My bud Scott Serkland, who runs Serkworks Art Labs, has been doing some wicked creative illustration and design work for ages, and he just recently shifted his focus a bit to start a series of projects where he reverse-engineers pop culture products from the heyday of the 70s, 80s and 90s. He’s been documenting his process on his youtube channel where he’s been sharing the really cool stuff he’s been making like super-power-inducing glowing meteorites (like the boxes of Kryptonite we could buy when the first couple Superman movies hit theaters), Toxic Zombie Flesh (in the style of Imagineering’s Scar Stuff), and even a new General Mills Monster cereal mascot and box. Though these are all great, and a perfect reason to head on over to his youtube channel to check out his videos, the project that’s really had me excited are a series of wax pack trading card sets for films that never actually had any, but probably deserved some.
Scott has a few videos detailing this project that tackle the creation of the cards, the wax wrappers, and putting these sets together. What really has me excited is that he’s making these at home with some pretty common materials and getting some fantastic results. I’ve been designing my own digital trading card sets for the past decade and I have to say that as much as I love creating them, it’s frustrating to not have a tangible product at the end of the process. There are no cards to put in sleeves, no wax wrappers to flatten out and collect, just some imagery on website. I have been lucky a couple of times with a friend gifting me a set of my original Monster Squad cards printed out, and over this past year or so I got the opportunity to redesign a small Monster Squad set and a full set of Neon Maniacs cards for TerrorVision Records, but I have so many other sets that are just image files dying to be printed out and wrapped up in proper wax wrappers. So, Scott’s video series has given me hope that I can achieve similar results if I tweak my designs a bit and follow his instructions.
I was so impressed by Scott’s trading card sets that I ended up picking up a few packs to check out in person. The first thing that struck me was his attention to detail and planning out the design of the different sets to riff on some similar Topps and Donruss movie cards. For instance, when he tackled the flick Labyrinth, he chose to take a lot of inspiration from a Jim Henson film that did have a set of trading cards back in the day, The Dark Crystal. That set was always fun and stood out because the designers made the choice to give those cards heavily rounded corners. So when I peeled open Scott’s pack for Labyrinth I was pleasantly surprised to find a mini 9-card set that was made in the same style.
I also love that the border utilizes a maze theme and feels very in line with the vintage Dark Crystal cards. He even chose to invert the color palette of the set to echo the vintage one; where the Dark Crystal cards had a purple high contrast wrapper, purple bordered cards and a yellow logo, Scott’s Labyrinth cards flipped that with the high contrast yellow wrapper, yellow border cards with a purple logo. This is truly a sister set that was made with love and care, and it’s the little details like that which really get my nostalgia flowing.
I also love that Scott’s sets are small enough to be contained in one wax pack, with just 9 cards per set. This is the perfect size as you get a taste of what could be but aren’t trying to put together a 70-90 card set, which would be really pricey when you consider the cost and time it takes to handcraft a set like this. The set can be displayed on a single 9-card collector’s page with a second full page sleeve for the wrapper. I have my Labyrinth cards tucked right in with my Dark Crystal set in a binder on my shelf.
Scott has not only been making sets of cards for films that should have had them (Labyrinth, Flash Gordon, and Grease 2), but he’s also been making a series for flicks that are so bad they’re amazingly fun to watch and thus, kind of also deserve their own sets. Movies like Ed Wood’s magnum opus Plan 9 From Outer Space, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Mac & Me, and the ultimate bad movie, The Room. But the two mini sets that I just had to have are for flicks that my co-hosts Paxton, Jaime and I covered on our movie podcast The Cult Film Club, Troll 2 and Miami Connection.
Troll 2 is a personal favorite film, if only because the documentary about the flick made me fall in love with it, and Scott did a bang up job selecting nine scenes and a sticker that really sum up some of the best moments from the flick. I also love that he used a cricket machine to die-cut the sticker, a really nice touch.
Miami Connection is one of those flicks that really burrows under your skin and just makes a home inside you. The earnestness of the film-making plus the intensity of some of the violence, mixed with the zaniness of the acting and the plot is overwhelmingly fun. I love that this Tae Kwon Do school full of college students moonlights as the band Dragon Sound that has one of the best lost inspirational hits of the 80s. It’s just too much fun. Again, Scott nailed this set and the designs on the wax wrapper and the card-backs are phenomenal.
One last note about the little details. Like the wax pack trading cards of yore, Scott made sure to add in a stick of gum when appropriate and the fact that he went the extra mile to find the best replacement (bubble tape) since there really isn’t a standard pink bubble gum stick on the market is just rad. Such a great touch.
Do yourself a favor and check out Scott’s youtube channel, his rad website, and pick up some stuff from his online store if you’re into helping support independent artists. I can’t recommend these wax packs of cards enough and I know I’ll be heading back to the store to pick up some more sets…
