SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 10DEC23

Badder than old King Kong

Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. And if you go down there you better just beware.

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WHAT’S NEW?

Having a CM Punk collection on Schamberger Labs is definitely new. It’s fun being able to finally, officially make these prints available again. They’ll make their way over to WWE Shop eventually, too.

I enjoyed what he had to say on SmackDown this past Friday, especially hitting on what has me most excited about his return to WWE: He’s the wrench being thrown into the gears of everyone else’s stories. A good agent of chaos can do a lot to make WWE’s already-engaging storylines all the more interesting and unpredictable. It’s like what Sami Zayn did for The Bloodline, but now for the entire WWE roster. Nothing’s for sure. No one can be comfortable.

As it should be.

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Here’s a progress shot for next week’s Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman painting. Do you know what the three things are that I find hardest to paint? Long wet hair, championship belts, and Samoan tribal tattoos.

Guess what?

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A QUICK MESSAGE ON BEHALF OF MY MOTHER-IN-LAW

Katy’s mom Ruth Ann has been battling cancer for several years now and it’s drained her finances. The family has set up a GoFundMe to help with the medical costs. If you have a moment to give it a read, please do. If you can pass along the link or contribute to the cause, the family would greatly thank you.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

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UPCOMING WWE PAINTINGS  

• Roman Reigns

• CM Punk - Just started working on this over the past couple days. Like getting back on a bike!

• Kairi Sane - I finished this earlier this week and you won’t believe how much I leveled up making this.

• Randy Orton

• Iyo Sky

Card subject to change.

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Hundreds of prints and paintings at Schamberger Labs!
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Rob’s prints on WWE Shop!
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Instagram
YouTube

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WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK

I finished listening to the audiobook for Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Karina Longworth yesterday. I’m a big fan of Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This and I was surprised I hadn’t listened to this yet, especially as an amateur Hughes and Classic Hollywood history nerd. She does a deep dive, from the perspective of the various women in Hughes’ life and how he impacted their lives for better or worse. Often worse. That said, while giving as fair an accurate a portrayal of Hughes’ life as possible, there’s as much glitter as there are warts although the glitter got fewer and further between as his life went on.

I thoroughly loved Star Trek volume 2: The Red Path by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Mike Feehan and Rachael Stott. Taking this Avengers-esque team of Trek characters led by a returned Captain Sisko, this volume sees Sisko also return to Cardassian space to face the fallout of his part in the Dominion War from Deep Space 9 and it’s rad. SPOILER: There’s space lawyers. I love space lawyers. This volume also collects the annual that has a fantastic ‘malfunctioning holodeck’ story that sees the crew have to interact with lots of Trek history and Rachael Stott drew the hell out of it.

I don’t have much to say about Saga volume 11 by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples that hasn’t already been said about this series. We all know it’s great and somehow keeps getting better. So, like, it’s still great.

I re-read all of Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison and an all-star list of artists over the past week. The scale of this story and what Morrison and company pulled off hasn’t really been seen before or since. The closest I can think of is the great series 52 that Morrison was also a part of. It’s seven four-issue miniseries focusing on different characters in conflict with the same threat, but none knowing of the others and never meeting. It makes the threat, a mysterious-yet-familiar race called The Sheeda, so much more big and terrifying. And THE ART. Truly a who’s who featuring the likes of JH Williams III, Frazer Irving, Simone Bianchi Ryan Sook, Doug Mahnke, Yanik Paquette and more doing some genre-defining art. It’s one of those books I get more out of with each reading.

Apparently I only read books starting with an S this week.

Here’s John Denver performing Country Roads back in 1972:

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Godzilla: Submission Magician

YOU GOOD?  

My good friend David, the man who packages all of your orders at the Schamberger Labs Art Fulfillment Center, has been putting together some epic wrestling matches featuring the various figures we have on the desk there. This is how I found out that Godzilla puts on a mean sharpshooter.

Later in the week, Boba Fett ran in from the crowd to help his old friend Godzilla against Trips and Undertaker.

Godzilla might become the Employee of the Month for this. I’ll keep you updated.

Love you more,
Rob

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EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT

Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code to Schamberger Labs. Also lots of information about upcoming signed prints on WWE Shop. WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.