@pokefam thank you so much for your spreadsheets! I added them to the OP.
Those are two fantastic artists you’ve chosen and I’m sure many people will be happy to have access to those lists!
You have to click on each single card though, so you can see if there are multiple releases of the same card with different artworks (under “Release Information”). Not quite the very best user experience, but for the most part extremely thorough.
Also feel free to share some of your collection, I’m sure they look terrific together
Given the arrival of a new addition (Galarian Slowking), I wanted to share this binder page, which is perhaps my favourite page in my favourite binder (Vending S1-3, Unnumbered JP promos '96-'99, Komiya art). All my other sets are rigidly chronological, so I enjoy the ability to change the order up in an artist collection.
Below are my ‘top 9’ Komiya at the moment (feels like Myspace top 8, having to savagely cull favourite friends, if you’re old enough to remember that like me). All probably very familiar cards, and especially so on this page!
It’s nice to compare the three full arts so far, and although they’re probably the least interesting in terms of release, the Rage of the Broken Heavens Hypno and Clefairy have to make the top tier just for the darkness of the storytelling alone.
Which changes would others personally make to this page if it were their choices? Any favourites I’ve missed? Or cards you just straight up don’t think should be here?
@macarver what a beautiful page! I have the Slowking and a Pokemon Card Fan incoming, too!
I widely agree with your choices, although I might personally change Hypno and Clefairy for Masaki Machamp (because it’s such a “big” card relative to other Komiyas) and Vending Growlithe (because it’s THE Komiya card to me personally, maybe even THE Pokemon card, period.)
All in all, great selection though. Pokekyun Psyduck feels super underappreciated at the moment.
Thanks muk! Haha, was good timing for this post then - great buys on those two, definitely essentials for any self-respecting Komiya collector!
I agree completely on the Masaki Machamp, definitely the big missing Komiya promo here (it is elsewhere in the binder at least). Personally another close contender was Dark Slowking from Darkness, and to Light, I love that art too.
What’s your story on the Vending Growlithe, if you don’t mind me asking, for it to be THE card?
And you’re right again on the Pokekyun Psyduck, as the only recent exclusive Komiya other than the Scream, definitely should be more spoken about, especially with the Masuda connection.
I don’t mind you asking at all
There’s no special story actually, it’s just a card I fell in love with the second I saw it first. It’s simply the card with the highest success rate of putting a blissful smile on my face whenever I open the binder.
Never fails to bring me in a calm and happy state of mind
Thanks for sharing! Always nice to know the cards that can cause such positive emotions in others. And even nicer in some ways when it’s a relatively underappreciated card, it just feels more personal. Will have to have a think as to my equivalent.
For me, when it comes to Komiya, my favorite vending has to go to Onix. Every time I see that Onix I want to cry with joy. A masterpiece, really. And of course, overall what brings me most joy every time is his rending of my boy, the bro, the evolved card of his first set card we had in english. I am proud of him for that.
And I must say, long before I ever accepted E-series borders into my life, I had secretly longed to hold one of these, the most prized E holo he made to me. One of the most stunning cards he ever did, certainly in holo.
@muk, Just found another dope artist with currently only 19 cards but they are super dope and cinematic/anime feeling. Name is So-Taro and some cool cards are the umbreon darkrai gx tag team and the eevee from shining fates.
Added your list to the OP!
Really cool artist that was pretty much unknown to me until now, thanks! I very much agree on their cinematic style! Also a big “thank you” for sharing yet another spreadsheet, you’re doing god’s work here!!
If you have some of them in your collection, please share some pics, I’m sure they look terrific in a binder
On another note, I just finished my smallest spreadsheet, namely for Kimiya Masago and added it to the OP.
Only 17 artworks from 2000 - 2005, but almost every single one’s a huge banger. 14 of his 17 artworks got the holo treatment and most of them have very popular Pokemon on them.
His style is notoriously grim and badass, much unlike most other illustrators at the time. I think he has somewhat of a fanbase by now, so he’s far from a hidden gem, but a gem nonetheless.
This high density of big-hitters, combined with the managable amount of individual cards, lead me to go for a PSA 10 set of all of them in Japanese. That said, when I started, none of them were over $200 usd. Now, things look a bit different . I’ve been trying to get hold of mint raw copies, but my success rate ist mediocre at best so far. The only cards I don’t have a single copy atm of are Mysterious Mountains Houndoom and Mirage Forest Armaldo ex.
I will finish the set at some point, even if it takes another few years.
No problem I’m pretty much just making these lists for myself. I’m happy if others find it useful:) on a side note I think you linked the document wrong or something because it isn’t redirecting to the spreadsheet.
Hey this a super super niche thing but do any of you guys know where to find a list and/or tell me cards you know of that have the art works that carry onto another card. Another way of putting it is the original art gets split into multiple cards of each specific pokemon. The southern Island set and the Shining fates Eevee and Promo vaporeon are two examples of artworks carrying onto other cards.
I suppose I should finally make a proper post here. Illustrator collections are all I do! It started with Yuka Morii’s clay cards, then Sekio’s storybook-like artwork, and now I’ve put together sowsow and Asako Ito collections as well. My collections consist of all English prints of the respective illustrator’s work and the base print of any Japan-exclusive artwork. I spent a lot of work on my spreadsheets to make them compact and pretty, and all that work makes me reluctant to share them here - they feel personal to me and my collection despite all the information being publicly available. Below picture is of my Sekio spreadsheet. The Yuka Morii spreadsheet is quite the behemoth by now, even with my efforts to keep things compact. There’s a lot of small tricks I’ve picked up to really make these spreadsheets work - conditional formatting, self-updating numbers, etc., and I’d be glad to share some if anyone’s interested.
@llyrwenne you have a beautiful layout for your spreadsheets! It’s sad that you don’t want to share them, but the decision is of course up to you. I know the initial creation takes hours and maintaining it needs constant attention to new releases. If you ever decide to open them up to the public, I would love to add them to the list in this thread
Regarding Sekio, I have only rather recently been introduced to their art via some random cards I pulled from various SM era sets. Personally, I feel like their work is very reminiscent of Naoyo Kimura, only with a more aquarelle-esque way of painting and tendentially brighter, more floral colours. And I say this in the most respectful way - Kimura is one of the best naturalistic illustrators in Pokemon and they’re both almost equally good, only with slight variations in style imho.
Have you ever noticed this kind of resemblance between them yourself or am I alone with my opinion?
I’ve most certainly noticed a resemblance! I love a lot of Kimura’s artwork too, especially their early work - Light Jolteon, Light Wigglytuff, Aquapolis Tyranitar, Unleashed Poliwhirl, I could go on! I ultimately decided against starting a Kimura collection as I already had a two-decade-spanning collection on my hands with my Yuka Morii collection. I’m also not a fan of Kimura’s brief not-so-successful experimentation with digital art;
So true! Nothing beats hand-drawn artworks. Kimura was a contendor for an artist collection for me, too. But one really has to strictly prioritize which artist they go for, I simply couldn’t manage more than my two oldschool, still active artists Komiya and Kusube.
Another important criterion was the average quality throughout all artworks. For example, Kusajima was another one of my candidates, but after the e-series he just has created too many duds that I personally didn’t enjoy enough.
A lot of the difference is in the backgrounds - Kimura’s more realistic environments vs. Sekio’s floral picture book pages. Their works are similar in material and method (that beautiful paper texture!) yet clearly stylistically distinctive. Both are outstanding artists.
Hey my dude, it seems to work on my end. Maybe it’s an issue in your browser or you have to clear your cache or so?
Otherwise I can mail the file to you if you want
When I get to it, I have to update it though with the two newsest JPN sets.
. I’ve been trying to get hold of mint raw copies, but my success rate ist mediocre at best so far. The only cards I don’t have a single copy atm of are Mysterious Mountains Houndoom and Mirage Forest Armaldo ex.
