For years I have been hunting and gathering some terribly difficult chase cards... the "Sketchagraph" from Fleer Ultra Spider-Man '97.

The Holiday season always seems to bring a treasure. Just a few days ago, this card by acclaimed Marvel artist Adam Kubert came in the mail. Weeks earlier, I'd worked out a deal for a collector's final FUSM piece, that I am now proud to carry forward in my collection.

With the bleeding splash of deep red markers, and night blue shadows, it just may be the Pièce de Résistance of the set I've built.

Piece:


Soul of Marvel Collection:
http://www.comicartfans.com/ga...ece.asp?piece=869789

Happy Holidays to all and good luck in your quests!!
Craig

This message has been edited. Last edited by: prenz,

That's great, congrats!

Utterly amazing collection!

Many thanks, WandringRebel and cardaddict!

Nice card.

The Kuberts were hot in the '90s. Long time I don't follow comics book. Are they still active artist?

How hard were the sketches to find ? Did they come 1 per box, 1 per 2 boxes, 1 per case ? I can't recall 16 years ago...

It looks like Andy and Adam are active to this very day! Both brothers signed on to DC in 2005, but Adam returned to Marvel after the three-year contract was up. And I am pretty sure both of them are involved in running and teaching at their father's school, the Joe Kubert School of Art.

The sketches were indeed rare, at one per 12 boxes back then. There were certainly 'tiers' of artists, though they were not labelled as such... some artists you can see in the above collection drew between 5 and 12 cards only, whereas others drew 100. It's a real rush, getting hold of a dedicated piece from a famous comic book artist!!

Thanks guys

Fleer Ultra Spidey 1997 were some of the first boxes to not have the then standard 36 packs if I'm not mistaken, so they only cost about $30 or so, although that may have been the clearance price. I'm fairly certain these cards didn't sell well initially, but 1997 really was the beginning of the end of the Golden age of Marvel cards, which ended spectacularly the next year with the Marvel Silver Age and Creators Collection one-two punch that coincided with the end of Fleer/Skybox Marvel cards (the popular 2001 Topps Marvel Legends set notwithstanding. A tangent here, but is Marvel Legends the last Super-hero set to feature all-original art drawn specifically for the cards and not recycled from elsewhere?). Even Marvel Silver Age, limited to either 10 or 12 thousand boxes, (a sliver of the mammoth production runs from just a few years before didn't sell out and were sold at clearance for as little as $25 a box and those had an autograph AND a sketch, often from one of the original 1960's Marvel bullpenners in every box! A $25 box I bought had both a Stan Lee autograph card and a John Romita Spider-Man sketch in it. That was a good day.)

I bought at least a couple of boxes of Fleer Ultra Spider-Man 1997, but I remember me and some other collectors were disappointed the packs held only two versions of the base cards (parallel red and blue foil with different puzzles on the back) and the sketch cards at those long odds. That's something that probably kept most people from buying more of it, the lack of the usual insert/chase card lineup, but even then, I really wanted one of those sketch cards! Prenz' collection is truly top of the line for that series, and somehow, it keeps getting better. Deep pockets are required sure, but it takes more than that to assemble such a collection. Devotion, due diligence, and tenacity are the words that come to mind. Congrats again on the achievement which is as mind-boggling as the Ed Wong collection from the others series is (or was, not sure if he still has all of his, but I used to look at that and just drool).

prenz thanks for the update.

I respect new sketch cards artists. Some have some nice great artwork. But for comic cards. For me is more interesting get/find a sketch card from a classic comic artist. Something very strange and difficult for the "new" products in the street.

The Holidays held yet more surprises... a local dealer (literally a 10 minute drive from my house) dug up some inventory and posted a Sketchagraph on eBay. Even though it was so close physically, I had to go the hard way and beat out all bidders on the world scene.

And now, the only of this character ever found...

The Human Torch!



This is my 48th piece; it motivated me to take large, high definition scans of all of my cards. The Showcase begins here, where you can click 'next' to navigate through the entire collection. The entire 48-card snapshot is now updated as well, here.

Congrats, Prenz, the best gets better!
How many of these cards are estimated to exist in total. I know with Silver Age and Creators, those boxes were numbered. With FUSM, they were one per case and those cases were hobby only, right? Did you ever get to open an actual full case? And did you find exactly one sketch card, if so?
There's probably a pretty good idea of how many hobby cases were sold. Diamond might have that data. Most had to have gone to comic shops, although there were a lot more sports cards shops in those days, and I remember a lot of them also stocked non-sports.

Many thanks, chesspiece! I never had the pleasure of sitting down with a case, but of the 15-18 boxes I've been able to pick up over the years, I did pull 2 Sketchagraphs! They were both Deodato Jr. pieces, a Rhino and a Scorpion. I used them in trades to find characters I didn't yet have.

What was really great about collecting these cards was that very aspect: trading. It was awesome building connections with people all across the US, and even Mexico, Italy, and the UK. It was the only way I could have possibly built such a varied set of characters and artists. It was the same fun of trading Marvel bubble gum stickers in the school yard that got me hooked in Grade 5 and 6, just now the trades were international and the values in the hundreds of dollars.

I'm going to throw it out there that I'm from Montreal's most slummy inner-city neighborhood. People get the idea that I must have deep pockets. It's not the case. Building this set has involved serious sacrifice, starting with splurging all of my "First Communion" money from Grade 2 to amass my first 5 or 6 cards in the late 90's. In College once, I was caught trying to sell another student's textbook to raise money for a card; I had to clean up garbage for a week with the janitorial staff to not be expelled. Yep, some interesting stories indeed.

There is a checklist that was published in a 1997 Tough Stuff's Collect, listing about 1900 official pieces. That is the best estimate on how many there are. It's about 50 cards per artist for the 34 artists, though the spread varied between 5 and 100 cards each.

^ Tuff* Stuff's Collect

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To round off a pretty epic month of FUSM'97 finds and pick-ups, this card arrived yesterday from England, likely sitting in a comic store for years:


Professor Mendel Stromm as Gaunt <-- Cool villain page linked!

Check out the new collection image. I think that my vision for this collection has been realized... the quest has really taken hold of me, for many years now. But I am starting to feel a sense of 'peace' that I have found what I've been looking for

Looking back at these i'd have to say the quality of sketchcards now is a lot better overall and one in every box or pack now. I think the artists only got $5 per cards on the '97 set. Of course they are lucky to get $5 now. Id still like to see them go back to 1 per case though, as they really dont feel "special" anymore