Jurassic Park Kenner Card Scans & Making Of

[scallenger]

Here is a special treat for you all. I recently contacted the artist of the Jurassic Park Kenner card artwork, Brian Franczak. I asked him if he happened to have any of the original artwork he did for his work on the cards, but apparently Kenner NEVER sent back his originals! How fair is that, right? The only way he was actually able to get any form of his card art was to actually buy the toys with the cards! Can you believe that? But my emailing him inspired him to scan the cards himself, and he sent me his scans. He scanned them at a pretty high resolution. One could call these the "artist-approved" scans, since he scanned them himself.

Also in the same file are scans from an article from "Prehistoric Times", sent to me by the magazine editor, that feature a "making of" article written by Brian, and features the hand-drawn artwork given to him by Kenner to base his art off of, along with his early hand-drawn versions for comparison. Of important note here is the inclusion of an unused art card hand-drawn design for a baby triceratops!

Anyway, here is just one of the cards from the set (his favorite one, according to the "making of"):



Enjoy them ALL right HERE!

NOTE: Included in this set are the cards for the 16 toys he did art for. Brian did NOT do the art for the die-cast toy cards, so they were not included in his scans (don't even know if he owns those).

Also, for those curious to see some more of his dinosaur artwork, check out this link. He really is an amazing artist! He also has some of his artwork up for auction on eBay.

I for one am extremely happy to have these in such great form. I always felt they captured the spirit of Jurassic Park in a way few of the other merchandise made for the film did. It evokes a lot of the feel of the novel more than the film in a way, which makes the artwork that much more special to me. They really do feel like part of a much bigger scope and grander scale than the film ever ended up being. A darker, more engaging place filled with wonder, mystery, and terror. I wish there was more of it!

[Rez]

These art cards just add to the pile of why the original JP toyline is perhaps the greatest single contained toyline of all time. 

As you sort of brought up, the series 1 toyline was essentially crafted out of information from the novel and only the very early stages of pre-production of the film, so it is in many ways perhaps the only toyline ever created based on a book.  Most of these paintings look like they belong in an edition of the novel.  Great stuff all around.

[Gwangi]

Those cards are beautiful, I've always liked them and am glad you've shared them. I remember the little die-cast figures coming with cards too, anyone know if there are any scans of those?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

As I said on JPL , Brian is an AWESOME paleo-artist, I only wish more of his work was widely available.  The card he did for the Kenner line were almost better than the film in that is flushed out a world we had only previously read about..and it did it to a fuller extent.

[Arioch]

I love how the velociraptors and T. rex look more accurate and closer to the book than their movie counterparts. I kept imagining them like this after I saw the movie.

[mmfrankford]

As I said on JPL , Brian is an AWESOME paleo-artist, I only wish more of his work was widely available.  The card he did for the Kenner line were almost better than the film in that is flushed out a world we had only previously read about..and it did it to a fuller extent.

I agree. I still have the Audobon Society Pocket Guide which has a bunch of his illustrations. I loved the landscapes he placed the dinosaurs in.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

As I said on JPL , Brian is an AWESOME paleo-artist, I only wish more of his work was widely available.  The card he did for the Kenner line were almost better than the film in that is flushed out a world we had only previously read about..and it did it to a fuller extent.

I agree. I still have the Audobon Society Pocket Guide which has a bunch of his illustrations. I loved the landscapes he placed the dinosaurs in.

Agreed, he's very much like Doug Henderson when it comes to immersing you in the environment .  I think I had that guide as well...I did have his calender. I do believe his art was featured in a card set I have somewhere as well.

[EmperorDinobot]

Brian is one of my favorite dino artists, and one of my biggest inspirations.

[Jetoar]

These cards were and are amazings  .

[scallenger]

Brian has asked me to take a survey, if you will, of everyone who would be interested in purchasing a book of his dinosaur art. That is, if he made one. He wants to know how many would be interested in this before even considering doing it at all. So, for goodness sake, if ANY of you love this art of his at all, and want to see more of it, vote "YES" in the poll I have now made on this topic so he can get going on arranging and publishing a book for us fans to get our hands on!

[radman]

Brian has asked me to take a survey, if you will, of everyone who would be interested in purchasing a book of his dinosaur art. That is, if he made one. He wants to know how many would be interested in this before even considering doing it at all. So, for goodness sake, if ANY of you love this art of his at all, and want to see more of it, vote "YES" in the poll I have now made on this topic so he can get going on arranging and publishing a book for us fans to get our hands on!

I am fortunate to have a copy of Brian's oh-so-cool "Edmontosaurs attacked by Tyrannosaurs" print, done for The Dinosaur Society, dated 1991.  This may have been the inspiration for the Battat T-rex a few years later (?).  I also see he has a few very nice prints up on ebay, although I am mostly interested in prints with a complete background, myself.  Anyway, he's a wonderful dino artist.  I would certainly be interested in seeing a book of his art.

[scallenger]

Awesome! Please do vote YES on this forum poll then, please!

[DinoToyForum]

What if people have taste, but no money?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I don't think he's asking for money..yet. Just if there is interest.  If there is enough maybe he'll move it over to Kickstarter. I'm in either way.

[DinoToyForum]

These cards are mentioned in passing on the recent Jurassic Park Podcast (episode 57). It is a great listen, check it out! http://jurassicparkpodcast.com