My Philly Show Report.

The Philly show was the first card show I ever attended as an artist in 2000 or 01, back when most people that walked by didn't even know what a sketch card was and I was horse from explaining them over and over again. A lot has changed since then, new and many more faces in front and behind the tables, and a few more grays for many of us. It was great to see familiar faces again and a pleasure to meet new fans, friends, and artists.

It's been a few years since I've done a card show and in that time I've drawn a few hundred more sketch cards to add to the thousands I've already done. For some reason, which my back was asking me about, I felt it necessary to bring everything card related I owned or had a scan of. I also brought along prints and comic stuff but in the end the table was only so big and much of it was relegated to under the table.

They had the artists corralled in a "circling of the wagons" approach and I think it worked well. It was easy to talk with and get to know each other and they all seemed very nice. I was next to Jeff Zapata from Topps who was doing Wacky Pack and Garbage pail kids commissions all weekend and I also got Otis Framptons "Oddly Normal" volumes (which I've still yet to unpack - Thanks Otis). My sign up sheet for commissions was full all weekend long and I'm grateful to anyone that pre-ordered any before the show.

Over all a pretty good weekend and I'd find it hard to complain about anything. But, next time I'll have the batteries in my camera charged so I have more pics to post. Of what I got , above is the best you'll get. Some of the commissions I did I got pics of. And the Conan went to the winner of the "Farthest Traveled Award"... Graham, all the way from the UK. I wish I was able to take pics of them all, I'm going to see if I can track down some scans.

Mecca, Jerusalem, the Wailing wall, the Vatican, the Grand Canyon, and the almighty Philly Non-sport card show. It's that simple. If your a card collector and haven't been to this show, I would put it on your Bucket List. Harris and Frank seem like they've got things worked out pretty well and the show seemed to run very smoothly from my vantage point.

Just go.

Later

WM

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Warren Martineck

X-Men Archives Trading Card Set

The X-Men Card set has now been released.

I was able to do about 150 full color sketches for the set and I was overall pretty happy with the way they came out. This set was right on the heels of the JLA card set in my working schedule (although that ones not out yet) so I was loose, very warmed up, and ready to try some new techniques. I have all the cards posted here at my X-MEN COMIC SPACE GALLERY. In addition to the classic style, you'll be able to see painted cards and other various themed cards.

I also teamed up with a fellow card artist, Bard, on a few cards. I did the pencils and he painted in oils over them and did a really nice job. Martineck/Bard Sketches (Scan to the bottom of this link) Interestingly enough, Bard was supposed to be working on this set also, but for some reason wasn't able to get to it. So, these are the only Bard cards released in the set.

Here's a little eye candy of one of my Storm cards.

Later

WM

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Warren Martineck

Justice League of America Sketches

One of the sets I've been working on lately that I haven't been able to talk about has been the Justice League of America set.
I've finally seen some official release info on this upcoming set and it's now mentioned in a few forums, plus I have a bit more info on it as well for my part. (These pics I believe were from Previews or something like it)

I finished up my cards for this a few weeks ago and did 2oo for the set, which I've been told have all been approved. You can see one of the Hawkman I did in the ad below. I normally try to keep my numbers to 150 sketches or less per set (especially for all full color cards) but I thought I'd try a 3 card puzzle, something like I did with the Xena card set back in 2004. The JLA version will be a full color 14 member team shot across 3 cards. I made 9 sets of this puzzle to make it a bit easier to get one. That's the theory anyway.

The ads have a release date of July but I haven't heard anything to confirm it.

Also, yes, as far as I know I will be getting Artist's Proof for this set and will make them available.

Speaking of which, I have my only X-men Origins - Wolverine Artist's Proof available right now on the Bay if anyone is interested.

Thats all for now.

Later

WM

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Warren Martineck

Casual Friday #6

Hey look at this, I was able to sneak in a Casual Friday image after all. I'm cheating a little as this image of Wolverine, that I drew this morning, was going to be for a 2-piece Wolverine sketch card puzzle that I was planning on doing up for the X-men set I'm currently trying to finish. You can even see the tick marks where the cards would meet in the middle. I was hoping to do a bunch of these for the set but got a little carried away with the detail and realized there was no way I was doing all that a bunch of times over for just sketch cards.

So, here it is as just an art piece.

Enjoy

Later

WM

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Warren Martineck

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Card Set (Part 2)

As promised, here's the link to the Wolverine Galleries.

Back to work, almost done, can't wait to take a day off.

Later

WM