Gentlemen, We Can Rebuild Him.

I few weeks back I posted about an Archer addition that was outside of what I have usually collected over the last decade plus of my time in the hobby. While that piece is a unique item in my collection, it is not the only comic variant that has found its way to Casa Zakwin.

When this gorgeous babe popped up on eBay I knew I needed to acquire it and would do just about anything to make that happen. I don't recall if this was won at auction or scooped up as a BIN but thankfully whatever happened all those many years back led this to my loving embrace.

Archer draws heavily from The Six Million Dollar Man starting at the tail end of Season 2 when Barry Dylan is transformed into a red tracksuit wearing cyborg. For this partial blank cover variant of 2014's The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six # 1, Sterling is used to reference Steve Austin.

The art alone from Vince Sunico was enough to make me want this piece in my Archer Collection. Sunico contributed to the Cryptozoic Sketch Card Set I so heavily chase and was a rare artist in the product....making this item very attractive.

Add in that the voice of Sterling Archer -- the incomparable H. Jon Benjamin -- also signed it and well, it became all the more imperative I secure it.

After years of owning this and finally having it on display once I was able to have a dedicated office/collection space, a thought struck me like a ton of bricks. It has led me to begin a project that one day will be showcased here. Prior to that showcasing occurring, I will be diligently working on it and in the few months of work that has thus far taken place, I have had loads of fun.

It will be a lengthy and costly venture but will be so worth it in the end!

If Archer Was In The MCU....

If my constant posting about it had not made it clear, my collecting love has pretty much landed on the television show Archer. I still look for a few other things but my main focus is on the Cryptozoic set of cards that was released over a decade ago. While the cards are my primary passion, I am more than happy to acquire any collectible related to one of my two favorite programs of all time.

Years ago I spotted a really cool piece on eBay. It was over what I felt comfortable spending on something that was not a usual target of mine, but I watch listed it and hoped it might eventually end up changing from BIN to bids. While it never made it to auction format, it did go on sale by quite a lot. Enough, certainly, to make me decide to pull the trigger. And boy am I glad I did.

Here we have a sketch cover edition of Captain America # 1 released in September of 2011. Someone took this variation on the comic to a convention and asked Archer artist Sam Ellis to sketch this masterpiece. It eventually made it to CGC for encapsulation, but that was irrelevant to me (although comforting and it definitely helped me feel safe in splurging for the piece).

If I am not mistaken, Sam was the first person to draw Sterling Malory Archer!

As cool as it was to know I was landing something unique and drawn by a show legend, the sketch itself was the major attraction. Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier choking out deviant Cheryl Tunt was too good to pass up on.

It may have led me down a new collecting path a decade after I originally purchased it. Time will tell how good I am about sharing said path....

Owning 15% of A Print Run: Archer!

I recently found an incredible PC piece up for auction on eBay. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on it that unless it soared to an astronomical price I would be taking it home. I was willing to pay at least double what my winning bid ended up being, but thankfully I saved some cash in securing this beauty.

Not shockingly, it is yet another Archer sketch card. Shockingly, it's from a rare artist and one who only did 14 sketches max for the set. Adam Toews served as a Background Designer, Illustrator, Lead Illustrator, Associate Art Director, and Art Director on the show.

The seller did not include Adam's name in the listing which I believe would have certainly added more dollars to his pocket. His oversight is my gain, and while I paid more for this sketch of Adam's than I did when I picked up one of his other 13 six years back, both were still steals of the highest order.

Here is this bad boy in front of a framed print of Pam Poovey doing her best Kim Kardashian impersonation. The print is directly from one of the Archer artists I have become friendly with, Stephen Slesinski. I bought it and a handful of other prints from him that were originally cast and crew exclusives (so you know I was interested when told they were up for grabs!).

Triple Trouble

Another day, another Archer sketch card. I somehow scanned this in six weeks ago but totally whiffed on writing it up and posting it. I guess it feels like a new purchase because of that mental lapse and when I buy new sketches, I feel good. So hey, an artificial good feeling! In times like these, I will take it.

Chad Cicconi is the artist, and it's only the second piece of his from the set I've managed to track down. The biggest draw here was not just his awesome artwork and another sketch to call my own. It's that with the huge rise in cost of these sketches I was able to get three characters basically for the price of what single character cards are going for.

Archer, Barry, and Katya don't appear together on screen until Season 2's finale, "Double Trouble." Katya debuts one episode earlier but only meets Sterling.

Going Back To The Same Old Well

A quick post on two recent sketch cards I treated myself to. Shockingly, it was only two. Not shockingly, they come from the Cryptozoic Archer set I absolutely adore.

Elvin Hernandez is the artist on this Malory piece and I am nearing a literal handful of his creations. This and its compatriot below were some of the last affordable ones online, and specifically some of the last I like from an artistic standpoint. I buy a lot but there are some I will pass on unless they drop in price by 50% or more.

Joe Rubinstein makes another appearance with this Cheryl/Carol.

Bloody Ferlin

Multi-character Archer sketch cards hold an even more special place in my heart now because single-character sketches have jumped in price. I can justify "standard" sketch card purchases so I've started to realize I should go up in the price I am willing to pay for multiple characters and awesome artwork. Today's featured piece is a prime example of that:

Episode 9 of Season 3 -- "Bloody Ferlin" -- is a phenomenal episode of the show and this Gillette and Cheryl tag team effort is pure beauty. Emily Riggsby is the artist and this scene was so, so funny. It sat on eBay for some time before I finally reached out to the seller. We went back and forth but a deal was struck and this baby is now a permanent piece of my collection.

Lana With Those Hoop Earrings

A quick post as I need this scan up as soon as possible. Archer sketches don't usually come cheap any more, but when they do I tend to jump on them as long as the artwork is even remotely good. It's always better than the art I could produce, but I need to be a little discerning so I don't go broke.

Lana Kane joins the club, with this piece being another from the mind of Josef Rubinstein that will join my hopefully never-ending collection of Archer sketches and assorted goodies.

Barry, Or Other Barry. Who Can Say.

The cardboard gods were shining upon me recently when I spotted the below up for auction on eBay and my winning bid not only held but held up at about half of what I expected it would sell for if it sold for a low amount.

Joe Hogan and his rendition of Bartholomew Aloysius "Barry" Dylan joins my Archer PC at a time when I've been able to add a number of sketches. However, I know full well a dry spell is almost certainly right around the corner.

But while it lasts, I will truly cherish every sketch pickup!

Dolphin Puppets + Boobs: A Perfect Combo in Archer and The Real World

The last of my new Archer sketch card pickups popped up from a random seller who listed three at once. I wanted all but one was waaaay pricier than I cared for. The second was very nice but was more than I wanted to drop for what it was. The third one -- the one that would very soon become mine -- perfectly combined price with artist with sketch quality with number of characters present.

Darren Auck is the artist and he's long been one of my favorites in the set. Any newly unearthed sketch catches my eye by default but this really stood out. Darren is -- in my opinion -- referencing Archer covering Lana's breasts with stickers in the Season 4 premier as well as when he covered them with stickers in outer space (Season 3 two-part finale).

What makes this really cool is he is covering them with oven mitts featuring another character, so it's a three for one situation we find ourselves in. Four for one if you consider each dolphin puppet a separate entity. Anything with Beauregard on it, aka Pam's HR dolphin puppet, is a winner in my book.

Tehran Is Ours. Stop.

Here is the final sketch card I snagged from one seller in my recent Archer binge. It is easily the most expensive of the quartet but it's also obviously the best of the bunch. It was also 20% off which always helps to dull the monetary pain.

Ashleigh Popplewell makes her second appearance in my collection and both are multi-character horizontal masterpieces that I absolutely adore. Woodhouse is reading Sterling a telegram from his mother which explains why she is away at the holidays. Part of that telegram has ties to today as Malory describes to her son how she participated in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. With a big difference, of course, being a current orange dipshit. But similarities abound, since the U.S. should not have been involved in either.

Here is the scene in Season 1, Episode 2 that the sketch pays homage to:

"Training Day"

Kris Justice Is a Ghost, But Their Archer Goodness Will Live On Through Me

One of the running themes of this recent Archer purchase of sketches is that it has presented my collection and I with the second or third card from multiple artists. 9 years ago I posted my first sketch and 2.5 years ago yielded my second for this particular creative mind. Number three is a most welcome sight.

Kris Justice is the artist for today's sweet piece of cardboard and I can't find anything substantial about Kris online. No Instagram, no Facebook, no personal website -- just a deactivated Deviant Art page. I may one day ask if Cryptozoic can put me in touch but until then I am just happy to have another piece of Justice's work in my Archer Collection. In writing this, I juuuust found an eBay account I believe to be theirs so I will be going that route shortly. Wish me luck!

3 Archer Characters For The Price of One

Here is another of the brand spanking new Archer sketch cards I acquired from old friend and old nemesis eBay. I saw this pop up late one night as a BIN with a Best Offer option and immediately shot the seller a 50% offer, assuming they would counter me if not outright decline. I was prepared within reason to take this one down but to my shock and delight....my original offer was accepted without incident!

Steve Lydic is the artist, and this is actually an Artist Proof sketch (which was not mentioned in the AI-generated product description the seller threw up). Steve chose Episode 2 of Season 3 as his inspiration -- "Heart of Archness: Part II."

Here is the still from the Archer episode this beauty comes from.

Flashing Back To The Cryptozoic Archer Box Break That Started It All

I stay ready to snatch up 1/1 Archer Sketch cards from the Cryptozoic release of a decade plus ago. They truly don't appear often, and recent sales data shows they are going up in price. Considering the wax dried up and there are only but so many to begin with (about 3600 in total from what I've read) that is not all that surprising a fact. I am just fortunate they were affordable for as long as they were. A bunch recently hit eBay and I was lucky enough to secure six of them.

Four came in one purchase and two of those are from the hands of the same artist -- Josef Rubinstein. Joe is the artist I pulled from my first box break of the product, so he gets a lot of credit for helping me fall head over heels for the product and the sketches specifically. I had yet to add another card from him to my collection, but two in one fell swoop isn't such a bad way to make up for lost time. Malory Archer and Pam Poovey are amazing characters in every sense of the phrase so picking up likenesses of them is always a welcome sight.

I'll be posting the new sketch pickups in pretty reasonably quick fashion so I can have them ready to go up on my Archer Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/archersketchcards

I Shall Fetch A Rug!

Finding and securing new additions to my Archer Sketch Card Collection is becoming increasingly difficult and increasingly expensive. It really is the "securing" part that has been the impediment to adding fun new pieces as they pop up online. The price has jumped to such a level that I haven't seen before that I don't know how many more I will end up brining home as the months pass by.

Thankfully today's artwork was reasonably priced enough that I could pull the trigger and add another Woodhouse to my PC. Clayton McCormack is the artist behind this creation and I have a ton of his cards, including a slew of Artist Proofs that I landed from the man himself.

When The Pope is Your Doppelgänger

Another new Archer sketch enters my PC with today's addition. All artists were asked to create some sketches taking place in the bedroom. These could then be put together to form various threesomes. Today's piece is one of those, featuring Woodhouse from Season 4's Papal Chase (Episode 11). The ISIS crew has to thwart an attempt on the Pope's life and they use Woodhouse as a decoy as he bears more than a striking resemblance to his holiness.

Michael Munshaw is the artistic mind behind this fantastic pickup! This sat on eBay for some time but I finally made an offer, the seller accepted, and I landed this beaut. The episode it references is easily top five for me, so finally securing it and adding it to my collection felt amazeballs.

Timothy Olyphant on Archer Always Brings A Smile To My Face!

Hey, a post two weeks in a row! I'm back again and shockingly, I'm back with a couple more Archer sketch cards I picked up from eBay.

The threesome bed sketches were the Short Print of the sketch card run in this product, as all artists were asked to contribute a few. That does make them a little more valuable even though I prefer a direct from a scene artist rendering.

This bad boy had been up on eBay for ages and my offers were continually turned down to the point I ran out of offers. Eventually I relented and went up about $5 from where I wanted to be, and I am happy I did as I only have one other sketch of Lucas Troy (voiced by the legendary Timothy Olyphant) in my collection.

Elvin Hernandez is the man behind the color pencils and I just realized that this becomes my third piece from him and all are the bed sketches, creating a cool threesome sketch from just one creative mind.

These sketch cards have climbed in price over the last 6 months in a way I didn't expect, so when they pop for low prices I have to jump no matter what. That is how I ended up with this Barry Dylan from JC Fabul, as it was still at pre-bump prices last week and I could not let it pass by.

I'm Back with More Archer Sketch Cards

I know nobody reads this blog anymore, and I don't blame anyone but myself due to the lack of consistent posting over the last 6 years. I still collect, although barely at this point compared to my younger days. This hobby has simply taken the joy I once had and crushed it.

That being said, I will always seek out cool Archer stuff as I love that show with all of my heart. Amber Nash has also started a re-watch podcast (RePhrasing) that I highly recommend! It's definitely breathed some life back into my collecting genes.

Here are seven new 1/1 sketches for my PC with the dual Archer and Pam from Season 4's The Papal Chase easily being my favorite.

The Only Russian I Actively Pursue

Another reasonable eBay sketch pickup that was a no-brainer is today's featured cardboard. Not breaking the bank while adding a brand new Archer Sketch Card is a combination I will always jump high and jump far at.

This is only my second sketch from Felix Morales. Adding a new Katya always puts a smile on my face. I hold out hope he has APs floating around! Maybe one day....

Mikey Hannity and Mike Vasquez!

I lucked into another fantastic addition to my Cryptozoic Archer Sketch Card collection recently. I was doing one of my multiple daily eBay checks for Archer sketches when the below popped up for a very reasonable Buy It Now.

A tough, tough artist and a brand new character in my Archer world made this a really successful day of online perusing as Mike Vasquez created plenty of cards but remains almost impossible to locate on the secondary market. This is mostly due to one collector who fell in love with his artwork and owns the vast majority, but even still, I would have thought you'd see him pop even if it was once a year.

Mikey Hannity, voiced by Glee alum Darren Criss, is a low, low-level Irish mobster and appears in only one episode of the show. However, it's one of the best episodes and one of my favorites -- Season 2's Placebo Effect (Episode 9).

An Amazing Card Show Score!!

Today's post was a completely unexpected find at a local card show that blew me away. There is a show here in Vegas every three months that I attend religiously. While I hold out hopes I might find a Zack Wheat I need I go to these knowing the chances are slim and only expecting to find some stuff I can flip online. Any of my remaining PCs beyond Wheat....well, I know I won't find anything to snag.

That's the thing about low or no expectations -- sometimes, you are pleasantly surprised and the last show in July proved to be the biggest card show surprise of my life. Tucked deep within the boxes of an entirely non-sports table was a little gem I instantly knew I would be walking away with. I actually found an Archer sketch card at a show in my city!

I am still in disbelief and can't understand how this came to fruition. The product is 10 years old, there were only about 3,600 total sketch cards based on reports, and I never find any of it in any form (singles, packs, boxes, cases) in the wild. The dealer had it marked at $25 and offering a twenty spot had him quickly declining, so I paid up and left with the newest member of my sketch card crew.

Irma Ahmed is the artist and only owning one of her pieces prior to this made the decision to grab this all the more easy. She has a great style and on eBay this likely would have been listed for more.

I still hold out some hope I will stumble into a score of sealed wax of the product one of these days....fleeting hope, but hope all the same.