The 'art' of collecting

If you've followed my blog for any length of time you'll know I collect more than just sports cards.  While I have cut back on non-sports card purchases, I am still intrigued by some of the Marvel Comics stuff.  A month or so ago Upper Deck released their Avengers Assemble set of movie cards.  I'll probably do a post on those cards themselves soon, but for now I wanted to talk about the 1/1 sketch cards found exclusively in hobby boxes.

Sketch cards aren't anything new, but they have seemed to get better and better over the years.  Since I don't buy many hobby packs I didn't know that sketch cards were included in this Avengers set.  I actually found out about them after my wife introduced me to Pinterest.  I started a board to showcase some of the great cards and artwork I could find online.  This lead to a few cards of some characters that caught my eye.  1) I was impressed with the art and 2) I was impressed that these lower tier characters were included.

I was first introduced to Jack of Hearts when he blew up the Avengers Mansion right before the Avengers Disassemble story.  I took the opportunity to go back and pick up other books he appeared in as my appreciation for the cosmic Marvel characters was growing.

Mockingbird was a member of the West Coast Avengers and married for a time to the Avenger Hawkeye.  She was thought dead until she and others were found alive during Secret Invasion.  Ever since I've been a fan of the character.  This card actually depicts her in her old uniform.  While dated, I still prefer it over her current look.

I was first introduced to Starhawk back in the early 90's when my brother bought me the first issue of Guardians of the Galaxy.  He is a strange character to say the least, but I always enjoyed the way Jim Valentino wrote him.

The early 90's were full of new, great Marvel characters.  Darkhawk was one of those.  He gained a cult following with his own title and continued to appear in other books after his ended.  He became a member of the New Warriors (my favorite team book) and later played a big role in the cosmic story War of Kings.  This card is particularly cool because it's signed by the artist on the back.  There is a small silver foil "AP" stamped on the front signifying it was signed by the artist.  If the 1/1 wasn't already cool enough this really puts it over the top.

I don't own many cards like this so these are the new highlight of my Marvel card collection.  I previously had one black and white sketch card (of Nova) so I was stoked to get 4 colored sketch cards.  Sure beats buying an expensive hobby box and getting stuck w/ a crappy sketch card of a character you don't want.