Chuck redux

I hereby declare Chuck to be one of the three most enjoyable TV shows I’ve ever watched. Is the series ridiculous? Of course it is. But is it excellent? Funny? And very smart? Absolutely.

(Sheesh. Look at that. The episode was available when I embedded it Friday night, and it’s already gone.)

(No! Wait! It’s back!)

(No! It’s gone again!)

It looks better in IMAX

Ya know, despite the appallingly stupid fight at the drunk party (are there any other kinds of fights at drunk parties?), I think I’m going to see Iron Man 2 again, especially because at the last minute Eric couldn’t go, due to something going on at school. I wouldn’t have gone at all, but I’d already bought tickets and Bismo was there with his son. This is the opening scene and, trust me, it’s much more impressive in IMAX than it is here, with 640×272 pixels. If you click the full screen button the player should hold the correct shape of the image.

[media id=136 width=640 height=296]

P.S. For the record, I have not been in a fight since last August, and the last time before that was 1977.

Fritz Lives

The giant of fantasy illustration is gone. Frank Frazetta, one of the most influential and imitated commercial artists of the 20th century, a singular and unique force in his craft, died Monday.

From comic book stories, to ghosting L’il Abner Sunday strips, to magnificent paintings for paperback book covers, Frazetta set a standard of such high caliber that, although he may have had contemporaries, he had no peers.

Figure drawing. For Frazetta, that was the thing. He loved drawing men and women. The human form, imbued with an innate fierceness, and an undeniable animal sexuality. Sometimes he drew the inhumanly human form!

Let the work speak for itself. First, some pencil drawings. A quick sketch done for a friend, using a pencil stub on cheap paper…

… and a couple of tightly-rendered samples for Flash Gordon.

Next, here are some works in pen and ink. A sketch for a John Carter of Mars book cover…

… and a Johnny Comet Sunday comic strip.

Finally, what Frazetta is known for best. His oil paintings. Two Conan the Barbarian paperback book covers…

…and higher-quality scans of the paintings. You’ll definitely want to click these to enlarge. Note the changes that Frazetta made to the original version of Conan the Buccaneer.

The original for the painting on the left, for Conan the Conquerer, sold last year for $1 million.