Don't Go Breaking My Heart
So I got hooked on Curling. Especially after the USA was eliminated, I became a big fan of Team Canada. So much so that I actually TiVoed the last two matches since I wasn't home to watch either live. Last night was the final between Canada and Sweden. Canada looked like they were going to win it, but Sweden managed to score two in the tenth end off a Cheryl Bernard misstep, and then the Swedes won in the eleventh. It was good and exciting and…
…well, depressing. I mean, I finally watch part of the Olympics, something I haven't done since 1984, get invested in a team, and they lose. You'd think being a Cleveland fan, I'd be used to this. Still doesn't make it less of a downer, though.
Anyway, Good job Team Canada, and congratulations Team Sweden.
Oh, yeah, and I did another page, too. While watching the match. See, everything ties together.
I Just Liked This, Watson
I just saw Sherlock Holmes again today, and liked it just as much. Then I stumbled upon this music video for the movie featuring the Hans Zimmer score, which I think worked really well. It's got that old fashioned sound and yet still rocks the modern.
Warm-Up Sketch Largely Featuring Ice
I did a warm-up sketch to try to get my brain firing today.
With the USA out, I'm rooting for our neighbors to the north today. I figure, they've given us William Shatner, Evangeline Lilly, Leslie Nielsen, Nathan Fillion, Estella Warren and my friend Mark Lutz. For all that, I can give a little cheer back.
Don't spoil it for me, though. I have to watch today's match TiVo-delayed a couple of hours.
Wayback Wednesday: Bloom County
Here's another Joe Kubert class project. Here, we had to ape the style of a comic strip. I've mentioned before how huge a Bloom County fan I am, so it's no surprise I did Berke Brethed's strip. At the time, Clarence Thomas was being grilled by the Senate at his confirmation hearings on the way to becoming a Supreme Court judge. I thought this was a perfect 
topic for my strip.
I tried to do things like Brethed did. I inked with pen instead of brush. I used the photocopy/photo thing on Ed McMahon's picture. I even signed my name backwards the way he did.
The Sunday strip was out of continuity, as many Sundays were. The reference to Kent State's nursing school was a call out to a high school friend who was attending that program (and later graduated and became a nurse).
Of course, if you want to see Bloom County done right, be sure to check out IDW's beautiful Bloom County collections. The first one is out now, and the second one is soon to follow.
If you want to see it done by me, click and embiggen!
Women With Brooms
I'm not normally a fan of the Olympics. I'm glad we have them, and think they're great competition, but I'm just not a fan of the sports. Well, until this year.
Somehow, I got hooked on curling. Some of it comes from my appreciation for Paul Gross, star of Due Southand Slings and Arrows, who also wrote and starred in a movie called Men With Brooms. The movie was about a curling team, and was really enjoyable. Check one, or all, of them out.
The United States' women's team still has a chance to medal. The men have been eliminated, but are still playing out the round robin. I'm sure you can find an Olympic schedule if you're interested.
Wayback Wednesday: Another Swimsuit Story
My good friend and fellow Kubert School student Sean Tiffany has been doing a series of "From the Vault" posts on his blog. In these, he brings out some old piece of artwork from school or early in his career. Always one to steal from someone smart, I'm going to do the same thing here with Wayback Wednesdays.
First up is a project from my "senior" year at Kubert. (Kubert was a three year school, but I hate saying "third" or "last" since it sounds like I didn't finish.) This was actually in Joe Kubert's class. We had to adapt a TV show into comic book format, doing a cover and a couple of interior pages. I did Quantum Leap. Innovation was doing a comic at the time, and I figured this might be a nice set of samples to show them. Plus, I was a fan of the show and wanted to do the scene that they could never really afford to do.
Quantum Leap had Sam Beckett leap into the life of another character, usually at in inopportune moment. When he got there, Sam's reaction would inevitably be "Oh, boy." So I threw Sam into a skydiver. Sam leaping into someone who, literally, was leaping through the air was too good, plus the things you could do with Al were too much fun to pass up.
The cover was a parody/homage to the Kathy Ireland Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover, which had come out a couple years before. It was iconic enough, and lent itself well enough that I thought it was a great fit.
As it was The Old Days, the artwork was done on bristol board, the lettering done by hand, and the colors done with Dr. Martin Watercolor Dyes on a photocopy pasted onto a piece of illustration board. Ah, pre-computer color. There's some aspects of actually brushing wet color on paper that I miss, but all things being equal, I much prefer computer coloring.
And, as always, click to embiggen!
Fat Tuesday and Coffee
Today's Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent. 
In recent years, I've taken to giving up coffee. It's a bit rough, but I think it's good to practice that kind of self-control. After all, I have a job where I have to motivate myself to do work, so it's good to have learn discipline.
So, enjoy this panel of Something while I enjoy this Kona coffee out of my cool stainless steel Uncle Scrooge coffee mug.
Send Me a Postcard
I mentioned the idea of doing postcards for this Con Season. I think I'm committed to it. I'm planning on doing a different card for each day of the show, too. The city photos are comps right now, but will be the full purchased versions when I get them printed. But I figured you might like to see what they're going to look like.
