Special Report: Dan Curto Sketch Card Artist - Exclusive

JTA: OK Dan. Fess up. How did you get involved with Topps? Were you approached or did you start the process yourself?

Dan Curto: I used to draw professionally years ago, but I stopped when I got married and instead turned to customizing and photography for my creative outlets. I've really been itching to get back into illustrating again, and with this being the 30th anniversary of my favorite Star Wars movie...it seemed like the perfect time to try. I got a lot of inspiration from other artists in the community, and a few of them really encouraged me to "just do it".

I contacted Topps and showed off a few samples of my work...which admittedly, were pretty old, but they liked them. So I was offered this amazing opportunity to be part of the 30th anniversary celebration, and I've been having a blast ever since. 

JTA: Was drawing something that you have always done? Has your focus always been scenes and characters from The Empire Strikes Back or do you have other concepts based on the other five films as well?

Dan Curto: Yes, always. All of my notebooks and papers in school and at work have always had little illustrations on them.

Funny thing...it was actually The Empire Strikes Back that got me to really start drawing seriously, way back at age 11! I used to trace the panels from the Star Wars comic books when I was young, which eventually led me to try drawing other comic book characters, mostly super heroes.

As far as other Star Wars characters, I've drawn the classic trilogy characters a lot over the years, but not so much the prequel characters. I'll have to start doing that.

JTA: Are there any sketch cards that you can share with us that won’t be making it into the Topps card line?


Dan Curto: All 100 sketch cards I illustrated are included in the packs as random inserts. Additionally, there are 6 that I will be getting back, and I designed those with an overall theme in mind. I played around a little with some ideas, including a few "puzzle cards"...each card can stand on its own, but if put the cards together, you will get an entire scene. These puzzle cards were fun to do. 

JTA: As a man who is extraordinarily busy in the toy industry and heavily involved with working for big collecting sites, how did you make time for this resurfaced passion? Did the sketch cards come out as you had hoped or was there a rush at all where you may have felt the cards weren’t entirely "completed".


Dan Curto: HA! I don't know if I'd say I was IN the toy industry...but definitely working on Rebelscum and Cool Toy Review takes up a lot of time. It actually was a real struggle to find the time to do it, especially when you add in working a full-time job, a wife and 3 kids...yeah, it was a challenge to get it done. Plus, man, I am EASILY distracted! I needed to focus and actually, I recently started studying martial arts, where a lot of the class is about concentration and discipline (I'm too old to care about fighting), so I tried to use those skills while I was drawing. I had 5 weeks to do 106 illustrations. Fortunately, I still had my old art supplies in storage, so I dusted them off (some hadn't been used in 12 years!) and got focused.  

I originally planned to only do pencil drawings, and I watched the movie a few times (never a bad thing!) and compiled this huge list of what I was going to illustrate. However, as I got into it, I started doing more inking, cross-hatching, and coloring. I changed my mind on a bunch of them from my original list, and dropped a whole themed series I wanted to do. My kids were home on spring break, and they all had some suggestions on what I should draw. Some cards have some subtle colors added to them, which was their idea. 

Still, I kept coming up with more ideas...I could easily have done twice as many cards if I had more time (there's a 4-card Darth Vader puzzle card series that I penciled, but I would love to have painted it!)
 
As for being "completed"...well, these are "sketch cards" right? Not "finished art cards." So in a sense, none of them are 100% complete...just ideas. On the other hand, since I probably won't ever see them again, I guess they're as "complete" as they will ever be!

JTA: What are some of your favorite pieces in the sketch card set?


Dan Curto: Ooooh....tough one. I am pretty happy with them all, but obviously I put more time into some over others. Artists are their own worst critics, so I always see the mistakes before anyone else. But you learn from them and hopefully do better the next time. I'm really happy with the creature cards (Wampa, Ugnaught, Space Slug, Tauntaun), the finished marker comp cards, and the puzzle cards. I also did a "progression series" where the image starts out as a rough sketch on the borders, and gradually becomes more finished as you get closer to the center (finished pencils, inks, and then color), which I am really happy with the results on those.

I also got to have some fun with another series, getting my fellow fans' input. I invited the ForceCast listeners to send in their suggestions, and I drew the 10 ideas I liked best. Some suggestions were already on my radar or I had actually already drawn, but all of these were fun, and I loved getting my fellow fans involved.

JTA: Will actual real hand drawn samples make it into the card packs or will they be prints of your artwork? And if so, is it hard to part with them?

Dan Curto: They are actual original pieces of art inserted into the packs. Mine were all hand-drawn by me..."Curto originals"! :)

Parting with them was really strange. It felt great to have them all done, but also a little sad to just send them off in the mail one day. After carrying them around with me for weeks, they were just gone! I mean, I was drawing at work (during lunchtime only, I swear!), in the car while waiting to pick up my daughter, while watching TV at night...just taking them with me everywhere I went for over a month. Honestly, I miss them!

JTA: So you think we will see more Dan Curto artwork in future Topps Star Wars lines? What about anywhere else?

Dan Curto: That would be great. Hopefully, this was just "my first step into a larger world"...and there will be more to come. Who knows? I would love to participate in future Topps card series. Maybe I'll get the chance to draw some of those prequel trilogy characters I was talking about!

I'd also love to pursue my original dream as a kid, which was to draw comic books. I had a few opportunities in the early 1990s that fell through after the industry imploded, so I moved on to other things. More recently, I actually was involved with a series of webcomics, but that project fell apart in the planning stages.

I'm happy if this is the only illustration work I get to do, but I have a lot of ideas now! There will always be a part of me that wants to draw...

JTA: Topps certainly isn’t the only place you have left an indelible mark on the Star Wars collecting universe. But since you are getting the full credit here, do you find your experience with Topps the most rewarding?

Dan Curto: Honestly, I'm a HUGE fan boy when it comes to Star Wars...so being able to do anything (official or otherwise) is great. People obviously know me from Rebelscum or through the ForceCast, but I've been living online for years now, getting my start through customizing, then doing toy photography and reporting on various collectibles. I've gotten to know so many people around the world, even if we have never met face-to-face.

For me, that's part of the fun...getting to know my fellow fans and sharing my love for that galaxy far, far away...

JTA: Are there any other additional or special final details we should know about the 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back sketch card series? When can we expect these cards to hit retail?

Dan Curto: The set is due out at the end of May...just in time for the anniversary celebration! I'm sure there will be more official announcements as the release date gets closer, but I'm excited to see what else Topps has in store.