Happy Father's Day

There's been many Father's Day themed cards produced over the years.  Topps has had a blue parallel in their set commemorating Father's Day for over a half decade now.  Panini has had exclusive hobby shop packs since 2013 for Father's Day.  

Today I am going to look at my favorite image used on one of those Father's Day Panini Packs.

This is the cracked ice (atomic) parallel /25.

The back of the card references Marvel Comics Spider-Man.  I'm surprised Panini was allowed to do that since the Marvel license for trading cards is at Upper Deck.

No Way Home

I have done a few writeups on this blog about 🕷 Spider-Man 🕷 in the past.

Spider-Man is always a character I associate with my brother.  

When we were younger he had so many toys from the 90s animated series and displayed them along with the Daily Bugle plaster.  He also had some key first appearances of some of Spider-Man's most famous villains including Punisher, Venom, Scorpion, Carnage, Hobgoblin, and Black Cat. 

Yesterday I bought tickets to see the new movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home for a 5pm showing. Around 4pm I had something come up and had to cancel my tickets.  I likely won't be able to see the movie now until after Christmas because we are cleaning, painting, and moving into the new home. 

To pass what little time I have I thought it would be funny to show off some imagination for how the "nerdy" side of my brain works.

You may recall I showed off some cards featuring shadows back in July when I discussed having watched The Shadow starring Alec Baldwin for the first time in nearly 20 years. 

This is one of the cards I showed off.  

Do you see the image that resembles a shadow of Spider-Man swinging through the Big Apple or is it just me?

All that swag

Fernando Tatis has been getting a lot of press and fanfare for making baseball fun.  I love the energy that the young superstar brings to the game, but let's not get carried away thinking he's the first dreadlocked superstar to make things fun on the diamond.

Anyone remember Manny being Manny?

Or even something more recent????

You see while Tatis was getting his shimmy on in 2020 in front of crowds of zero,

Cutch had already perfected that move in front of the largest crowd at Marlins Park during the 2017 World Baseball Classic when Tatis was still in low A rookie ball.

The dancing in the dugout?

Cutch and Josh Harrison had been rehearsing that before Tatis was signed by the White Sox as an amateur.

Some view bat flips are disrespectful to the opponent

Cutch just gets fired up and pumps his fists when he hits a clutch walkoff homer 

Unless it's to do a Sammy Sosa impersonation and troll the Cubs fans with a go ahead homer late in the game at Wrigley on Jackie Robinson Day.

So yes, Fernando Tatis Jr is a great player and will be fun to watch over the next decade.

Amazing?

Maybe, but I still prefer the guy I root for.

Have a great day everyone!!!!

I will be working on some fun posts in the next few days.

When Comic Books Come To Life

In case you missed it, the new Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage trailer is out.

I'm excited for it.

Way back in the mid 2000s I was collecting comic books more than anything relating to sports.  I became friends with the artists and writers as I began to take the convention circuit with many of them from New York to Philadelphia to Orlando (MegaCon) to Chicago.  I never made it out to San Diego and got out of the comic book scene around 2009 (basically when Marvel was beginning their cinematic universe).  I wrote about the origin story of how I became CollectingCutch here and I discussed my love of comic books several times over the duration of this blog.  There are several comic book characters that I have always enjoyed, but Gambit, The Flash, and Daredevil will always be my top favorites.  

I had long boxes filled with near complete runs of all those characters, but sold everything about 10 years ago.  

The joy of original comic art is still a collecting itch I get from time to time, but I haven't done a whole lot about scratching it other than an occasional sketch card of Andrew McCutchen here and there. 

The comic book style has never been married to my sports card collection until now.  

When it comes to iconic comic book covers there are a few that stand out above the rest.  I think of many silver age comic covers and a few bronze age covers when I think of all time greatest covers.

One of the most iconic is Amazing Spider-Man #50 by the great John Romita Sr.

The issue was originally published by Marvel Comics July 1967 with a cover price of 12 cents.  It saw Peter Parker walk away from being Spider-Man and also introduces readers to the 1st Appearance of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.  Fisk is the crimelord of the underworld, taking on the role of a seedy mobster type background.

You may be familar with Kingpin from the Netflix series, Daredevil.  He was played by Vincent D'Onforio

Kingpin was also played by Michael Clarke Duncan in the 2003 Daredevil film starring Ben Affleck. 

Despite Kingpin being my favorite villain in comic books, he actually doesn't appear on the cover of his first appearance.  That doesn't stop this comic from being one of my favorite comics I ever owned in my collection and I think it is the cover art that I always enjoyed about this historic comic issue. 

So a few months ago, I got a crazy idea to merge my 2 favorite hobbies into some new wall art.  I looked over some of my favorite comic book covers to figure out how to do it and who I might be able to make it a reality.  I noticed that one of the artists that drew a single issue of Gambit from his first ongoing series was taking commissions via eBay.  He is more well known for his work on Spider-Man, then it hit me.  Amazing Spider-Man #50, the first issue to feature my favorite villain and one of the greatest Spider-Man stories ever told. Perfect!!!

I contacted Joe St Pierre to do a comic cover homage, but make it Andrew McCutchen centralized.

I knew there would have to be homages made to the original Amazing Spider-Man #50 so here are some things that I requested

First and foremost I wanted the title to say Andrew McCutchen instead of The Amazing Spider-Man

You may also notice that I had the Spidey image in the box corner art to be modified to the Uncle Larry persona that Cutch created last year, made famous on his Series 2 short print swagger card.

Speaking of box corner art, here's a look at some other changes I requested

Rather than 12 cents I asked for it to say 22 cents (a reference to Cutch's jersey number).  And instead of the issue number and month of publication I requested 13 MVP to identify the year Cutch won the NL MVP. 

Now for the main image of Spider-Man I wanted a fully dreaded version of Cutch in his Pirates black alternate jersey turning his head similar to the way Spidey is turning.

In the foreground of the comic is a very somber Peter Parker walking head down towards the reader.  I wanted a different look for Cutch to represent the Peter Parker side of him.

I requested Joe to put Cutch in the fist clinching excited moment of his walk off homer in the 14th inning against the Dodgers while in his 1st week with the San Francisco Giants.  In case you forget that moment here is the video.  What an epic at bat!!!!

I think it's safe to say all us Pirates fans wanted Cutch to stay a Pirate for life, but when he was traded to the Giants prior to the 2018 season he was forever a Pirate in our hearts, but a Pirate No More on the field.

Cutch will forever be my favorite athlete regardless of what team he plays for.  

So I think I've hinted around the final drawing enough.

Above is the result of a truly talented artist taking my love of comic books and baseball and perfectly blending them together.

Joe sent me pictures along the way and even made a revision after seeing the initial black and white image he sent.  I thought it would be cooler to get Cutch in a Giants uniform instead of Phillies uniform so Joe was gracious enough to do it for me.

How fricking awesome is that?

This has definitely made a new thing for me to collect.  

Here are some other covers I am thinking about turning into Cutch themed covers

Joe Mad! is one of my favorite comic artists and Gambit is a favorite character of mine.  I need to figure out a way to have a deadlocked Cutch holding baseball cards.

The Cutch of 2 cities.  Classic Pittsburgh Cutch and the Cutch of Philadelphia both coming to save someone.

The Phillies have basically brought back the same team as the past 2 years and are still thought to be favorites in the NL East.  This might be a fun one with JT, Bryce, and Rhys with Cutch in the corner box art or maybe go with Cutch, AJ Burnett, and Russel Martin as the team that brought the Pirates back to the playoffs.  I'll have to give this Jim Lee cover some more thoughts

I think getting something with Cutch and the Uncle Larry persona would be fun in this homage to Incredible Hulk #1.

We'll have to see if I progress forward with any of these ideas or if they just stay buried in my head.

What do you think of my first Andrew McCutchen comic cover homage?  

Should I proceed with another and if so what cover would you suggest?  Are there any comic book covers you can think of as being iconic that might lend themselves to getting a baseball update?

Please give Joe a follow on Twitter or view his website

joestpierre.bigcartel.com

Twitter @Joe_StPierre

Spider-Man Day:Catching Flies

I am still a big fan of Marvel comics despite having sold my entire comic collection 7 years ago.  I am slowly starting to get back into comic related trading cards.

Spider-Man day is August 1st.  Details about the holiday can be found here.

Cutch has been known to stick to walls

If you didn't watch a lot of Pirates baseball from from 2009 to 2017 you missed out on,watching one of the greatest outfielders in the game today.

While he may not catch thieves just like flies, he certainly did catch quite a number of flies roaming centerfield for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He was a Gold Glove winner in 2012 and nominated as a top 3 finalist in 2013 where he lost to Carlos Gomez.

Below is my #1 card need that I want for my collection.

It is the 2014 Topps Opening Day Photo Variant.  Anyone that helps me land this card will receive $50 finder's fee and I am willing to pay $150 for this card.

Here are some other cards of Cutch fielding that I already own, many of which I have already shown.

2015 Father's Day Elements #14

 Pyramids/10, Cracked Ice/25, Base

The back of the card even mentions Spider-Man on the back of the card.

2013 Topps Stickers #208

 Topps chose a great photo of Cutch fieldimg for their 2013 sticker

2012 Topps 1987 Mini #TM-40

This may very well be the most posted card I have put on this blog.

2019 Topps Series 2 Photo Variant SP #395

At the beginning of this post I mentioned how I was starting to pick up some more nonsports cards.

Here is a 2017 Fleer Ultra Retro Spider-Man Jambalaya insert of Iron Fist

Iron Fist is one of my favorite characters and his 2017 solo series is an absolute joy to read. I recently signed up for the Marvel Unlimited app so I can enjoy all the comics I missed out on reading during my comic hiatus and I don't have to worry about the storage problems.  (If you think baseball cards are tough to sort and organize, try collecting comics)

The Master of Illusions Appears

"Things aren't always as they appear"

I saw Spider-Man: Far From Home on opening night and was blown away at how awesome Jake Gyllenhaal made the character, Mysterio.

For those not into comics, might know him as the guy with the fish bowl head.  But in actuality, Quentin Beck is a mastermind.

I won't go into any of the details of the film, but if you see you must stay for the end credits scenes.  It is a mind blown reaction.

I mentioned that I have been getting back into my nonsports card collection recently with an emphasis on the characters I loved reading as a kid: Wolverine, Gambit, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Hawkman, and the Flash.

I showed off a Jambalaya Marvel Retro Daredevil a few weeks ago and one of my favorite Daredevil storyarcs is Guardian Devil.  It is written by Hollywood Direcor Kevin Smith (also acts as Silent Bob from Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma fame) with stunning art by Joe Quesada, former Marvel Editor in Chief.  The story features a stunning reveal of Mysterio just completely f***ing with Daredevil in a way that Kingpin, Bullseye, and so many other villains had failed in the past.  That arc made Mysterio cool to me.

And Far From Home makes Mysterio cool for many future generations following the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Mysterio is known for his illusions and I have shown a few of these off before when discussing Doctor Strange.

My latest parallel is the green one number 1/5.

Here are my other parallels including the gold

Along with the red, base, and blue.

Only the Gold Vinyl Superfractor 1/1 remains out there for me.