Wednesday, December 25, 2019

A completed Star Wars custom booklet + a surprise sketch

We just got back from seeing The Rise of Skywalker. I thought it was great! Apparently much of the internet didn't like it, though I haven't read anything about it, trying to go in with untainted expectations. I'm glad I was able to avoid any spoilers. I loved it.

Speaking of Star Wars, here's a custom "booklet" I've been working on for a few years. Recently got the final piece to consider it completed.


Here's the front. I made this overlay for a James Earl Jones auto card (shared with Martin Short under there).



The other side features David Prowse, the actor in the Darth Vader costume most of the time in the original trilogy.



Opening the booklet reveals a photo of Prowse with his helmet off.



Opening it up further reveals some more. The Jake Lloyd auto checks off childhood Anakin. Picked that up a year ago.



Here's the last card I needed to finish the booklet.. Hayden Christensen, Anakin as a young man. Snagged this card a little while back. I targeted this particular card because it's an on-card signature, plus take a closer look at the serial numbering...


Christmas Card!



And with that, I consider my Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker custom autograph booklet complete!

Yes, there are still more names I could theoretically add who've portrayed the character in some official capacity, such as Bob Anderson (Episodes V-VI lightsaber battles), Sebastian Shaw (unmasked in Episode VI), Spencer Wilding/Daniel Naprous (Rogue One), as well as voice actors Ben Burtt, Brock Peters, Matt Sloan, David Birney, Mat Lucas, and Matt Lanter.

But I'm content calling it good with the 4 main actors known for being Vader/Anakin. I don't think auto cards are readily available for those other guys anyways, but who knows.. maybe someday I'll try adding on.



Yes, the "booklet" is just 4 penny sleeves taped together, but hey, a real Topps booklet card featuring autographs of James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Jake Lloyd, and Hayden Christensen would likely cost you a couple thousand bucks or more. My custom creation ran me significantly less than that. I'm pretty happy with it.

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Bonus Star Wars content!

Wes, the Pancake King, was kind enough to include me in his Lucky 13 holiday mailings. I had patience and put the package under the Christmas tree, waiting a week or so to open it.


Boom! In addition to the '92 Bowman-style Pancake King, check out the sketch card!


Nice! This is Bossk, a big green bounty hunter who briefly (yet memorably) appears in The Empire Strikes Back. I remember having the action figure back in the day. Looks like he got some more backstory in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars. We just signed up for Disney+ as a bonus birthday present for me, so I'll have to watch through Clone Wars one of these days. Very cool card!

And Wes didn't surprise me with just any random Star Wars sketch card...


It's also a card for my Greatest Gavins minicollection, by artist Gavin Williams. Awesome!

Thank you, Wes! Glad you like the stuff I recently sent you, too.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

8 comments:

  1. Haven't seen RoS yet, looking forward to it, and I'm not going in expecting to hate it like a lot of people. Anyway, amazing Star Wars stuff here!

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  2. Rise of Skywalker was fantastic. It's a vocal minority who are making noise, most of whom don't really like Star Wars anyway. Unfortunately that's the internet these days.

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    1. Yeah, I've been there for the first day of every Star Wars movie and reissue since RotJ because I don't really like Star Wars, anyway.

      I'm sorry, but it was a terrible movie.

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    2. Guess we saw different movies, huh?

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  3. Nice booklet idea, I like how you could theoretically keep adding to it. Because all that remains is Matt Lanter's autograph (he was Anakin's voice actor on Clone Wars).

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  4. But how can you hide the Martin Short auto lol. He's pretty cool as well. But great project overall and JEJ is on my list of autographs to seek in 2020

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  5. Wes is the man. I definitely didn’t have the patience to wait!

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  6. Great job on the booklet! As a huge SW fan... I've gotta say it was pretty ingenious. I've spent a lot of time watching stuff on Disney+. Between the Marvel movies and SW movies/shows... I sometimes find myself spending 4 to 5 hours binge watching things.

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