Over a lifetime of card collecting and a good near 15 years of particular focus on sketch cards, interesting changes to the collection and interplay between my various hobbies have arisen and developed.
I’ve talked about a particular centerpiece of my card collection that combines key hobby interests of mine often across artists spotlights and posts on other topics (and during my appearance on That Card Collectors Podcast).
However until now I haven’t done a dedicated feature about that particular collection here. I also recently realized one of the involved artists’ related cards were scattered among many years of posts with a few of those cards never fully highlighted here at all. So let’s talk a bit about one of my most unique sub collections and the artist who inspired me to develop it.
Sketch cards are trading cards that artists have directly created their art on. The card image is not printed as with most trading cards, instead the card face is initially blank to be drawn or painted on by the artist.
Personal Sketch Cards (PSCs) are cards created and distributed by the artists themselves as opposed to ones done for commercial card sets under certain requirements from the publishing company. PSCs can be done on simple card stock or specially printed cards artists have prepared with a printed back identifying their PSCs.
I’ve collected Juri Chinchilla’s art for 17 years now, going back to getting her renditions of my favorite video game characters at anime conventions. My foray into collecting sketch cards started in earnest with finding out about Perna Studios’ sets via Juri’s work for them.
When Juri started taking PSC commissions I was thrilled with the opportunity to expand my collection of her art with further depictions of a variety of subjects.
Juri had a large but ultimately limited amount of PSC stock printed. I arranged for some future reserved batches, with the understanding that it would be a years long endeavor with a few cards done at a time and months or longer between batches as she worked on other things.
I’m a lifelong fan of professional wrestling and a huge fan of Japanese women’s pro-wrestling in particular, having been exposed to several joshi* wrestlers via Shimmer Women’s Wrestling in the early 2010’s and later making several trips to Japan. During those trips I saw numerous shows from joshi promotions live and became a direct fan of several companies and many, many wrestlers.
(*”Joshi” is a Japanese word that simply means “girl” (or “woman” depending on the context). “Joshi puroresu” is “women’s pro-wrestling.” In English joshi wrestling has become shorthand for specifically talking about Japanese women’s wrestling and joshi when used in wrestling based conversations shorthand for Japanese women wrestlers. That’ll be the usage here, but be aware that the original Japanese word “joshi” by itself has no tie to wrestling.)
My first PSCs from Juri were standard sketch card fare of favorite video game, comic book, and anime characters. While planning my second batch I had an odd idea and reached out to Juri to ask if she’d be up for creating a card for one of my favorite wrestlers, Mitsuru Konno.
Juri was on board for the unusual challenge and completely knocked it out of the park. It came out great and inspired what is now a core part of my collecting. I immediately knew I wanted to get more of these done, and over the next several years my remaining groups from Juri became almost entirely wrestler PSCs.
The collection eventually also grew to encompass other artists, and I was fortunate enough to get a number of cards done by Miki Okazaki and Veronica O’Connell (see their linked artist spotlights for further discussion and a complete look at the joshi PSCs they each did for me).
The likeness Juri is able to portray and the detail she includes on such small workspaces is incredible. Standard trading cards and thus the PSCs being discussed are 3.5″ x 2.5″. The quality of image Juri achieves is extremely impressive.
There’s a soft vibrancy to Juri’s work that’s quite striking, often based in her use of colored pencil highlighted with other media accents including markers, metallic ink, and pasted sparkles. Her work often captures the personality of the subject in a memorable way.
One example of the amazing amount of detail shown is in her illustration of a tag team named Best Friends, complete with one of the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship belts they possessed as reigning champions at the time.
Another impressive showcase of Juri’s ability to highlight small details in a complex illustration is the most ambitious group of PSCs she did for me.
One of my batches timed out to right around when Emi Sakura, a legendary wrestler/trainer and founder of Gatoh Move (now ChocoPro), was approaching her 25th wrestling anniversary. I was planning on a Gatoh Move heavy batch at some point and had only previously had Mitsuru drawn from the company. The time seemed appropriate to proceed with Gatoh Move wrestlers featured.
I talked to Juri about making the next batch a themed group of cards spotlighting the entire Gatoh Move roster, including the then current members, their recently departed company ace, and the incoming rookies who would double the size of the small roster.
The idea ended up becoming a phenomenal 6-card puzzle, which I believe is still the largest sketch card puzzle Juri’s done. I only specified the pairs per card and certain gear if the wrestler had multiple. The general layout, position in the puzzle of each pair, poses, and so on were all Juri. And the result was absolutely stunning.
(From left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Sayaka Obihiro & Mitsuru Konno, Emi Sakura & Riho, Chie Koishikawa & Tokiko Kirihara, Yuna Mizumori & Mei Suruga, Sayuri & Sayaka, and Lulu Pencil & Rin Rin.)
The time delay nature of building such a collection created some interesting side effects and opportunities.
I had tentative subjects for all the cards mapped out from the beginning, but when the time came for each group changes were made. Some wrestlers I had planned for PSCs didn’t end up drawn or were illustrated by other artists years later. Some wrestlers I chose for later cards hadn’t even debuted when my first cards were done.
The completed cards became snapshots of particular moments in time. I have multiple cards of certain wrestlers in different wrestling gear, different personas, different tag teams, etc from different periods in their careers. The variety presented and the particular versions of each wrestler shown are part of what makes these cards such a treasured part of my collection.
And of course a lot has changed in wrestling in the near decade I’ve been building this collection.
A number of featured wrestlers have retired, including Aoi Kizuki, Arisa Nakajima, Lulu Pencil, Misaki Ohata, Mitsuru Konno, Reika Saiki, Rin Rin, Sayuri, Sendai Sachiko, and Tequila Saya.
A couple of wrestlers both left wrestling and later came back since their cards were done. It’s been great to see Hikari Noa and Yuki Mashiro in the second part of their careers.
A couple of cards are remembrances of wrestlers sadly passed away and greatly missed.
Rest in Peace Hana. Rest in Peace Asahi.
My joshi wrestling inspired collection goes far beyond these PSCs, including official BBM trading cards, memorabilia, photos, and other forms of art. But these particular cards are a highlight, and like a good many of my other collecting habits this all started with Juri Chinchilla.
Juri no longer does open card commissions, but more about her wonderful art and current projects can be found on her various social media accounts for Juri Chinchilla / Juri the Dreamer.
Best of luck to everyone with whatever shape your collection takes.
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