The Empire Strikes Back 3D Trading Cards

I'm really excited to announce that I will be illustrating 100 sketch cards for the upcoming Empire Strikes Back 3D Trading Cards set from Topps. As I mentioned in my post about my 2010 goals, not only did I want to get into some sketch card sets (did that with the Dead@17 set) but I specifically wanted to get into an officially-licensed DC, Marvel or Star Wars set. And I'm happy to say that I can check that off my list.

I just received my blanks from Topps and now the work begins. Most people that come to this blog probably already know about the whole sketch card scene, but if you don't, it works like this. The packs contain regular cards that are mass produced, like baseball cards, but they're all scenes from ESB. The cards in this set in are "widescreen", so they're longer than the typical trading card and they are also 3D. But randomly inserted into the packs are one of a kind original sketch cards done by a bunch of different artists. So I'll physically draw on a blank card, they'll insert it into a pack and some collector will get an original sketch that I did. Pretty cool.

For a guy who grew up with both Topps and Star Wars as a big part of his life, this is a little dream come true. Obviously, Star Wars was huge for any kid my age, but I was also so into Topps baseball and football cards it was crazy. I still have full Yankees team sets from 1978 through 1980, as you can see here. I'm psyched to work on these and I hope I can create some cards that Star Wars fans will really want to collect. Once I get a few of them approved, I can post them here, so stay tuned.

Big thanks to Brent Schoonover.

ETA: Actually I'll be doing 106 cards. I get 6 of them back as "Artist Return" cards.