Favorite Artist -National Chicle pack 5

When I first started doing these favorite artist posts for National Chicle there were two things I didn't realize. I didn't know hat the eight packs I got would last me several weeks for one. I also didn't think that they would have to last me this long because I still haven't seen hide nor hair of them in retail outlets. Unfortunately, Topps series 2 comes out this week so Chicle might be on the back burner for me until after Ginter Madness subsides. I know I'e seen blasters of this posted on other blogs, so I guess my local distributors are just lazy about restocking right now.

At any rate, my favorite card from pack five was a no brainer. Here is the artist:

Jason Davies has done a ton of sketch art for Topps and has quite a few cards in the Chicle set. Unfortunately, after all that work Topps still didn't get the web site right in the box topper checklist. Www.daviesart.com goes to Martin Davies art web page. To get to Jason's just drop the www and put a j in front of the Davies like so:  http://jdaviesart.com/  It's well work the effort just to poke around in the gallery for coolness. Check out this Darth Maul. I'm not sure yet how I feel about Ryan Zimmerman in an Expos uniform.

The card I picked as a favorite from this pack was pretty inevitable even though there was a very nice Richie Ashburn in there.

Yeah, I couldn't not go with Murph. There's a lot to like about this card. The huge swing. The grandstand Chicle background. The powder blues. The thing that really struck me though was the red halo around Dale. I don't recall seeing another card in the set using that technique, but I like it. It's kinda like Dale is radioactive, which he may very well have been from 1982-1984. If I were to pony up for one of the original sketches that are being sold right now, I would very likely go for this one. I'm not going to link to the auctions until Joe wins all of his Reds players though. You people are smart, use that Google if you really want to buy some originals.