The Topps Company has announced that it has obtained a license for the Incredible Hulk Trading Cards, which it will be shipping to distributors May 5 in plenty of time to sell before the release of the Ang Lee Hulk movie June 20th.  Because of the limited time between the acquisition of the license and the release of the movie, Topps is bypassing the normal pre-solicitation cycle and asking distributors to take orders quickly (for example, Diamond will be soliciting via a Previews Update).  Early indications are that the Hulk movie will be one of the biggest of the summer, making a strong market for Hulk merchandise (see 'Hulk Wows Them at ShoWest,' and 'Best in Shows').

Each pack contains seven cards; the packs will be shipped in 24-pack display boxes.  The cards will feature depictions of the Hulk from Marvel's finest artists, originally published as covers, splash pages, in regular comic interior pages, etc.  Artists include original Hulk artist Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr., John Romita Jr., Sal Buscema, John Byrne, Ron Garney, Erick Larson, Dale Keown, Lee Weeks, Mike Mignola, and others.

The Topps Incredible Hulk Trading Cards will include original art chase cards -- sketch cards by comic artists John Romita, Marie Severin, Don Perlin, and John Czop.  The chase cards will be included only in product distributed to the hobby; they will not appear in product sold to mass market channels.  Although the final mix has not been determined, it is known that the four artists will not produce equal numbers of sketch cards.  

As previously reported, Upper Deck has a license to produce Hulk trading cards featuring images from the movie (see 'Upper Deck To Do Hulk Trading Cards').  If this movie turns out to be anywhere near as hot as it looks like it might be, retailers are going to want to stock all of the Hulk merchandise they can get, especially product that has unique features for the pop culture and card store channels.