Growing up I was as much a super hero fan as the next kid. I loved Spider Man above all but I would not consider myself to be a comic book collector. For nostalgic reasons I still enjoy comic cards though. Recently Upper Deck released 2011 Upper Deck Marvel Beginnings set, a pretty typical comic card set consisting of 180 card base set along with the staples like sketch cards, autograph cards and hologram cards but what is getting the most attention is what was not included on the sales sheets, the “Ultimate Panel Focus” insert set. A set consisting of panels cut from classic comic books including Spider Man, the Avengers and Daredevil.
This insert set contains panels cut from original comic books and inserted in to a card in a similar fashion to a cut signature. When you look at them you realize that this is a perfect marriage of cards and comic books. There are 10 cards on the checklist, 8 Spider Man, 1 Avengers and 1 Daredevil version and they are all limited to #/68 or less.
The only downside is the sepia-tone borders, with the yellowing newsprint the cards look washed out. I think either a solid black or a classic black and white border would have worked well in this case; the panel would become the center of attention.
A couple of the Marvel Ultimate Panel cards have begun to show up for auction but with prices well over $100 I do not see any of these cards making their way in to my collection any time soon. Now the cards all priced over $100 are BIN so I guess as more show up for auction we will be able to gauge a realistic price.
| Card Number | Comic Title | Issue # | Numbering |
| UM-1 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 2 | 66 |
| UM-2 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 4 | 53 |
| UM-3 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 6 | 61 |
| UM-4 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 9 | 68 |
| UM-5 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 14 | 66 |
| UM-6 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 18 | 51 |
| UM-7 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 25 | 45 |
| UM-8 | The Amazing Spider-Man | 50 | 39 |
| UM-12 | The Avengers | 57 | 50 |
| UM-13 | Daredevil | 181 | 55 |
I love this concept and am surprised that no one thought of doing this earlier.
ReplyDeleteThere are some great videos posted by Upper Deck talking about (and showing) the process of choosing some of the panels. It's neat stuff.
I particularly like the die cutter they use. I need to get me one of those.
This is a really cool idea, but I shudder at the idea of cutting up old comics. Let's just hope they used pages from older books in crappy condition that no one will miss. You are right though - it's the perfect marriage of the two hobbies. I'll have to keep my eyes open for these at next weekend's big local comic convention.
ReplyDeleteUpper Deck said that they only used books that were in bad condition for these inserts.
ReplyDeleteThese are awesome, because they're pretty unique. Hopefully UD doesn't overdo it and start packing these out as fast as they produce "event used" memorabilia cards.
ReplyDelete