Another Autographed Custom Card, Doo-Dah! Doo-Dah!

A couple of months ago I shared a cool story here on the blog about actor Burton Gilliam, and how he sent me a few autographed copies of the Blazing Saddles custom card that features his likeness. 

 

 

 

 

What I didn't mention is that there's more to the story.

 

You see, a week or so after I finished my email correspondence with Mr. Gilliam's friend, I received another message. The friend reiterated that Mr. Gilliam enjoyed the card a lot. In fact, he enjoyed it so much that he was hoping I could send over a bunch more copies. Like, 50 or 100 copies. 

 

Why?

 

Mr. Gilliam wanted to bring them to upcoming shows and conventions, to autograph and give out to fans!

 

How cool is that?!

 

I excitedly replied in the affirmative, and said I'd order a big stack of the cards. Happiness all around. And the happy feeling was so great that it inspired me to do a little more design work for Mr. Gilliam.

You see, that Rock Ridge Stars card was just one of the cards from the 6-card set I'd created. Some of the other cards were of the "Highlight" variety, and I figured I could create a similar highlight card featuring Mr. Gilliam's character, Lyle. He was part of a few classic scenes in the film, after all.

One of those scenes involved Lyle breaking out in song, hooting and hollering to that cowboy favorite, "The Camptown Lady". (Note: There's a word at the end of the video that's NSFW.)

 

 

The genuine belly laughs I got (and still get) from that scene were all the motivation I needed. A few days later, I came up with this:

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the card back

 

 

 

 

I sent out sample images, and heard back that Mr. Gilliam loved the card, and hoped I'd send a big stack of them to give out at shows as well.

 

So, I finished up the design, and placed an order for both cards. Within a few weeks, they were in Mr. Gilliam's hands.

And being the kind cowboy he is, it wasn't long before I received some autographed copies in the mail as a thank-you.

 

 

 

But wait, that's not all.

I couldn't possibly accept any kind of monetary compensation for the stacks of cards I sent, so Mr. Gilliam mailed me some autographed 8 x 10s instead!

 

 

 

He even personalized a couple of them to my dad, who got a big kick out of them.

 

And that's still not all! 

 

 

Because just like last time, Mr. Gilliam created a thank-you video for me. This time he even sang a few bars of "The Camptown Lady"! Totally amazing. (I won't share the video here for the sake of privacy, but I'll tell you that he sang the lyrics with a similar amount of gusto as he did in the actual film.)

Totally amazing. And that's the second part of the story. 

 

Another huge thank you to Mr. Gilliam and friend. This has been such a fun experience, and it's so cool to think that good ol' Lyle from Blazing Saddles will be putting his signature on my customs and handing them out at shows.

Thanks for reading, everyone.