The Art Gallery: 2012 Topps Mars Attacks Heritage Red Martian

This month’s Art Gallery display is from the 2012 Topps Mars Attacks Heritage release. The original Topps Mars Attacks release was in 1962 so this release was for the 50^th Anniversary of the original set. Included in this release were a variety of inserts including parallels, 3D cards, printing plates and sketch cards.

With the sketch cards the artist was allowed to take their own impression from the Mars Attacks line, including the original release, Tim Burton’s 1996 movie and the comic books. This card was done by Dave Tata, a well-known illustrator that has done work for a couple of animated shows and he is found on quite a few sketch card checklists including Topps Mars Attacks, various Topps Star Wars sets Cryptozoic DC The New 52, Cyptozoic Batman, Cryptozoic Superman, Cryptozoic Walking Dead and various Rittenhouse Marvel sets.

Earlier last year I purchased a Mars Attacks sketch card from a seller who flaked out. After I got a refund from eBay he told me his was sending the card anyway, which never happened. I ended up finding this card, which I liked better. What caught my attention first was the color. I like the red, there is a connection with Mars plus red=anger and that is implied here too. 

Topps Offers Live Sketch Cards At The NYCC

Next week the New York Comic Con opens, 10/11-10/14, and Topps decided to bring something original to the table. This year there will be a collection of illustrators who have worked on various Topps’ releases and they will be creating free hand-drawn sketch cards to be given away by Topps. Each card will be a 1/1 and they will be marked as a NYCC exclusive.

 

The cards will include Mars Attacks, Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Package themed sketches.

 

The artists scheduled to be participating over the four days of the Comic Con:

Jason Brower
Jacob Chabot
Jason Edmiston
Chris Giarrusso
David Gross
Mark Pingitore
Joe Simko
Jeff Zapata

Mars-Sanity Takes Control!

Normally I do not get involved with “Hot” packs, I have heard some horror stories and depending on the product you can almost guarantee that the pack has been opened and resealed but when I came across an auction for a 2012 Heritage Mars Attacks! pack that was guaranteed to include a sketch card for a dollar I figured I would toss my hat in to the ring. The 2012 Topps Heritage Mars Attacks! series is a 50th Anniversary tribute set based on the original 1962 Topps Mars Attacks! release.

I always got a kick out of anything that involves Mars and aliens. I can almost guarantee that I was the only kid in my neighborhood to have a cassette tape with Orson Welles War of the World original broadcast, I have seen every adaptation spawned from Welles work too. I am standing here today to acknowledge openly that I am a Martian addict. I will even begin my 12-step program by admitting that not only did I see the 1996 Mars Attacks! movie but that I loved it and own a copy on VHS and DVD… I may now hang my head in shame.

So, now with the back story out of the way I can get on to the reason we are here today.

So, I came across a hot pack with a guaranteed sketch card in the pack, they actually come one per box (24 packs per box) so it is not really a huge thing to find one but it was sitting at 99 cents and 2 days left so I tossed up a bid for $2.01 and figured the countdown would come soon enough. Packs run $2.08 at Target so my bid was well within reason and hell, if I know I am getting a sketch card why not pay the pack price right?

Then apparently stupidity took over and my bid was blown away, not like a simple little increase but blown away as if the Miami Heat played the local Jr High basketball team type of blown away. After a flurry of bidding the winner walked away paying a hefty $20 for the pack. Considering that a sealed box only runs about $45, which includes 24 packs and one sketch card, why would anyone pay that much for a single pack?

I have picked up a couple of packs and will most likely end up buying a Hobby box to break, I will post something up shortly about my first impressions hands-on.

I just want to end this with some pure Martian awsomness. This is one of Joe Simko's sketch cards, he has worked with Topps for a number of years with his work appearing in Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages and his most recent work is with a company called Wax Eye in their Cereal Killers stickers.