My Contribution to the WRIPP (Warhol Rose Infinite Parallels Project)

Back in April, Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown introduced us to the Warhol Rose Infinite Parallels Project, or "WRIPP" for short.

 

As you can see from that blog post, Gavin took Andy Warhol's original Pete Rose screenprint from 1985, pared it down to a basic template in baseball card size, and began creating some variations—or parallels, as we know them in the hobby.

These parallels would be special one-of-ones, completely unique, designed to be sent out to friends, fellow collectors, and fellow bloggers as part of trade packages. And the coolest part?

Gavin has encouraged all of us to create our own one-of-one parallels to add to the project! (Hence the "infinite" portion of the WRIPP acronym.)

Well that was enough for me. I downloaded the template from Gavin's blog post and soon got to work.

Here's my first contribution to the WRIPP:

 

I call it the "Victorian Wallpaper" variation. The wallpaper design behind Mr. Rose features roses. Cheesy, but effective.

As for the card back, I kept it simple.

 

 

 

I wanted to get Gavin's branding in there, so I placed the WRIPP logo he designed on the top of the card. Other than that, I just listed the name of the parallel, wrote my blog name and the "1/1" mark in red ink, and added a great quote from Mr. Rose himself at the bottom. Done.

 

 

But wait. There's more!

 

 

I created a second parallel. If you collected cards at any point during the late 1980s or early 1990s, you'll know exactly what I decided to call this one:

 

 

 

 

Yep, it's a reverse-negative version!

I'm sure something like this could have theoretically gotten by the quality control team at the WRIPP production facility, because Rose was a switch-hitter.

 

But nostalgia and printing errors aside, now that I had two parallels completed, the next question was what to do with them.

 

Well, being that these were my first two designs, I thought it would only be right if they went to Gavin himself. It wasn't long before he and I agreed on a trade. I sent Gavin the two parallels, along with a few of my other custom cards of his choice. In return, I received these beauties:

 

First, this sweet 1/1 created by Gavin himself.

 

 

It's hard to tell from the photo, but there's mixed media involved there, and the card has more than one level of texture. Pretty cool!

 

Here's the back of the card:

 

 

 

 

Got to love that "CONFIDENTIAL" stamp.

 

Also included were these six cards:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Gavin happened to have some "movie poster" inserts that were released as part of an MST3K card set just a few years ago. The particular movies featured on the cards above are from some of my all-time favorite episodes. (If you've never seen the show, I highly recommend it.)

But before I start quoting lines from The Pumaman or Diabolik, let's get back to the WRIPP.

I encourage all of you to go to Gavin's original post again, download the card template, and get to work on your own one-of-one parallels. You can create your designs digitally, or use any physical medium you'd like: colored pencils, crayons, markers, ink, you name it.

 

And if you do create some and send them out to your collecting buddies, be sure to share a photo.

Hope you'll join the fun!

Ed, Revisited

A few months ago I posted the following custom card featuring a character named "Ed" from Nickelodeon's All That (and later, the Good Burger film). Next to it is the original card that inspired the custom.

You can see that Ed (played by actor Kel Mitchell) bears a strong resemblance to Charley Neal on that original 1959 Topps card. 

Well, at the bottom of that post, Matt from Sport Card Collectors (and the newer Cards Over Coffee blog) left a comment in which he stated how much he enjoyed the Good Burger skits and the custom card. He also made a suggestion: If the card featured an image of Ed, why not also use his name on the top of the card instead of Kel Mitchell's? 

My original logic was that because the character doesn't have a last name, listing the first name "Ed" at the top of the card would look a bit strange by itself, especially as both letters would be lowercase. However, I gave it some more thought, and figured it'd be fun to whip up another custom card.

 

There's Ed, happy to be representing Good Burger in his official uniform and playing the position of cashier.

 

Notice that I had to remove Kel Mitchell's signature and replace it with Ed's. This gave me some artistic license, as Ed is a fictional character and I don't think his signature is ever shown in the skits or the film. But if you're familiar with Ed's eccentricities, I hope you'll agree that his signature might very well look like the one you see on the card.

 

And there you have it. My first custom card "variation". 

 

SPEAKING OF CUSTOM CARDS

To this point I haven't printed out/mailed out any of my custom cards to anyone. However, lately I've been looking into various printing techniques and services, and I'm going to finally try something with this card. 

For now, it'll probably just involve some thick cardstock that will fit in my inkjet printer, followed by a pair of scissors. I'm only going to send one copy into the wild, and it'll go to Matt. (I think he deserves a copy for providing the inspiration with his comment). I'll label it as a promo on the back.

If I do print out more of these one day, maybe I'll make it a short print. That would be properly annoying for a variation, right? 

 

Jokes aside, thanks for reading, everyone. And stay tuned for updates on custom card printing.