Celebrating Pokémon Day with this small tribute!

July 21, 1999 - That was the day that I started work on a thing called Pokémon for Golden Books. I had no idea what it was. I didn't do an audition for it either. In hindsight, I guess they were in a real big hurry to get some American product out there as it was blowing up. Pokémon was one of the first major licenses that I worked on over 25 years ago! There was only 150 of them as I recall back then. I still have the Pokémon model sheets that they mailed me back in '99! Pre-internet, kids!

I didn't do much for it though (only three projects, but they were fun to do!) as I was soon asked to do an art audition for Scooby-Doo in the fall of '99, and that completely changed my life and career.

Today is Pokémon Day (2/27/2025) and the Pokémon Company believes it can last another 50 to 100 years. I would have to agree! It's got a solid, entertaining concept and you can go a long way with solid, entertaining concept.

SCOOBY-DOO’S GREATEST MYSTERIES TPB Is Back In Print!

In October 2024, DC Comics released a NEW printing of the Scooby-Doo Greatest Mysteries TPB that I posted about here in 2019 (for Scooby’s 50th Anniversary). It’s back in print and still at a great price! I don’t think it was updated and may be the exact same one that was printed in 2019.

Scooby-Doo and the gang solve mysteries only as they can in their best comic adventures!

Riding around in their Mystery Machine van, Scooby, Daphne, Fred, Velma, and Shaggy team up to solve supernatural cases through a series of hijinks and misadventures. Jinkies!

In this collection the gang takes on everything from spooky ghostly activity to mysterious space alien invasions. They also meet up with beloved Hanna-Barbera characters, like the Flintstones and the Jetsons. They even team with some of DC's finest heroes and villains--including Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Harley Quinn!

Celebrate Scooby-Doo with this compilation of the Mystery Inc. team's greatest cases--over 400 pages of 30 classic stories collected here!

Collects SCOOBY-DOO #1, 10, 35, 68 and 72, SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #2, 5 7, 8, 9, 12, 18, 37 and 40, and SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #48, 51, 54, 71, 78, 79, 83, 85

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Scooby-doos-Greatest-Adventures-John-Rozum/dp/177952790X

B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scooby-doos-greatest-adventures-john-rozum/1145120862?ean=9781779527905

My 1995 Star Wars Galaxy Trading Card Art was reprinted in 2021!

 

In 2022, I did an interview with Stephen Kent about his book titled How The Force Can Fix The World. I mentioned to him that I did art for a Star Wars trading card back in 1995 for Topps and I’d send him a pic of it. Out of my laziness to find a jpeg on my computer, I went to eBay and did a quick search. A card did indeed pop up and I sat and looked at it stupefied.  

 

That was my card art... but something was different. I then scrolled down and saw a bunch of versions of it too! Not just a base card for the card set but they had all these limited numbered “refractor” variants of it too! It had a new back to it and they did a nice new description of my old work. Thanks, Topps!

 

Upon further research, I found that Topps had picked my artwork for something I did back in 1994 and reprinted it for a new card set in 2021! I knew it was good when I did it back in ‘94. I painstakingly took my time when I did that art as it was my moment in the Star Wars Universe, even though I had drawn some Star Wars material for West End Games (the role-playing game company) around that time.

The original 1994 title for the piece as I named it was “King for a Day.” They renamed it “New Friends” which works too. I must admit that I was, and still am, blown away that they had picked my card out of all the others artists in the 1995 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 3 Trading Cards! By the way, I was card #348 originally.

These pics in this post are not mine but from one of the many eBay sellers that are selling the card. If you want one, they are out there! Type in: 2021 Topps Chrome Star Wars Galaxy Base #33 “New Friends” Scott Neely and they should pop up. The base card is cheap, but the refractor cards go for some serious money if you got a low number!

The card set was called the 2021 Topps Chrome Star Wars Galaxy Trading Cards and you can find out more about it here: 

https://www.cardboardconnection.com/2021-topps-chrome-star-wars-galaxy-trading-cards

https://www.beckett.com/news/2021-topps-star-wars-chrome-galaxy/ 

https://www.tcdb.com/Checklist.cfm/sid/265282 

P.S. – I know some of you are asking how I didn’t know about it. Simple, they own the art. I have no rights to it. You signed them all over to Topps/Lucasfilm back when I drew it. I got paid for doing the art, and I got to keep the original artwork for the front and back of the card, and I got 50 singles of my card as a thank you. They don’t have to tell me about what they do with it now or in the future. I wish they would have sent me some of the new base card though! That would have been nice!

P.P.S. – I also sold the original Han Solo card art back in 2019 or so on eBay. I have no idea who owns it now.