Emma Watson

Awhile back I was approached with a request to do a commissioned card of Emma Watson.  The subject line just read "Emma Watson card?".  My first thought was Harry Potter, and I really wasn't feeling like I'd be the right for that custom card.  I know nothing about Harry Potter.  Never read the books or seen the movies and I have no intention of doing either.  On top of that, I knew Harry Potter already had licensed cards produced.

Fortunately it wasn't a request for an Emma Watson Harry Potter custom card.  What the request was for was a card of Emma Watson from the 2013 movie she starred in called The Bling Ring, which I was equally unfamiliar with.  I explained this and how I didn't think I could do the card justice not knowing anything about the proposed card's subject.  When I make cards I prefer to be at least somewhat familiar with the card's subject and from there dive in-depth for details that make the card as good as I can make it.  For me, I feel better if the final result "makes sense" and isn't a picture plugged into a template.  I end up spending a lot of time on the cards I create, so it's important to me that they have an integrity to them.

Explaining this in a roundabout way left the requester unmoved.  For him, it was more about the image and he was leaving it up to me to make something that "looked cool".  Usually, that's something I hate honestly.  I know what looks cool to *me* but if it's a card for someone else I like some art direction as to what *they* envision and we can collaborate some ideas from there.

Although I was totally unfamiliar with The Bling Ring I was familiar with the image that the requester wanted used.  I'd seen the .gif of Emma Watson dancing provocatively hundreds of times.  Okay... I'll make the card.

The movie came out in 2013 and even though that's 8 years ago, relative to the timeframe of the vast majority of my cards emulate, 2013 is "ultra-modern"... to me anyways.  I just couldn't see this making sense on anything I'd done previously, and especially on a vintage cardboard stock.  So, I set out to step outside of my box a bit.  

I took this as opportunity to test my creativity.  What I came up with I think could best be described as  Topps' Allen & Ginter card in league with a Panini National Treasures' overall aesthetic. The card is the normal 3.5" height, but I thought it would be fun to bring in the width (approx. 2.09") which I thought worked better to highlight the image.  The back I think is pretty simple, but stylish enough to compliment the front.  

In the end the new owner was thrilled with the final result.  Based on his approval I got to thinking that maybe others might like this card as well?  I know that Emma Watson has a pretty big following, so I've decided to offer this card in my store and see what kind of reception it garners.  

Princess Leia

While making the Luke Skyywalker card I decided that I'd like to add another Slave Leia card to the collection.  I used the same Rolling Stone beach photoshoot image already on a faux 1983 Return of the Jedi inspired sticker, but it's such a fun image of such an iconic character that I wanted to give it the complete card treatment.  

On the card back I did a little background on the origin of the photo for anyone unfamiliar with it since it's obviously not a scene from the movie.

 

Christie Brinkley

Christie Brinkley being added to the ongoing collection of 1991 Score baseball inspired  "Dream Girl" cards was not an if, but when.  Christie, like a majority of the women in the Dream Girl set, gained notoriety by becoming a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl.  In fact, Christie is the only model to appear on 3 consecutive covers, starting in 1979.  In the '80s S.I. Swimsuit Issue cover girls were the apex of what you'd consider a "Dream Girl', to me anyways.

Of course Christie also permeated the fantasy girl realm for some many of us as  "The girl in the red Ferrari" in National Lampoon's Vacation.  Beverly D'Angelo and Christie Brinkley??  Clark, you lucky dog.

Luke Skyywalker

This custom card is pretty straight forward.  It was a "duh" moment when I came across my 2 Live Crew As Nasty As They Wanna Be cassette tape while going through some of my old "junk boxes".  I guess the reason I hadn't thought of this as a custom card until now is that Luther Campbell hasn't used the moniker "SkyYwalker" since 1990 when Star Wars creator George Lucas filed suit against him for copyright infringement.  

An older cousin of mine bought me -with my allowance money- the dirty version of As Nasty As They Wanna Be on cassette, and boy did I think I was a hard-ass for listening to it.  The double platinum album was super explicit for its time being the first album ever to be deemed "legally obscene".  I would have to believe some 32 years later, with a song like "WAP" reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, that any track on As Nasty As They Wanna Be would be looked at as par for where music is these days.

This card is of course done in the style of the 1983 Topps Return of the Jedi set. 

PCb. Collector's Binder

Growing up in the junk wax era it was imperative that once you amassed a decent card collection you needed a way to display and organize your cardboard treasures.  Sure, there's top loaders and screw-downs for the cards that would one day make you a millionaire,  but for for viewing your cards as a collection -and not to mention being able to take your cards on the go for those all important trading sessions with your friends- you needed a good sturdy binder!  

Well, now those of you that have amassed a decent collection of Phantom Cardboard trading cards there's a binder to view all those vintage inspired cards that never were!

This binder is modeled after those binders we all had.  What could be better for vintage inspired trading cards than a vintage inspired binder?  That kind of generic looking marbled design.  Mine were either brown or blue, but I also remember friends having dark red colored ones.  

The binder features a direct to vinyl printed design with padding throughout.  There's a Jackie Stalegum action pose on the front cover and the Jackie Stalegum logo and Phantom Cardboard text logo on the spine.  This is a 2" binder D-Ring binder, so plenty of space for 9-pocket card pages.

The binders will come with 10 9-pocket Ultra-Pro Platinum.  The Platinum pages are the best, heaviest gauge pages that Ultra-Pro offers.

Also included is an exclusive Casey Cardbinder trading card.  Casey joins Jackie Stalegum as the newest member of the Phantom lineup.

How will you organize your vintage inspired custom trading cards??

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A little more about Casey Cardbinder...

I wanted to give Jackie Stalegum a teammate.  I once more teamed up with Matthew Skiff to bring this phantom to life.  I gave Matthew my concept and he executed it masterfully.

Anyone that grew up in the '80s-'90s will instantly recognize the super-human inspiration for Casey's bat breaking exploits... the great Bo Jackson!  I also wanted to give Casey a skeleton ghoul type of look.  Growing up I always thought skeletons were the epitome of badassery.  So, I supplied Matthew with a couple images and he, pun intended, knocked it out of the park.  Basically, take this and this and coif it in Team PCb. duds. 

Daniel Hillard

I think Mrs. Doubtfire is one of those movies you'd be hard pressed to find someone who says that they just don't care for it.  I remember we saw it at the theater as a family and countless times after with our VHS copy.

This card has fun with the opening scene where Robin Williams' pre-Doubtfire disguise "Daniel Hillard" character is being the 'cool dad' by throwing his young daughter a wild hip hop birthday house party complete with barnyard animals and dancing on top of the family dining room table to House of Pain's "Jump Around" -- much to the shock and horror of his wife who arrives home earlier than expected and thus becoming the final straw of their marriage.

This card joins the previous cards I've done set in the style of the 1991 ProSet Yo! MTV Raps set.  This card also marks the second card I've done featuring Robin Williams, who continues to be a beloved figure that's gone far, far too soon.

Chris Farley

First off Happy New Year!  Hopefully, which such a low bar, 2021 will be a whole let better than 2020.  *fingers crossed*

The first new custom card for the year is this Chris Farley youth league hockey card.  Who doesn't love Chris Farley?  I wish he made different choices and was still around today.  This image has been around the internet for a couple of years but I wasn't able to find a wealth of information about Farley's youth hockey history.  What I do know is that Farley grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and this image is from 1977, making Chris 13 years old.  That's about all I could find.

The card is done in the style of O-Pee-Chee's 1977-78 WHA set.  This is my first card that emulates a O-Pee-Chee design.  As I understand it, O-Pee-Chee is Topps' Canadian sister company.  Most of their cards are almost the same as Topps' design (hockey & baseball) with the exception of a O-Pee-Chee for Topps logo swap out.  These cards have design all their own as Topps didn't produce WHA cards.  As for the WHA (World Hockey Association), it was a renegade professional hockey league that looked to capitalize on pro hockey in markets that the NHL was not in.  The WHA existed from 1972-1979 when the league ceased operation and four of its teams merged with the NHL.

The back of the card is on the plain side.  I didn't want to make anything up nor did I want to make the back a tribute to his comedy career.  I simply put his name and date/place of birth.  I numbered the card 6 due to that being the number visible on young Farley's right glove.

1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA