Inkworks, the North Carolina-based trading card manufacturer, has announced a portion of its 2002 schedule.  So far the company, which in 2001 produced cards for blockbuster films The Mummy Returns, Jurassic Park 3 and Tomb Raider, has only announced three movie-based projects for 2002 -- and the properties in question, The Scorpion King, Men in Black 2, and Scooby Doo, all have potential TV tie-ins.  The Scorpion King is a spin-off of The Mummy Returns featuring WWF superstar The Rock, while Men in Black 2 is slated to become a Saturday morning cartoon series, and the live action Scooby Doo movie is based on a pop TV cartoon (and Inkworks will produce another Scooby Doo card series based on the animated show for Halloween, 2002).

 

The rest of the Inkworks lineup is based on television properties, which have more staying power than blockbuster films that increasingly open big and then quickly disappear in the dust of the next big movie release. Inkworks is set to publish its first card series based on the syndicated science fiction series Andromeda, which was created by Gene Roddenberry and starred Kevin (Hercules) Sorbo.  A second Andromeda trading card series based on the second season of the show will be out in November of 2002.  Inkworks has successfully revived the Simpsons trading cards, and will start off 2002 with SimpsonMania!, which debuts in January and features autograph cards from all the top voice actors from the best primetime cartoon series in TV history.

 

Inkworks also plans to debut trading cards for Witchblade (April), the sexy cop/fantasy cable series that is based on the Image comic title, and Battlestar Galactica (November), one of the classic TV science fiction series of the late twentieth century.  Meanwhile the remainder of Inkworks' popular television-based card series will continue with the X-Files (Season 8 in February), Angel (Season 3 in August), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 6 in September), and Roswell (Season 2 late in 2002) all appearing next year.