Time Travel Art Machine: Topps SLAM! Exclusive

Make noise b-boys.

Back in 2018 Topps asked me to do a new painting for their WWE SLAM! digital card collector app. I said yes, and asked if they’d be cool if I did one painting that could be split out to nine separate cards. Then people in the app would get the full image if they collected every one of them.

Artwork by Jim Lee.

I was inspired by the above nine cards from Jim Lee’s epic X-Men trading card set from the 90’s, which has lived rent-free in my head since they originally came out. I thought back then that it was one of the coolest things ever made and to this day I still do. I loved how each card was cool on its own but made a big full piece of art when they were combined together.

I had done this before with Topps, I believe the year before timed around WrestleMania and it was a big hit. The Topps team were hoping I’d volunteer to do this again but didn’t want to pressure me, because they’re simply fantastic to work with.

Here’s a couple of the individual cards to give you a feel for how this broke up but still worked both as pieces and as a whole:

This was an especially fun one to make. It’s neat taking this look back at it!

Love you more,

Rob