Redwall Collectors Community: Thomas Canty Fantasy Art Trading Cards

Contributed by LordTBT at 10:47 p.m. GMT, 16 May 2022

A little more than a decade ago, we interviewed Redwall cover artist Thomas Canty. Today, we're reviewing the fantasy trading cards that feature those early 1990s Avon covers of his on the front, accompanied by Canty's thoughts on creating the artwork on the back.

In 1996, Canty released 90 of these collector cards. They were originally sold in packs of 10. We have isolated the five cards for Redwall, Mossflower, Mattimeo, Gabool the Wild, and Mariel of Redwall for the purposes of this review. And, like a few other items we've taken a closer look at, we found some printing errors.

Additionally, artwork from Mariel of Redwall appears on two of the five cards - one for the front cover and one for the back cover.

We'll dive into them now.

Redwall, #73

Canty says: "The first picture in a series. I enjoyed the serious "manuscript" quality juxtaposed against such whimsical subject matter. I found-out that I really loved painting mice...!"

Mattimeo, #74

This is the first printing error we found. Clearly, this should be Mossflower - it's the Mossflower cover artwork, and the text refers to the "second" in the series.

Canty says: "The second painting in a series of covers, the strength of the picture lies in the technique versus subject. A clerical manuscript is illuminated with images of rodents."

Mossflower, #75

And this one should have been Mattimeo.

Canty says: "With this third piece in a series, I was beginning to break away from the strict interpretation of the manuscript page, instead letting it become more of a paneled storyboard."

Gabool the Wild, #76

Another error: Gabool's name is mispelled as "Cabool."

Canty says: "I see this painting as the final catharsis of my mouse mania. I believe that any serious painter should draw the line at Pirate Rats. I really do. Really..."

Mariel of Redwall, #77

Canty says: "At this point, I was in-love with painting mice. I even entertained the thought of illustrating a children's book with mice as the chief characters. I must have been nuts!"

And that covers it. Thanks for hanging out with us today!