New 2/14 Faces

 As the big day approaches for this blog, I'm off to my COMC box for a 2/14 interlude, so I can make sure all of them appear before I have to go through my posts to pick my top released cards from the past year. Starting off, some new faces.

I'm leading with some miscellaneous stuff, and here's a new card from the entertainment industry. Victoria Cartagena was in the first season of Gotham, and that was enough to land her character a card in the release. She was also in Batwoman, so there's another opportunity for cards. As with Danai Gurira and Okoye, cards featuring the character itself don't count, but ones that feature the performer in the role do. My collection. My rules.

The recent World Cup gave me a chance to hunt down some stickers/cards featuring the participants. And that also means new candidates can appear. Thankfully, they make it super easy to spot new candidates by having the birthday featured prominently on the front of the card. I also have the usual ones to add at some point (Adams, Cavani, Eriksen, Embolo & di Maria), but I was far more excited by a new face.

I go back 20 years for Matteo Brighi, with a nice foil-y card, who also gives me a chance to practice my Italian with the back of the card, even though the best I can really do is infer that this was from some type of young stars insert set. Why else would it be named 'Promesse'?

More Italian! And a set named 'Fournier Ciclismo 92', which looks to be so obscure, I can't even find it at TCDB. But I do have my first cycling card in the collection!

I guess a true vintage card of Arthur Irwin, which would date to the 1800s, would probably dent the ol' wallet too much. But a modern card is just fine. 

He's also got one of the more interesting card backs in the binders.

Here's the only one to make more than one appearance. Ethan Small made his big league debut last year, but in 2020 he could be found in various prospect-themed releases and insert sets. Seeing how every Topps release tends to be filled with every rookie imaginable, I'll probably have a lot more chances to add Ethan Small content in 2023.

The only hit in this bunch features Tyreke Smith, a draft pick of the Seattle Seahawks. There were two 2/14 guys (Marquis Hayes) drafted in 2022, and both of them were placed on injured reserve to start the season. At least it was consistent! That probably means there won't be too many actual Seattle cards of his, if any, in later releases, but the fact that the 'punt God' still got some Bills cards makes me optimistic for Smith.

If nothing else.

There you have it!