Artifacts: Random Stuff

Erm, yeah.  Just what the title says.  This was some stuff I scanned from mom's scrapbooks that didn't fit in with the other stuff.  So, let's get to it.

This was the first picture from the first scrapbook.  I'm not exactly sure why mom saved it, but it's a picture from the preschool I went to.  That's the teacher's, Mrs. Lamm's, daughter in the early 70's dress.  I like this picture because of the period wardrobe.  

  

Here's an article about my first Christmas Parade.

Here's my first movie.  I do not remember either flick.

Insert your Tiger King jokes here if you've seen the show.  (I haven't.)  This was an animal park I visited as a kid.  One quick Internet search revealed that it's still there, though under a different name.

Here's an essay I wrote as youngster blowing the lid off of the entertainment industry.  It was too hot to print then and even more explosive now.  Read if you dare to learn the truth.

Lastly, mom apparently saved an apology letter she sent to my teacher I guess after I'd acted up in school (probably preschool).  I wonder if the teacher sent it back with corrections.  I like the, "He seems so disinterested in writing," line.  Thanks, mom.

Comic Reviews: From Beyond the Unknown

Continued from previous post

I never quite figured out the theme for the stories in this DC 100-page book, From Beyond the Unknown.  Perhaps it’s characters and continuities that have been wiped out in all the multi-versal reboots.  I never noticed this comic being solicited.  I probably would have been interested in picking it up.

First up was a new preachy Hal Jordan Green Lantern story.  If there was an allegory to it, I didn’t figure it out.  (That might be for the best.)  In any case, the artwork and story were otherwise pretty good.

Another new story was a Kamandi tale.  He’s the last boy alive on a devastated earth.  If it’s possible to have a sweet horror story, this was it.

The next new story was a short classic Legion of Superheroes tale.  By “classic,” I mean the Levitz era line up in their classic outfits.  It was pretty good.  Why can’t they just do these kind of LSH stories now!  Why do they keep rebooting it and re-conceptualizing them!  It was just right to begin with!         

The rest of the issue was classic reprints.  There was a team-up between Superman and Adam Strange.  I have very little experience with Strange, but a dude with a rocket pack, a laser gun, and a finned helmet is irresistible.  What is also irresistible is Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez’s stunning artwork.  The story itself was a bit incomprehensible.  That’s even with an Adam Strange consultant listed in the credits.

Next up was a team-up between Batman and the Metal Men.  Okay, this story really feels like a random insert into the comic.  I suppose the weirdness of this story is how unbelievably passive Batman was in this story.  He’s told he’s been replaced and forced to retire, and he just accepts it.  As Bruce Wayne in the story, he basically gives up when a group of armed thugs invades his building and threaten his employees.  Thankfully, everything is put back to normal by the end.  Good God!

The last story is my favorite of the comic.  It features Green Lantern, Katma Tui, trying to give a ring to a sightless creature to make him a Green Lantern.  This turns into a tougher task than you’d think.  For a six-page story with no real conflict, I really enjoyed the mental exercise contained within.  This was written by Alan Moore with art by Bill Willingham.  I wonder if this was early in their careers.

  

Here, we have a winner.  I’ll recommend this Beyond title that momentarily restored my faith in new comics.

Random Comic Reviews

I took another trip to the used bookstore and the comic bookstore downtown during work hours.  This time, as opposed to last time, I was clocked out for lunch, so it was all legal.  Nothing like a good brisk walk in the heat at noon.  I was pleasantly gassed and in a lather when I got to the bookstore.

At Coas Bookstore, I was hoping to find another art book like I did last time.  No luck there.  I also turned my nose up at the large selection of trade paperbacks.  I did pick up a book on Japanese mannerisms for a friend.  You can find all sorts of stuff there, the place is huge.  For myself, I found two issues of Ka-Zar and three of The Warlord.

The Ka-Zar’s were #7 and #8.  I was excited to find them, as I’d read a couple of Ka-Zar’s from the 80’s and enjoyed them.  They were rather thoughtful and philosophical, especially for a comic featuring a guy in a loincloth with a pet sabertooth tiger.  Unfortunately, these two issues were way too intellectual.  #7 featured Shanna analyzing one of Kevin’s dreams.  That was the whole story and it didn’t really make a conclusion. 

 

#8 had a bit more action and the origin of the lost land of Pangea, but mostly read like a martial dispute between Kevin and Shanna.  That was a bit unsatisfying and uncomfortable.

The Warlord issues were #’s 56, 60, and 97.  The earlier two featured Travis Morgan involved in some palace intrigue.  I was bit more interested in the backup feature of Arion.  The artwork was gorgeous and I kind of tripped out on the flowery poetic language.  The setting had a Michael Moorcock Elric vibe to it and also perhaps Lovecraft’s Polaris.  Eight pages an issue was far too brief a glimpse into it.  

            

The other issue ran full length and followed up on the issues I’d bought last time.  Morgan led a disastrous assault on his occupied city.  Him and his forces were chased back to their hidden stronghold.

Where else are you going to see cavalry charges on dinosaurs?  This is what we read comic books for.

Next, I went over to Zia Comics.  It was on the back and it was Free Comic Book Day.  The people running the promotion were doing it on Wednesdays for the summer.  Unfortunately, the people at Zia Comics decided not to participate this year.  That was disappointing.  It also brings up the question of where I saw the FCBD promotion, because I thought it was on their website and I don’t go to any other comics websites.  I went ahead a bought a few comics anyway and an ice cream cone.  (Which lasted 30 seconds outside in the heat, as I furiously licked at it.)   

Judge Dredd Mega-City Zero was on their Dollar Spinner rack.  I enjoyed Karl Urban’s Dredd movie a lot.  That’s most of my experience with the character.  This comic was not that.  In the back, an editorial message referred to this as a “bold new direction.”  The story featured Dredd in jumping forward into the far future when the Mega-Cities have collapsed and returned to nature.  Unfortunately, along with the poor premise, it also featured very poor artwork and writing.  The supporting characters were disgusting.  So much for that direction.

This comic, Wayward Legends, is based on a web comic, Wayward Sons Legends.  I’ve never heard of the Absolute Comics Group, but this #1 full-sized issue was priced at $1.99, so I gave it a shot. 

It’s basically sort of an Ancient Aliens set up for a superhero comic: super powered spacefaring people crashland in classical Greece.  Unfortunately, that’s literally the whole issue.  The story isn’t formatted in a Marvel decompressed format, but that’s how it reads.  This issue gets an incomplete.       

      

Continued 

Summer Sports Report 2020 Part 2

Continued from Part 1

MLB

I had a truly nuclear take ready to go if the players and owners hadn’t come to an agreement to play this year.  I’ll save it for next year when the players go on strike, since this “agreement” was pretty much the owners dictating their will.  Even with the proposed shortened season, I doubted it would really happen until I got to watch a couple training games from the Rangers’ new stadium, Globe Life Park.  (Oh, and the Rangers are being pressured to change their name too now like the Redskins.  It’s racist.) 

The new park was absolutely stunning.  The suites behind home plate will make the stadium instantly recognizable.  There’s a row of wooden rocking chairs in one section.  There are giant bobble heads of the Ranger legends in the concourse.  I was momentarily excited for the start of the season.

Then it all came crashing down.  MLB and the players announced right before first game that they were going to turn the whole thing into social justice propaganda.  They did this appease ESPN.  Dodger Mookie Betts signed a 12-year, $365M contract soon afterward.  I was listening to ESPN Radio the day of the opening games.  They brought on an expert to discuss the contract.  They spent most of the interview doing funny voices and goofing off.  They were in agreement that the contract was a travesty and that Mookie is being criminally underpaid.  At least ESPN was talking baseball, but unfortunately they were talking about it the same way they always do, badly.

The opening games were all ESPN could hope for.  BLM is now the MLB logo on the field.  Players were trying to one-up each other in the knee-taking ceremony, formerly known as the Anthem.  There was Mookie taking a knee to protest his contract.  The Yankees and Dodgers both won their games on their way to undefeated 60-0 regular seasons (only to be beaten in the first round of the playoffs).  The potentially biggest story of the night was Nationals’ star, Juan Soto, testing positive right before the game.  This could have been a disaster, like Ranger Joey Gallo’s positive test, but it turned out to be nothing.  Joey had tested positive and negative twice each within a week. The cold testing might be a bit flawed. 

During the Yankee game, they did announce an expanded playoffs for 16 teams.  So, just like the NBA and NHL, more than half the league will get into the playoffs.  What could be more exclusive than that?  The DH will be in the National League now.  Relievers have the three-batter minimum, but still no pitch clock.  And, there will be automatic runners for extra-inning games.  There also won’t be any fans in attendance.  This is going to be crushing for TV broadcasts as the fans are actually integral to the game.  Other sports aren’t as dependent, but they are a major part of screen time in baseball.

The next day I got to hear the end of the Rangers and Rockies’ first game at the new ballpark.  I assume most of broadcaster Eric Nadel’s comments on the stadium came at the beginning of the game.  The Rangers won in a 1-0 shutout.  This might be a bad sign for offense at the park.  A worse sign was that the game still took nearly three hours. 

On Saturday, FOX did an unprecedented baseball triple-header (quadruple if you count the late game on FS1).  I actually kind of appreciate the effort they made to make this opening weekend an event.  There was a little bit of social justice mixed into the broadcast, but mostly they kept to calling the games and having a good time.  Both Trump and Biden were running presidential ads during the games, so you still had plenty of politics. 

 

I’m not recapping any of these games.  I’ll just hit some random observations.  The Cubs and the Brewers played first at Wrigley.  I got together with dad to watch the game.  We got a pizza and breadsticks from a local place, Roadrunner Pizza.  I’m somewhat sorry to report it was subpar.  It was hard and thin, as opposed to chewy.  I like their pizza generally, but the quality varies widely from visit to visit.  Don’t be the first pizza order of the day, I guess, which is what I think ours was.

I was somewhat amazed by the inclusion of virtual computer-generated fans in the stands for the game to go along with the artificial crowd noise.  I’d say the main problem with the effect was that they weren’t doing it in every shot.  The games somehow had a listless quality to them without the fans there.  Certainly, the coverage suffered without having cute kids, hot chicks, and guys dropping foul balls.  There were a few real fans across the street in the Wrigleyville Rooftop stands at least.

For the game itself, I’m still snickering over Lorenzo Cain getting out of a pickle from the Cubs’ infield with himself and another runner avoiding a rundown.  There was a near bench-clearing brawl after a couple of hit batters.  The umps had to explain to the managers that the revised cold protocol rules don’t allow for fighting.  It turned out to be a pretty good game, but it ran for three-and-a-half hours.  I knew we were in trouble when we were an hour in and it was the top of the third. 

Dad was being a bit uncommunicative for some reason in the afternoon, so I left after that game.  Since I’d already missed the start of the second game with Dodgers and the Giants and the Rangers and Rockies on the radio, which started at the same time, I decided to go to the mall for a minute to get a couple of things.  One thing was an artbook that was recommended to me last week by a clerk as I was at the checkout buying different artbook.  If buying three artbooks this year and drawing from them doesn’t finally turn me into a great artist, I’m going to give up.        

At Dodger Stadium, cutouts of celebrities sat behind home plate.  The game seemed pretty good, but I had the Ranger game on the radio at the same time.  I’d also called my Aunt Judy in Missouri to congratulate her on a Cardinals victory this afternoon.  She was very happy to have her team back.  I noticed in the game was that FOX was trying to run a full commercial in during break in the action on field.  This resulted in missing a pitch, but at least the cutouts weren’t missing any of the action.  

The Ranger/Rockies game was also pretty tight.  In the ninth, Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks were surprised by a Roughned Odor foul ball going into their broadcast booth.  They’re six levels up and never thought one would ever reach them and here it happened in the second game in the park.  There was absolutely no panic over the foul ball coming at them.  They both just moved out of the way.

The marquee game came afterward between the Yankees and Nationals.  Surprisingly, the Yankees and Dodgers lost today.  I’m kind of shocked.  There goes the undefeated seasons for both them.  More surprisingly, I saw my second pole shot homer of the day during the game.  You’d think the foul poles would be impossible to hit in a game.

On Sunday, I heard Joey Gallo hit the first home run in Globe Life Park in the stadium’s third game.  However, Trevor Story would hit a pair of homers to lead the Rockies to victory.  While listening, I flipped around the TV and found another game on a Mexican station between the Astros and Mariners.  The game was on a different Mexican station than the one who was broadcasting MLB last year.  This is good news for my baseball viewing for the rest of the summer.  And there was a game on ESPN Radio right after.  They were even calling the game fairly straight without being totally annoying in shoving The Agenda down people’s throats.

So, what have we learned about sports overall this summer.  Seemingly, the condition of these sports coming back was that they all had constantly remind viewer about the cold and had to promote BLM.  NASCAR got hit very hard with that BLM mandate.   (I just noticed that I’d actually said something nice about Bubba Wallace last year 7-7-19.)  Sports is no escape from current events, if it ever really was.  Now it’s simply another mouthpiece for propaganda for the democrat deep corporate media state.  Just to spite them, I’m going to still watch and enjoy what I can.

NHL Hockey starts next week.  I’ll try to check in to see if they’ve lost their dignity too.  I may or may not write about it.  I’m not enthusiastic about sports writing right now.  

Summer Sports Report 2020 Part 1

I can hardly believe everything that has happened since my last report, or just don’t want to believe.  The good news is that there are sports.  The bad news is that they are all ruined.  (Well, we’ll see about hockey next week.  There’s some momentary hope.)  I’ll make some quick comments on several sports and a longer commentary on baseball in Part 2.

NASCAR

The makings of disaster were properly foreshadowed, but didn’t fully blossom until after I’d written my last report.  I’m too disgusted to go over the Bubba Wallace saga.  The only result of this sorted tale is that he’s cleverly marketed himself into fame and riches because of his race.  He was never going to get there with his driving abilities.  The whole noose hoax seemed to have been staged to distract and quiet fans who were angry about the Confederate Flag ban.  (So only bring your Swastikas to the races.)    

NBC took over the broadcasting with an Indycar/Xfinity Series double header at the road course at Indy.  I was really impressed how quickly they got ready in between the races.  So far this year, the Xfinity Series has easily produced the best races.  The Cup Series race coverage was only an excuse to remind everyone of the cold going around every five minutes (when not in commercial, of course).     

NHRA

FOX went to covering drag racing.  Just like NBC, the only purpose of the broadcast was to remind everyone of the cold as they came out of every commercial break.  I was watching the races with my dad.  He was skeptical, but I was telling him about this larger-than-life John Force guy and this really hot chick, Leah Pritchett.

Well, John Force wasn’t there.  There was no explanation during the broadcast.  From looking into it on the Internet, he may have folded his team, but I’m not really sure.  This meant Brittany Force wasn’t racing either, since she races for him.  (I knew Ashley had retired.  I found out Courtney had just retired.)  Leah is now Leah Pruett, as she has gotten divorce.  (Now I just need to get to a race to ask her out.)  She was still gorgeous in a mask, but I feel like I over-sold her looks because of it. 

The second race that was broadcast for some reason didn’t feature the Pro-Stock or Pro-Stock Motorcycle races.  There was also a rain delay right before the Funny Car and Top Fuel finals.  They ended up not running them at all.  All they needed was 8 more seconds of racing to decide everything.

NM State Aggie Sports

Nick Gonzales was drafted in the top 10 and went to the Pirates.  This was good news for him and the program as their highest ever draftee.  The bad news is that Aggie Football’s money games were canceled and the governor is threatening to end their and UNM’s seasons altogether.  Someone should have AD Moccia on suicide watch.  Volleyball and Soccer’s seasons have been pushed back a month by the WAC.

NFL

What a proud moment.  The NFL, via corporate cronies, has finally forced the Redskins to change their name to TBD.  They got rid of a logo designed by a Native American that featured the image of a Native American.  Of course the term, “Redskin,” had fallen out of usage long ago as a racial insult.  If only there had been some popular Native American rap stars using the word a hundred times in every song to have brought the word back into common usage. 

In slightly related reservation news, I read a newspaper story that the New Mexico Lieutenant Governor wants the Chief Wahoo logo taken off of a high school stadium named after him.  (The team is called the Indians.  MLB allows their names and logos to be used by high school and lower level kids teams.)  A girl at the high school has started a petition to have the Lt. Governor’s name taken off the stadium if this this happens.    

MotoGP

I’ve watched and enjoyed the motorcycle races over the last two weekends, but was doing something else and had the sound off both times, so I can’t really comment on the races.  Several times, I was the horrifying sight of a rider crashing and going into the gravel.  Each time, the safety crew would run out past the rider to go check on the bike.  The riders certainly know what the sport’s priorities are.     

NWSL (Women’s Professional Soccer/PLL (Premier Lacrosse League)

The first team sport to restart playing was Women’s Soccer a few weeks ago for a tournament.  I did tune in for their first game and their championship game.  What I was immediately greeted with both times was a bunch of white girls wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts out warming up on the field.  Next, they brought out a live Anthem singer as both teams took a knee.  I heard one player in another game got in trouble for standing.  She couldn’t apologize fast enough after getting Twitter raped.

After watching the motorcycle race today, I left it on to watch Lacrosse.  This would be the outdoor professional lacrosse league, the PLL, not to the confused with the indoor professional lacrosse league, the NLL.  The TV coverage started by showing a bunch of white guys wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts.  They were exactly the same as the Women’s Soccer shirts, so they must get them from the same company.  They also had BLM patches on their uniforms.  One of the teams then made a circle and took a knee like they were praying to black people.  (The other team didn’t, so the cameras just showed the praying team.)  They didn’t show the Anthem so I don’t know what the teams did there. 

I didn’t actually watch much of either sport and their games.  Apparently, they didn’t want my kind (an American) watching anyway.  The soccer was quite disappointing in that nearly all of the World Cup-winning US team didn’t appear to be playing.  I was kind of hoping to see Rose Lavelle again, maybe Christen Press.  (Alex Morgan is, I think, still on maternity leave.)  Julie Ertz and Alyssa Naeher were there playing in championship.     

 

WWE

Still the most entertaining sport so far this year.  They haven’t disappointed me a bit.  

Baseball will be covered in Part 2.

Artifacts: Grade School Art 2

I was always a precocious artistic genius.  Finding these old masterpieces in my mom's scrapbooks even shocked me by their stunning brilliance.  It's like finding new Picasso's behind the dresser during spring cleaning.  Seriously though, I'm sure everyone has some impressively creative children's paintings in their past.  I only wish I could be so imaginative now.


Here's an early splotch test.  I passed, of course, and showed significant mental superiority over my classmates.

Here I entered an early abstract stage of my artwork.  It's like Jackson Pollack, but better.

I was not immune to the influence of pop culture.  Likely these next three works were produced after viewing Star Wars.  Notice also my ironically creative spelling.

  

I had a paper model of the good ship Cygnus from the Black Hole.  I assume this technical diagram was influenced by that.

Okay, I got no explanation for this.

Finally, we have this interpretive masterpiece.  I thought it was a mushroom city on an fantasy world.  I showed it to a co-worker, who said it was mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion.  Like all great works of art, the viewer becomes a part of it and sees what they want to see.  I present two images of it.  The first is a scan.  The second is a photo. 

Artifacts: Grade School Art 1

There were some interesting school art artifacts in my mom's old scrapbooks.  This is just some random stuff I liked.


I've always been a big Peanuts fan.

I don't know why this coloring page was saved, but it oddly appeals to me.

This is a disturbingly happy image defies easy explanation. 

Here's a cute little tee-pee.

This is an impressive Easter Rabbit.

Lastly, here's the apex of my theatrical career.  I played the Wolf in a play.  It was non-speaking part, which only made it more challenging from an acting standpoint.

 

Sketches: More Ilya and Some Others

I just finished a sketchbook and was about to toss it in my sketch box.  I made the mistake of inventorying what was in there.  This was my ninth full sketchbook, along with two portfolios and a couple of folders containing loose drawings.  This all brings up the question: Why do I still suck?  Regardless, here are a few more sketches from my latest sketchbook.

We'll start with some more Ilya Kuvshinov inspired work.  I've already done two posts (7-20-20 and 6-1-20) featuring his work.  I'm trying to get the most out of my investment in his artbook.

Here's an older charcoal drawing of Mary Jane.

In the next three pictures, I can't identify the subject.  They might have just been models.

This is Rose from a signed comic I got at a convention.

  Lastly, here's a Witchblade sketch.  It's from a comic I bought along with the artbook.