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.

A Cowboy Signed My Custom Card

 

When I'm writing down addresses on envelopes for custom cards that are going out, I usually don't pay much attention to the specific information. Once in a while I'll notice a town's name if it's wacky or interesting, or if a card is going to a state that I don't often send to, like Hawaii or Nebraska or something, but that's about it.

 

However, a few months ago, I paused as I wrote a person's name on an envelope:

 

Burton Gilliam

 

This particular Mr. Gilliam had a mailing address in Texas. As for the card that was ordered? It was a few copies of this one. (Note the name of the actor on the bottom left.)

 

 

 

 

Could the cards be going to the very same Burton Gilliam who played the character of Lyle in Blazing Saddles? Excitedly, I looked at the transaction record and found the buyer's name.

 

Nope. It didn't match. 

 

However, I figured I'd contact the buyer anyhow, because hey, if these cards were actually going to Burton Gilliam the actor, I wanted to send my thanks—and maybe a few extra copies of the card.

 

Soon enough, an email reply came in...

 

The cards were, in fact, going to Mr. Gilliam the actor!

 

I turns out that the buyer was a good friend of Mr. Gilliam's, and wanted to send him a few copies. How cool.

 

But wait, that's not all. 

 

The buyer was more than kind, and he and I struck up an email conversation. And when I say "more than kind", I mean it. Soon enough, I learned that Mr. Gilliam liked the card so much that he wanted to autograph a copy for me!

It didn't take me long to respond. I sent a few more copies of the card along with a self-addressed stamped envelope, and within a couple of weeks, this beauty was in my possession.

Mr. Gilliam even sent back more than one signed copy.

 

But wait, that's still not all!

Mr. Gilliam is such a nice and personable guy that he sent me a video thank-you message as well! 

 

I won't show it here for the sake of privacy, but I'll tell you that he was even wearing a cowboy getup quite similar to the clothing and stetson he wore in Blazing Saddles. The video also made it clear to me that Mr. Gilliam is still going strong into his 80s. He seems young and spry and joyful—the embodiment of the philosophy that age is just a number.

 

What a cool guy.

A big thank-you to Burton Gilliam, and his good friend who made all this possible. The autographed cards will have a very good home in my box of favorite cards.

This Custom Card Set is Only a Pawn in the Game of Life...

If you've just read the title of this blog post and you're a fan of Mel Brooks films, you might have an idea of the custom card set I'm going to feature below.

The initial idea was for just one card, but the film is such a classic and features so many hilarious characters and quotable scenes that before long I'd come up with enough content for a six-card set. And when I discovered some peculiar similarities between the original card design I wanted to use (1975 Topps) and the film itself, the process became even more of a joy than usual.

If you haven't figured out what film we're talking about yet, here's a first look at the six cards:

 

 

It's Blazing Saddles!

 

Let's review each card now. The first four are based on the highlight cards that appear at the start of the original 1975 Topps baseball set.

 

 

Card #1 features Mongo, played by former NFL defensive tackle Alex Karras. I styled the card backs to match the original 1975s, even fabricating a newspaper-style story based on the particular scene depicted on the card front.

 

 

 

Card #2 features sheriff Bart, who came up with a clever, cartoon-like plan to subdue Mongo. (CandyGram for Mongo...) One of the fun connections between the original 1975 baseball set and the film is the color scheme that Topps used for the highlight cards. The orange and brown are definitely Western-themed, don't you think?

 

 

 

Card #3 features the lovely Lili Von Shtupp and the song and dance number she put on at the saloon. 

 

Do you want to know another interesting link between the film and the baseball cards? The film was released in 1974, and the original baseball cards feature highlights from the 1974 season (hence the '74 Highlights banner across the top of each one). So that works out rather nicely in that I didn't even have to adjust the '74. 

 

And how about this for something even more amazing: While I was doing some research on Blazing Saddles, I discovered that the story takes place during the year 1874. So the '74 Highlights banner works perfectly in two different ways!

 

 

 

Card #4 features The Waco Kid, and the memorable time when he shot the revolvers out of the hands of seven of Taggart's men. It's a Western League record that stands to this day.

The final two cards of the set are based on the 1975 rookie combo design.

 

 

 

My original idea was based on this card: Take four of the main stars from the film and put them on the rookie template. Again, all I had to do was change the year from 1975 to 1875 on the top of the card front. The yellow and orange combination also feels very Western to me.

As for the card back, I decided to list some notable roles and other accomplishments for each star. I thought Gene Wilder's fencing championship was a pretty cool thing to add.

 

 

 

 

And it would only be fitting if I created a similar card that featured four of the "villain" characters from the film. Just like the previous card, all of the actors here had fantastic careers. Most impressive to me, other than Mel Brooks having fought in the Battle of the Bulge, is Burton Gilliam's impressive record as a Golden Gloves boxer!

 

So that's that. Another really fun set of custom cards is complete. I've already had them printed out, and they look and feel great in hand.

 

And finally, to wrap up this post, here's a clip from the film where Mongo gets philosophical:

 

 

 

Aren't we all, Mongo?