Another "alt" 1957 Topps-style Koufax custom

My ALT-2 1957-style Koufax custom.

In my blog post of June 24, 2010 (you can find it by clicking on "older posts at the bottom), I presented an alternative 1957 Topps-style Sandy Koufax custom card that I had created.

In the post, I said, "I haven't often, in my several years of custom card making, tried to improve on an actual card from Topps, Bowman, etc. It's my belief that the graphic artists who created those originals so many decades ago, working with what today is viewed as ancient technology -- a roll of rubylith and an Xacto knife -- do not deserve to have their legacy usurped by me and my computer graphics tools."



My ALT-1 1957-style Koufax custom.

But the recent availability of some never-before-seen photos of a young Koufax was too tempting and I created another 1957-style Koufax card. The vivid color and the Ebbets Field background were a perfect image to recreate a later-series '57 Topps card. Collectors of vintage cards recognize that while the first several series of 1957 Topps were generally muted in color, from the 4th Series on, many of the cards exhibited a much brighter look.

As I said back in June, 2010, Topps made an excellent choice with the close-up portrait of Koufax they used on card #302, but the alternative posed-action photos they had on hand would have also made great looking cards.