Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Over there is where I bought my first car. It turned over once but then it never went far.

Here’s the last three neighborhood paintings. This was a nice diversion to make each of these and stop to truly appreciate the beauty of the world right outside my door. It helps that it’s such a cute grouping of houses, too!

The one above is surrounded by a lot of greenery so like with some others I used that as a framing device and made the bits of the house that pop through more memorable.

A young couple moved into this house last year and in a bit of cosmic oddness the husband works at the same place that my wife does. Wild, right? The story for this composition to me was about the angle of the roofs being crossways from the direction of the light and the vegetation. It gives a bit of movement to something that’s still.

I love the red stripes on this house and made them the star of the piece, along with the warm light dappling across the face of it through some trees. It gives a feeling of a warm cottage, I think.

I handed all 15 paintings out on Thursday morning while folks were at work (hey hey social anxiety!) and over the course of the day I got some lovely messages from my neighbors. Common themes were that it allowed someone to see their house in a way that they hadn’t before or it spoke to the feeling they had when they moved in, and even a couple people who told me about departed relatives who were watercolor artists.

Most of my neighbors had no idea about me or what I do, they just know me as the guy who’s always watering his garden or as the fella that oddly seems to struggle with successfully back into his driveway. Now there’s a little more connection between us and that’s a lovely thing.

Here’s a preview of Thursday’s new Toni Storm painting. I bet you’re sitting there thinking, “It looks like Rob studied a lot of Pagliacci opera posters for this,” and I’m here to tell you that you’re right.

Card subject to change.

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

Katy sold out at her first book event yesterday, moving all 35 copies she’d brought with her. Order yours at the link above!

At trivia a couple weeks ago she sold one to an older guy who walked around the bar reading it all night.

I went to see Tron: Ares Friday night and it’s pretty rad. The movie checked the boxes of what I want from a Tron movie: Spectacular visuals, a killer score and enough of a story to tie together the big action scenes. I saw it in 3D and it’s the best 3D experience I’ve personally had, making me feel like I was falling into its computer world. Seriously, go see it in 3D! The audience I was with were audibly reacting to a lot of the scenes and a little kid freaked out and ran away at one point.

I finished listening to the audiobook for The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman a few days ago and loved it. I enjoy the Dark Winds show that’s based on this series of books and I’m glad that the things I like about the show are all present in the books, if not more so. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s based around an Indian Reservation in the 1960’s and its head Tribal Police officer Joe Leaphorn. It’s a gritty crime series but steeped in Native culture in all the right ways.

Now that I’m caught up with the Bosch books, I’m going to alternate between the Joe Horseman and Slow Horses books. That said, there’s A LOT of books coming out starting this week that I’m looking forward to with All the Ash We Leave Behind by C Robert Cargill, then on the 21st there’s the new John Jackson Miller Batman ‘89 book Revolution, The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly and the new Joe Hill novel King Sorrow!

Godzilla vs the Marvel Universe is extra fun because not only does it pit Big G against all of the major Marvel characters but it also fully integrates him into the lore. In the Fantastic Four issue, Godzilla gets the Silver Surfer’s cosmic powers to square off against Galactus’ new herald Ghidorah! While battling the Hulk, Godzilla gets some of Hulk’s blood, gets angry and becomes a gamma-powered Hulkzilla! Spider-Man’s new black costume reveals itself to be a symbiote when it leaves him to create Venomzilla! While the X-Men try to contain Godzilla, a MechaKaiju Tri-Sentinel appears! The New Avengers try to protect the population while Godzilla and Fin Fang Foom battle and are aided by Jet Jaguar! And in the most ingenious combination, Thor and Godzilla battle to the end of the universe in a Ragnarock where the King of All Monsters is revealed to be the Midgard Serpent! Everyone involved in this book knocked it right out of the park.

I came into Rocketfellers volume one by Peter Tomasi and Francis Manapul without knowing anything about it except the creators whose work I always enjoy. It’s a fun story about a family from 400 years in the future being thrown back to our modern day without the ability to get back home. Time Family Robinson, if you will. There’s also a mysterious force from their time menacing them as they try to fit in to a world so very different from their own. Manapul’s dynamic art makes every bit of this a thrill to see, taking Tomasi’s script to another level.

Yesterday morning I finished reading Batman ‘89: Echoes by Sam Hamm and Joe Quinones. In case you’re unfamiliar, it’s a continuation of the Tim Burton Batman movies, their vibe and look and even casting! Yeah, Marlon Wayans is there as Robin/ Nightwing, the prior volume had Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face (finally), Winona Ryder as Barbara Gordon/ Batgirl and this one has a Harley Quinn who looks an awful lot like Madonna. I can’t quite put my finger on who Scarecrow is based on, but I’m pretty sure Harvey Bullock is Bob Hoskins. Being honest, the story didn’t do a whole lot for me but Quinones’ art is so rich it kept me fully engaged. Which is also my personal experience with those two movies, that the visuals outweigh the scripts so I guess that’s a pretty faithful continuance of them!

Thinking about the people in my life for whom this story isn’t a dealbreaker.

Last year I got this haunted doll to hide around the house and spook my wife each day in October like a cursed Elf on a Shelf. And now it’s back! I wake up before Katy so it’s a fun way to start my day, finding somewhere unexpected to put it. Behind a door, around a corner, in her car, and so on.

When I bought it last year I told the cashier what I planned to do and she said, “Welp, there’s your divorce origin story.” Actually Katy loves it although it does lead to her cussing at me a little each morning.

Speaking of Katy, tomorrow is the nineteenth anniversary of our first date on a Friday the 13th. She delayed the date an hour so that she could get her hair done. I accidentally ate meat (I swear ‘prosciutto’ sounds like a type of cheese and it looks like sun-dried tomatoes!). After dinner we walked up to a bookstore. We talked about all of the things you’re not supposed to talk about on a first date AKA we were real and genuine with one another.

So far it seems like that was a good strategy.

Love you more,
Rob