Lost alternative artwork from a Pokémon TCG contest has been found after 20 years

Artwork from The Pokémon Company‘s 2002 Create-a-Snorlax TCG competition has been found after 20 years.

The contest, which saw fans competing to design a special Pokemon card featuring the sleeping giant Pokémon, was held in 2002 and saw thousands of entries.

While a winner was chosen and had their design turned into an actual Pokémon card, the artwork from all 20 finalists has now been found by Johto Times.

Between February 10 and March 21, 2002, Wizards of the Coast held a contest where Pokémon League players could draw their own Snorlax card and submit it to the company for consideration. The winner, picked from a shortlist of 20, would have their card produced as an official Pokémon Trading Card.

In April 2002, the 20 entries were randomly selected and posted to the Pokemon Wizards of the Coast website, where fans could vote on the winner. The winner was designed by Craig Turvey, who designed a card featuring a Snorlax sleeping in front of a large Z, with a small Eevee in front of him.

However, the website closed down a long time ago, and the other entries were essentially lost.

Johto Times was able to compile high-quality images of all of the final 20 Snorlax designs, many of which haven’t been publically available in over two decades.

In an interview with the site, Turvey talked about the process of creating his winning card.

“I did it in one night, sketching out the Z first with a ruler, then adding the Snorlax/Eevee, and finally the stars. Pencil for the sketch, colored pencils for all other color, and black magic marker to make the back as dark as possible (I actually had a black mark on my table for years where the marker had bled through).”

“I never thought that I’d win. I was sure that the Sumo Snorlax was going to be the winner.”

“Ever since then, I’ve told my League attendees that if they’re able to find a copy of that promo card, they can bring it in and I’ll sign it for them,” Turvey said.

“I still have a couple sealed packs of the Snorlax that WotC gave me as a prize. I’ve been thinking of doing a numbered signed/sketched/PSA-authenticated with the words ‘Memento Mori’ written on the card.

“If I do this, I plan on locking them in a safe to never be released until I pass away. At that point, my family could sell them as needed to cover any bills… kind of an unorthodox life-insurance plan. A bit macabre, but I think it would make for a cool collector’s item.”