Fletch

This card was a case of seeing a picture I liked and wanting to make a card out of it.  I had previously had a Chevy Chase/Fletch card TTM success with the 1985 Topps baseball template, which I've pictured below.  But, like I said, I wanted to do one with this picture.  It's looks to be a cool behind-the-scenes shot of Chevy and Kareem goofing around.

This time around I used the iconic 1986 Fleer basketball design.  This design has no alternate colors so I just masked out the middle.  The picture didn't fit just right so I put the white fade in anticipation of Mr. Chase's sig. Fletch came out in 1985, but the only basketball cards to chose from would have the 1985 Star.  Those are fine and all but not nearly as recognizable as the 1986-87 Fleer are.

I made this a Lakers "Team Leaders" card so I could make it of both of Fletch and Abdul-Jabbar. I got the idea of course from the old Topps baseball subset.  They might still do that, I don't know, haven't collected baseball cards in a minute as the kids say.

He's 6'5", with the afro 6'9"

The People's Champ

Some ideas for cards I'll think of and put them in cue, others go straight to the front of the line. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson college football cards were made pretty much on inception.  I ran across some pictures from The Rock's days at "The U" and thought they'd make great cards.

In case you were not aware, Dwayne Johnson played defensive tackle for the University of Miami from 1991 (National Champions) - 1994. In 1995 he made the roster of the CFL's Calagary Stampede, but was cut from the team two month's later, which in turn led to his wrestling career.

I only have a few football templates made, but all though not year accurate to Johnson's football career, I thought the 1984 Topps and 1989 Topps designs went perfect.  The '84 looks great with the Hurricanes colors and I was especially stoked to use Miami's ibis mascot logo.  I love cartoon character logo's and Miami's is one of my all-time favorites.

These went out in the mail.  Obviously it would be huge to get them back signed as Dwayne has become arguably the biggest movie star on the planet, but even unsigned I love the way these came out.

I Still Believe!

I think anyone who loves the movie The Lost Boys has an affinity for Tim Cappello, or as my friends and I used to refer to him "the greased-up buff sax player".  We weren't the only ones either; here's a direct quote from his Wiki page: "He is notable for his muscular physique, his sexually provocative movements during his performances and for his tendency to perform shirtless, with his skin oiled and with his hair in a ponytail".

New phone, who dis?

Some vintage card designs I merely mask out the middle, while others I rebuild from the bottom up. This set is the latter.  Like the Predator card I did I chose to go with the movie font as opposed to trying to match the originals font.  I also included the "I Still Believe!" quote because otherwise what's the point?

Jenny Robertson

Yesterday I excited to receive my third Bull Durham 1988 Topps inspired custom card back autographed.  This one signed by Jenny Robertson who played "Millie" -- with the other two being Kevin Costner and Robert Wuhl.

2016 Topps Archives

I've got a few more from this set I made that are pending.  Fingers crossed on those.

"I'm In The F*ckin' Zone!"

It's been a minute since I posted a new card.  I've been extra busy with grown up type stuff.  But, I had to share this one right away.

This is a card I've wanted to make for some time now.  I'm a big basketball fan, it's actually my #1 sport to watch or play.  White Men Can't Jump and Above The Rim are my favorite basketball movies.  I had wanted to do a Billy Hoyle card using the 1991-92 Skybox design but I hit a road block seeing as I have no idea how to make those three dimensional geometric shapes, so the idea got shelved in my brain.

See, those ^

I prefer to use a card design that is the same as a movie's release.  It's part of my card's shtick. Since White Men Can't Jump came out in 1992 I really wanted to use the Skybox's design, but like I said I didn't know to pull off those floating shape thingys (I'm not an actual graphic designer so I don't know all the correct jargon).  I looked at designs from the other brand's 1991-92 sets but they just really didn't do much for me I guess.

I love Skybox's first few sets.  They had a futuristic digital design that really made them stand out from the other brands.   Then it just sort of dawned on me that the basketball card sets all span two calendar years because of how the basketball season runs.  So, why not take a run at the 1992-93 Skybox design (duh).

Even though the design looks simple enough I spent a little more time on this one then I usually do when recreating a card design.  I was pretty excited about this one.  One, because the majority of the cards I make are baseball designs, they're overall just more iconic.  And two, because of the more modern digital look was something new for me.  To date this is the only design I've done past 1990.

Making the hot pink gradient design element wasn't all that difficult, but I did take a little extra time masking out Woody.  I just wanted it to be extra crisp.  I sharpened the image and added a little more contrast as well as made it a tad darker than the original because I noticed most of Skybox's images were a bit darker - probably to make the bright colors pop a bit better.  I didn't want to go too dark though seeing as how all of WMCJ's hoops scenes were on outdoor courts in California.  This was actually the second image I tried. The first was at a different point in Billy Hoyle's drive and just presented too much challenge with getting all the elements to work together correctly.

In searching for an image that would work better with the design I lucked up on finding the logo that was on the jerseys from the two-on-two tournament that Billy Hoyle and Sidney Deane were in. Originally my card wasn't going to have a team logo but finding the Brotherhood Tournament logo was such a rad touch.  Isn't the internet cool?

I worked awhile on getting the glowing basketball trail right.  I tried to over complicate it, but in the end it basically came down to putting a motion blur on a simple vectored shape.  Then it was over to Dafont to find a couple of close enough font matches to the original.

For comparison's sake 

I decided pretty immediately that there will be a Sidney Deane companion card.  I also started to think of other roles for both Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.  There's Major League, Wildcats, The Fan, and Semi-Pro to putz around with in the future.

Also, in looking for images I came across this blog that had some really cool custom basketball movie cards too.

Cameron Frye

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of those movies that is just kind of synonymous with the 1980's, so it was only fitting that it got the Phantom Cardboard treatment.

Has there ever been a more pull forable (not a word?) character than the depressive, hypochondriac Cameron Frye?

Cameron sporting Gordie Howe's winged wheel sweater in the movie made him perfect for a custom card. I was turned on about making this one because it's the only hockey card I've done, although I'd really get a kick out of making some cards from Slap Shot too.

I chose the 1986 Topps hockey design, the year of Ferris Bueller's release.  It all came together pretty well, in my opinion.  I was able to recreate the design with no frustration which is always a bonus.

Now I wait for a TTM success from Mr. Alan Ruck.

The comparison

Night Of The Comet

I started messing with the design of the 1984 Topps baseball set.  Then I started checking out the movies that were released in '84 to start plugging into the template.  I was pleased to be reminded that Night of the Comet, a movie I remember fondly being in HBO's rotation in the '80s, was a 1984 release.

This is one of those movies that has a strong cult following.  Actually with the popularity of The Walking Dead I'm surprised that this post-apocalyptic zombie B-flick hasn't had a big resurgence in popularity.  Or maybe it has and I'm just not up on things?  Either way, I thought it'd make for a cool card.

I chose the main heroine Regina "Reggie" Belmont who was played by Catherine Mary Stewart.  You have to admit she's looking pretty bad ass toting the Uzi.  In place of the smaller head shot in the bottom left I went with a pretty recognizable element from the original movie post.

For the comparison