Trading Cards Galore: Two-Face and the Rogues Gallery in Skybox's "Saga of TDK" and "DC Villains!"

[about_faces]

Back in the awful days of the 1990's--the era which DC, Marvel, and Image now seem hellbent on reliving in their own ways--superhero trading cards were prevalent, fitting in with the "EVERYTHING WILL BE A COLLECTIBLE INVESTMENT GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL" mentality that nearly sank comics as a whole. As with all things, most of these were crap, but there

Comments

[lenaf007]

More than any of the others, I really wish I had high quality scans of Rick Burchett's Year One cards, as well as the villain profiles.

You know, I'm pretty sure I have this whole set. I was looking at them just the other day, so I might be able to scan a few and send them your way if you're interested. What are the odds of you doing this post after I found these recently? ;)

Also the Skybox Master Series is pretty awesome as well. I've got the two sets side by side, though the Master's Series is incomplete. The Artist's Proofs with the signatures on them are especially neat.

[about_faces]

Hey, if you're up for it, that would be awesome! Anything you'd be willing to scan up nicely, I'd be more than happy to post! Always good to have something else on my Tumblr too! :D

[abqreviews]

- That Stelfreeze drawing is my new favorite image of the Joker, I don't even mind the ponytail. I like to imagine that, in universe, since he's aware of the fourth wall and knows how much people hate 90's fashion, he decided to wear that thing just to infuriate people, and if that didn't work he would probably have decided to wear Liefeldian pouches.

- That Bisley Catwoman should be added to the list with Bugs Bunny comics of things never to leave Robert Crumb alone with.

- I actually like that Sinkiewicz Scarecrow, hell, now I want to see him do a whole Scarecrow GN. Those kinds of hallucinatory images are perfect for the character.

- That's the worst Grundy I've seen since Sekowsky's. And that Ras Al Ghul underneath is the worst Ras PERIOD. Draw him next to the punk rocker Talia you showed us from those Who's Who books, and you have the perfect storm of bad taste.

[about_faces]

I like that Joker theory. He should always be dancing on the edge of meta.

I forgot to mention, that Ra's was drawn by Tony Harris. Really, Tony Harris is such a great artist, usually, but that was really subpar for him.

[psychopathicus]

In order:

Agreed about Stelfreeze's Selina. When I think Catwoman, I think of a sexy bad girl who is very good at what she does - I don't generally think "I am so angry that I am gonna RIP YOUR FACE OFF RIGHT NOW!"

I guess the idea with the mirror-shard is that it's being held by his 'bad' hand, and so of course it's doing something crazy and self-destructive...?

Mignola does a damn good Penguin, all right.

That picture of KGBeast makes him look like he's got a castle on his arm.

I can't say I like that first Chiarello card, simply because, while the Ventriloquist looks more or less real, Scarface looks like a cartoon. It's like he's holding a 2-D sketch at the end of his arm, which is more than somewhat distracting.

To be fair, I don't think that Scarecrow does have an "aroo?" eye there - it's just a clever illusion with the crow. If the bird weren't there, he'd probably look a lot creepier (although I agree that the squiggly mouth looks weird).

Yeah, that is not a good Penguin. Among other things, I know the guy's a bit on

[about_faces]

I guess the idea with the mirror-shard is that it's being held by his 'bad' hand, and so of course it's doing something crazy and self-destructive...?

That works for me, I guess.

It's not that I dislike Lonnie, really. I have affection for him, I swear I do. But all the same, he reads like every single self-important "fuck the man" freshman college student who holds V For Vendetta up as their bible without really understanding the philosophy (to the point that real anarchists have pointed out how Anarky doesn't really work). Which would be great if Grant were using teenage Lonnie to explore those themes, but no, you get the impression that Grant really thought Lonnie was the big hero, and he showed up in Grant's work over and over and over again. He's a Mary Sue, really, and one who tends to lecture incorrectly without any irony.

[psychopathicus]

For the record, I don't think Grant ever claimed that Anarky was an anarchist, despite his name - there's a fancy name for precisely what his philosophy actually is, but I can't recall it. As for him being a Mary Sue, I'm not sure he is one, really. Grant clearly agrees with his viewpoint somethin' fierce, and gives him an improbably amount of brainpower for a kid in his teens, but he doesn't make him impossibly perfect - the original Anarky miniseries, in fact, all led up to the revelation that he'd made some pretty naive assumptions in this great big plan he'd been working on, and that he still had some work to do on just how he was going to try and fix the world.
Personally, I'm fond of Lonnie simply because he tries to do the things that no other hero does. He may indeed be a boneheaded teenage idealist at heart, but he backs up his words with actions, and I have to admire that.

[ext_262094]

Holy Cards Batman!

[lego_joker]

So help me, Bat-god, I will defend 90s Bat-comics to my dying breath. I can't speak for Marvel or the rest of the DCU, but I still hold that the 90s produced huge amounts of both outstanding masterpieces and decent, solid if unremarkable Bat-stories in general

[about_faces]

Oh no, no, don't ever feel like I'm badmouthing all the 90's Batman comics! I mean, I will tease and criticize them like hell, but I don't think they were ever truly destructive in the way that many other comics of that decade were.

Rotting, yeah, I can see that. It's also kinda... toxic.

Also, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the link to the TCG site. Now I can complete my dual collages of Graham Nolan-drawn Jokers AND Ponytail!Jokers.

You're very welcome! I was so overjoyed to see that such a site exists. If only all the scans were good, since many are grainy and crappy, but it's better than nothing!

The Black Mask really is awesome.

I remember you linking me to that Penguin image. I forgot to respond, but rest assured, I was horrified beyond belief. I actually saw that image pop up again when people mistook it for the Arkham City design. God help us all if that had been the actual version they used.

Also, how come the Riddler/Ivy card is in Spanish?

Because the scan I found here was of better quality than the scan at

[captaintwinings]

Lol, whut?