Lighthouse Hockey: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Around SBN: ACC Power Rankings: 2.8

Awful Hockey Card Art: 1989-90 Marc Habscheid, Andrew McBain

Habscheid_mediumIn introducing this Awful Hockey Card Art series, we featured the distinguished 1989-90 Topps card of one Randy Cunneyworth, whose Winnipeg Jets "uniform" was carefully painted on after his off-season trade by the Penguins. I mentioned how difficult to draw that arched, funky-fonted "WINNIPEG" was in their logo.

You know what else was maddeningly difficult to get right for a child hack artist such as myself? The Red Wings logo. So, naturally the Hockey Card Painters went for it that year, with Marc Habscheid, who was acquired from the Minnesota North Stars in the offseason.

(Yes, Minnesota's NHL team used to be the NORTH Stars ... and hockey cards used to come with dry, tasteless chewing gum. Also: Not everyone knew Tom Cruise was batsh--THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN DELETED BY THE CHURCH OF SCIEN--NO, THIS COMMENT NEVER EXISTED. CARRY ON.)

Again, why all the photo-altering effort for a journeyman? Is it because you can get away with your most experimental work on the anonymous guys, and not Wayne Gretzky? (After Gretzky's summer trade in 1988, rather than painting L.A. black on him -- which would've been hilariously disastrous, since they hadn't even seen that new jersey on ice -- they used a photo of him holding up the jersey at his L.A. press conference. Awesome sauce. And nice shirt.)

Anyway, as mentioned, the Red Wing wheel and feathers are a nightmare to draw. I almost thought they did some sort of transplant from another pic on to Habscheid, but if you look closely, you can see the left spokes on the wheel get into that phase where the artist goes, "And then there's some stuff over here." They don't totally meet on the left side of the wheel; they just cross in a way that hints at the artist's pending migraine.

Kudos for the placement, though. No kudos for the cheesy stick coloring and the over-the-top wrinkle shadows under each armpit and on Habscheid's belly. Someone turned the Wings jersey into a velvet drapery.

But back to that Cunneyworth card: Also involved in that trade was Andrew McBain. Since repainting Cunneyworth worked so brilliantly, you don't suppose they gave similar treatment to McBain, do you? Hmmm...

Star-divide

Mcbain_medium Yep.

Now this is more typical of the era: the "nothing more to see here, flip along to the Brett Hull rookie card you're looking for" helmet close-up. (Speaking of the younger Hull: They wouldn't screw with the rookie card of a future Hall of Famer, would they? Heh, we'll get to that one day.)

What they typically do on these faux close-ups is paint over the helmet in a new color, paint over the shoulders, add a new collar color, and don't even bother pretending the jersey crest was in the original photo (which makes Cunneyworth's and Habscheid's rather rare).

Why do this? Because, you know, head-and-shoulder shots with no logo are what every hockey card collecting kid is looking for. "Hey look! Andrew McBain's neck whiskers! And I got doubles!"

This McBain card is an awesome example of that close-up effect: The Pens road jersey then was simple and black, yet they managed to make it look charcoal grey. The shade of Penguins yellow/gold actually isn't bad...

But then there's the helmet: They took painstaking efforts to not screw up that iconic CCM logo ... at least for the first two letters. It looks like after they got past the two "C"s, the artist just said, "Ahhh...screw it. Who the hell is Andrew McBain, anyway?"

Later in this series: We'll actually get away from this 1989-90 "Ice Year" series, and travel the truly bizarre years of awful hockey card paint jobs. 'Cause you ain't seen nothing yet.

0 recs  |  Comment 4 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

Dumb question, but I swear that as a kid Topps was the only ones making Hockey cards for the longest time. Them and maybe Donruss or another bottom of the barrel brand. Then Upper Deck started making Hockey Cards in the mid 90s, everyone laughed at them but they put out an insanely good quality for hockey cards and it worked. The comic book store close to me had tables of nothing but single hockey cards you could buy and it was gold whenever you managed to grab a few upper deck cards.

Is my memory anywhere near correct? Didn’t Upper Deck force the rest of the hockey card companies to increase quality?

by WebBard on Sep 13, 2009 2:58 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Your memory’s basically right. The distinction was O’Pee Chee was available mostly in Canada, while Topps had the U.S. (both using the same photos and layout). But OPC often had larger sets — our Topps sets sometimes had just 4 or 5 cards for Canadian teams, particularly the Western ones.

Pro Set and Bowman (which I think was a cheap division of Topps?) started at the end of the ’80s, then Upper Deck brought their glossy high quality to blow those out of the water and take advantage of the whole “trading card as investment rather than bike spoke decoration” trend.

There are other historical details I’m omitting (I think at times OPC and Topps were different, and I think other brands surfaced before then but without success), but that’s the gist of it without looking it up.

I remember OPC in 1990-91 or so made “OPC Premier,” which was a ridiculously small set (130 cards maybe) in super high-gloss, Upper Deck-imitating format. There was a rush for them and they were absurdly high-priced. I’m not even sure they made a second year of it, though.

Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.

by Dominik on Sep 13, 2009 4:21 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

It’s a redwing jersey, how much trouble should you go to?

SHOOOOOOOT IT!!!! Anon

by burpchelischili on Sep 14, 2009 8:08 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

That is a terrific and overlooked point. Should’ve just written “d – e – t – r-whatever” in Comic Sans font.

Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.

by Dominik on Sep 17, 2009 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

A New York Islanders blog for fans near and far. Hip surgery not required.
Start posting about the Islanders »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

Featured Poll

Poll
Who is your first pick for defense on the Islanders 2000s All-Decade Team?
Hamrlik - Most points tops the list
26 votes
Jonsson - An all-around threat and reminder of some good times
210 votes
Aucoin - Was here for less time, but man that cannon racked up points
88 votes
Streit - A recent addition, but top-drawer two-way quality
58 votes
Witt - A vote for "the Warrior" for time served and blood shed
26 votes
Martinek - Most games played (really!) and symbolizes the ups and downs of the whole decade
17 votes

425 votes | Poll has closed

Atlantic Standings

GP W L OTL PT
New Jersey 58 36 20 2 74
Pittsburgh 59 35 22 2 72
Philadelphia 57 29 25 3 61
New York Rangers 59 26 26 7 59
New York Islanders 58 23 27 8 54

(updated 2.9.2010 at 12:41 AM EST)

New York Islanders Roster

# Pos. DOB W H
Josh Bailey 12 C 10/2/1989 188 6-1
Sean Bergenheim 20 LW 2/8/1984 205 5-10
Blake Comeau 57 RW 2/18/1986 207 6-1
Rick DiPietro 39 G 9/19/1981 210 6-1
Bruno Gervais 8 D 10/3/1984 205 6-1
Trent Hunter 7 RW 7/5/1980 210 6-3
Dustin Kohn 56 D 2/2/1987 200 6-2
Andrew MacDonald 47 D 9/7/1986 188 6-1
Freddy Meyer 44 D 1/4/1981 192 5-10
Matt Moulson 26 LW 11/1/1983 206 6-1
Frans Nielsen 51 C 4/24/1984 172 5-11
Kyle Okposo 21 RW 4/16/1988 200 6-1
Richard Park 10 RW 5/27/1976 190 5-11
Dwayne Roloson 30 G 10/12/1969 180 6-1
Rob Schremp 13 C 7/1/1986 200 5-11
Jon Sim 16 LW 9/29/1977 195 5-10
Mark Streit 2 D 12/11/1977 197 6-0
Andy Sutton 25 D 3/10/1975 245 6-6
Jeff Tambellini 15 LW 4/13/1984 186 5-11
John Tavares 91 C 9/20/1990 195 6-0
Doug Weight 93 C 1/21/1971 196 5-11

Blog Bossy

Lhh-square_small Dominik

Enforcers & Snipers

Officials_sweater_1_small IslesOfficial

Headshot_small Michael Schuerlein