Hwy, gang- I’m back again, and so are Ultraman trading cards by RRPARKS Cards!
Richard Parks has launched another Kickstarter campaign for the FIFTH and FINAL installment of the classic era ULTRAMAN trading cards from his card company, which was founded in 2013.
He has produced close to 100 sets in that time, such as the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Series, The Three Stooges, Sharknado, Wolverton, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Halloween Trick or Treat, Yoshitoshi Japanese Horror in 3D, 100th Anniversary of Zorro, Psycho Ape, Pirates & Privateers, Ancient Egypt, History of the Roman Emperors, and of course Ultraman.
I’m part of the sketchcards artists roster for Ultraman Series 5– about 1 of 180 artists doing hand-drawn sketchcards for this final set.
The sketchcards are drawn on official ULTRAMAN sketchcard blanks we were sent by Richard earlier this year.
I did my usual number of ten Ultraman sketchcards with a mix of hero, villains, and kaiju. The bizarre monsters are always my favorite to draw.
For all of them I started off sketching out the characters in pencil. I mostly used an inexpensive click-pencil with a #2 lead.
For color I used alcohol based markers such as Copics, Letraset, and Prismacolor.
I did a bit more shading with my pencil, and used black Pigma Micron pens for the line art.
I finished up the cards highlights with white Gelly Roll pens, and white Prismacolor pencil. Sometimes I might put a light coat of Krylon Workable Spray Fixative to help give the card’s surface a bit of “tooth” for the colored pencil to grab onto.
The cards are 2.5″x3.5″ – the same size as normal trading cards.
I’ve pretty much done the same method on all my sketchcards since I started doing them almost 20yrs ago before doing them professionally for companies like Topps, Cryptozoic, Breygent, Viceroy, and RRParks. I haven’t used any acrylic paint markers on sketchcards…yet. I’ve been using those mostly on wood panels and smaller stretched canvases.
My wife Nicki gets me Copic markers, refills, and other art supplies for my birthdays and as stocking stuffers for Christmas, and my mother-in-law gave me all of her Letraset markers she used to use for doing scrapbook and greeting cards. I even have some Prismacolor and Letraset markers from back when I did graphic art back in the ’90s and early 2000s that amazingly still work. My marker collection has really grown, and even more since I started using the acrylic ones like Posca, Ivsun, and Sharpie Creative paint markers.
Once the art is done, I always spray the front side with a few light coats of Krylon Workable Spray Fixative. It’s best to do overlapping coats and avoid heavy spraying. I also recommend spraying outside, or in an open and well ventilated area.
After the front has had time to dry, the last step is to sign the back of the cards before packing them up and sending them back to Richard to be randomly inserted into card packs. Hopefully folks will be happy to find one of mine when they open their packs of cards.
The Series Five Card Set
This fifth and final series covers Ultraman Taro, Ultraman Leo, and Ultraman 80. That’s the focus of this series. And there are plenty of subsets, too.
IF you missed out on Ultraman Series ONE and/or Series TWO and/or Series THREE and/or Series FOUR scroll on down to ‘ADD ONS’ and you’ll find a FEW items from the first four series along with original production art, SHIN ULTRAMAN and ULTRAMAN RISING and ULTRAMAN JUMBO 5X7″ 3D LENTICULAR CARDS.
This series will include:
- THREE different base sets covering every episode of Ultraman Taro (53 cards), Ultraman Leo (51 cards), and Ultraman 80 (50) Am currently figuring out potential variation cards. Every episode is covered with a card … with some episodes having variation cards to figure additional Kaiju.
- Taro, Leo, and 80 also have 3 different MOTION lenticular cards, 3 different 3D Flicker lenticulars and 3 different standard 3D lenticulars … for a total of 9 lenticular cards to collect.
- 53 GUESS WHO card series subset featuring lovely sketch card art of all the actors from UltraQ through Return of Ultraman. There are 53 cards but a total of 106 portraits!
- Two ‘Pearl Ice’ frosty Elisabetta Stoinich cards, limited production.
- BEAUTIES by Cisco Rivera. A 9 card subset with 18 different portraits by Cisco Rivera of actresses from UltraQ through Return of Ultraman. LOVELY artwork!
- KOKKINAKIS KAIJUS. Another 9 card subset … this one featuring the amazing Kaiju artwork of Achilles Kokkinakis.
- Chris Meeks ART CARDS — a 9 card action-packed art subset focusing on Ultraman (original series) and the kaijus.
- YURIKO — a 9 card subset featuring the beautiful works of Yuriko Shirou’s sketch card work for Ultraman Trading Cards Series One … I may expand this to 12 cards.
- TEXTURE CARDS — a 9 card subset with sketch card art produced with TEXTURE.
- Nine RAISED UV Hero Cards.
- 3D glasses and NINE different 3D anaglyph cards currently being worked on by Christian LeBlanc who brought his magic of 3D anaglyphs to Series 1, 2, 3 and 4 … he’s working on 9 NEW anaglyphs for Series Five.
- ORIGINAL ART SKETCH CARDS. About 100 different top rated sketch card artists are working their magic to bring us Ultraman Series Five sketch Cards. SOME have arrived already with more on the way. Will post up examples as they arrive.
- Packaging is in DESIGN stage at this time. Will post graphics as it gets completed.
- Another art-driven subset is being planned … The Art of Ultraman — a selection of artwork authorized by my friends at Printed in Blood from their recent book. More on this as budget and time allows.
- Official DIY Do It Yourself sketch card blank
- … and some surprises
Lots of add-ons to choose from, too. Check out the campaign here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/2020657542/ultraman-trading-cards-series-five-card-collection-rrparks/
I’ve had fun drawing sketchcards for RRParks CARDS several times now including a few Ultraman sets, and hope to work on more sets for him again in the future. So far I’ve worked on Ultraman, Zorro, MANOS: The Hands Of Fate, Nosferatu, RRParks Halloween Trick Or Treat, RRParks Cards Series Four (MST3K), Trilogy Of Horror (Coffintooth/The Slasher Nurse/Psycho Ape II), and The Thing– and have had base card or promo card art in a few.
Thanks to Richard for inviting me back for this set, and for producing my BATS! trading card set, helping me get some LINticular motion cards made up for my upcoming “Scared Silly” card set.
I plan of doing a Kickstarter campaign after I get done with my solo art show at Playhouse on the Square this summer. My “Featured Creatures” art show reception will be on June 5, 2026 from 5-7pm in the 2nd Floor West gallery at Playhouse on the Square, which is located at 66 South Cooper Street, Memphis, TN 38104. There will be another artist, Angi Cooper, who will be having their reception the same night in the downstairs gallery. I’ll have several airbrushed Monsterpieces, some “Scared Silly” marker illustrations, and wood panel acrylic maker paintings on display and for sale. You can also se more of my artwork at the Beale Street Monster Club’s “Bigfoot on Beale” event at A. Schwab’s downtown this Saturday, May 16th from 11am-6pm, the Memphis Public Libraries Comic Con on Saturday, May 30th from 10am – 3pm at the Raleigh Branch (3452 Austin Peay Hwy, 38128), the Memphis Monster Market in October, and the 3rd annual Memphis Monster Con at the Agricenter in Cordova near Germatown, TN on November 22nd & 23rd.
Hope to scare ya there!
Lin