Homer At The Bat And Some Cards That Took Me Too Long To Finish

On May 27^th, Homer Jay Simpson was inducted in to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY on the 25^th Anniversary of one of the best Simpsons episodes ever Homer At The Bat. His Hall of Fame honor also includes his stint as the mascot of the Springfield Isotopes and the Capital City baseball team.

Seeing Homer inducted in to the Hall of Fame got me to finally complete a project that I began nearly 3 years ago, a Simpsons set from the Homer at the Bat episode designed using the 1992 Topps design. I have seen people put some cards together but there has never been a complete set using the same design and in my typical form I had to have the set how I wanted it to be, a set based on the players in action.

The reason it took me so long is that, well besides the procrastinating, I illustrated each one by hand before inking and coloring it in Photoshop. I kind of went all out on this set and I am happy with how it is coming along.  Everything is the same throughout the set, every uniform, grass, tree, dirt, sky and clouds are the exact same color as all of the other cards. The only difference is Steve Sax’s card because I used an evening image and Mr. Burns uniform is different because he wears a Zephyrs’ uniform not a Springfield Nuclear Plant uniform. 

It may not be perfect if you were to compare the image versus the scene in the episode but it is my set and I am proud of it. I am not done yet I plan on making these digital files in to tangible cards using the player’s real 1992 Topps baseball card but I will need to make Homer and Burns’ card backs.

Looking at the cards I see I still need to do a couple of touchups. I need to capitalize Mr. Burns' name and I want to remove the chain link fence from behind him completely and I want to raise up the children on the Griffey card so the left hand side of the card isn't so empty.

 Mattingly! I thought I told you to trim those sideburns! GO HOME!!! YOU'RE OFF THE TEAM, FOR GOOD!!!