Build Your Own Set: Mad Men Autographs

The critics, the Emmy voters, the Golden Globe voters and the show's rabid fanbase may love Mad Men, but there's not a lot of hobby love for the show or its stars. While I think the look of the cable show would carry over beautifully to cards, something tells me it probably won't make the hobby leap. So that leaves fans to comb through checklists and find cards of the show's stars.

Being a fan of autographs, I did just that. The results? Despite having a big ensemble cast, only two of the main players have appeared on certified autographs before.

The first is of the beautiful Christna Hendricks who plays Joan Holloway. Her autograph comes from Inkworks' Firefly set from 2006. Hendricks guest starred in two episodes of the short-lived Joss Whedon show.

The other autograph in the "Build it Yourself" Mad Men set is of Vincent Kartheiser who plays the young and motivated Pete Campbell. Kartheiser signed for Inkworks' Angel: Season Five set back in 2004.

So while a couple of the show's bigger stars have signed in the past, there's no Jon Hamm, January Jones or any of the other main cast.

I'd love to see a Mad Men set somewhere down the line. I won't hold my breath, but if someone like say, Breygent, is considering it, here's one vote for the license.

Build Your Own Autograph Card Set: Jennifer's Body

So the opening weekend box office numbers are in and Jennifer's Body is about to be dubbed a flop. The horror/comedy stars Megan Fox, who until Friday morning was considered Hollywood's "It girl" du jour. I have actually read a couple of articles over the weekend that are now questioning its validity. I've been wondering it for a while now too. Sure, she's beautiful but sorry folks, it was the robots that sold Transformers, not Megan Fox's short shorts.

I haven't seen Jennifer's Body and probably won't until it lands on Blu-ray, but I do have to say it looks a little cheeky - definitely not like your average horror. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, if you checked out the movie over the weekend and want to build an autograph card set (sorry, nobody's going to be making a set for Jennifer's Body), here's a starting point.

Megan Fox - Jennifer Check
Transformers (Topps, 2007)

This is one of the biggies of the modern hobby. Honestly, I don't know why. The last two have sold on eBay for $404 and $550.

Amanda Seyfried - Needy Lesnicky
Veronica Mars: Season One (Inkworks, 2006)

After holding her own opposite Meryl Streep in last summer's ABBA musical Mama Mia!, Seyfried seems poised to be on the verge of mainstream stardom. Right now you can expect to spend about $20 for her only certified autograph card, however I suspect once the remnants of the Inkworks sell-off start to dry up you'll likely see this card creep up in value.

Kyle Gallner - Colin Gray

Smallville: Season Four (Inkworks, 2005)

Smallville: Season Six "Alliance for Justice" dual autograph with Justin Hartley (Inkworks, 2008)

Veronica Mars: Season Two (Inkworks, 2007)

Veronica Mars: Season Two Autographed Pieceworks (Inkworks, 2007)

 

 

Being a big Veronica Mars fan, I'll likely always remember Gallner as the central character of "Beaver" from the second season of the short-lived show. Gallner seems to be making the rounds as a supporting actor. If any of these cards hold any significant value, it's more because of their rarity than Gallner's star power.

J.K. Simmons - Mr. Wroblewski
Spider-man 3 (Rittenhouse Archives, 2007)
Spider-man 3 Autographed Costume Card (Rittenhouse Archives, 2007)

Simmons is another one of those actors that you seem to see almost everywhere. While I remember him from HBO's Oz, he's probably best recognized as newspaper mogul J. Jonah Jamieson in the Spider-man films, whom he is perfect as. If you're patient you can find the regular autograph for under $20. The autographed costume card was an incentive for dealers ordering two cases. If you shop around, you shouldn't expect to pay more than $50 for it.

Overall, there's not a lot of different signers for a Jennifer's Body set but the two headliners are there. Granted it's going to take about $500 to get one autograph from each of the four and I know I wouldn't spend that. But that's largely because I have a hard time spending several hundred dollars on an autograph of someone who's simply "hot."

Make Your Own Card Set: Kill Bill

Firstly, sorry for the lack of updates as of late. I recently moved from the classroom to the office - sort of - until we hire someone to replace me, I'm still planning and teaching most of my classes still on top of all the new duties as well.

Enough excuses. On with the cards. Something tells me Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films will never see the cardboard as they're a) a few years old now and b) the violence isn't well suited for the 'kid friendly' hobby. Oddly enough, it was the conversation between Bill and Beatrix that somehow mentally got me thinking about parenthood. Then a week later, without suspecting anything my wife dropped the bombshell that our first child was on the way. Don't worry - there's no twisted meaning. I just felt at peace with the idea after watching it for some weird, subconscious reason.

Being a big-fan of the films (and several other Tarantino films), I present to you the do-it-yourself collection of Kill Bill autographs.

Quentin Tarantino - The Director
2008 Donruss Americana II Private Signings

 

 Also in: 2008 Donruss Americana Celebrity Cuts autographs and Letterman Signatures.

 

Uma Thurman - Beatrix Kiddo
Batman and Robin (Fleer/Skybox, 1997)

 
David Carradine - Bill
Alias: Season Three (Inkworks, 2004)

 Vivica A. Fox - Vernita Green
Alias: Season Three (Inkworks, 2004)

 
Michael Madsen - Budd
James Bond: Die Another Day (Rittenhouse Archives, 2002)

Also in: 2007 Upper Deck Spectrum Baseball Spectrum of Stars Autographs (Mystery Signature redemption).

 Michael Bowen - Buck
Lost: Season Three (Inkworks, 2007)

 

Samuel L. Jackson - Rufus

 Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith Widevision (Topps, 2005)

Also in: The Spirit (Inkworks, 2008) [set comes out shortly]

I couldn't find anything from The 5, 6, 7, 8's, so here's a video:

Build Your Own Set: Freaks and Geeks Autographs

It'd be great if you could have a good idea for a set and print it on demand. But that's not going to happen. There's tons of shows and movies out there that simply put will never have a card set made of them. The result is that I build my own collection from a variety of other sets, usually of autographs, but maybe some other bits and pieces. The first subject is of a show that lasted just one season yet it's still one of the best I've ever seen.

If you've never seen Freaks and Geeks, then you should must. Every skeptical soul, young and not-so-young, that I've shown it to has not just liked but loved it. If my word isn't convincing, then here's some of the case who weren't big then but have since gone on to become stars:

• Creator Judd Apatow: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up
• Seth Rogen: Pineapple Express, Superbad, Knocked Up, Kung Fu Panda, Zach and Miri Make a Porno
• James Franco: Spider-man, Spider-man 2, Spider-man 3, Pineapple Express, a couple of crappy dramas
• Linda Cardellini: E.R., Velma in the Scooby-Doo movies
• Jason Segel: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Freaks and Geeks is set in 1980 and focuses on siblings Sam and Lindsay Weir as they go through the trials of high school. Sounds familiar. It is, but not in the Hollywood sense. The heart of Freaks and Geeks is authentic. Usually shows about high school focus on the "cool" crowd, which usually translates into the jocks and the cheerleaders. Sam is an outsider. He's not a nerd, but he's definitely not popular either. He's an ant in a colony that likely won't get noticed. Lindsay is a former "nerd" who's tired of the image and ends up hanging with the burnouts.

When you're talking high school shows and movies, it's easy to make labels, but Freaks and Geeks doesn't really do that. Sure Sam and Lindsay are part of certain crowds but the show is so good because it simply makes them human. But enough editorializing. If I wanted to review a show or a movie, I'd write elsewhere.

No matter how big the cult following, no TV show lasting one season is going to have a set based on it more than five years after the fact - unless that show was named Firefly. So I've gone out and made a Freaks and Geeks autograph collection of my own. Thus far, there's only three cards, but seeing as how another cast member emerges as a star each year, I suspect the list will continue to expand.

James Franco - Daniel Desario

Spider-man 3 (Rittenhouse Archives, 2007)

Linda Cardellini - Lindsay Weir 
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (Inkworks, 2004)

Sarah Hagen- Millie  
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Seven (Inkworks, 2003)