In 1991, my friends and I encountered the first insert card we really cared about.  We didn’t know what a “chase card” was, but this insert set was what we wanted to see every time we opened a pack of Fleer.  We were hoping to see a flash of black between the sea of yellow, and if we did, we knew we landed a Pro-Visions card!

During the 1991 and 1992 seasons, Terry Smith created the artwork for these awesome cards for Fleer’s baseball, basketball, and football releases. 

I recently had a chance to sit down with him and discuss the original releases, as well as what he is up to today!  

A few abbreviated excerpts from that interview are below, but I have also attached the full episode if you want to hear the whole thing!

Enjoy.

WaxPackHero: Terry, Welcome to the show.  Maybe we can start with you giving us a little background about what you were doing prior to patterning with Fleer in 1991?

Terry:  I always collected cards as a kid.  I was chasing the 1968-69 Topps tall boy basketball cards.  I enjoyed card collecting and art.  I played basketball at Stanford, so basketball cards were my first love.  When I got out of school, the Donruss cards had some artwork, and the headshot and action shots were what sports art had always been.  I said that doesn’t excite me and I wanted to do something different.  

I wanted to create something that I would want to collect if I was still a kid.  We look at our athletes as superheroes so that was the inspiration.  The first one I did was Dwight Gooden.  I sent it off to Topps, Fleer, and Donruss, and then a couple years later a VP from Fleer reached out.

WaxPackHero: How many had you done before Fleer reached out?

Terry: I had only done the one.  I wanted them to tell a story.  I wanted to tap into the things about the athlete that stood out to fans.  Dwight was “unhittable” so how do you reflect that.  On the Nolan Ryan card, the smoke on the ball shows a six, and a 7, and is starting to form an 8.  It’s the story behind who they are what they are.  Sometimes the references are obvious and sometimes they’re not.  On the Bo Jackson football card, the moon behind him is a baseball.

WaxPackHero: What have you been up to recently?

Terry: I hadn’t done any paintings in about 25 years, but we did a deal with the NBA about a year ago.  There is a site called imaginaryink.net where they can see some of my newer work.  I had to learn to paint digitally, but its fun.  

WaxPackHero: Are the new paintings you referenced part of the Small-Stars product?

Terry:  Yes, think of the Small-Stars as art.  I had done two dimensional art, but these are a 12” caricature of NBA players.  We also did a smaller 6” version which also included a couple mini prints of my artwork with each figure.

WaxPackHero:  Is there anything else you want to share about what you have coming up?

Terry:  On ImaginaryInk.net you can always find prints of my newest artwork.  Every two or three months I release a new large print.  They are available for five days, and the print run will be how ever many get ordered during those five days.  

On Small-Stars.com you can keep up with what we’re releasing there!

WaxPackHero:  Thank you coming on and sharing some of the stories behind those original Pro-Visions cards!