I Waited Almost 10 Years For This!

These two 1/1s took me near a decade to lock down but the wait was absolutely worth it. Flashback to the mid 2010s and Cryptozoic releases their Archer set that I instantly fall in love with. After I decided to collect it the sketch cards took a greater grasp on me than I could have imagined and I have wanted as many as I can get my hands on ever since. I reached out to an artist in the set who just so happens to work on Archer and inquired as to the availability of her Artist Proofs.

Archer with his little strawberry friend aboard the Sea Tunt

Season 4, Episode 12: "Sea Tunt: Part 1"

At the time Victoria Alexander said that of the two sketches returned by Cryptozoic she would part with one while she wanted to keep the other. I was really excited to nab one and I'm not sure how to explain why we never connected further on turning my inquiry into a purchase, but we never did (100% my fault). I actually forgot we had the interaction at all over the following few years until I recently made my biggest push to track down all sketch cards I possibly could (within monetary reason, of course).

Lucas Troy, voiced by Timothy Olyphant!

Season 4, Episode 2: "The Wind Cries Mary"

Thankfully I have come to the point in my life where I have realized that restrained persistence is a good thing when you really want something. I reached back out to Victoria and struck up a conversation with her. Much to my delight not only did she still have both sketch proofs from a decade back, but she was now in a position where both were available. A few messages back and forth and these absolute beauties arrived in my mailbox on March 2nd!

Victoria's style is a thing of beauty and I really, really love her artwork. She only created 14 sketch cards for the set so tracking one down was always going to be tough and possibly financially draining. I was fortunate to land one back in 2016 and that one was a sketch of my favorite character, Krieger, so I was already on cloud nine and felt a sense of completion when it came to her artwork and my collection. To add two more in one fell swoop and own over 20% of her contributions to the product is an incredible opportunity I never anticipated.

Oh, and she also sold me the complete base set she received from Cryptozoic when they returned her desired APs. I didn't know each artist received a base set (and perhaps only the artists from the show did) so to acquire that and add a truly unique item to the PC is a super cool feeling.

This is my first sketch of Lucas Troy (voiced by the one and only Timothy Olyphant....Justified is one of the greatest shows ever made). Troy was Archer's best friend at ISIS before he defects to a rival agency and later defects from that agency. His lone appearance on the show is such a fantastic episode all around.

Archer with the strawberry comes from the penultimate episode of Season 4 -- Sea Tunt: Part 1. Archer is drinking another concoction from the mind of the world's highest functioning alcoholic and drops a little strawberry fruit man into his pitcher with crazy straw for optimal fun drinking.

A gigantic thanks to Victoria for everything!