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. 

Fletch (Yet Again)

With all the craziness that is the world we're currently all living in I just haven't been able to focus on my custom trading card making hobby.  That's a shame because at the start of the new year I had 1,001 ideas for cards and different things for the PCb. brand, but ... here we are.

Most of my ideas are on the back burner save for this one that came via email from a collector of the cards I make.  It was one I just really didn't want to put off.  Unbeknownst to me there were some sports themed scenes from Fletch that didn't make the final film.  One of those was of Fletch posing as a relief pitcher for the Dodgers.  I thought eventually I'd be doing another card or two starring Chevy Chase but I thought I didn't think it'd be another I.M. Fletcher card.  But... there could be one last Fletch card yet to be made.  There's also a deleted scene of Fletch as a goalie for the L.A. Kings and if a decent quality picture of it ever surfaces I'll be all over it.

The card is in the style of Topps' 1985 baseball design.  

Hopefully we, as a world community, collectively kick some coronavirus ass so we can all resume our normal lives.

Alyssa Milano

Any male who grew up watching Who's The Boss? at some point developed a thing for Alyssa Milano, I would think anyways.  She was always super cute and continued to blossom into a total knock-out as an adult. 

The picture used for this card was taken in 1987 during a (I believe) charity celebrity game at Dodger Stadium.  The card itself of course is done in the style of the 1987 Topps baseball.

With just a little bumping around the internet I found out that to this day Alyssa is still a huge Dodgers fan.  I think she's actually a really big sports fan just in general.  She's got her own line of official team apparel for female sports fans.  Even more reason to stay crushing on her, eh?

Sir Elton

With the Elton John biopic Rocketman being released last month I began to see pictures of Elton John in his sequin Dodgers’ outfit from his 1975 concert held at Dodger Stadium.  On October 25th and 26th, 1975 Elton played two sellout stadium shows that were attended by over 100,00 people.  I thought a blinged-out Sir Elton at the height of his popularity was just right for a custom card.

This is a 1975 Topps inspired card.  I’ve used this template before but this one has a unique addition that the other cards I’ve made using this template did not, a facsimile autograph.  Up until 1982 (I believe) Topps often incorporated preprinted facsimile autographs as part of their card’s designs.  Most of my cards I make are of fictional characters and I wouldn’t presume to make up an autograph for the character so I would just omit that part, but for this one I found a pretty good example of Elton’s sig and added it to this card for that little extra touch.

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