Dick Perez is The True Diamond King
On Friday, April 25th, “The Diamond King”, a biopic about the life of Dick Perez releases to the public. The film is a project that has been just over two years in the making.
I sat down with the filmmaker Marq Evans and artist Dick Perez back in 2023 as the project began, and again this week as the film releases to the public.
A Kickstarter campaign was used as one of the primary sources of funding for this project. It started with a goal of raising $30,000 and ended with 295 people who contributed over $59,000 to help make the film possible.
This level of support wasn’t necessarily a surprise based on conversations they were having within the baseball card collecting community. Marq shared, “I had a feeling if we could make sure people who love Dick’s work and the Diamond Kings were aware of it, it would be successful. I don’t know how we would have made the movie with out the support of baseball lovers and the baseball card community.”
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In addition to the 15 year long run as the artist behind the Donruss Diamond Kings cards, Perez also created the Perez-Steele Hall of Fame postcard series which portrayed over 200 Hall of Famers along with a variety of other special sports card sets.
The story of Dick’s life is captured in this film. It covers his journey to America as a young child after the death of his father, the love story between him and his wife, and how his passion for both art and baseball spawned a multi-decade career which has captivated fans for over 30 years.
When asked what he wants people to know about this film, Evans responded, “You’ll get to know Dick Perez. He’s got an inspiring story that everybody should get to know, and you’ll also see the history of baseball through his work. He’s done thousands of baseball paintings depicting the game from the 1800’s until today.” Perez added, “One of the things Marq and I settled on from the beginning is that this needs to be more than just the story of a guy who paints. It needs to be bigger than that, and I think it hits that spot well.”
The film releases on Friday on a variety of streaming platforms and links can be found on the official film website www.thediamondkingmovie.com.
Mike Sommer is a lifelong collector who has a passion for teaching others how to have a self-sustaining hobby. You can find more from him at WaxPackHero.com, Hobby News Daily, and on the WaxPackHero Sports Card Minute podcast.
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