Upper Deck is bringing back Fleer Ultra Spider-Man. Not sure on price, but base set is new artwork.

http://www.beckett.com/news/20...r-man-trading-cards/

That's good timing since the original FUSM came out in 1997 and debuted the first "Sketchagraph" (sketch cards) for Marvel trading card releases. That FUSM '97 Sketchagraph line-up probably has the greatest collection of comic book artists of any product with pack-inserted sketch cards. Hopefully Upper Deck has some grand plans.

Original Fleer Ultra Spider-Man set was released in 1995, and was a big hit.

The 1997 edition, the one with the sketchagraphs, was the second Ultra Spidey set. That set was truly limited and still didn't sell well as cards in general were on a downhill spiral industry wide by 1997. The 3-4 boxes I got of FUSM97 were at clearance prices, I recall. (Alas, no sketchagraph for me in those.)

Pretty cool that it's to be all-new art for this one, keeping in the spirit of the original two. Original art was the selling point of these kinds of cards (that, and the latest whistles and bell, tech-wise) for comic art sets before the days of modern "hits".

I was wondering why Upper Deck hadn't already gone back to the retro well for the "EX" line and the "E-Motion" cards (used on Marvel cards the only time so far for 1995 Marvel Masterpieces), so it looks like they might finally be doing that for this set, which is great. Those cards have proven very popular with non-sports and sports cards collectors, alike.

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

Of course ... 1995 was the original!

I was a bit overzealous trying to point out that this year is the 20th anniversary of the Marvel Sketchagraph. I hope there's some plans to do a write up in NSU or one of the other Beckett publications about the FUSM Sketchagraphs (and even the other 2 Marvel Sketchagraph sets from 1998). Hearing about the process from the artists themselves and even the collectors would be pretty neat.

Here's link to an older thread about one collector's amazing FUSM Sketchagraph collection:

http://nonsportupdate.infopop....807032616#7807032616

Yeah, that collection is the stuff of legend! I wonder if Craig still has all of those. I would imagine he does and that he's even added to it, but I haven't seen any more recent posts from him here or on Comic Art Fans.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Yeah, that collection is the stuff of legend! I wonder if Craig still has all of those. I would imagine he does and that he's even added to it, but I haven't seen any more recent posts from him here or on Comic Art Fans.

The last that I can remember is when he told the story of pulling that sweet Steve Epting Hulk/Spidey Sketchagraph.

http://nonsportupdate.infopop....4605353/m/2857057176

I'm excited for this set! I agree with Heroes For Hire, in that I hope NSU has some plans for a write up about FUSM '97 sketchagraphs. That would be great!

Also, reading the story about that collector's sketchagraph collection is awesome. Especially the part where he pulled the Epting sketchagraph. Reminds me a lot of when I pulled my Epting sketchagraph.