In the USA beginning in 1996, the X-Files began to be issued in VHS (yes, that clumpsy magnetic thing before the Digital Versatile Disc or whatever it’s officially called came along), with each VHS tape containing two episodes. With these tapes came insert cards with art on the tape’s specific episodes. Not all the episodes were issued so not all episodes have their card, and for some reason the cards stopped being issued after Tunguska/Terma came out, so in all there are 42 panels. Not content to be novel enough for releasing so many episodes on VHS, the X-Files made entire pieces of art for each single episode!

I do not own these cards and I have salvaged the following scans from defunct 1990s fan sites, saving them from oblivion along the way. As far as I know, they now only exist here and in some collectors’ houses — which is a shame since this really is memorable X-Files art. I believe I had seen the panels for the Pilot and Deep Throat printed on T-shirts a while back. If you come across this page and can provide better scans for the world to see, please contact me.

The cards were made by Thom Ang and Cliff Nielsen. These are the same people who, with Miran Kim, did the artwork for the Topps trading cards of seasons 1-3. The trading card sets had cards and panels like this for each episode, but these are not the same paintings/collages. The artwork is not credited individually; I believe most, if not all, were made by Thom Ang (you will notice a trademark ‘a in a triangle’ in most panels).

The art is haunting and beautiful in its own, twisted way. Some “to be continued” episodes were given a special treatment, with imagery in one panel echoing the other’s: in particular take a look at Duane Barry / One Breath, Colony / End Game and Nisei / 731. Artist and X-phile Jared Adams tried to continue in the same vein, making panels for all the mythology episodes that followed, going so far as to use the same “The X Files” logo and the echoing between continued episodes’ panels — I find the result very successful and I encourage you to visit it here.

 

1X79: Pilot	1X01: Deep Throat
1X02: Squeeze	1X04: Conduit
1X07: Ice	1X09: Fallen Angel
1X10: Eve	1X12: Beyond The Sea
1X16: E.B.E.	1X19: Darkness Falls
1X20: Tooms	1X23: The Erlenmeyer Flask
2X01: Little Green Men	2X02: The Host
2X04: Sleepless	2X05: Duane Barry
2X06: Ascension	2X08: One Breath
2X13: Irresistible	2X14: Die Hand Die Verletzt
2X16: Colony	2X17: End Game
2X20: Humbug	2X25: Anasazi
3X01: The Blessing Way	3X02: Paper Clip
3X04: Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose	3X09: Nisei
3X10: 731	3X12: War Of The Coprophages
3X15: Piper Maru	3X16: Apocrypha
3X17: Pusher	3X20: José Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’
3X23: Wetwired	3X24: Talitha Cumi
4X01: Herrenvolk	4X03: Home
4X02: Unruhe	4X08: Paper Hearts
4X09: Tunguska	4X10: Terma