Anyone who grew up in the 90s remembers how exciting comic book trading cards were.
You could carry striking artwork with you to school, discover artists you had never seen before and learn about comics you might not have known existed.
The information printed on the back acted like a portable reference guide long before everyone had a phone. That feeling is part of why Upper Deck’s new DC Annual series is getting attention again.
Travis Rhea, Upper Deck’s director of entertainment brands, explains that this type of project fits naturally with the company.
“Doing comic book themed trading cards was really in our DNA.”
Inside Upper Deck there is already a strong love for comics. Rhea notes that in the 90s companies like Fleer, SkyBox and Impel were producing comic themed trading cards before eventually becoming part of Upper Deck.
These were the sets fans still talk about, such as Fleer Ultra X-Men or SkyBox Marvel Masterpieces, which featured fully painted artwork from names like Joe Jusko and the Hildebrandt brothers. It is easy to fall into the fandom when you work on projects like these.
Rhea has been part of this world for a long time.
“I was a big comic collector and a trading card collector, but mostly baseball cards.”
He joined Upper Deck in 2008 and says that he began collecting again around that time. His history as a collector eventually led to Upper Deck teaming up with DC Comics to produce several sets each year. These sets highlight DC’s huge range of characters, story arcs and artistic styles.
Two separate teams at Upper Deck handle the creation of each set. The first is product development.
“They are our product managers. They imagine the theme of the set, what they want the cards to look like and what the content should be.”
Product development chooses which stories the set will focus on, how large the set will be and what special finishes or effects will be used. For this release they chose Beast World as the guiding story arc.
Once the foundation is in place, the project moves to the content team. They decide which characters, scenes and comic issues will appear on each card. Rhea explains how they approach their work.
“[They say] Here’s the checklist. These are the characters we’re going to feature. I want images from this issue, this issue and that issue.”
They also choose chase cards, which are rare cards or cards with special effects. The DC Annual set includes lenticular cards, and Rhea describes how much effort they require.
“You’re going to see it for the first time on DC artwork. You can’t just take an image and hit a button and now it’s 3D. You have to actually dissect that image layer by layer and put it on the card a different way.”
Upper Deck is not limited to only reusing art from comic pages.
Creating original artwork is a major part of the process and something Rhea says he looks forward to.
“What really gets my heart pumping is seeing the new artwork because that’s one of the things we pride ourselves on. We generate a ton of original artwork.”
The set features work from several current DC artists along with autograph cards signed by creators like Nicola Scott, Tom Taylor and Mark Waid.
The 23 and 24 Upper Deck Annual set is already available, and more releases are on the way.
“One of the big sets out this year will be a Metal Universe Batman SkyBox set.”
Rhea says he is excited to continue building the partnership with DC and create sets fans can anticipate every year. Balancing work and fandom can be tricky, though, especially when you work in the same hobby you love.
“It’s a little challenging as an employee, right? You don’t want to be the alcoholic bartender.”
He adds that a few personal treats now and then do not hurt.
