Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Don't trust nobody, gotta look over your shoulder constantly.
WHAT’S NEW?
Katy and I have really been enjoying Shogun so far. We had some maintenance done on the house on Wednesday, replacing a window in my studio that the wood had rotted out on, so I did this smaller watercolor of Shinnosuke Abe as Buntaro downstairs. When the maintenance man walked by as I was working on it he exclaimed, “Oh! That’s that show my son’s watching where they cut people’s heads off!”
Couldn’t have put it better.
ICYMI, here's the latest Canvas 2 Canvas episode.
UPCOMING WWE PAINTINGS
Bayley
The Rock
Jade Cargill
Card subject to change.
Hundreds of prints and paintings at Schamberger Labs!
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Prints and Signed Prints at WWE Shop
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SCHAMBERGER LABS MANIA SALE!
All prints AND PAINTINGS are 35% off for the rest of today! We’ve had a MASSIVE response to this and I’m so grateful to you. Seriously, this exceeded all expectations. Doubled my target, actually. I needed this win and I thank you for your part in it.
WHAT I LIKED LAST WEEK
Star Trek: Discovery started its final season off really well. For me personally, this show has had some real peaks and valleys but so far it seems to be finishing strong. I’m really fond of its first season and liked a lot about season two, but overall I’m really happy that it was the harbinger of all of the other Trek shows we have now. Looking forward to how they wrap this series up.
I listened to the audiobook for Lost Man’s Lane by Scott Carson and can’t recommend it enough. It’s a wonderful sort of mix of Stranger Things and Stand By Me, set in 1999. Oh no, I just did the math and we’re further away from 1999 than Stand By Me’s source ‘The Body’ by Stephen King was from when it was set in 1959! Oy. I’m going to need a moment to let that process.
Anyway. The book is really fascinating, both in the 16 year-old boy it follows and how he’s being menaced by a demonic cop and an evil magical rattlesnake, but also in how 1999 was a tipping point for American culture. Columbine, Y2K, Indian Airlines Flight 814, the internet, there were so many early signs of where we were going but we just couldn’t see it yet. It’s a perfect perspective for a 16 year-old trying to understand the adult life ahead of him but lacking the ability to see it or to know what to do about it.
Also, if you listen to the audiobook get prepared for the wild ways that the reader mispronounces Tupac and Nas. Two Pack and Nazz! My man really didn’t know how to say their names.
Return to Eden is the latest graphic novel by Paco Roca, one of my favorite cartoonists working today. It’s a beautiful story about an old woman holding onto a photograph from when she was young in Spain shortly after the Spanish Civil War. It’s a mystery to the family why she’s so desperate to hold onto it and the book offers flashbacks to her life, parents and siblings from around the time it was taken. So many of us now have phones in our pockets that can take thousands of photos and video now, but a physical photograph used to be the only connection one could have to their past and this book does a gorgeous job of illustrating the emotional importance of this.
Battle Action volume 2 by Garth Ennis and friends is a badass war book. Ennis has become one of, if not THE preeminent war comic book writers and he leads up a group of creators telling tales largely around World War II but other modern conflicts as well. The stories use characters from classic UK war comics, as love letter to those bygone comics but also as a modern take on telling these tales.
Nightmare Country: The Glass House by James Tynion IV, Lisandro Estherren and friends is a beautiful little journey into the darkness. It’s not really a stand-alone story, but golly Estherren’s stylish art is sumptuous to take in. It’s one of those books that’s more about the journey than the destination.
World’s Finest!
YOU GOOD?
Katy had the brilliant idea for a lovely date night last night to take our mind off of…things. We had a delicious dinner at Bar Medici, a new Florence, Italy-inspired restaurant here in Kansas City. We’re vacationing in Florence next month, so this was a nice appetizer to get us ready for it.
From there, we walked over to Afterword, a bar/bookstore for a drink before heading to the KC Wheel for the first time, a new gondola-style ferris wheel here in town. We happened to wind up in the VIP car, which is apparently a real thing. The gal asked the supervisor if we were supposed to go in it and I confidently just said, “Yes. We are.” The supervisor nodded.
It was a cool ride and gave us a spectacular sunset view of downtown Kansas City. A perspective of my hometown I’ve never had before.
As an artist, perspective is something that’s always on my mind. I’m at a different perspective career-wise at the moment, too. Obviously. But I like how the wheel is a metaphor for things going up and down but they’re all a part of the same ride.
I’m excited for you to see what I have in mind for when my metaphorical gondola goes back up. We’ll have some cool things to see.
Love you more,
Rob