I recently became aware of Håkan Abrahamsson of Göteborg, Sweden through a friend of his who had seen the Stone Rain Project website. It turns out that Håkan (pronounced haw-kan) is another Stone Rain collector! I've met very few in my cybertravels, and Håkan was very generous to me, essentially donating his only copy of White-bordered Portuguese Fourth Edition Stone Rain for inclusion in the Stone Rain Project! Thanks Håkan!

So far Håkan has been working primarily on the English versions, and wasn't seriously going after non-English varieties. It turned out I had an extra he needed so I sent it off to him, it was the least I could do.

What follows is a little interview that I conducted with Håkan via e-mail about his Stone Rain collection:

Why did you start collecting Stone Rain in particular? For the same reason as you--there are so many different ones. The owner of my local store (Card Collector) was collecting Psychic Venoms and I thought that was a rather silly choice, so I had to choose something better. Which Stone Rain has the best artwork in your opinion? Not so hard to answer. The original one by Daniel Gelon!! That is the only one where you can see someone getting hit by a stone... and I like that. (?) What was the most unusual trade you made to get a Stone Rain? Not counting the trade with you it must be when I participated in a competition in Stockholm where first prize was 2 Unlimited Sinkholes and second prize was an Alpha Stone Rain. In the final I played as bad as I could just to be sure of taking 2nd place! Don't worry: I already have 4 Sinkholes. What is the most "special" Stone Rain in your collection? Hard to say. It changes along with my mood, but right now it is the WB Portuguese 4th that I don´t have anymore. It is at least the most "famous" one since it became a cyber-card. What do you think of the "Stone Rain Project"? <-- shameless self-promotion I think it's awesome! But you complicated my collecting since I now know how great a Stone Rain collection can be. Do you play Magic or just collect? Do you do any tournament play? I play a lot. Mostly type 2 and sealed deck. I am playing a PTQ in 2 weeks from now with my Squirrel/Braids-deck. At the same time I collect all Magic-cards. From Fallen Empires to Judgment I am only missing 2 cards and among the older cards I am still looking for a little more than 100 cards. It's the Arabian Nights that holds the most blank spaces in my card album (but I have 4 Rukh Eggs which makes a nice omelet). Are you one of those lucky guys who's girlfriend also plays Magic? Oh yes! Linda has played since Urza´s Saga and she is playing very well. When we play at home I cannot be sure of a victory, but every time we meet in a tournament I have won (so far). We did meet in a final in one tournament. It was Ice Age/Fallen Empires-Sealed deck and we had just recently bought an Ice Age box. So we had experience with these cards since we played minimaster with all 36 boosters. What is your favorite MTG deck archetype? I like control-decks and I am obsessive about bouncing. In fact, my first deck ever was built around Time Elemental so I started early. Now I play a pirate deck (new extended) with A LOT of bounce. Who is your favorite MTG artist? Without any hesitation: Drew Tucker. Of course I have chosen the least popular artist but you have to look at his drawings for a long time and you will always discover new details. Name your favorite musical group. I was a Queen-freak for over 20 years but I got over it. Nowadays I am still listening to my 10CC records so I guess they won in the end. But I like all groups with lots of chorus singing like ELO, Styx, Hollies and so on. I happen to have Swedish ancestry myself, and I've always wanted to make a Swedish magic card. Can you help me with the translation? I will try the best that I can.

Håkan would love to hear from you if you have cards (from any CCG, not just MTG) with Drew Tucker or Richard Kane Ferguson artwork to trade, or information about what other card games feature art from either of these artists. Please help him out!