Friday, April 29, 2011

Summer Movie Preview trading cards

God how I love the old movie trading cards of the late '70s and '80s. I love how simple they were, the little logos they would put on the cards and the very cheesy captions they would use to describe what was going on the picture. 
With that little bit of nostalgia in mind, I used it to create trading cards of this year's crop of summer movies to illustrate The Salt Lake Tribune's annual Summer Movie Preview Guide.


Below is the cover. Click on it for a better look:


Just had to throw in a nod to one of my favorite artists Darwyn Cooke with the New Frontier Green Lantern action figure! There was a 6 x 3 ad on the bottom of it, but for this I cropped it off because it was pretty damn ugly.


And here's the gargantuan list of all the summer movies. I was fortunate enough to get a full color double truck this year. That made me extremely happy:


Again, click on it to see it larger.
If you would like to read Sean P. Mean's stories for the summer movie guide, click here.


It was a lot of work making the cards, but since it was such a geeky thing to do, I had a blast doing it.
Here are a few of my favs that I did. They are sized down to trading card size so feel free to click, save and print them out on a nice card stock for yourself. Collect them all! 












Oh, and by the way, the card numbers on the Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, Super 8, Rise of the Apes, Cars 2, and X-Men cards are Easter Eggs. I tip my hat to anyone who can figure out all of them!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Are the Marvel Comics numbers the years they were first released as comics?

And is 77 a reference to the year Star Wars came out?

And 47 the year Roswell happened?

Just a guess

Unknown said...

Thor's first appearance in Marvel comics was 1962.
Cap's first appearance in Marvel comics was 1941.
Hal Jordan's first appearance in DC comics was Showcase #22.
Super 8/Cowboys & Aliens is a reference to Roswell in 1947.
The original Planet of the Apes came out in 1968.
Cars 2 is a reference to the 57 Chevy?
Harry Potter is a reference to the 7th movie and the 7 horocruxes?
X-Men comics first came out in 1963.

The Fright Night reference is lost on me. I haven't seen the original in YEARS.

Hefnatron said...

Bryan and Mike:
Yes, the numbers on the Marvel related trading cards corresponds to the years the comics debuted.
The 28 on the Green Lantern card is the first two numbers of sector 2814.
1947 is a reference to Roswell. Also, it happens to be J.J. Abrams' favorite number.
Cars 2: 57 is the year John Lasseter was born. It's used as an Easter Egg in Toy Story 2 as the date on the Life magazine cover.
Harry Potter: 7th movie and 7 horcruxes
Planet of the Apes: Original came out in 1968
Fright Night: No real significance, 66 is just one number off from 666.

Unknown said...

22. 28. Apparently I should be wearing my glasses more.

Hefnatron said...

But still, the fact that you knew 22 was associated with Hal Jordan's first appearance is pretty damn sharp!

Juan Bauty said...

Wow, what a bunch of work! fantastic cards!!

-MaX- said...

These are awesome dude! Love it.

Zane Wooder said...

I'm quite impressed by your artistic ability when it comes to making these cards. I love the card with the monkey. That monkey gives you the weirdest look. It's the prefect picture for a card that's for the movie Planet Of The Apes. Apparently my family has a secret obsession with this series of movie. The best artwork are the cards for Thor and Captain America.

-Zane of ontario honey