This is a little different subject matter for this blog, but..

With the transformation of college football from amateur intentions to a professional game, I thought I'd give brief mention to a piece of history to this conflict. In its earliest days, pro football was actually viewed as a less desirable product than the college game.. largely because people instinctively felt that pay cheapened the competitive spirit. In 1922, Fielding Yost (football coach at University of Michigan) said that paying football players "robs the great American game of many of its greatest character building qualities. The ideals of generous service, loyalty, sacrifice, and whole-hearted devotion to a cause, are all taken away. The game is robbed of the exhilarating inspiration of achievement merely for achievement's sake."

I understand the factors why college football has become a professional (or semi-professional) game now. Universities were experiencing profit windfalls from football.. and superfans & alumni also welcomed more and more money in to the sport, if it could benefit their team. But I still think Yost's assertions hold true. College football was designed as a character builder for students. And was a unique, beneficial situation from pro football. But superfans & circling sports agents don't care about that character-building process.

There was a miscalculation when college football players were strictly forbidden from making any kind of money as college athletes. Other college students are allowed to work jobs & make $ while they study, football players should've reserved that same opportunity. This opened a resentful floodgate.. where now almost everything in playing high level college football is about mercenary profit. College football will likely start to adjust with some kind of salary cap, and forming a separate league containing the highest level programs, apart from smaller schools. Guess we'll see.

Benny Friedman, vintage Michigan football star.

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A couple of recent bird portraits..

If you're interested in ordering a copy of the Nat Rrain anthology, or seeking custom art.. send me an e-mail. Thanks.

nat.rain@gmail.com

 

It is the 39th anniversary of the Challenger explosion (Jan. 28th), so thought I'd share this March 1981 issue, where National Geographic previewed the Space Shuttle program for America. This was the imminent Columbia (not Challenger), but I think it's still relevant and interesting. These aren't images pulled from an image search, they're direct scans (for better or worse) from my hard copy of the magazine. (the article was titled: When the Space Shuttle Finally Flies)

The primary focus of this blog has been art, so I'm mostly posting the illustrations & conceptual art that was used to explain & introduce the Shuttle program..

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This is an interesting Johnny Carson biography that was released recently. It gives a good overview of both Carson's personal and professional life. And the book itself has an interesting backstory. It was started by one author through the early 2000s, who passed away, then completed by a protege. My only (minor) complaint, is that it has a lot of episode minutiae that I wasn't interested in.. verbatim documenting of specific interviews and bits from over the years.

All that said, there was a great Carson insight in this bio.. Carson was definitely a talented man, but he recognized that talent & hard work are still not guarantees for professional and artistic success. On page 82, Carson's quoted: "I don't believe the old showbiz cliche' that your talent will be discovered if you only keep at it. I don't think there's much truth to that at all, because you see too many people grinding away year after year."

Bringing me to a broader point, about the state of underground comics. I've seen firsthand (talented and talentless) artists grinding in this genre for many years. And part of the demand is that small press & underground artists have to double as both creators and salesmen/hype men. And it's a multitask that usually doesn't come naturally. These are fields that usually have differing personality types. In high level sports, you typically have a talented athlete, paired with talented agents who market & solicit on behalf of the athlete.. same concept with acting, and a lot of other entertainment fields. But in the world of underground art & music.. the creators are typically having to do both, and it usually does not end (financially or logistically) well. 

Here's Carson, an authoritative source on creative success stating a blunt truth.. you can work hard in entertainment, for years, and never make it anywhere financially. And I think this is difficult for some people outside of creative endeavors to understand.. because they only view artistic value & success by financial results. Y'know, the old cliche' where people are asking, "when are you gonna give up the band, and get a real job?"

Carson did have a practical plan to that attitude, he told himself if he couldn't progress within a year's time, he would head back to Nebraska. But who knows if that's true. His love of entertaining may have keep him aspiring around LA for years. And Carson did appreciate & understand the opportunities he received. The book documents them, and I think that realization is implied in Carson's quote I referenced.

Another trend I see in the small press game.. is there is a heavy criticism of DC & Marvel. Not just for their business practices (which I don't really have an opinion on..), but on their content and ideology. And I'm with these critics, when they say it is dumb to have ten different Spidermen. But there are a lot of small press creators who hate DC & Marvel now, but then release their own (almost) identical content of superheroes, vampires, vigilantes, etc.. but just of lower quality. And that's no insult against 'em, they don't have the benefit of an assembly line of inkers, writers, etc. I'm rooting for the independent comic books. But if you're going to go it alone, why replicate art that you believe sucks?

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the death of Van Gogh.

I recently finished reading a collection of Van Gogh's letters to his friends & family (mostly to his generous brother & patron Theo). My main purpose was to see if there were any obvious suicidal thoughts toward the end of his life and correspondence. And I really didn't see it. He made a reference to conditional suicide in an April 1889 letter.. saying if he lost his friendship with Theo, it could drive him to suicide. But it feels to me, more like a melodramatic what if.. What I found much more in his letters, was in spite of his mental health suffering, he was an optimistic creator.

On the day of his 1890 shooting, he had taken his art supplies out with him to paint.. which seems like an act inconsistent with a suicide mission? He came back from his painting field trip with a shot in his lower chest/stomach (also strange for a suicide I assume).. there were no powder burns reported on his hands, and no gun found at the time. But it is clear that Van Gogh claims he did shoot himself.. which established the narrative of his so-called suicide.

Why the Hell would someone take credit for a suicide, that was actually a murder or manslaughter? A pair of authors (Naifeh & Smith) have a well-thought-out explanation in their book Van Gogh:The Life. They report on a group of young (gun toting) kids who liked playing cowboys, and bothering Van Gogh. They lay out a scenario where the kids may have been messing with Van Gogh, and accidentally shot him. Van Gogh didn't want the kids punished, so claimed it was a suicide attempt.. either assuming he'd survive the shot, or not caring if he survived at that point. The scenario is at the very end of their book, & makes sense, but I'm not sure I endorse the authors' act of naming the (long gone) kid by name, since he never had the benefit of a courtroom defense, etc.

I saw in 2020 a forensic pathologist wrote an article calling for an autopsy on Van Gogh.. I guess for some clarification on his death. Not sure how much it matters now, but personally I don't think Van Gogh was attempting suicide that day. Even in his final letter, days before the shooting, he was still planning and talking about his painting. Who knows..

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New 104 page softcover anthology (with throwback sticker). Collected pages from issues of Nat Rrain, and other assorted Nat Rrain projects & publications.

If you're interested in gettin' one, send me an e-mail for easy ordering details.

nat.rain@gmail.com

 

A tribute illustration to an old Turbografx-16 title..

A preview for interested parties, one of the Nat Rrain pages from Flip City magazine (issue #20). Have more pages coming in upcoming issues. If you enjoy cultural satire, subscribe, or pick up individual issues..

contact: nat.rain@gmail.com

 

Got around to creating some profiles for Greyskull & his band mates.. based on a old sketch..

^ this is the original sketch, with Greyskull, and his then nameless crew. They've been on a nostalgic tour, permanently & blissfully frozen in the late '90s.

If you get a chance, check out Flip City Magazine, I just had a couple pages in issue #20..

Flip City (About Us)

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For interested parties, Flip City (issue #20) published some Nat Rrain art recently. They sell both digital and print subscriptions (link enclosed). It's a publication stylistically similar to MAD.. but focused more on uncensored political satire than celebrity satire (tho most of my comics are apolitical).

https://flip-city-magazine.myshopify.com/collections/flip-city-subscriptions/subscription

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com