Summer of Sketch Vol. 4: Character Pages

Part four of the Summer of Sketch series brings perhaps my most important pickups to the table.  These are the Single Page Sensations and full collections of specific characters in my sketch card PC.  I was able to make a half-dozen new additions to these collections, and here they be.

Daredevil Seasons 1 & 2 Echo by Marla Agunos..

This is arguably my favorite card of this bunch, which is why I'm leading with it.  It's all-around great, but there's something about the expression on her face that I'm particularly fond of.  So many possible emotions being expressed in such a simple way.  Brilliant!

The scans of this great sketch by Don Mark Noceda do not begin to do it justice.  I thought the first one was so washed out & a smidge blurry due to it being scanned with a couple of them there super thicc Marvel Premier sketch cards, but when I tried again this morning, well... It is slightly more in focus, but it's somehow even more washed out than the first one!  You can barely even see the splash of orange behind her head, but it is super vibrant & brings what is already a great card all the way together in real life.

Spider-Man: Homecoming Elekra by Marlo Agunos..

This Elektra is also by Marlo Agunos.  This wasn't love at first sight like her Echo sketch above, but it has grown on me quite a bit since I got it in my hands.  A most welcome addition to her page.

Agent Carter She-Hulk by Gilbert Monsanto..

I had no idea about the Agent Carter set even existed until I picked up these two She-Hulks (I think this one is She-Hulk?  Not too many green chicks running around the Marvel U, but it could possibly just an odd shading choice for a regularly-hued character...) from the set.  Honestly, I'm still not even sure what it's about.  COMC just has autos and sketch cards, so perhaps it was just a higher end and/or super limited release.  I dunno.

Agent Carter She-Hulk by Monte Moore..

This sketch card is done in black & white, but that's definitely She-Hulk.  I had already surpassed a full page before I got this trio, so I'm up to 13 or 14 now.  Aside from Raven, Rogue is the only other character collection I've broken the full page plateau on.  With one possible exception, that being Raven's Titans teammate/popular ship pairing Starfire, who I have nine of, I have no intention or expectation of going over on any of the others.  I'm not really even all that close with any other characters I have pages for anyway.

Premier Gray She-Hulk by Michel Mulipola..

Finally, I'm not sure what's up with comic book writers constantly feeling the need to make She-Hulk an overly serious character.  I mean, they aren't usually bad portrayals, but it just sort of feels like it misses the point of the character in a pretty major way.  I must admit I am deeply in love with the look of the gamma-scarred, hyper-muscular, PTSD-induced gray version though.  I was surprised to find such a recent character design in a set, but I'm delighted to have it.

That's all for now.  Stay tuned for the Summer of Sketch finale soon.  Thank you, as always, for stopping by!

Until our next...

Summer of Sketch Vol. 3: Manly Mans

We've reached the midpoint of the Summer of Sketch series!  As you've likely noticed, I'm mostly not in it for the dudes when it comes to sketch cards & non-sport/other sport stuff in general.  But I do have a place for my favorite male characters in my sketch card binder.  I singled out two pages apiece worth of male characters for both Marvel & DC to target a lone sketch card of, and here's the trio of new additions I was able to make to those pages.

Bombshells Superman Silhouette by Matthew Sutton..

First up, the only DC sketch card in the entire shipment.  They've had a steady card producer in Cryptozoic for the past several years now, but DC is still way, way behind when it comes to cardboard.  They don't have near as many sets to pick from, and the sets they do have are dramatically less elaborate Rittenhouse & especially Upper Deck's Marvel offerings.

Daredevil Seasons 1 & 2 Sleepwalker by Anthony Helmer..

I was stoked to find a licensed sketch of a character as ridiculously unique & obscure as Sleepwalker.  He had 33 issue solo series in the early-'90s and has only rarely been heard from since, usually in major crisis crossovers, likely owing to the uniqueness of much of his dream police powerset.

Premier Colossus by Uko Smith..

Uko Smith is has long been a favorite artist of mine, but I'd never managed to land anything by him until now.  I hope to stumble onto an Uko for my She-Hulk or Rogue collections that I can afford at some point, but this will more than do for now.  Premier is a super-duper high end release and the sketch cards are on crazy thicc stock.  They only just barely fit in binder pages, and not very comfortably.  But beggars can't be choosers, I guess, and I'm just happy to have it.

And that's it!  You've made it through another post.  Go you.  As always, thanks for stopping by!

I'm gonna hunts me some mans!

Summer of Sketch Vol. 1: Baseball!

As noted at the top of my latest post, my small-but-legendarily-mighty August shipment from COMC has arrived, and with it, 24 new sketch cards have officially entered my collection.  So I'm gonna show them off over the course of a five part series that will switch on & off with my unofficial Goodwin Champions PC posts and maybe a couple other things.  We'll start it off with a bang with my haul of 2009 Topps baseball sketch cards!

Kenji Johjima by Jay Pangan III..

This amazing Kenji Johjima was the second cheapest card of the quartet, and my absolute favorite of the bunch.  It's just a an amazing, highly detailed, full body pencil sketch by one of the very best in the business at drawing realistic, portraity sketch cards.  I know there are some folks out there with particular fondness for collecting Japanese ballplayers and geared up catchers who will likely enjoy the heck out of this card.  Looks like there's a play at the plate about to happen too.

Nick Markakis..

Nick Markakis is still getting it done!  While always a durable, reliable, and all-around competent player, he's pretty much never been a standout performer.  After a couple of rough seasons where lingering issues from old injuries didn't keep him out of the lineup, but likely significantly hampered his production, dude's having a borderline career year at age 34.  He finally made his first all-star team in his 13th season, with a batting average hovering around .320 or better all year, and is currently leading the NL in hits & doubles.  With a healthy and generously slow decline as he enters the twilight of his career, he has a very real shot at 3000 hits, having just passed 2200.

Brandon Webb..

I must admit, I'm terrible with artist's signatures and I've never been especially good at sniffing them out on my own, so I don't actually know who the rest of the artists are, even though 2/3 of them are at least legible.  This Brandon Webb sketch is only one I can't begin to make out.  The benefit of buying sketch cards on COMC is they tend to have the artist (and character or player) listed at a much higher rate than sellers on eBay, but no such luck with these.

Chris Young..

The last one I had to figure out the player on myself too.  I think I was somehow able to hunt down the image this was likely based on in order to confirm that it was Chris Young & not, as I initially thought, Justin Upton.  If I was that good and/or lucky with figuring out the signatures, I'd really be in business!  I really like that each of these cards manages to have their own unique artistic voice under the very limiting circumstances of this type of set.

Backs..

Here are what the backs of these cards look like, for those interested.  No major superstars here, and there don't seem to a whole lot from this set in general.  It seems like Topps was weirdly coy about doling out photo reference of the top guys.  Everybody in this bunch had their moments though.  Webb was a legitimate ace who won a Cy Young & made three all-star teams before pretty much vanishing without a trace at 30.  Johjima was outstanding in his first couple seasons with the Mariners & managed to post positive WAR even after his offensive production fell off a cliff after that.  Young never quite put it all together, but had a few nice seasons early in his career, earned an all-star nod, & became a reliable power bat & above average defender at all three outfield positions off the bench after that.  And as noted above, Markakis could very well sneak into the Hall of Fame discussion before it's all said & done.

That's wraps up another post.  Hope you all enjoyed it, because outside of a buyback post, there most likely isn't going to be much more major sports action around here for the foreseeable future.  So if you're still planning to check out what I'm posting in the coming weeks, I am especially thankful for you stopping by.

Until our next...