Come See The Prince Of Crime, Just 25-Cents!

In August I received some cards that the sender creates packaging with just box tape and bubble wrap. I posted about it the day I received the cards, but I forgot to follow up with the actual cards. 

The cards are the Carnival of Criminals posters insert set, an 8-card insert from the 2013 Cryptozoic Batman: The Legend set. I am a bit disappointed that Cryptozoic didn’t make it a 9-card set and include Catwoman, my favorite Batman villain. 

The cards are a cool foil board set with each villain appearing on a poster that is reminiscent of the old side-show posters that were hung at carnivals in the late 1800s-early 1900s era. The backs have a write up about the character.

Batman's Dark Victories

In 2008 Rittenhouse released the Batman Archives set which highlighted the history of Batman going back to his origination in 1939. The base set was all of the comic book covers going back to the first issue but there were three insert sets along with sketch cards with the 9 Dark Victory cards grabbing my attention. I have wanted these cards since the release because they are black light cards, some sellers list them as Glow-In-The-Dark but they are not. Individual card prices have remained stable for the past near decade and you could expect to pay $5-8 a card and with there being 9 cards in the set I wasn’t ready to pay that price.

Last year I found a seller who had the complete insert set for a little more than it would have cost to purchase two individual cards so I hit the BIN immediately. I did hit the buy button rather quick without even really looking through the cards, it was more a “Win” in my mind and I wasn’t too worried about the cards condition. In the end the set came in and was in great shape with no chipped edges or scratches, I could not have been happier.

The card's surface are a matte black with the images created using a reverse negative effect printed in a two-step neon ink with each character being one color and some white on the cards with a reflective Batman logo in one of the corners.

The set is made up of:

DV1 The Riddler
DV2 Scarecrow
DV3 Catwoman

DV4 Penguin
DV5 Batman
DV6 Joker

DV7 Mr. Freeze
DV8 Poison Ivy
DV9 Two-Face

The entire collection:

The Art Gallery: 2010 Chicagoland Collector's Expo Batman

This month’s Art Gallery display comes from comic book artist Russell Lissau. The Batman sketch card is from the 10^th Anniversary Chicagoland Expo in 2010 where Lissau was there as a guest artist.

 

Lissau has worked on a number comic books and is currently attached to the indie publisher Pop! Goes The Icon out of Las Vegas where he works on the Omega Comics Presents anthology and the new series Old Wounds. Some of his past work includes Batman Allies, Origins, Shrek and Strawberry Shortcake.

 

This card was created using a blank card, the info piece is a separate insert so the sketch card has a blank back. I love that Batman is in stealth mode where you only see his eyes instilling fear in to the criminal. The card was initially set at $4.95 but the seller dropped it to $0.99 and I jumped on the opportunity. The seller also had a very cool Al Capone sketch card by Jay Shimko but someone outbid me in the last second by a stinking $0.25.

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1966 Topps Batman Bat Signal

In January 2014 I picked up a 1966 Batman Red Bat buyback card (still not sure why) that had been inserted in to a pack of Topps 75^th Anniversary. The card is cool but I am not a fan of the gold foil “Topps 75^th” stamp, I got caught up in the bidding and paid more than I should have.

This time I decided to go straight to the original, no more buybacks for me. I like the 1966 Batman sets, there are actually three different 1966 Batman sets each with their own checklist. There is the Black Bat, the Red Bat (or A Series) and the Blue Bat (or B Series). The difference being the color of the bat on the front of the card that contains the card name. The Black Bat set has 55 cards on the checklist, the Red and Blue Bat sets each have 44-card checklist.

This card is from the Black Bat set, card #3, and I picked it because of the iconic Bat Signal. I don’t plan on working on the set but this card is really cool because everyone know the Bat Signal. The card is showing its age, that corners are rounded and there is wear on both the front and the back. The perfect example of a vintage card.

The Art Gallery: 2013 Island Dreams Batman

This month’s Art Gallery comes the 2013 Island Dreams release. I am a big fan of Island Dreams, besides the large variety of sketch cards the money raised from selling the sets goes to the Family Assistance Fund for the Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. I do not have a connection with this hospital but I do know the hardships that families face when a child requires extended treatment. My son was very sick as an infant, nearly dying three times before the age of two. My wife and I spent many trying months at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, Washington while our son was hospitalized and we met parents who were having difficulty due to their child’s illness. We now make annual donations to local children's hospitals (I usually include sports and comic cards too) so any charity that donates to children’s hospitals will always get my attention as a collector.

 

When Island Dreams was created by Marty Kuklinski in 2011 his intent was for the sets to be island themed. The sets have includes a small base set in the past, 2012 had 15 cards and 2013 had 6 cards, though the focus is the sketch cards. Most sketches are island or water related but the artists are able to go with what interests them and that would be the case here.

 

Tom Kelly is a comic book artist so logically his interest is super heroes and that is what his cards reflect. The main focus is the Batman silhouette over a blacked out moon. The trailing cape and the bat logo on his chest stand out beautifully. What is not obvious is the Batman outline in the background. This was such a cool addition. Some of the other cards that Kelly submitted for the 2013 Island Dreams set include Catwoman, Punisher and Superman.

 

I don't remember what I paid but it was on the lower end in comparison to other Batman sketch cards, though not "officially" licensed it still is a wonderful addition to my superheroes sketch card collection.

 

 

Preview: DC Comics Batman: The Legend

Coming soon from Cryptozoic is DC Comics Batman: The Legend Trading Cards, an all-new original art release based on DC’s The New 52 line. Boxes should be available by December 15^th with each 24-pack box (5 cards per pack) running $60 (Current pre-sell price). This is the break down of what you should pull in a box break along with some preview images of the inserts:
 

1 Sketch card (1:24 packs)

 

2 Batmobile cards (2:24 packs)

 

 

2 Batcave cards (2:24 packs)

 

 

2 Circus of Villains cards (2:24 packs)- These cards are listed as "Circus of Villains" in the sales materials but the preview card shows "Carnival of Criminals" so I am not sure if the insert name was changed or which insert name is correct. I have also seen sales materials that say the cards are 1:24 packs while other materials say 2:24 packs. I am guessing 2:24 packs is correct if they follow the same pack out ratio as the other inserts.

 

Because this is an all-Batman release collectors get an intimate look at the world that surrounds the Dark Knight, including heroes and villains as well as the Batmobile, Batcave and even some of his gadgets.

 

Like most sets based on superheroes the big draw here (excuse the pun) is the sketch cards. There are 140 artists included in the sketch card checklist so there will be a large variety of styles as well as a large selection of characters included. Here are a handful of the sketch cards that have been made available for preview. Some of the sketch cards appear larger than the others, they are actually all the same size, the difference in size is due to me pulling them from a different site (Cryptozoic's web site versus their Facebook page).