Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Box Break: Inkworks Jericho Season One

It seems like forever since I've done a box break. After taking a look back, I realized the last time was over three years ago. Anyway, for whatever reason I've been interested in my small collection of entertainment cards again recently. That made me do some searching online for more sets I could get into. Then I happened to stumble across the listing on eBay for this box and decided to go for it since Jericho is one of my favorite shows. I got a great deal and this only set me back $20 including shipping.

If you are not familiar with Jericho, click here for more information. Basically its a post-apocalyptic action-drama that focuses on a small Kansas town in the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the US. It ran for two seasons on CBS from 2006-2008. 

This set was produced by the now defunct Inkworks company back in 2007. There are 72 cards in the main set along with some insets, autographs and memorabilia cards. This box has 6 cards per pack and 36 packs. On average there should be one autograph and one Pieceworks card per box. Here is a look at the box top:


I'll start things off with the title card. This is card #1 in the set and the front has a generic promo shot of the main cast of the show. I really like the font on the word Jericho as well as the textures and color fade from top to bottom.


The back has some generic info about the show and a promo shot of the four members of the Green family. It also lists the producers and creators of the show, which I thought was a nice touch. The texture and color fade is similar to the front.


Here is a look at the checklist. The front is an image of the flag for the new Allied States of America from season two. It's obviously based on the real United States flag. The stripes were made vertical to represent the new fictional nation going in a new direction.


The back lists all of the cards in the main set, which is comprised of three subsets: characters, episodes, and behind the scenes. There are only 72 cards in all, so not the biggest set, but enough to nicely capture the first season of Jericho.


The first of the character cards is Jake Green, who is played by Skeet Ulrich. The front has a nice almost half body image that fills out the center of the card nicely. The overall design is a bit of a departure from the title card, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like how there are some nice straight lines and then some eroded lines, it gives the overall card a balanced look while not being too gaudy.


The back of the card is similar to the front with the same color scheme and parts of the same perimeter design. There is a new picture on the back along with a brief write up on the character. Not a bad looking design at all if you ask me.


After the character cards, there are 44 cards focusing on the episodes of season one. Each of the 22 episodes has two cards. This one is the first card for the pilot episode. These cards look much more like the header card, which is a good thing. I like the horizontal setup since the images are taken right from the show.


One interesting thing to note about the back of this card is the opening Morse code listed below the paragraph. Each episode starts with the word "Jericho" displayed on the screen and the only audio playing is Morse code, which means something specific to each episode. In this case for the pilot, "JERICHO PILOT" was the message.


After the episode cards, there were seven of these Behind the Scenes cards. These cards have some additional information about the show that wasn't necessarily in one of the episodes. This one focuses on the cities that were bombed during the initial attack.


The design of these cards is somewhere between the character cards and the episode cards. definitely not a bad overall look to them. The back of the card lists all the cities from the first attack. Looks like there's a few hockey cities on there.


Now onto the inserts. There are several types of inserts available. The first one is the box loader card. There are three of these available. I got the second card in the set that features the Green family of Jericho. This one was really foily so it didn't scan the best.


The back of the card was not foil, so it looks much better in the scan. This one has a nice write up on the Green family who are the primary characters in season one.


Then there was the "Survivors" set and I was able to get two of these: this one featuring Robert Hawkins and another featuring Dale Turner and Gracie Leigh. These are also really foily so the scan looks pretty bad. I do like the design of the front though.


These cards focus more on the actors than the characters, as evident by the write up on the back of this one. That's ok though, I think mixing in this kind of information is a great idea for a set about a TV show, which wouldn't be what it is without the actors.


The last insert set called "Fallout" is a cool one that is made up of a nine-card portrait. I got three of the nine, so I have a ways to go. These are also foily so the scan isn't the greatest.


The back of the card shows the entire portrait, which would look awesome all together in a nine pocket page. It also has a short write up about the scene depicted.


As far as true "hits" this product has autographs and Pieceworks memorabilia cards. The stated odds were one of each per box on average, so I had my hopes up for at least one of each. Well, I did get of each and couldn't be happier. I'm just really glad I didn't hit one of the autograph cards that were only available via redemption since Inkworks has been out of business for years now.

Up first is a hard-signed auto of Sprague Grayden, who plays Heather Lisinski on the show. It's a good looking card with a nice promo shot of Grayden and a nice blank space for a signature. Even her signature is nice looking, which is always a good thing.


Last but not least is my one Pieceworks card from the box: a dual costume card of Ashley Scott who plays Emily Sullivan on the show. There are pieces of her top and jeans specifically from the second episode of the show's first season.


I love that card because its awesome to have a piece of memorabilia from a specific episode. Any time I watch that episode now, I can enjoy the fact that I have a small part of it in my collection. This is much more appealing to me than your everyday hockey jersey card, unless it mentioned exactly which games the jersey was worn in. I know sometimes on rare occasions they do, but not all the time.

So that's it for my second entertainment card box break. I have to say I really enjoyed this one as Jericho is one of my favorite shows. I did end up with a complete base set as promised, so I can mark this one complete. Now I would like to maybe work on the insert sets and possibly the autos and memorabilia sets.

3 comments:

  1. I loved this show. Super disappointed it was cancelled with no closure.

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    1. Same here. They did kind of continue it with some graphic novels for seasons 3 and 4. I haven't read them yet, but would like to some day. Both are available on Amazon:

      Season 3 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160010939X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687762&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1613776047&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=7M87TZJ5SJBD5MSD1J8R

      Season 4 - https://www.amazon.com/Jericho-Season-4-Kalinda-Vazquez/dp/1613776047?ie=UTF8&keywords=jericho%20season%204&qid=1365188277&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

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    2. Thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely look into them.

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