The Art Gallery- 2009 ACEO Lois As Princess Leia

This month’s Art Gallery display comes from an artist that has done so many prominent sets and is considered one of the top artists in the sketch card world, Brian Kong. The card is of Lois from Family Guy as Princess Leia and is a PSC (Personal Sketch Card) from 2009, probably a commission since it is on Brian’s personal sketch card blank.

If you haven’t guessed I am a Family Guy fan, it is one show that my son and I enjoy watching together and we probably have more inside jokes based on Family Guy references then a father and son should have. My favorite episodes were the three based on the original Star Wars Trilogy; Blue Harvest, Something…Something…Something Dark Side and It’s a Trap!. There are official sketches based on those episodes that were packed out in the 2011 Leaf Family Guy release but they are quite expensive so I look for other options and this is my second ACEO Family Guy Star Wars sketch card, the first being Stewie as Darth Vader from Nicole Falk that I picked up in 2015.

The Art Gallery: 2015 ACEO Daredevil And Batman

This month’s Art Gallery displays comes from William Kunkle a freelance illustrator who has sketch cards in sets from 5Finity and Island Dreams. I picked up two art sketch cards from him for $2 shipped. He really is a talented artist too; he has a great career ahead. These cards would be considered ACEO cards because they are not tied to an official release.

I picked up two cards with the first being Daredevil from Netflix’s exclusive show Daredevil. I will admit that I have not watched the show yet but it is on my list, I am just trying to catch up on some other shows and so Daredevil is on hold for now but I just love this card so I just had to get it. I wrote this post in 2015 after I bought the cards and I still have not got to watching Daredevil, I don't watch a lot of television.

The second card is Batman and no matter what Batman is always bad ass. This was the first card that got me interested in Kunkle’s work which brought me to the Daredevil card.

The Art Gallery: 2015 Nightmare Before Christmas ACEO

This month’s Art Gallery comes from an artist that is selling his own artwork over the internet. It is a pretty standard ACEO type of sketch card with a blank back, except for the description and artist’s signature.

 

I picked up this card up right before last Christmas and as you know I am a big fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas and since there are no official TNBC sketch cards I went with this bad boy, a pen and colored pencil piece. I just looked it up to see if I could find the artist’s name, besides D. Quinn, and I realized I paid a lot more than I should have paid. Probably double what I would pay for an ACEO sketch card today. I must have been feeling quite festive.

 

The scene is right after Lock, Shock and Barrel kidnapped Santa for Jack and bring him back in their trick-or-treat bag. Santa pops out of the bag and Jack comes over to explain that Santa can take a vacation because he will be taking his place. There are two small errors that the artist made; at this point in the scene Jack does not have his own Santa hat, he takes Santa's hat off of his head, and he doesn't wink his eye but otherwise the card is pretty spot on.

I promise, this is my last Nightmare Before Christmas post until at least next Halloween.


 

The Art Gallery: ACEO Stewie Vader

This month’s Art Gallery display comes from Nicole Falk a freelance illustrator who also works in other mediums too. She has worked mainly with Topps on various sets but most notably a couple of different Star Wars set.

This is an art card, not part of an official set and I am guessing it is a custom card purchase. This is actually my second Family Guy custom sketch card, in 2014 I picked up a Stewie/GPK card by Chenduz. This one combines two of my interest with Family Guy and Star Wars. This specific image comes from Family Guy: It’s A Trap parody of Return Of The Jedi where Stewie’s Darth Vader mask is removed so Chris’ Luke can see his face.

I Just Don't Get It

I think I have now seen everything graded when I came across a seller who has a dozen or more ACEO cards graded. Each of the cards is graded by GMA, a well-known “Mint 10” factory who will grade anyone’s card a Perfect 10 for just $2 a card.

I am a big fan of ACEO cards, I love to see people show their talents on cardboard. As a sketch artist I have had commissions for sketch cards and on occasion I have sent out personalized sketch cards in trade packages but at no point would I ever expect someone to have any of these cards graded. But then again I am not a fan of grading modern cards unless there is serious jump in value for a graded version you plan to sell or if the card is condition sensitive and susceptible to damage.

When you think about it getting a card like this graded, even with GMA’s $2 per card, this is still a loss to the person who got the cards graded. Along with the $2 per card you have to include shipping fees to and from GMA, which range from $15-$20 for return fees alone.

I am not ripping the seller or the artist, I just don’t get why anyone would grade an ACEO card in the first place.