Interview With Michael Blaskewicz (Artist Behind The Alter Ego Super Heroes Set in 2025 Topps Chrome Update Baseball) On How Rickey Henderson Played A Special Role For The Set

You're listening to Cards to the Moon, a podcast about trading cards from both a collector and investor perspective. We hope you'll stick around for the ride as we take a deep dive into the state of the hobby, share some hot takes, hopefully some useful advice and fun stories along the way. Hey guys, welcome back to another Friday edition of Cards to the Moon. My name is Clark from 5cardguys.com. You can also find me on social media at 5cardguys on Instagram, YouTube and on Facebook. You can also follow our podcast page on Instagram at cards to the moon, which is all one word. All right, solo intro today, but I do have a special guest for this episode. If you're really excited about the latest Topps Chrome update baseball card set, which recently came out, then you're also probably excited about some of the cool insert cards that are in this set. One of them is the very cool Alter Ego Superhero set featuring 10 baseball athletes and their comic alter egos drawn by artist Michael Blazkowicz. That's who our special guest is, the artist himself who worked with Topps to release the Alter Ego set. Please stay tuned for that interview. I had a great time speaking with Michael and I think you'll enjoy his story in particular on how he got connected with Topps with some help and his connection to a Ricky Henderson fan group online. But first, before I play that interview, I was trying to do an emergency pod reacting to the latest PSA news, which is of course that PSA's parent company called Collectors. They recently bought the Beckett grading company and I'm still pretty shocked by the news. Hyung and I have joked that we would buy it someday and turn around this iconic brand, but now obviously the concern for a lot of people is that Beckett will go down the same route as SGC into non-relevance in the grading game. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to record that pod in time. It was a super busy week personally so I couldn't get it ready for this Friday's show, but the timing actually worked out better because on Thursday night, some of our local hobby friends here in Toronto were able to meet up at Hyung's studio for a RIP night session and I took the opportunity that night to ask some of the guys what they thought about the Beckett acquisition by PSA, as well as what they thought of the hobby in general since the year is almost done. So that episode was scheduled to air as part of our next Tuesday episode right before Christmas. Okay, just wanted to give you a quick heads up about that. Now without further ado, here's my interview with Michael Blazkowicz. Enjoy. Alright, today I'm excited to have our next guest on the pod because he is the artist responsible for what I think could be the coolest insert cards of 2025 and you can find them in this year's Topps Chrome update baseball card set. Yes, it's the set with the MLB debut patch card chase as well, but everyone is also talking about the Alter Ego Superheroes insert set and there's 10 cards and I'm just taking this from the Topps website, but it's comic inspired and the set reimagines MLB greats with heroic personas. Alright, and we'll get into which of the characters there are in the specific set, but yeah, just kind of as a teaser, some of those MLB players include my favorite of the entire set, Aaron Judge and his all rise Alter Ego. There's also Frank Thomas, who of course is the Big Hurt, Ricky Henderson, the Man of Steel and Cal Ripken Jr. of course is the Ironman just to name a few. So without further ado, Michael, welcome to the podcast. Thanks Clark. Thanks for having me. I was going to say your last name, but I don't want to mispronounce it and I forgot to ask you before we started. How do you, how do you say your full name? Yeah, sure. Michael Blazkowicz. Michael Blazkowicz. You're not the first and you won't be the last. A little bit of a tongue twister, but Michael Blazkowicz, welcome to the pod. I'm glad, you know, it's funny how things, things work out now. Everyone just DMs each other on Instagram and then we connect this way and then next thing we're all on our podcast. So your last name isn't five card guys? It isn't. It's Kim. I used to be a reporter and everyone called me Clark Kent for a long time. So there was that connection as well, but. Right. Let's go. And I'll remember that. Well, first of all, I want to ask you right away, how's it feel to have your work featured on baseball cards and, and this is the first time you worked with Topps? Yeah. So first time I've worked with Topps and not the first time I've worked with, you know, sort of this kind of concept, but the audience a little bigger now. There was a sort of a private community of collectors and fans that I would do projects for mostly like little fundraisers and it was a way for me to connect back to getting into art. So that small sort of pilot, I would say the last five years I've been sort of dabbling in that, in that world. You're never prepared to get that tap on the shoulder. And and so, so the project was a year long and we'll talk about it. A year in the making and to see, to answer your question, to see them out there, to see the pieces and see the feedback and just to see the excitement around it is, you know, exhilarating and super, you know, super dream come true. If you hear about my background, which I'm happy to talk about, you'll, you'll see exactly why, you know, it was a, it was a collector, it was a fan, was a drawing pictures of, of, of baseball players as comic book heroes in the 1980s. No way. So to see that sort of come back is, you know, kind of a, kind of a weird, a weird dream come true. You didn't expect this would be the thing, but certainly, certainly really cool. And then, and also this, the community and being, you know, in contact and meeting, meeting folks every day now, like yourself, when we were chatting over the weekend, you know, it's just really cool to sort of be, sort of be in this world now was always a, was always a reader, maybe not a commenter in the threads, but always reading the threads now, you know, I've got, I've got a special interest in these comic, these comment threads now. Nice. Nice. That's amazing. And you kind of answered my next question. I was wondering if you were a card collector at all growing up. So obviously you said you were, what card, what kind of cards did you collect? Yeah. So it's funny. I was, I was think this is funny cause it's junk wax when I was growing up. So at the time, no one knew what that meant, at least especially me. So born in the 80s in New Jersey, Northern New Jersey. So card shops popping up all over the place. I would say that the collection I had started in 1986 and it was mostly centered around the Yankees and centered around the Mets were kind of big that year with their world series win. And I was a, I was a true blue Yankee fan, but I liked collecting cards and I would go and get the team sets and I would go and get the, you know, my favorite players and you know, it could be a $2 Ricky Henderson card that, you know, meant the world to me. But now I look at that card now and I'd be like, Oh my gosh, look how off centered that is. This was like gonna, I was going to go to college on this card. So a lot of, a lot of learning as a collector or young collector, but it was more like just more about being a fan. And I, you know, I was, I was also into art. So I would cut up baseball cards. You know, you talk about people, my dad telling me that he used to put baseball cards in spokes of their bicycles. I was, you know, didn't learn from that lesson clearly. I was cutting up baseball cards and making collages and drawing around them and sketches. So I'd have these elaborate sketchbooks with, you know, cut up baseball cards in them. So, so again, it was, it was junk wax, but I did have some good ones. The Dale Murphy reverse error upper deck card, which I thought was like the hottest chase that summer for my friends. I actually, I actually ripped one in a pack, didn't use the word ripped at the time. I had, you know, everyone looked one of the Billy Ripken, you know, famous F-based card. So it was like little, little gems, but you didn't have, you didn't have the internet then. So it was collecting based on what you've, you didn't even know what a card looked like. Even if you had Beckett's, you didn't even have, you don't even know what a card looked like. You would kind of like just hear about it or see one or someone would show it to you in school and you would go and search for it. So that's true. No, that's true. Well, and that's so cool that you're a card collector and how kind of everything came together to this moment. And we'll get to that in a second, but I'm just curious overall, as you were talking, you know, the hobby's grown so much over the last several years now and, and especially even especially during COVID. But one of the areas that I've seen growth in is like people just getting into custom cards and, and kind of what you were doing early on in the eighties, nineties, you like, you mentioned it, cutting up cards and making it your own. What do you think about all that in terms of artists, like different artists coming into the space and making their own kind of design from the cards that do exist? I mean, I'll say this, you know, in the nineties there were people making their own magazines, right? Fanzines. Underground culture is definitely so important to any industry because it's a mirror that reflects back to that industry. It's what fans and people want to see. So they make it themselves. And now I have the tools and the technology to do that. So it's kind of cool. And I always relate it to that sort of bootleg culture. And you know, even as an action figure collector, you know, I see some bootleg action figures even in my forties, I'm like, you know, $300, no problem. I'm going to buy that bootleg action figure right now. So I could see that, I could see that, you know, now that I'm sort of, I'd say I'm back into cards. It wasn't definitely not something I'd say I was really into until the last five years. So I kind of see that spilling over in a lot of areas, not just cards, but any industry will have that sort of that underground bootleg culture that sort of is really cool. And it's kind of really super secret, really quiet. There's a lot of buzz around it. And it's good to see some of that now taking, you know, the storms of Instagram. I love following custom card collectors, custom card makers on Instagram. It's really cool. And some of those guys too. I agree. It feels like it's proliferating. Like I remember interviewing Piggy Banks, who's big in the hobby right now, four or five years ago even. And it's always kind of cool to see different artists and how you guys just picking your brain on your process and how you come up with the design and the look of the cards. And actually that's a good segue into, you know, the alter ego set. You know, how did I, you kind of alluded to a little bit at the beginning, but how did that come about? Did tops approach you or did they see your work or did you kind of put yourself out there? And if they contacted you, was it great? Yeah. How did that work out? It's an interesting story. I think it's important to say that, you know, I started doing, you know, I had an art degree in college and I was a freelancer. I wasn't really illustrating. I was doing more graphic and web work and, you know, and I get into drawing again through my kids. I have two sons. So whatever they were into, Pokemon, Batman, like, hey dad, can you draw Batman fighting Boba Fett? Sure. Like, you know, so I started like just becoming like, they were my first clients, you know, so I started sort of getting back into illustration game, but never really thought it was going to extend into where it is now. Funny in, you know, my son's now 16, but I'd say about five years ago he was really getting into baseball. So baseball cards and Pokemon cards. So it was like sort of, sort of like a fun thing for me to do is like mash up, you know, we talk about bootlegs and stuff, like mashing up around, around the house. And I, you know, I kind of missed it because I used to do that when I was a kid. I remember drawing Ninja Turtle comics, making our own bootleg comics with my friend Vin sitting at my kitchen table in the sixth grade and like pushing pencils back and forth. So like that sort of energy of watching my sons who are both very artistic and really creative. I kind of felt like a kid again. So this is a little teasing, but it's kind of true. I, you know, nostalgia hit, you're in your forties, there's a midlife kind of thing where it's like, how can I find that 16 year old again, you know, that I used to love and respect. I had a chance, my childhood hero, Ricky Henderson, like a guy in his forties talking about Ricky Henderson. Wow. What a unique, what a unique situation. I love Ricky. So I got a chance to meet him and I go, you could bring one item for him to sign. I want to say it's 2019 maybe. I have his rookie card, I've got minor league cards, I've got things that I've collected over the years. I got the lime green batting glove from Mizuno, I got two of them, I got three of them. What am I going to bring to have them sign? You know, my mom's like, hey, you still have that painting in the basement, you know? So I made a painting of Ricky Henderson. So go to my parents' basement and get this painting and go meet Ricky at this private event. He looks at it, he signs it, we're smiling, we chatted for a while, and I get this picture of it. And I like the biggest smile you'll ever see on my face ever. Awesome. This picture. I'm like, all right, I think I got to, I got to get back into this, this, this, this, something, something sparked right there. And then I started reconnecting through like with other fans. It's like, I call it like midlife support group, but it's like Ricky Henderson collectors group on Facebook, the greatest Facebook group ever. Probably the only reason why I still have Facebook and, and finding a lot of those fans are just not just super fans who want the refractor, the reflector, the parallel or the grail chase. Like they're embracing that, that custom card culture too, they're embracing each other and they're doing meetups online and they have road trips and they're going to go meet Ricky in Petaluma, California. Like it's such a cool group. And I was such an imposter in that group because I was sort of a late, a late rejoiner to that sort of, you know, I guess that cult of being a super fan, but I really enjoyed it. And what I started doing is I think that connection, that connective tissue back into the creative world for me was giving back. So not just like, how can I use my art to give back? And I already had a career in technology. I still do. I have my own alter ego. It's not an artist. It's a marketer for a software startup, right? So not a good chance, not a great opportunity for me to be drawing comic books. You know, I'm really, really bored in the meeting. But this group to give back, what I started doing was how, you know, I would give donations at the end of the year. I would do fundraisers to my local community in Hoboken, New Jersey. I started designing cards and I said, I'm not, I'm going to sell them to these guys only. Like, it's not going on eBay. I'm not going to worry about, you know, any, I don't really want to do much with it. But I started selling the cards, you know, to sort of a, I'd print a hundred. And there were cards of Ricky Henderson as a superhero, right? But not the man of steel and not stealing intellectual property from anybody. I would make my own lure around Ricky Henderson as if he were a comic book character in the 1970s and again in the 1990s. So I sort of found these touch points in Ricky Henderson's part of this journey more than, you know, I'd like to admit, but he's definitely the reason why I got back into it and this fan community. I did cards for, I'd say, three years in a row. I did comic cards and they were like sort of progressive. You can see them on my website, which is alteredegos.org, that's alter, not alter egos. And you'll see some pictures there, right? Ricky passes away, sadly. Huge upset to the whole world, the whole sports world. And I had a few chats with some insiders whether it be in Ricky's camp or he actually signed one of the card drawings of Ricky as the Oakland Shadow. I made this character, right? Oh, nice. Ricky actually signed one in 2023. So in the grieving process of him passing away amongst his fans, some of these pictures must have gotten around. I actually texted a few to somebody I know at Tops and just said, hey, just we're all thinking about Ricky right now kind of thing. A couple of weeks go by, three weeks go by, I kind of forget about that moment, but I get a text back. It's, hey, would you be interested in doing a series like this? And that was in January of 2024. So the rest is a blur. So that's how that whole journey started. I think I went a little further back to answer your question, but I think it was really important to tell that backstory there. So yeah, so the project, it started, we started chatting in January. Okay, in 2024, you said. So almost two years. Oh no, sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry. 2025. We, January of 2025. Got you, okay. Ricky passed away in December of 2024. So just a few weeks later, the conversation started in 2025. Okay, so earlier- It was such a blur, I forget what year it was. That's fine. No, but still all the way, yeah, just, I love that story. I would have never guessed that it started from a Ricky Henderson fan page and just a community you've had there. And, well, that's, even as you were sharing the story, there are so many connections with, myself being in my forties, having two kids, two sons as well. So, and- I'll get you in that group, man. It's definitely therapy. Anytime, man. And of course, Ricky Henderson, he did play a year or two for the, my Toronto Blue Jays and, you know. Great years. That's the only team in blue that I really, if he's gonna wear blue, it's either Yankee pinstripe blue or Blue Jays. I can't say the same about the Dodgers, but. Yeah, we have that in common then. Yeah, I accept the Blue Jays. Thank you. I have a lot of Yankees friends as well. A lot of friends from the New York area too. So that's great. But no, that's great. So they approached you earlier this year and then did you know that you were gonna do 10 cards for the set or did you do a whole bunch and they took the best? How did that work? So going into it, you know, I don't wanna, I didn't wanna pat myself on the back too soon because I figured there would be a process, right? So originally it wasn't, it wasn't, oh, we're doing 10 players, right? It was, let's do a couple and we'll share them internally and let's see if this project gets green. So your best friend, Aaron Judge, Ricky, Man of Steel and Polar Bear are the three in my mind, like I got, it's already in my head. I already figured it out. I already know like exactly to the lime green batting glove on Ricky's hand what these cards are gonna look like. So even before they actually like formally authorized me to start, like I started. I have maybe 30 or 40 sketches behind me. I have like thumbnail sketches and notebooks that sort of part of my process. But those first three, I was like, all right, if I'm gonna get this project, it's gotta be those three. And that was sort of in line with what they wanted to see. Like, let's show Ricky. But I was like, all right, Ricky, plus I have some concept sketches for Polar Bear. So really I'd say in February, it got not just lit, green lit, but like here's the whole list. I do one card of a whole series and like Project 70 or Project 2020, it would be, I'd be contributing to the project, but it was go. It was shut up and go. Because I was asking a lot of questions and I was doing a lot of like second guessing. Well, maybe let's do this. Let's do that. But it was like, you are off and running my friend. So I was really excited about that. That's awesome. And then, so how long did you actually have to kind of submit all your work for them to get the printers ready and get into this year's Tufts Chrome updates? Do you have a lot of time or? Yeah, it was a good amount of time. Probably I would love another two months, but it was, I would say that if they gave me two years to do the project, right? I think it's never finished. So they actually gave me, so let's say from February, they had asked for the pieces in June. Okay, half a year. Let's say four months. However, I got a headstart. Like I told you. So I was really four months to get, let's say eight cards finished. But that became mid June. And then they have a process of approvals. And there's gotta be a lot of legal approvals, MLB, the Players Association. They all have to make sure that I'm not putting everyone, giving everyone machine guns and tattoos, right? So there was some of that that I wanted to be respectful. These are not violent characters. These are heroes. These are collectible players with ethics clauses. So I knew that there wasn't gonna be a lot of, there was gonna be nothing weird. There's gonna be kind of how you see them, putting swords in Shohei's hands. I thought we might've gotten a strike, like go back and turn them into baseball bats, one of those things. I was expecting that, but no, it was a great experience in those four or five months. Very collaborative. It wasn't shut up and go, and go away and tell us when you're done. It was, we're texting a few times a week, sending pictures. Yeah. I'm sending, there's two guys at T.O.P.S. that I still have a text thread with, now that we're seeing the work out there and we're tracking who's ripping what. It was a really cool project. It was like nerding out with fans. It really let me connect, what I thought was, I was on an island and I thought I'd be doing these cards on my own. And then I'd be really sweating bullets when I would show them the final product and they would say, how are we thinking? This is not what we were expecting. No, it was a really collaborative, really rewarding process, all invaluable for me, not just an artist, it was a great creative collaboration. And it also, there's one other lesson I learned on this project. I'm gonna answer a question you haven't asked. Go ahead, yeah. And that's, I was like, hey, I was doing some small, private collector card kind of things. This is now a different world that I'm not used to. And I got to appeal to comic book fans, baseball fans, collectors. Those are not three groups that I would expect are gonna be quiet about their opinions when these cards get released or, and again, at the time, it was if these cards get released, right? So I had that pressure on me. And I think the mind shift, besides finding that rewarding experience with the TOPS team throughout the whole thing, I said, what do I do well? It's connecting to the communities. What has gotten me here is what's gonna continue to get me to the next step here. So reconnect with those communities. I sort of found it like, how do I appeal to the collectors, fans, and sort of keep somewhat semblance of comic book clout? I shifted the mindset. I thought maybe I think of these not as baseball cards. I don't think of these as comic books. I think of these as movie posters, because I don't care what a movie poster critic would think of my work, right? So I made them a little more, like they're not typical two-dimensional comic book style. They're a little more illustrative and painterly and I've got a little 3D quality to it, a lot of shadowing. So not necessarily a straightforward comic book style. But the other thing was, what can I do? What can I add to these pieces of art? What are the elements that will be appealing to the fan community? And I'm not just talking about the super, I'm not talking about like make Frank Thomas big, right? That's not where I'm going with the concept of Frank Thomas. Connect to the fan community. Started with the Ricky group. Ricky group knows a guy in the Frank group. Frank group says, you gotta talk to Jeff. Okay. Start a Facebook thread or Instagram text thread with Jeff. Jeff starts giving me pictures. He starts telling me stories about Frank. He starts telling me that Frank had written, he's famous for writing DBTH and his glove and his locker, because when he was at the height of his fame, he needed to remind himself, don't believe the hype. One of my favorite Public Enemy songs. Yes. Guess what's in the card that started finding ways to add those little elements into the cards. Frank's bats got inscribed DBTH. And some of those, I wouldn't say Easter eggs, they're right for you, but they're not something that the everyday collector or everyday fan would know about. Maybe a more deeper knowledge, knowledgeable fan in that culture. So I was like, how would I not just make the Frank Thomas card do him justice? How would I do those fans justice? What am I gonna put in the Ricky card? That's a tall order. Because there's a lot, right? What am I gonna put in the Ricky card that's not just like, oh, Man of Steel, put a cape on him. What else am I gonna do about that? Look in the background, look in some of the things inscribed on his belt. Those are the things though, they are like little hints that super fans will find and look at and maybe say, hey, is that what I think it is? So there's a lot of that going on. And every card's got a little something. And every card had a diplomat, a delegate of super fandom that I connected with. That's cool. Judge, I'll tell you offline what you could look for in Judge. My son is a huge Aaron Judge fan. He's 16 now, but he's a huge Aaron Judge fan since his rookie year. So his voice is in every card. My 10 year old, 11 year old son is not so much a baseball fan, but he's very creative. And he knows what looks good and what doesn't look good. So he'll say, dad, no, change that. Okay, nice. Yeah. A lot of collaborative. I'd say it takes a village. It took a few fan villages and a couple of bedrooms down the hall to make this happen. Amazing. Well, talking about your sons, when they saw the product out in the world, I'm sure they saw people either ripping packs or seeing the cards itself. And now even the Otani cards just sold for over 5,000 the other day. What do they think about? I thought that would have been like the Super Fracture, one of one. I guess that was just ripped. It's just a regular one, yeah. These are the, you know, I don't know about the odds of the cards. I don't know about what's been found yet and how many there are or what they're going for. But my sons have been sharing a little with me. That's the part I'd like to keep out of. It's almost impossible to stay completely ignorant of it, but I wish I could be more ignorant of it. But yeah, that was kind of cool. My kids' reaction, when first, when Topps announced the first announcement, they actually, it was the preview. And it was my kids, I think my dad, my, sorry, my son who found it. And he said, like, dad, like you're blowing up on Topps MLB, on Topps Instagram. And I looked at it and they were like just counting the likes and stuff like that. Every hour he'd get an update. Oh, it's up to 13,000 likes. I was like, wow, cool. It's hard to stay out of it. It's really hard to stay out of it. But luckily I have very socially forward children who have no problem tracking that stuff for me. Nice, nice. I mean, that's how I got on my radar because I knew about the Topps Chrome update. Of course, like I said, at the top, the MLB debut cards are the things that we're really excited about and with the crop of rookies. But then I have this chat group, a WhatsApp chat group with local Toronto card collectors. We're actually meeting up on Thursday to rip together. We do this every once in a while. And one of the guys just forwarded that Topps Instagram post with your cards. And then we're like, wow, this is amazing. This is sick. And one of the guys who doesn't really, he's not really into comics or manga or anything. He's like, I think I like it now. You know, just checking out the, in particular the Shohei Otani one. So it's definitely resonating with, kind of like you were mentioning, it's not just comic book fans, but it's baseball card fans that are getting into it. And I don't know, I'm sure that makes you feel good to hear that kind of positive feedback already. It was certainly good. It was certainly good to hear the positive feedback. Of course, I'm gonna be the guy who like dwells on the haters We all do Yeah, right. Of course. That's like that's in my nature I would say that the positive outweighs any of the negative by a lot. So that's great That keeps me feel I feel validated and I feel you know safe So that's great. It would be a tough It would be definitely be you know a tough world to crack into that for so this this being the first Sort of for a the first, you know Middle of my work to the world there, you know to that world was was really nervous It made me really nervous, but I'm not super glad to see the positive reaction and you bring up a good point The things that I like, of course, I could dwell on the haters, you know, I also dwell on when I read something like You know, hey, I didn't like this series I didn't like this product or I didn't like this but like I think I might start collecting this now The other thing is with kids, you know to me it's more about like reconnecting with not just my own childhood but reconnecting with that whole Every year there's a new audience for Baseball and for collecting and for baseball cards and as much as I don't want to see them get sucked into Pokemon. I love it Great. I also want to know that there's some other cool stuff out there. Even if you're not a baseball fan There's a really cool product out there. That's just Interesting so yes for me Baseball cards actually got me into being a baseball fan. It was a little weird Maybe that's that is common, but baseball cards were sort of like I knew maybe two players Hey, I got my first pack of FLIR 1986 or 1987. I think was 1987 when I got my first pack I remember being low Darryl strawberry and Don Mattingly in a baseball card together. I have I've done I don't need to collect any other baseball cards ever again, right? Yeah, and I and I was a Yankee fan and I was him and I like the Mets they were in the World Series That previous year right so like to me It was I don't know Bob Horner was who hit four home runs in one game But I do now because I that was in the same pack, you know, Mike Schmidt cool mustache You know to me that was more about like now I'll never forget them and I also know a little bit more about their careers now Yeah, like that's kind of the you know, the the piece where it's like it would be cool to see baseball It's cool to learn when baseball cards can actually excite fandom or start something. So really cool of it. Yeah No, I love all the crossovers and I think it's beginning to catch on to I mean with panini cards Of course, you got the manga you got the downtown. You got the kabooms all this kind of art and sports kind of colliding and It's definitely trending and I could see the appeal for sure yeah, and I you know despite with some some comments might say like in the in the in the threads like Purposely didn't want to see what was out there in terms of the sort of the crossover kind of car, right? So when I so I went to bodega cards in Jersey City It's literally right down the street for me and I was like, all right, like can you show me what a kaboom is? Okay Between this and a super factor Do you have any super factors because I heard these cards are gonna get this is like early December before the cards were released I was like, what's a super factor? Because I don't know a lot of that stuff because I haven't collected in a long time I know the words, but I'm like, let me see it in person because the photographs online don't really do it justice. Sure Yeah so it was cool to learn about the kaboom cards and The the manga cards were really cool because I remember the FLIR provisions in 92 93 Yes, and those are like some sick-ass cards that I actually forgot about Right, but the you know the basketball like the Jordan and the bird card and I'm like, oh my god I probably was like totally like like I can't believe I forgot about those but like it's totally in in the backlog of My creative spirit to see that, you know all the way back in the 90s when I was, you know Actively sketching more and collecting more nice. Nice. Nice. Yeah for sure And I you know, I have to ask you this question because when I told a couple of the guys that I mentioned They're in the same chat group They were kind of like, oh, wow that's so cool you're gonna talk to the artist who came out with the alter ego set and Like I was saying one of them was really impressed with your Otani What was the inspiration behind the Otani card? Like how did you come up with the idea and and what it became? Yeah, so So a few things. It's a really interesting Evolution he was one of the cards I did him in April and There's a moment my family will will say this moment is the best moment of the week When I sort of like cracked the case of what the card will look like. It's like a concept I was like, oh I cracked it like got it I'm a wreck to be around if I didn't have that yet because I'm thinking I'm looking at Pictures on Getty Images and looking at reading message boards I'm like show a show a show a show a like you got to do him justice, right? Judge is easy because like sort of like like I've been planning for that card for 10 years whether I knew it or not, right? But nine years. Oh sure. It was a couple things First of all, his nickname is showtime and one of the concepts of this project Obviously is it's got to be their nickname and the comic character. The character needs to be inspired by the nickname So there's a lot of players with some awesome nicknames out there that would make terrible comic book characters Just not there. Especially if you look at basketball players, right? Yeah That's abstract cards like so that I'm thinking showtime. All right, like yeah, it can't you know, he's not What's showtime like? Okay. He's playing in LA. So there's Hollywood. You got that easy figuring something out He's got He's he's he has two nicknames. He's got a nickname in Japan. He's got three probably four nicknames technically so like can I he's a he's a you know, he's He plays Both sides of the field. He's a pitcher and he's a batter. So maybe his card is gonna be two characters Once I figured that out it became easier to sort of relate. What are those two characters relationships? Inspired by a manga and expired by old Japanese movie posters inspired by old Hollywood posters This is where I really feel that movie poster Concept kind of served its purpose in this case because I I didn't think about comic book I was thinking he's a it's a movie poster and he's a showtime magician Carnival sort of inspired by inspired by Mandrake the comic book character, by the way Who's summoning the spirit of a warrior and that's definitely in line with a lot of the the lore of manga and anime in general But also so many other other, you know backstories of of comic book characters Yeah, so I thought that was great that could serve both nicknames purpose and Hopefully do do at least one of them justice. I think I think that came out really well and then there's a There's a You know, I'd say my favorite part of that card is something that maybe not everyone will see but there is a giant easter egg in that Card and when I pointed it out the tops and it was right staring them right in the face They were like, whoa, are you serious? Like we've been looking at this card for months. It didn't even know that that was there So there's something in that card that I am really proud of. I'm not gonna tell you what it is Maybe later, but I'm not gonna tell I'm not gonna say what it is right now, but really really Like when I had that that sort of happy accident and I'm like I'm leaving that in the card That you know, I'm so curious. I'm gonna look at the card after this All right, if I figure it out, I might DM you later. I'm like is this it and you'll probably be seen. Oh But yeah, no, I don't I don't want I won't be the one that tells everyone You're kind of like the magician in that sense Card show. Hey was one of my favorites By the way, the the show time aspect of it. I think I talk about the collaborative nature I'm having I'm having dinner with one of the team members from tops of one of the product managers there and I'm showing them sort of my progress and I was like, I Think this is in March and I was like, okay. Let's do it. I'm gonna show you the card I'm gonna show you the card and then I'm gonna show you the card. I'm gonna show you the card I think this is in March and I was like you gotta help me like what do you what do you think? Show a is gonna be because you gotta give me something and he was the one like, you know, he's showtime So make him like a showman You know like they can't think think like the greatest showman and as soon as he said that thinking top hat white gloves Circus kind of you know performer ringmaster kind of thing. Yes Yeah, like there you go and then the rest evolved from there But like that's the piece that cracked it for me and again really owed to you know To Kyle at tops because he's the one who actually gave me that idea is like showtimes a showman He's a he's a you know, think of think of the greatest showman. That's awesome. Great story Thanks for sharing that with us and can't wait to go through each one now that you've you mentioned that there's all these Details that are in front of us and it'll be kind of cool just to see what we can spot in in each of those harder to spot then when I my original pictures are Harder spot has been shrunk down to two and a half by three and a half pieces of cardboard That's definitely not as easy. So I'll help I'll help you out if you need. Okay, great I actually I was gonna ask you that question, but I guess you had to think about the the format of the card itself, right? Yeah, yeah. No, they're very good at giving the the layout like, you know before you start because you've done you definitely want to be You know with my with my process it's sketches a lot of digital pen on procreate and then like take pictures of my Sketches and then lay in black lines and and and then do the but the overall card with the border Some of the I guess if I do another series, maybe hopefully if I'm lucky I do another series. I'll remember Don't put as much attention in the background because a lot of that gets cropped out I save myself a couple days of work But um, but still it's it's part of the process to learn more than know what you're doing So yeah, it would have been if I knew what I was doing It would have been a completely different product at the end of the day and maybe yeah Maybe not something I'd be as happy about so I like I like going in with the eyes wide open nice nice My last question you kind of answered already. I was wondering if you were working on any More tops cards for the future, but I guess you don't know that yet or you know, cuz you know, one of my favorite subsets recently and All the loyal podcast listeners will know I'm a big home field advantage fan and from the top set Yeah, the kind of it's like the downtown ripoff I guess but the tops version of it, but I Think they start off with 10. I'm like, okay, you know what? I could do a full I could collect the whole 10 and then top series 2 comes out They're like they have another 10 and then tops update comes out. They have another 10 and I think they kind of decide, you know First of all, I need to grow another pair of arms Hey, I'd say that. Um, yeah, we're chatting like we still chat I think right now is more about the enthusiasm behind this past release. Yeah Yeah, I'd be I'd be honored to do more to do more work in this style and you know Love I love being part of that process. So so probably too soon to to know that yeah fair enough so far so far The enthusiasm is good on my side. I'm I'm not I wouldn't turn it away Well, I mean I could tell you we're pretty excited about this set and we're one of the boxes We're gonna rip later this week. It will be tops Chrome update So if I hit one, I'll message you say like look, do you do them live? No, we might record it, yeah, it's not live but yeah, yeah, we'll record me I mean video I love the reactions It's so much fun to see that reaction. Yeah, for sure. Sure. Absolutely Clark. Thank you so much No, I appreciate your time. And you know Again before I let you go working people check out your work. You mentioned your website earlier. Yes, so Instagram is altered egos dot official and the website is W altered egos dot org. Okay, lots of cool stuff there. I look forward to Talking to some organizations in the near future a this is important for me. I almost forgot. I'm glad you asked I Want to donate these sketches to charities? So I'm currently in touch with several either team or player driven Charities. Mm-hmm. The ball is to donate these sketches. So either they could auction them off For their organizations or I work with other third parties that will do auctions that would benefit charities like those organizations and others and Also really interested in as I partner with tops to explore the opportunities. They do a lot of good give back work To various organizations make a wish Reform Alliance. So sort of everything I do is not just about you know Okay, it's it's again it's really cool that these are awesome products But I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't trying to give back in my heart so everything I do is gonna really go to benefit other communities and So altered egos org is where you can see work and you can track sort of my journey as as we develop those You know those ideas. So hopefully some really big announcements will be coming really soon Yeah, and you could start by just following me on Instagram and checking out the website once in a while All I can ask that's awesome. Michael. Yeah, we'll include all those links in our show notes below and please check it out Michael great work on the alter ego set and yeah, I wish you continued success Thank you so much. Appreciate it Hey, thanks for listening to cards to the moon We'd really appreciate you subscribing to our podcast wherever you listen to your podcast and you can also connect with each of us on instagram at Five card guys or you can follow young at integrity sports cards or John at trade you at recess You can also check us out at five card guys calm Thanks again, and hope to connect soon You