The Jim Steranko Fantasy Art Trading Cards were produced by FPG in USA in 1995. A full set is made up of 78 base cards, 12 Supergirl Metallic cards and randomly inserted autograph cards. The large array of art found in the series are by artist Jim Steranko.
Jim Steranko was born in 1938 and is one of the most famous figures in pop culture, with dozens of successful careers to his credit. He has had huge success as an illustrator, author, magician, designer, musician, escape artist, and historian. He is ‘cited’ as one of the prime architects of Marvel Comics. Wizard magazine credited Steranko as the ‘5th Most Influential Artist in Comics’ History’.
He has painted a multitude of movie posters, record albums, and book covers and in 1975, created Red Tide, the first modern graphic novel. As the editor-publisher of the international newsstand entertainment magazine ‘Prevue’, he conducted hundreds of superstar interviews and penned more than three million words.
Steranko is perhaps most celebrated for his work at Marvel on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America, and the X-Men, as well as a string of eye-catching covers. His two volumes of ‘The History of Comics’ have sold more than 100,000 copies each. As a filmmaker, he collaborated with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas (for whom he created the look of Indiana Jones) and Francis Ford Coppola on some of their most popular films.
The Jim Steranko Fantasy Art Trading Cards were sold in a cardboard shop display box containing 36 packets per box, as can be seen below.
Each packet contains 8 randomly placed trading cards. The front and back of the packet wrapper the cards were sold in can be seen below.
The 12 Metallic cards found in the Jim Steranko Fantasy Art Trading Cards series contain pinup image of ‘Supergirls’ themed around comic book characters. Each card is made of heavy stock cardboard measuring 6.4cm x 8.9cm, with a highly reflective finish. Each card is numbered and contains a title along the lines of the pinup image featured. The titles are:
- M1 – All-American Girl
- M2 – Yellowjacked
- M3 – Jungle Queen
- M4 – Lucky Lady
- M5 – Phantom Lady
- M6 – Lantern Light
- M7 – Uncle Samantha
- M8 – Bat Wings
- M9 – Super Siren
- M10 – Black Katz
- M11 – Phantom Blonde
- M12 – Robbin’ Hood
Supergirl Metallic card number M5 is titled ‘Phantom Lady’, which is themed after the Phantom. The front and back of the Metallic card can be seen below.
We first see a similar image in the Super-Girls wall calendar which was released by Jim Steranko in USA in 1973. The wall calendar contains 12 risque illustrations of pinup style female images, in which the November page features ‘Femme Girl Phantom’ as can be seen below. The Metallic trading card contains a similar image to that found in the wall calendar.
The Phantom 