Wrapping up the Batman sketches

These are the rest of the Batman sketch cards I've picked up to date. I've decided to add two more to fill up three full pages but I'm going to be patient and selective. I have one I commissioned that is on it's way to me (supposedly...it's a long story). 

Meanwhile check out the last of the bunch. Lots of variety and lots of talent in these. I'd be hard-pressed to choose a favorite.

I found some old threads on various hobby card forums that debated whether or not the AOJ Lithocards are prints or original work. Well, the two I have are original. And very good. I showed the other one in the previous post. BTW..the artist is Aaron Laidley who doesn't seem to have much of a web presence..

I have 2 sketch cards by Andy Duggan....

I really like this one from artist James Bukauskas aka Bukshot. It's one of a couple from the Rittenhouse Batman Archives set.

I didn't see the Batman vs Superman movie on the advice of my sons. But here is Ben Afleck as Batman. Card done by Javier Gonzalez.

This one is another insert from the Rittenhouse Batman Archives set. It was done by Steve Russell.

This next one is unique in that it was drawn around an official USPS postage stamp. Robert Kraus certainly has a unique still. Lot's on interesting stuff on his website.

Finally another great card, this from Eric Merced. He uses digital tools to draw his cards. Pretty interesting.

That wraps up my Batman sketch cards. It's been fun tracking these down. As I noted earlier I will add another card or two to fill up my three binder pages.

Right now slot #26 is occupied by an outlier from the DC Batman Legend set....the Joker:

1975 Fleer Pioneers

I bought this 28 card set at a card show a few months ago and had it sitting on my desk for awhile. I've tamed my scanner somewhat and figured I'd post a few of the cards. I had a couple of singles from the set that I bought way back when I began the first project of my second card collecting life. I was determined to have a card of every Hall of Fame player. Some of these were my 'placeholders' until I could get career contemporary cards. It didn't take me long to figure out that that project was going to be impossible both in cost and execution.

These cards were actually inserts in packs of a product I have no memory of, 'Baseball Patches'. In looking into these cards I found that Joe Shlabotnik and the Fleer Sticker Project have done the legwork previously. I'll defer to those two fine blogs. In fact it wasn't until I dug into the FSP blog the other day that my memory was jogged and I realized that I had several of the football versions of the patches in my Baltimore Colts collection. And I recognized the football version of this set as well.

Back to the cards at hand. As you'd expect the back has a write-up on the player.

These things are tall and narrow. Here is one scanned with a 2017 Topps for comparison.

Most, but not all, of the guys included in the checklist are Hall of Fame members.

Both the Cobb and Cy Young cards use familiar pics.

This one is my favorite.... Buck Ewing and the NY Giants' mascot. If the card's write-up is to be believed Buck always had the mascot spit on his bat when he went up to the plate. Well, OK.

A couple more.

I see that the set is available on eBay for between $15 and $18. Or you can go to Fritsch Cards and pay a bit more.

And finally the checklist:

1 Cap Anson
2 Harry Wright
3 Buck Ewing
4 A.G. Spalding
5 Hoss Radbourne
6 Dan Brouthers
7 Roger Bresnahan
8 Mike Kelly
9 Ned Hanlon
10 Ed Delahanty
11 Pud Galvin
12 Amos Rusie
13 Tommy McCarthy
14 Ty Cobb
15 John McGraw
16 Home Run Baker
17 Johnny Evers
18 Nap Lajoie
19 Cy Young
20 Eddie Collins
21 John Glasscock
22 Hal Chase
23 Mordecai Brown
24 Jake Daubert
25 Mike Donlin
26 John Clarkson
27 Buck Herzog
28 Art Nehf

1000 Posts? I'm Batman

I've been meaning to scan and post my Batman sketch card pages but other things have gotten in the way. I figure cranking out my 1000th blub of foolishness would be a good time to post at least some of them.

But first things first. Here are the ones I've posted previously on this blog. I put these together using a collage program I just found on this new computer. It doesn't show the whole card but you get the idea. I'm not including the 'limited edition' prints so all these are hand drawn art cards:

I'ts fun to see the various artists' 'take' on Batman. I think he's gone through more changes over the years in print, film and television than any comic book hero. I've tried to gather cards that reflect all his different 'personas'. Obviously some of these are based on the different movie/TV actors who have portrayed him, some on the various cartoon incarnations that have come and gone. Others just have a fantasy feel to them. But I enjoy each one.

At this point I have 26 sketch cards including a couple from the 2013 Cryptozoic Batman The Legend set. I also have a Joker sketch card from that set and two of the card sized art prints. I intended to gather just nine, enough to fill up a binder page and keep the total cost under $75. 

I have met that goal in a roundabout way. I can definitely stick nine of these in a sheet whose total cost would be under the $75. But after I bought about half a dozen I began looking at some more costly ones and grabbed a few. 

I'm going to break these into two posts. Up top is a Michael Keaton interpretation and just below is one of several sketches I have that show Batman in the rain and darkness.

I have several sketches by Ellyn Acord. She sketches the 'classic' Batman.

Here's one of the Cryptozoic cards.

Rain and night #2:

This is a unique card that features his with a red symbol on his uniform.

Another Ellyn Acord piece. Again in the cartoonish style.

I'll post the rest in the near future.

That ain't me!!

I recently received an interesting group of cards from one of my favorite bloggers, "Joe Shlabotnik" who writes the always entertaining The Shlabotnik Report. (Props to me for spelling it right twice before I checked it!!)

I got a big kick out of the 1978 buyback Rob Andrews. I've always felt a 'kinship' with the guy. Not only do we share a name but we were born just six days apart in 1952. As a bonus he was originally drafted by the Orioles.

Andrews had some very good minor league numbers in the O's chain but with a 25-year-old Bobby Grich (already a three time All Star and MVP candidate) holding down 2nd base the Orioles they didn't see a reason to hold on to him. So Andrews was dealt to Houston where I got to see him play before moving on to the Giants.

He's got about five Topps cards plus a few odds and ends. I have one besides this '78. And it looks like I used nearly the same post title for that one. Might be fun to try and track down a buyback of each Topps card he has.

Next up is a really, really nice 2002 Topps Gallery Frank Robinson card. I know nothing about this set but that sure is a nice piece of artwork.

Checking the back Topps gives a shout out to the artist which is nice.

The blurb is hard to read so I blew it up. Ron Stark does some very impressive work. You can check out his website for more.

This next card is of Orioles shortstop prospect Mychal Givens. It's interesting for a couple of reasons:

First of all Mychal Givens, a second round 2009 pick, is an Orioles late inning reliever now. He transitioned from infielder to the mound between the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

More interesting is what Bowman/Topps put in this signature space. I'm not sure what to make of it:

It isn't Givens signature which you can see numerous times (as well as read more of Givens' backstory) over on the Great Orioles' Autograph Project blog. It's like someone wrote out his name as a placeholder and they just went with it. <shrug>

Joe also filled a few holes on my 1970 want list. Capless guys, airbrushed guys, nicely posed guys...and Ray Oyler.

Only the Ron Clark (top middle) was a dupe but even at that it was a plus...I was checking the two copies and examined the back:

It revealed the fact that the utility infielder was formerly both a Golden Gloves champ and a rodeo rider. Pretty cool.

And finally a couple of Orioles, one new, one old...and a famous Oriole in a weird uni. I'll never acknowledge Eddie Murray as a Met. But I will stick this card in my Murray pages.

So there you have one of the more notable and offbeat PWEs I've received. Many thanks to 'Joe' for the 'fun-to-investigate' cards!

Not bad for $4.01

I'm not an autograph collector per se but I do add them to my collection when I come across ones that fit and are not too costly. Case in point the six Orioles signed items I nabbed for four bucks and a penny on eBay.

Half my 'saved searches' are Orioles related so I guess that's why the listing turned up on my eBay feed (that row of stuff they tempt you with on the bottom of your pages). I'd probably have ignored it but six pieces with a $2 start price caught my eye. I tossed in a small bid and ended up winning. When you look at them they are really not that much of a bargain but the 8x10's will be fine on the walls over my desk at work. I can spend my last year there repping the Birds.

The Frank Robinson photo had a stain but in a cheap from from Dollar Tree it'll hang just fine.

The 1960 Topps Ron Hansen comes from one of my favorite subsets ever. That's 57-year-old gum residue on the front. I've been pretty successful at removing that gunk so I'll give it a whirl. I'll stick this one in my 1960 set after I clean it up a bit.

Ken Singleton was a class act with the Orioles. Signed '83 Donruss Singleton? I have a spot for it.

Here is a slightly abused Orioles team postcard of one of my all time favorites. Ellie was a fan friendly as they come. RIP

Finally a couple of flawed photos. One from Boog Powell.....personalized to someone whose name isn't readable (I'll make believe it's to me) and.....

...my umpteenth Brooks Robinson sig. Looks like the Sharpie was petering out. Oh well.

All in all a decent buy for the price. Hey I spent a dollar more than this on a hanging pack of '17 Topps Series 2 and got nothing I was remotely interested in. When I look at it that way I figure this buy was a real bargain!

The two Jim Palmers

When my son, James Palmer Andrews, was a toddler in the early 1990s he underwent a series of operations on his arm and wrist. He had a huge cast on his arm for several of his recoveries and was never too happy about that. My wife customized his sling with this Jim Palmer patch. The sling was a big hit with James' doctors and nurses. We'd forgotten about it until we were doing some closet cleaning and came across a box with his old arm braces that also contained this sling.

These patches were floating around the hobby back then. I'd usually find see them on the same dealers tables where you'd find Broder cards, Beanie Babies and 'phone' cards. I seem to recall sending off for this, maybe as a cereal premium but I could very well be wrong on that. I'm putting a bit more about these at the bottom of this post.

I'm pretty sure I've posted this picture before but here it is again. This is from a promotional appearance the 'real' JP did in Houston for Jockey in 1989 when my guys were just a few months old. I'm holding Brooks and my wife has James. One day soon I need to have the two 'Jim Palmers' back together again for a followup photo. 

As I continue to struggle to get my scanner to cooperate with my new desktop setup I thought I'd pull up a few of my Jim Palmer scans/photos and lay them out here. The vintage cards and oddballs are from my Palmer binder, the newer ones came mostly from other generous bloggers. Enjoy a Jim Palmer gallery as we head into the 4th of July holiday.

Starting with his rookie card, the 1966 Topps, and continuing on in no particular order.

Players wore the patches on wristbands as seen in these shots. 

Barry Bonds 'Say No To Drugs' wristband posted without comment.