remember this episode growing up and remembering it was a favorite of mine.

I went with the a 1981 Topps baseball inspired design even though this episode is from 1990.  I just thought of all the different templates I've done this one just had the right feel.  I also needed a set that had a cool Future Stars card for the other Bundys and I loved the way the one I did in the Freaks and Geeks set turned out.

There was another baseball themed episode in Season Nine's "A Man For No Seasons".  This time it was Al and his NO MA'AM buddies starting their own working man's league with Major League Baseball on strike in 1994.  The local media picks up the story of Al & co. landing in jail for sneaking into Wrigley Field for a pickup baseball game.  In the article Al is typo'd as a Al "Birdie".  From that article a league is formed of working stiffs and sponsored by nudie bars to where all team names are boobie related.  In the end the league disbands for the very same reason as the MLB was on strike which was money disputes between players and owners.

I again chose not to go with my M.O. of matching the movie/show year to a card design of the same vintage.  I'd stopped collecting baseball cards by 1994 to focus my card collecting on basketball.  I don't even really know what the 1994 sets looked liked, so for one there was no nostalgia with those for me.  I went the 1981 Fleer inspired design because again I just thought it fit best with the picture.

Nothing Burps Better Than Bacon

On Thanksgiving I have a little tradition of watching both Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and Dutch.  If I don’t we just had a really big dinner.  Thanksgiving must not have happened.  This custom card is a homage to that latter of the two movies, Dutch.

Dutch was released in 1991 and like most movies around this time I most likely first saw it on HBO.  I loved it the first time I saw it and every time since.  For me it’s a perfect holiday movie.

Because of Married… With Children I was a big Ed O’Neill fan.  The Dutch Dooley character, to me, is only a slightly more refined version of Al Bundy.  As the years have gone by I’ve found myself relating somewhere in between the two characters being somewhat of a working stiff from midwest that has had a number of bumps in the road, both self-inflicted and not.

Since Dutch was released in 1991 I thought it would be funny to drop Dutch and Dobsy Dale Doyle into a 1991 Impel Marvel Universe Series II ‘Arch-Enemies’ subset inspired design.

Whoooaaa Bundy

Married… With Children ran from 1987 through 1997, which meant for 11 years of my life my Sunday nights were spent with the Bundys. I grew up in the Midwest which also the region of the country MWC was set in. Aside for the actors being great in their roles and good writing, I would attribute the show’s successful run to its relatability. It seemed like every other family sitcom before Married had parents that got along and were in a rewarding professional vocation. I can’t speak for the whole Midwest, but my family was way closer to the Bundys than it was the Huxtables.
This is a card that I’d thought of before but I’d not seen to many through the mail autograph successes in recent years for Ed O’Neill outside of preprint stuff. That changed when a friend I’ve met through doing my cards told me he may be able to get me an Ed O’Neill autograph in the near future if the right stars align.  That was enough for me.

I watched some old clips of Married… With Children to try and nail down a year for my Al Bundy Polk High card, which in itself was worth the work that went into making the card. Al mentions in one episode that he “made all-city back in ‘66” which I later confirmed was the year that Al scored FOUR TOUCHDOWNS in the Chicago City Championship game. So, now I had a year to work with.

1966 Topps football

There’s not a wealth of images available of Al in his Polk High uni.  This one I think works because it’s not the best quality screen grab which is okay seeing as this is supposed to be from 1966.  He’s got a helmet on which I think helps him pass from his younger self and not the woman’s shoe salesman that life has chewed up and spit out.

The 1966 Topps football (and hockey) had an old-timey wood console TV design. The challenge with that was matching the wood’s finish. I found that to be just as hard as trying to match wood furniture. Mine is not an exact match, but that’s not to say I’m not dissatisfied with the finished product. I’d like it to be as close as possible and I tried a number of things stopping just short of throwing my laptop.  Again though, I think I did Al “Touchdown” Bundy justice.

Get a copy of this card here. Or, I will trade straight up for this month’s Biguns magazine or episodes of Psycho Dad dubbed onto VHS.  Let me know.

Fun fact... Ed O’Neill was a defensive lineman during in college at Youngstown State, and the Steelers signed him as an undrafted rookie free agent in 1969, but he was later waived during training camp.