Marq Evans has had quite the journey the past two years documenting the life and career of Dick Perez, creator of the Diamond Kings inserts and arguably the most influential card artist of the past 50 years.
It started with an e-mail Evans wrote to Perez expressing an interest in making a documentary about the esteemed baseball artist. Evans was hoping for a reply within a few days. Instead, Perez wrote back a few hours later, sparking a lifelong friendship.
“The friendship with Dick; his family has become our family and vice-versa,” Evans told SC Daily. “He’ll be a lifelong friend. It’s great to see him get his flowers because he didn’t really know the impact he had.”
The documentary The Diamond King is now ready for its big debut. The documentary chronicles Perez’s career and life, his move from Puerto Rico to New York, and how baseball helped him assimilate to the mainland. Then, his big break came with the release of the Donruss Diamond Kings in 1982.
The past year has been full of fun sneak peeks at venues like the 2024 National in Cleveland, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the 2024 SABR Convention in Minneapolis, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The film will be available for anyone to purchase or rent on streaming platforms Amazon, Google, Apple, and Kinema on April 25.
The film can be purchased for $12.99 or rented for $4.99. The official trailer was released last week on the film’s official webpage.
The Diamond King
The Diamond King officially premiered at the Palm Springs Festival in January. It won “Best of Fest” along with a handful of films that scored best with the audience. The award earned it a second viewing at the festival.
With its worldwide debut a few weeks away, Evans hopes the excitement and positive feedback from Palm Springs and the sneak peeks will translate to a healthy audience on the streaming platforms.
“I love this film, and I want as many people as possible to see it,” Evans said. “I wanted to show what kind of a figure Dick is for someone that isn’t as knowledgeable about his career. People can appreciate the art; there’s also a part of a love story between him and his wife.”
The film begins at the 2023 National in Chicago with Perez at a table greeting fans and signing autographs. Dozens of people line up, showing him their Diamond Kings collections and sharing how much the cards meant to them.
“Some people said his cards changed their lives because they came from a troubled childhood, and those were their favorite cards,” Evans said. “His cards helped put them in a better place. He felt the love, and it’s so meaningful to him. It was great to have that experience with him.”
Opening Week Incentives
Anybody who buys or rents the film during the opening week will receive a set of jpeg images of Diamond Kings from 1982-1996 with proof of purchase.
“It’ll be Dick’s 15 full years of Diamond Kings that they’ll have access to and be able to download all of them,” Evans said.
In addition, those who buy the movie will be entered into raffles to win high-quality prints made for the film. Evans made dozens of prints for the movie to discuss some of Perez’s artwork since many originals weren’t available, and he has about 20 prints remaining to give to film purchasers.
Less than 1,000 people have seen the movie in the past year, and Evans is hoping many more see the fruits of his labor. Evans, a card collector, worked on the film independently, always meaning to go the way of self-distribution while fundraising with the hobby community.
“I had always been curious about doing self-distribution,” Evans said. “I wanted to find something I could make within two years, relatively inexpensively compared to some films. Even though I’ve had good distributors before, I never felt it maximized how many people could see that particular film.
“This is a community of people I understand and want to share with these people.”
