The Fish King
Illustrator. Card collector. Lifelong lover of the Sunday funnies. Creator of the Royal Fish Collection and the person behind Stacks Of.
How the Fish King Started
It started with a stack of bass on a single page. Inspired by @stackofcatz, I began drawing bass fish stacked together and posting the videos on TikTok. Then I started doing research on miniature art.
That research led me to an idea: dedicate individual cards to each of these fish. That idea led me to the niche world of ACEOs, and everything followed from there.
I am known online as sketchstacks. My Royal Fish Collection is a growing set of ACEO originals I have purchased from other artists, each one featuring a fish wearing a crown. Every card in the collection is a miniature portrait of royalty that lives in water, created by a different hand.
A Lifelong Card Person
I have collected cards for as long as I can remember. Sports cards, Pokemon, arcade cards, trading cards of every variety. What has always drawn me in is not just the image.
It is the feel. The particular firmness of a well-made card. The way it holds its shape. The way it sits in a sleeve. There is something about a card that a print on paper does not replicate.
And then there are the concepts that make cards valuable. Editions. Signed runs. Numbered prints. First editions. These layers transform a flat object into something a collector will chase. The original becomes more sought after with every reproduction that points back to it.
Influences
Reading to my kids introduced me to Mo Willems and Aaron Blabey. Both of them built franchises from a single recognizable character. The pigeon. The bad guys. Simple, bold, expressive art that translates to every format.
I went to school for web development. My passion has always been illustration. Specifically, the kind of illustration that lived in the Sunday funnies. Comics with personality. Characters with weight.
I am also an archivist at heart. I have spent hours in the Met Museum's digital collection, where I have found things that stopped me cold. A painting called Gold Fish by Francis M. Drexel. Illustrations from The Comic Natural History of the Human Race, published in 1851. Art is everywhere if you look.
What This Site Is For
I built Stacks Of because I see a pattern in the ACEO community that I want to change. Too many talented artists are churning out originals one by one, pricing them too low, burning themselves out, and leaving almost all of the long-term value of their work on the table.
Every original ACEO is an asset. It can be reproduced. It can be numbered. It can anchor a series. It can build a brand. The sports card industry has known this for decades.
My goal is to give ACEO artists the perspective of a collector. To show them the playbook. To help them build something that lasts rather than a production line that exhausts.
Stack of Bass Fish
Fishing parody greeting cards and shirts for people who take their bass fishing too seriously. Bass Pro Shop humor, irreverent designs, gifts for the angler in your life.
Help Grow the Collection
Selling this original dreamcore ACEO to fund the next royal fish. A fish asleep in bed, crown on the nightstand. 1/1, ships with COA. Bidding from $2.99.
ACEO Pet Portrait Commissions
Hand-drawn miniature portraits of your pet at 2.5"x3.5". Original one-of-a-kind ACEO art, made to order. Digital, physical, or physical with tracking available.
The Royal Fish Collection
Fish with crowns. Each card is an original ACEO (2.5"x3.5") purchased from a different artist. The collection grows one royal subject at a time.