Gotta Cutch Em All (or just the ones you really like actually)

There hasn't been a lot of new cards for the collection since I injured my foot.  This is because I have been more frugal in my spending, but also because Topps still hasn't released a card of Cutch yet in a Brewers uniform and he was held out of a lot of 2022 sets so far. 

One thing I have been doing is getting into art cards more.  As a former comic book collector and original art collector I am finding that I love the idea of owning an original piece of art of my favorite athlete.

I recently discovered an artist named Melanie aka Lone Star Art Cards on Instagram and was blown away by her approach on creating these unique cards.

Her Instagram is here.  

She transformed 2 random Andrew McCutchen duplicate inserts into works of art.

This Pokemon themed card is based on a 2017 5 Tool Talent insert from Topps.

I remember at the height of Cutch mania in Pittsburgh there being a Nike shirt that said Gotta Cutch Em All.  I always liked that idea of being a play on the Pokemon phrase so I asked Melanie to transform one of the few cards of Cutch throwing a ball into a Pokemon themed card.

Love how this turned out.

I always wanted Cutch to have one of those Panini Downtown cards or Topps Home Field Advantage cards, but his peek performance years were when Topps didn't produce 25+ parallels in a set and when they didn't make any creative inserts.  

Again, Melanie to the rescue.

She transformed a 2011 Hometown Heroes insert from Allen & Ginter into a Pittsburgh Pirates themed downtown card.

You go the Clemente bridge, a massive Pirate ship, a parrot.

Mind f-ing blown!!!!

If you would like a commissioned art card hit her up on Instagram and tell her Collecting Cutch sent you her way. 

Oh and because shes a true artist she wrapped up the cards using tissue paper in a funky way that made me not want to rip them open.

Amazing work Melanie

Amazing!!!!

The Art of Juan Rosales

You may have seen me talk about the amazing talent of Juan Rosales on this blog before.

Amazing is Just one word to describe his style.  

I have gotten at least one sketch card of Cutch from Juan for the past 6 years.  

It was time to add another sketch card from Juan to the collection.  I thought about what image I wanted Juan to use as reference and ultimately chose for him to use the last HR Cutch hit as a member of the Phillies as inspiration. 

In typical fashion of Cutch's career he made a lasting impression with the Phillies fan base by hitting a home run in his final at bat with the club (it should be noted that he hit a HR in his first at bat with the club also). He also went on to celebrate in a very fun manner as he had done all year long, by wearing a straw hat with the Phillies logo under it.

Here is what Juan came up with

He added the lime green and neon pink to the background as a tribute to the Miami theme.

What is your favorite moment of your favorite player from the 2021 season you'd like to see turned into a sketch card? 

Out with '21, in with '22

2021 is ending and 2022 is just around the corner.

While I admit a lot of awesome things happened for me this year, the tragedy of losing a loved one a few days ago really sours all the other good.

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet today and just post a single sketch card by Ken Karl, a legendary sketch artist in the sports and entertainment world.

I set up this amazing sketch card commission back in 2020 and have been patiently waiting a year to show it off for just such an occurance.

Wondering what else is in the vault?

Stick around next year and find out...

Be safe and stay blessed!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

Josh Trout > Mike Trout

Mike Trout may be a generational baseball player, but Josh Trout is a generational sketch artist.

Let me set the stage

Behold the box it was shipped in

I carefully removed the outside band holding the package card inside.

Above is the very unique box that acts as a perfect compliment to the card itself.  I love the rookie cup design stating it is a Topps Artist and officially licensed.

Inside was a very nice hand written note on one of Josh's business cards.  It just so happens to feature that other Trout guy too.

Once I removed the business card I had this beautifully drawn absolutely stunning card of the Keystone State Legend that is Andrew McCutchen.

Thank you Josh!

Sketch Sunday

I mentioned that one of my goals was to add some original art and oversized pieces to my Cutch collection and through the Twitterverse I stumbled across @soxsketcher who does 8x10 sketches of athletes using only a sharpie marker.  It's absolutely awesome!!!  In case you can't tell by his twitter handle, he is a Chicago White Sox fan, but his art is stunning no matter the subject matter.  

Knowing that I would be requesting a commission of Cutch and his art style really lends itself to Black and white images, I requested that Cutch wear a Pirates alternative black jersey.

He crushed it!!!

If you are interested in your own commission, hit him up.  You won't be disappointed.  Tell him CollectingCutch sent you.

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

Kong is better than Godzilla

I recently got myself an HBO Max subscription to test out so that I can stream a few movies (Zach Snyder Justice League cut, Godzilla vs Kong, and Mortal Kombat).  

The first thing I streamed was Kong: Skull Island.

I have a secret I need to share.

I love primates!!!!

I have been a fan of King Kong since I went on the old Universal Theme Park ride and it smelled like bananas.  I loved that ride so much when I was in my preteens.  I even enjoyed the 2005 Jack Black starred, Peter Jackson directed King Kong movie that lasted almost 4 hours long. 

I also loved Brie Larson in Kong:Skull Island so that helped to rewatch K:SI 

Once I watched Kong: Skull Island I went back and rewatched both Godzilla movies.

I'm not as big a fan of Godzilla as I am King Kong.  One of my old friends was obsessed with Godzilla.  I never understood the fanhood of the character.  

Now I don't want to spoil anything in Godzilla vs Kong, but Kong comes up in a huge way to help save the day, but let me say that in an actual fight between the two Godzilla will certainly win, but I'm rooting for Kong.

Much like sketch cards I prefer the (Brian) Kong variety to the (Bob)Zilla variety

Above is the original art Brian Kong created for a pack inserted sketch card in 2015 Topps Museum Canvas Collection.

That sketch card was also used to create the reproduction insert card found in 2015 Topps Museum Canvas as seen below

Brian Kong's art is so good it was also used as the reproduction art for the 2016 Topps Museum Reproction Canvas Collection cards

Above is the 5x7 gold parallel numbered to 10 copies

Below is a 1/1 mini sketch card from 2014 Allen & Ginter.

The above sketch is by also by Brian Kong, who has worked with Topps for many years on many different projects. I have been able to talk to Brian about comics and baseball fairly regularly when I would see him at comic book conventions in the mid 2000s.  

Above is the first sketch I ever got from Brian at the Big Apple Comic Con April 2005.

My two favorite characters (Sawyer and Kate) from my favorite TV show of all time (Lost).

I've been doing a lot of talking about (Brian) Kong, but let's talk about that Zilla now...

Bobzilla has fed off the hype of the Topps Project2020 and Project70 success and has been drawing on cards and selling them via ebay which I have lost because quite frankly the art style doesn't appeal to me.

  A few lines and a dinosaur?

I can do that myself.

For much less money too...

I've been drawing on cards for half a decade and some of you may even have some of my originals, which I did long before TP2020 or TP70 came out.  No offense to Mr. Zilla but I'm going to stick with my favorite Kaiju named artist and that is KONG!!!!

Who is your favorite kaiju?

Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra, or something entirely different?

What do you think of these "artists" like Bobzilla selling cards that have been drawn on?