Al Kawamoto

Back in June, I made a custom card of my friend Al Kawamoto based on the 1970-71 design. Someone jokingly suggested that I make I high-end, gold foil embossed, autographed version of Al's card. So I did.

It's hard to do "gold foil" in digital graphics (that requires an actual print press), but I still had a lot of fun with putting Al on an "All Time Greats" type card. The translucent oval is where his "autograph" would go.

1972-73 Goals Leaders

Another custom card I made of my peeps from Cornwall, Ontario. Since it took me forever to finally make these guys their custom cards, I also made one more, with the three of them on a Goals Leaders card.

I tried to replicate the look of a "blank wall" behind them, taking care to add some sort of light source and a shadow. Whereas the regular cards from that set superimposed players in front of a brightly-colored background, the league leaders cards did not bother to "cut away" the player from the bland wall they stood in front of when posing for the shot.

Jarrett Racine

This here is a custom card of my friend Thom Racine's son, Jarret. Thom, Jarrett and his friend Brett all wanted to appear on 1972-73 OPC cards, so I made one for each of them. I also put the three of them on a Scoring Leaders card, which I'll reveal in a few days.

Al Kawamoto

Al Kawamoto is a friend of mine from Ontario. As per his request, I made a custom card of him using the 1970-71 card design. Of course, there were no Florida Panthers back then, but that's part of what makes this card cool.

Brett Michaud

This guy here is a friend of my acquaintance Thom Racine--or more specifically, a friend of Thom's son. I think he was pretty happy with the way his custom card turned out.

Thom Racine

Thom Racine is a journalist who lives in Ontario, Canada. Sometimes, he also submits an article for Puck Junk. To show my appreciation for a really nice hockey-card related trade Thom did for me, I created some custom cards of him, his son Jarrett and Jarrett's friend Brett.

Thom asked that I use the 1972-73 design for these custom cards. The '72-73 set has an unmistakable look to it--the classiness of the wood-grain border that clashes so noticeably with the loud, solid-colored bright backgrounds. To be a bit of a smart ass, I also made a card of Thom as a California Golden Seal (right)--airbrushing his Kings jersey in true O-Pee-Chee fashion. Though I think he liked the Kings card better.

Sal Barry self portrait c.1999

This is a custom card made from a photo of me from 1999. I thought my hair looked kind of "seventies", so I had a relative take a picture of me wearing an old Islanders jersey. The gloves I am wearing are relics from the 70s too.

I was always fond of the 1976-77 card design, which is why I used it here.