Muppet cards for Pride!

July 1, 2025 update: the giveaway described in this post is now over! Thank you to all who donated and received cards. I’m proud to have helped raise some money for worthy causes.

There were some cards from the set left over, which will be given away and distributed through other means. Perhaps you’ve arrived at this site because you found one somewhere!

The original post which appeared here continues below.

I was recently having a longish period of artistic block which, on the suggestion of my wonderful wife GIla, I broke through by participating in the annual #MuppetationalMay fan-art challenge posed by Muppets fansite Tough Pigs. The challenge presented a list of daily prompts for original fan art inspired by different characters, concepts, situations, and so on related to the Muppet Universe and the work of Jim Henson over the entire month of May.

People all over social media created all sorts of fan works in various creative formats for this challenge, and posted them with the hashtag #MuppetationalMay.

An Artist Trading Card illustrated with a marker drawing of Gonzo and Camilla sharing a tender moment on a bench, shown in silhouette against the moon and a starry sky. The marker used to draw it is laid on the table below the card. The card is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-1-25.

Marker drawing on an artist trading card of Bert and Ernie from "Sesame Street." Ernie is cheerfully holding a banana to his ear like a telephone handset. Bert is looking at him and saying "That's a banana, you meatball, not a telephone!" The drawing is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-2-25. The black, brown, yellow, red, and orange fine-tipped markers used to draw it are on the desk above the card.

I decided that my contributions to challenge would be artist trading cards. These are stiff paper cards 2.5×3.5 inches, like many collector-type trading cards out there, but with handmade art instead of mass-printed imagery. I find them delightful to work with. (I used these.)

Marker drawing of a cartoonish purple slightly skull-like creature with heavy-lidded eyes and a big crooked smile. The drawing is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-9-25. The double-tipped black and purple Sharpie markers used to draw the image rest on the table above the card.

Marker drawing of a doodled abstract Kermit the Frog floating in midair with waves of doodled lines and patterns surrounding him. The drawing is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-10-25. The double-tipped green Sharpie marker used to draw the image rest on the table above the card.

Armed with an assortment of fresh pens (a gift from Gila!) I did a month of daily drawings, some simple and some elaborate, some straightforward and some weird, and have ended up with 31 cool cards of which I’m quite proud.

Marker drawing of the Beautiful Day Monster, a particularly scary-looking Muppet monster who appeared in bit parts on "The Muppet Show" as well as "Sesame Street." As a pun on his name, I've drawn him dressed as Mr. Rogers as he appeared in every "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" episode opening, sitting on his bench and changing his shoes while singing "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." The drawing is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-17-25. The black, green, light and dark blue, purple, brown, and red markers used to draw the image rest on the table surrounding the card.

Marker drawing parodying "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, replacing the famous screaming figure of the original with Camilla the Muppet chicken. She stands holding her wings to her face and screaming while a shadowy figure of Gonzo approaches from the distance, and the scene is the swirling seaside and tumultuous swirling sky of the original. The drawing is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-18-25. The red, blue, turquoise, brown, yellow, orange, and black markers used to draw the image rest on the table surrounding the card.

Day by day I posted each card to my Mastodon and Bluesky accounts. I photographed them alongside the very pens used to make them, both for scale and to set them apart from the generative AI slop souring the social media environment.

Marker drawing of Yolanda Rat working as a waitress in "The Muppets Take Manhattan. She holds a plate of eggs on toast with a side of fries, and shouts "Two zeroes on a trampoline with a side of Joan of Arc!" The drawing is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-25-25. The black, blue, brown, pink, and yellow markers used to draw the image rests on the table above the card.

Marker drawing of a sentient pear, pineapple, and broccoli stalk who were backup singers in a "Sesame Street" rap video about healthy food. They are drawn against a black background in a spoof of how the Fugees appeared on the famous cover of their album "The Score," and the words "Healthy Food" are written on the drawing in a Godfather-like font similar to how the band and album names graced the original. The drawing is signed with my "RV" signature glyph and dated 5-26-25. The yellow, brown, black, and green markers used to draw the image rests on the table around the card.

Now that the challenge is over, I’ve decided to put this deck of cards to good use by giving it away! Here’s how you can get one.

June is Pride Month, so here’s a selection of LGBTQIA+ nonprofits I love and support, in alphabetical order:

If you send an online donation of at least $15 US to any of these organizations and forward me a copy of your electronic receipt to show me that you’ve done it, while supplies last I’ll mail you a random one of the 31 cards from this set! I’ll explain the prompt behind your card and sign the back of it for you as well. Forward qualifying receipts to the special email address I’ve set up just for this occasion: [the email address which previously appeared here has been deactivated and removed]. Feel free to redact any sensitive personal info you wish from the forwarded receipt, but make sure to include your name and mailing address where you’d like the card mailed! Only one card per individual donation receipt can be claimed; to claim more than one you are welcome to make multiple qualifying receipt-generating donations of at least $15, whether to the same nonprofit or to multiple ones from the list.

Cards will be placed in a stiff plastic holder and sent US Postal first class at my expense to anywhere in the world. You’ll receive a random card from the set, no requests can be made for particular ones; they’re already in sealed envelopes and I have no idea which is which! All received emails and electronic records containing your receipt, address, and other info of yours will be deleted forever as soon as I’ve written your address on your envelope, and no further records of any kind will be kept by me because I’m fiercely uninterested in your private info.

You might like to know that if you enter Tough Pigs’ Pride Month Charity Fundraiser, a raffle-type fundraiser that site is running which is also based on forwarding them your donation receipts, any donation receipts of at least $15 that you’re forwarding to them also qualify for this giveaway! You can use the same receipt for both, I won’t judge!

At the end of the month or when all the cards have been claimed (whichever comes first) this offer will end, this post will be updated to reflect that, and the giveaway’s email address will itself be deleted and unusable forevermore.

While I naturally hope everything goes well, no guarantees of any kind are being made and no responsibility for postal speed or mishaps can be taken. These cards are pop-culture fan art, unauthorized by any rights-holders, and they are being given away, not sold. No monetary value of this art is being assessed or promised. No claim over the Muppets or any other IP portrayed in the art is being asserted or transferred.

Thanks for your interest, and for donating if you can. Happy Pride Month!