Show and Tell #120: Coot Veal And The Vealtones Are #1 With A Bullet

Dustin's blog name Coot Veal and the Vealtones reminds me of something I read somewhere [I'm getting old...] that if Radiohead were making music in the 50's their names would be something like Thommy Yorke and the Radioheads.  But I digress...

This trade started [as all great trades should!] with an e-mail asking if I would be interested in a '51 Bowman Andy Pafko with a few war wounds.  HELL YES! was the reply and I would send some ancient Tigers back to Mr. Coot Veal.  

Here's the card in question and when I look at it I see a kid in the 50's who lined up his baseball cards and shot them with bee bees like they were targets.  

1951 Bowman #103 Andy Pafko

Dustin also sent a whole bunch of cards off my collecting list including this untouched Robin Yount scratch card:

1981 Topps Scratch Off #10 Robin Yount

Also included were an assortment of Jim Thome cards showing the breadth of teams that Jim has played for. We have cards from his seasons with the White Sox, Phillies, Indians, and Twins.  Thanks again Dustin!

2006 Topps Turkey Red #370 Jim Thome

2004 Fleer Platinum #99 Jim Thome

1993 Donruss ##171 Jim Thome

2004 Upper Deck Diamond Collection #65 Jim Thome

1992 Topps #768 Jim Thome

2012 Topps #97 Jim Thome/Twins Checklist

1993 Fleer #222 Jim Thome

Team Set Tuesday: 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Sliding Stars

It's been quite a while since I did a Team Set Tuesday which is series of posts I've done over the years highlighting an entire team or insert set. Today's set is the Sliding Stars insert set from 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen that I picked up all at once from eBay.  These horizontal configured cards work really well and it makes me wonder why the horizontal Allen and Ginter cards seem to always looks squished.

So Why Did I Buy A 1940's Baeball Mitt?

Up to this point all the baseball gloves I've owned were purely functional...they were for playing Little League, Babe Ruth, or now some old man softball.  But one day I stumbled upon a listing for a glove on eBay I just had to have.   It looks a little rough on the outside as this was clearly used by someone.  

The label shows that the glove was made by J.C. Higgins which was the distributor of gloves that were featured in Sears catalogs.  This sort of gloves were made through 1961 with this particular one probably dating from the late 1940's.

Flipping it over we get a little peak at the reason why I suddenly needed a 1940's mitt:

Here's a close up...I would recognize that signature anywhere.  

This glove is actually an Andy Pafko brand glove.  I guess not too surprisingly there weren't too many bids on it and in the end it cost more for the seller to send it to me then what I paid in total.  Nevertheless, it has become on of the jewels of my Pafko collection.  

Speaking of that, I've got a very, very, very, special Andy Pafko card coming which should be here early next week.  I don't want to ruin the surprise so I'll stop here for now.

Condorman's One Fan Tears Me A New One

Back in December, I wrote about the obscenity that is Condorman.  Well some guy named Oswald found the post recently and sent me this e-mail:

"actually condorman was based on the novel 'the game of "X"' by robert sheckley and hawkmans wings arent attached to his body, they are also a pack made of magical "Nth" metal that defies gravity, from technology of the planet thanagar, hence the belts across his chest holding it on. dont go making wild acusations about condorman next time dork! its called research! wikipedia much?1?"

So I looked up what Wikipedia was and found this:  Condorman was inspired by a book written in 1965 while Hawkman is a famous Golden Age comic book character that dates back from 1940.  So you are right, Disney didn't rip off DC comic's character, Robert Sheckley did.  A thousand pardons, Oswald.

Mars Attacks Heritage New Universe Insert Set Checklist And Scans

A little while ago I highlighted the Deleted Scenes inserts from the new Mars Attacks Heritage set and now we'll take a look at the other major insert set, the New Universe.  This set includes 15 cards showing captions from the Mars Attacks! comic book series published by IDW Publishing.  Here's the insert set's checklist:

1.  Invasion Is Imminent
2.  Early Encounters
3.  Readying For War
4.  The Novas Vira
5.  Dead On Arrival
6.  Sinking Ship
7.  London Falling
8.  The Best Defense
9.  Sic 'Em
10.  Changing Face Of Evil
11.  Ordinary Heroes
12.  Vigilance=Victory
13.  Lord Of The Fleas
14.  Patriot Act
15.  Settling The Score

And here are the scans:

#1 Invasion Is Imminent

#2 Early Encounters

#3 Readying For War

#4 The Novas Vira

#5 Dead On Arrival

#6 Sinking Ship

#7 London Falling

#8 The Best Defense

#9 Sic 'Em

#10 Changing Face Of Evil

#11 Ordinary Heroes

#12 Vigilance = Victory

#13 Lord Of The Fleas

#14 Patriot Act

#15 Settling The Score

**UPDATED** Are There Art Garfunkel Drawn Mars Attacks Heritage Sketch Cards Out There???

**UPDATE**

Eagle-eyed reader Seth B. tracked down an example of Art Grafunkel's Mars Attacks Heritage sketch cards.  This one was posted on the Mars Attacks Facebook page:

I really like the use of "ZAPPED!!!!!!" as there aren't too many examples of sketches that use text as well as pictures.

Thanks again Seth!
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Has anyone actually ever read the complete list of Mars Attacks Heritage artists?  Take a look again at the list of artists Topps hired to draw their Mars Attacks Heritage cards.  Be sure to click on the image to make it nice and big.  Now read the second artists down in the third column from the left.

So are there really Mars Attacks Heritage cards out there drawn by Art Garfunkel?

So far nothing has shown up on eBay related to Art Garfunkel and Mars Attacks so is it all just a joke or a are there really super short printed Art Garfunkel sketches out there somewhere?  I sent a message to @RealMarsAttacks on Twitter to try to get to the bottom of the possibility of Mr. Bridge Over Trouble Water drawing cards for Topps.

Turns out that the artist list that was published had a mis-print and actually an Art Grafunkel drew some sketch cards for Mars Attacks Heritage.  I haven't been able to find any examples of his Mars Attacks work yet but here are some samples from his work in the Indiana Jones Crystal Skull set from a few years ago:

 These can be found on eBay here.