Birthday Cards

When the boys were little I used to draw a superhero on a piece of bristol-board wishing them a happy birthday. Batman one year, Spiderman the next.

Then one year we were at a super hero exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre and they had one of those photo booths where they take your picture on a green screen and then put it on a magazine or comic book cover. A fun thing for the kids, I thought, but it was like $25 for a crappy little printout. So i took a picture of the TV of some other kid on a Spiderman cover, and then did some photoshopping for Graham’s upcoming birthday. Since Connor’s birthday is a week and a half later, I found a Doctor Octopus photo on the internet and did the same thing to him.

Thus started a annual habit where a day or two before each of their birthdays I ask them to pose for a random headshot and then stay up late frantically photoshopping the heck out of it. Some years are better than others. Here are a few:

2019 – Mario Kart is popular again (thanks to custom modding) as well as Fortnite.
2017 – these were a lot of work. There is no photo or album I could find that had any more of the car past John Belushi, so I had to build it myself. The Clone Cats was also time consuming as it has many many layers.
2015 – Harry Potter and The Flash were big this year. I like the secondary characters’ comments on these – i should remember that.
2012 – these were based on books that the boys were big into. Connor tore through the Percy Jackson and the New Olympians series, so based on his top ranking in a math competition he joined the ‘new mathmeticians’ (hard to see the math contest in the waves). Graham on a Missile Mouse cover turned out real well.
2010 – Connor loved riding his scooter on the street, so why not jump a cake ? How to Train Your Dragon came out this year as well.
2007 – the first photoshopped cards, including the above-mentioned Spiderman photobooth inspiration.
2006 – hard to find photos of these (you can see Batman in the back). They might show up someday LOL

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