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Tag: Trading Cards

This page an archive of posts that have been tagged with the Trading Cards topic.

JLA Archive Cards, better than Lichtenstein

One trading card set I haven’t seen in my local Forbidden Planet is the Rittenhouse Justice League Archives card set, which is a pity as they’re actually rather good (the cards that is, not FB – that’s a slowly brewing rant for another day). Luckily there are sellers on eBay that sell the entire 72-card base set for less than five-pounds. Fast, quick, and without the hassle of having to buy separate packets. There is a rumour that there might not be any more DC Cards of any sort, so this may be the last set we see. Maybe they need to address the marketing and distribution if my experiences are anything to go by. Well if it is the last set they’re certainly going out with style.

What I like about these cards is that they’ve turned the old Mike Sekowsky JLA artwork into expertly cropped masterpieces. The card quality is also higher than most card-sets so  that enhances the feel that this is a cut above the rest. I’ve posted some examples above. I particularly like that Flash card (card #55 featuring JLA #54 – the Royal Flush Gang’s return). It has a certain pop-art feel to it that easily surpasses anything by old Lichtenstein (as a digression: I recently saw one of Lichtenstein’s comicbook panels for the first time in a Madrid show. Can’t say I was impressed. In almost all cases the original panels are better than his vaunted swipes).

Something I did side step by just buying the base set was the entire phenomena of sketch cards. As they sound, these are little card sized sketches done by one of 39 artists who each do 200+ sketches. It works out as less than one sketch card per base-set. Plenty of people just collect the sketch cards so it should be quite easy to pick up their disregarded base-sets.

Warren Martineck’s JLA Artist Proofs

Warren Martineck is one of the arts who has provided sketch cards for the Justice League Archives Trading Cards. He’s recently posted this great double panel of the JLA and JSA teaming-up to fight Starro. These are Artist Proof cards, which he describes as:

An Artist’s Proof card is a separate blank card with special printing or with “Artist’s Proof” printed on the back, given to the artist so they can sell, keep, or do whatever with it. It being blank, the artist can draw whatever he wants on it or be commissioned to do a specific subject. Though they usually have to be approved by the company before being sold.

He still has some left so contact him if you want to commission your own Artist’s Proof.

Justice League Archives Trading Cards

There is a new Justice League trading card set coming this December

B7769

Rittenhouse Archives presents Justice League of America Archives Trading Cards, the first-ever trading card set to feature the JLA, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and more! The 72-card set will feature full-color art on the fronts and classic comic covers on the back.

Rittenhouse produced a Batman Archives set last year. I stopped buying previews years ago so I don’t always notice these announcements. Apparently the date was meant to be earlier than December, but its been delayed. If I ever find a pack, which isn’t always guaranteed around my way with DC trading cards, I’ll post some example scans.