In some of the other postings lately it's been pointed out that collecting is pointless because you can only look after your collection until you die. Then your collection pretty much ends up in the hands of whoever was either lucky enough to be born rich, or still has a job that gives them a discretionary income. In an old thread--which I couldn't find--we discussed a trading card hall of fame and let people post their favorites.

Since no one would be likely to actually donate "their precious" to a physical hall *(although, I am sure most of us would volunteer to be curator), maybe we could do some kind of community on-line hall of fame/museum. People could nominate a card (which they must own and be able to provide a picture of) and state why they feel it is special and deserving of immortalization. A moderator or whoever, could then select what they feel are the most worthy of the bunch month after month, and maybe post 4-5 for us to Poll-Vote a winner. A winner a month, with full credit going to the card owner along with their historical write up, to be posted in a locked on-going thread.

It's not the point of it, but think of the ego boost for a sketch artist to be selected, or repeatedly selected. Or to a seller to be able to claim that a card is featured here. Or to you, to be able to flippantly tell someone who just spent $8000 on a PSA registery set "oh, that ain't nothing. Check this out. Hall of fame baby, hall of fame..."

I don't know how it would end up looking, since anything could be nominated unless the person running it broke different months into categories (vintage month, common month, sketch month, cut-sig month, charity or in-person month, promo month, industry personality/special signer/repeat signer/fantastic artist month, etc.) but I think it's an idea worth putting out there for whoever knows how to do this stuff to think about. Who knows, maybe someone will want to take it on... Anyone think it's a worth while idea?

--Chris

A "Hall of Fame" of some sort is a great idea. There should definitely be one for sketch card artists. Here's what I think is the best way to determine who gets in.

A lot of artists and illustrators who made their names in fields other than sketch cards but who have done a handful of sketch cards, wouldn't necessarily mean they get in just because they have a already famous name by the time they did the sketch cards. For example, just because Arthur Adams and Joe Jusko did a small number of sketch cards for Marvel Masterpieces 2007 (and the cards were amazing), it doesn't mean they would get into the (unofficial) sketch card artist Hall of Fame, since they really don't have a large enough body of work in sketch cards to qualify.

Rather, while it need not be rigidly enforced, I think it would be a good idea for any artist considered to have done at least a few hundred pack inserted sketch cards from at least two different products.

There are so many who would already qualify for consideration within these simple parameters. And since many collectors have their own personal favorites, I think a good idea for determining the inaugural class would be to have all interested parties submit a list of 5 artists who meet the criteria above.

Once all of the lists are in, the 3 artists who appear on the most lists would be inducted, and a nomination pool for future classes would be instantly created from all those who didn't get in the first time. Using that list (which could certainly be added to over time as new artists come to prominence and others gain more appreciation with continued excellent or perhaps merely improved work), a new survey could be taken every so often with again, the artists appearing by consensus on the most lists being the ones who make the cut for future induction.

Once artists have been chosen, I'm sure we could find more than a few collectors happy to contribute some sketch card images from their own collection to help illustrate why each artist has been afforded such an honor by truly the best people to bestow it, that being the educated and courteous collectors of the sketch cards themselves, the patrons of the art, if you will.

My list:

SEAN PENCE
ALLISON SOHN
ADAM HUGHES (has he done enough cards?)
CAT STAGGS
LEN BELLINGER

Truly from the top of my head, and no insult to any of the MANY fantastic sketch card artists not on here. In fact, I may amend this when I see some other lists! At some point though, all selections would have to be locked in.

If we could get 100 lists, that would be a good start. Anyone else intererted?

Thanks for the topic, Chris!

A couple more names...

Raphael Kayanan
Killian Plunkett
Tony Perna

David Desbois
Andy Fry

Melike Acar
Charles Hall
Anthony Tan
Veronica O'Connell

Charles Hall, definately!

NAR!

Ah, but if you are looking at individual sketch artists, think of what their signature piece(s) would be. Remember that people would have to vote it into "The Hall". Some people have Grails that I would pass on, and favorites that I think blow. Many would probably feel the same about some of my favorite cards.

But wow, you sketch people are really into this! Glad I wrote something about sketches and not a category for best counterfeit coming from a source other than a legitimate manufacturer. Incidentally, I've lost track of who the sketch artists are here. I'm not sure if it would be funny or tacky for someone to nominate themselves or their work! Lol. --Chris

quote:

not a category for best counterfeit coming from a source other than a legitimate manufacturer. Incidentally, I've lost track of who the sketch

Any list you produce that fails to include Robert Hack is simply wrong.

There are loads.....

Mark Brooks
Eman
De Liz
Cat Staggs
Len Bellinger
Jim Kyle

To name but a few...

The easy way of course - is to classify sketches in accordance with sales. ie over $500., and go from there!

I nominate NIK.

Just checked the latest +$500 sold sketches on the bay, There were only 4: -

Cat Staggs
Nar
Jay Lynch
Joe Petruccio (not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination), so my system may fail.

No one has mentioned Russell Walks or Gerry Vanderstelt, cos they ain't bad either

The problem with this is that there are so many. There are loads who have not been mentioned yet who are all very good.

quote:

Originally posted by collector of things:
Incidentally, I've lost track of who the sketch artists are here. I'm not sure if it would be funny or tacky for someone to nominate themselves or their work! Lol. --Chris

Funny, tacky, take your pick.... I'll nominate me!

And sticking with funny, I nominate Tony Perna as well.

Oh well in that case i nominate me, the things i can do with my pink crayon.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Oh well in that case i nominate me, the things i can do with my pink crayon.

You could always write the next Carry On script with lines like that .

quote:

Originally posted by steve j:
Just checked the latest +$500 sold sketches on the bay, There were only 4: -

Cat Staggs
Nar
Jay Lynch
Joe Petruccio (not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination), so my system may fail.

No one has mentioned Russell Walks or Gerry Vanderstelt, cos they ain't bad either

Walks is an absolute master. That he has deigned to do even a single sketch card is a gift to all collectors. Whatever his sketch card total is, I don't think anyone would argue his inclusion. There are a few other artists certainly who would get in if only for their Star Wars sketch cards. I'm sure the same is true for Lord of the Rings sketch artists. Staggs has done great work for both Star Wars and LOTR along with many other fan favorites. She was also on my list, and should be a lock.

Joe Petruccio only did a handful of Elvis sketches for a Press Pass set or two, so I don't think he gets in due to quantity. There were around 35 different actual Disney artists who did between approx. 10 and 25 cards each for the Upper Deck Disney Treasures sets of 2003 and 2004. These cards, pretty much all of which would sell for $500 or more are each Sketch "CARD" Hall of Fame exhibits to be sure, but the artists of them, despite having mostly turned out exquisite cards, should not be in the Sketch Card "ARTIST" Hall of Fame. That honor really should be reserved for those who have done more pack inserted cards than 10 certainly, but even 20 or 30, with 200 being a good and round number. That would definitely qualify NAR, who seems to be an early favorite, with his cards from the Marvel Masterpieces sets alone. His attention to detail on those cards is legend.

But if there were another artist who did 200 total cards, but only a handful with Nar-esque detail, the entire run of their cards should be considered, and those cards, despite perhaps containing several masterpieces, might not alone be enough to merit an artist's induction. It seems to be a good idea for the early inductees to have worked on multiple sets, always careful to not get too focused on "star" names at the expense of those who laid the groundwork.

Jay Lynch, what can you say, he's done thousands of sketch cards, and each a mini masterpiece, this from a guy who designed some of the original Wacky Packages stickers that started it all. Getting sketches from him for Wacky collectors is like getting a sketch card from an original Marvel bullpen artist for Silver Age comics collectors. For Wacky Old School series 2, Topps even added Zippy the Pinhead creator and vintage Wacky designer Bill Griffith to the sketch card artist lineup. I asked if maybe for Series 3, they could get a few cards from art spiegelman, a man essential to the success of the original Wacky Packages, but apparently there is some dispute between those parties. Hopefully, that'll be resolved and spiegelman can be convinced to do a few cards for a future series.
(By the way, no disrespect to spiegelman with the lower case letters beginning his name, as he spells it that way. And he can, having won the Pulitzer Prize for his harrowing graphic novel of the holocaust, "Maus". You wouldn't begin a letter to ee cummings with the greeting "Dear E.E.", would you?)

Finally, one other thing I hope to never hear on this thread are arguments as to why a certain artist shouldn't be included, particularly when the crux of the argument is to debate an artist's "style" (for lack of a better word). Anyone who feels the need to speak against a particular artist who has been named by someone else would much better serve our purposes to instead spend their time promoting (by perhaps gathering examples) of an artist they do enjoy, and has perhaps been overlooked.

When considering the sheer number of sketch cards that exist for the purposes of honoring the best and most consistent creators of them, it should be a long time before we run out of accolades for those who deserve them. There are many drains in this world. Let us be fountains.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:

quote:

Originally posted by collector of things:
Incidentally, I've lost track of who the sketch artists are here. I'm not sure if it would be funny or tacky for someone to nominate themselves or their work! Lol. --Chris

Funny, tacky, take your pick.... I'll nominate me!

And sticking with funny, I nominate Tony Perna as well.

For coming up with ideas for cards that we've never seen before, Ted and Chris Henderson jump immediately to mind, and that's certainly something to consider, Creativity.

I know there are differing opinions of say, John Soukup's work, but there's always something to be said for uniqueness. I love cards that are one-of-a-kind, idea wise, in addition to the more tangible one-of-a-kind that every sketch card is by definition.

Mark McHaley and Soni Alcorn-Hender come to mind as well.

As great as Mark Brook's work is, I don't think he has contributed enough material to qualify. The same can be said for the likes of Melike Acar, Eman, Andy Fry and Devid DeBois...all talented artists but they need more sets under their belts befor "Hall" consideration, IMO.

Hmm... maybe if a couple of the smart people posted some nominations for an inaugural HOF card we could get some more people onto the idea. I have a hunch that people on this board like to spend time looking at pictures of great cards (how many e-bay dreams have you had?) and a permanent best of the best thread with a bit of potential ego stroking thrown in could turn out to be a great idea.

On the artist discussion, what about wildcards (no pun) like Joseph Micheal Linsner. Often there seems to be more non-inserted sketches of his than the total number of his that find their way into his products. The non-inserted's are often also, in my own opinion, better. (?)

Hall of fame cards are also not necessarily about rarity or value. Remember, board users would have to vote for it, and your write up of it. If people didn't share your enthusiasm for something, well... it might not just be about the beauty of a card if the content is WTF?!

*(WTF examples: Teen Pregnancy Supergirl, Family Guy's Stewie trying to kill Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane, Mother's Against Drunk Driving vs. _______ (insert celebrity), ...) --Chris