Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. You said that you had it made but you been had.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Watercolor on 9” x 12” watercolor paper

#10 in the 40 movies I haven’t seen from the AFI 100!

This is a delightful romp of a movie, a truly wonderful example of the screwball comedy genre. Cary Grant plays a museum paleontologist trying to secure a bequeathment from an elderly woman and inadvertently finds himself in the sights of her manic pixie niece played by Katharine Hepburn. There’s a leopard that gets involved, and then another leopard. Cars get stolen. They unintentionally moon a fancy restaurant. And there’s a big game hunter stalking around a farm. I dunno man, this one is perfect.

There’s a moment at the end when both of them are locked up and Hepburn, with an already legendarily-famous voice, starts acting like she’s a gun moll and talking like she’s out of a gangster movie. I heard that director Howard Hawks had a hell of a time reining her performance in throughout the production but dude, he let the lady cook with this one. I thought it was a perfect moment to not only get a painting out of, but one that speaks to the crazy chemistry between her and Grant.

Next week: The absolute masterpiece that is All About Eve!

Here’s a preview of Thursday’s new Kazuchika Okada painting.

Card subject to change.

In Conversation With Inspiration

Watercolor on 12” x 16” watercolor paper

I was down to the last piece of watercolor paper in the pad and it had gotten a bit warped since the painting before it had a lot of washes. I decided to use it for a piece where I could just sort of play around while between other projects. I used a shot of my model Joanna from our shoot for the Human Needs paintings and paired it with a shot of Germain Pilon’s statue of Saint Barbara, as a sort of conversation between some of my visual inspirations.

Rob’s Art on ShopAEW
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Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Rob’s prints and shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees
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Bluesky
Cara
YouTube
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Katy’s book Oldest Kansas City

There’s A LOT of bad happening right now, a lot of things that bum me right out. I’ve learned in therapy to allow multiple emotions to exist at the same time, because they’re all real and valid. Allowing good things, the joys, to also be there keeps the hard stuff from being too overwhelming. I can have fun watching the King Kong show and reading the Superman comics and also feel what I need to feel about what’s happening in the world and just a few blocks from where I live. One doesn’t invalidate the other.

So. About that King Kong show…

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two started on Friday and there’s a lot of King Kong action in it. Smashing and roaring and punching, just like we want that big boy to do. I feel like for over forty years from time to time I’ve had the same three-word phrase run through my head, “Wow, King Kong!” There’s also humans doing stuff, and they do it badly which leads to Kong looking over his shoulder disappointedly at them.

I don’t think I could handle King Kong being disappointed in me.

I listened to the audiobook for The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman, part of the Leaphorn & Chee series and also apparently the main basis for the new season of Dark Winds. It sees Tribal Policeman Jim Chee trying to find a runaway girl, with both of them caught between a contract killer and the Federal Government. I really love these books.

I finished reading Sandman Mystery Theatre compendium 2 by Steven Seagle, Matt Wagner, Guy Davis, Matthew Dow Smith, Michael Lark and friends on Friday. It’s sort of amazing that this book, a period piece about a pulp-style avenger and his love with a budding socialite novelist, existed at all and that it ran for 70 issues in the 90’s. It was unlike most anything else at the time, and still stands as a wonderful curiosity. I’m really glad that it’s all finally collected now.

Superman Unlimited volume one by Dan Slott, Rafael Albuquerque and friends is a fun freshening-up of Superman and his place in the world. It’s not a reboot, just a refocus, the same approach that Slott took to great success with Spider-Man a few years back. A Kryptonite asteroid is approaching Earth and only Superman can stop it, but in doing so it results in radical changes in not just him but the world as a whole, all firmly setting the character in the world of today and its challenges. But fun! There’s ape journalists!

Hey friend, a new Middle Aged Dad Jam Band video dropped.

SKELETONS! After a few weeks of skulls I figured I’d start adding more bones, I guess. All of these are a mix of watercolor and a parallel pen with water-soluble ink, and then I used a couple spray bottles to make that ink go wild. Embrace the chaos with mediums like these, I say.

In light of the awful new anti-trans law that just went into effect in Kansas I’m doing a charity auction to benefit Trans Continental Pipeline, an organization that helps trans people relocate to other, safer states. I’m sick of these bigots and how they’re targeting people who are just trying to live as their true, authentic selves.

So here’s what we’re going to do:

I’ll do a 12” x 16” watercolor painting of the subject of the auction winner’s choice. I’ve got some examples of my work here in case you’re unfamiliar, to give you a feeling of what I’ll do for you.

A sports thing, a superhero thing, a rasslin’ thing, a music thing, a movie thing, I can absolutely do that. Your childhood house or a vacation memory? I’m on it. Your beloved pet or your wedding? I’m here for you.

Here’s how it works:

We’re doing it silent auction style, so you can either reply to this email or to the pinned post on my Bluesky profile with your bid. I’ll run live updates on Bluesky with the current highest bid through 12PM CST on Sunday March 8, 2026. I’ll reach out to the winner to let them know.

The winner will then donate directly to Trans Continental Pipeline and send me their payment receipt and a list of three possible subjects, which I’ll pick from to make sure I can do the very best painting possible for them. The winner is donating directly to the charity to keep all of this clean and to get the most money to them as possible.

If you just want to donate to them anyway and not be a part of this, please do so. This is about helping people in need. We’re good people and that’s the kind of thing we do. I thank you in advance for your empathy and generosity.

Let’s help some people.

Love you more,
Rob