•October 2014
October 4th 1957 - 57 years ago, the Rooskies launched the Space Race with a Bang - as Sputnik, the first satellite rocketed to orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome! Though Premier Khrushchev took the bows, the genius behind it all was Sergei Korolev, who along with the design of the first ICBM, which his team converted into a orbital launch vehicle - would go on to launch the first man into orbit, the first woman and the first doggy too ("Woof")... He accomplished many other firsts, which gave us 'Mericans the fits, as we seemed to be falling farther an' farther behind - such as overseeing the first space walk, the first two and three manned capsules, plus a bit of orbital slight of hand that seemed the first orbital rendezvous in space... Then up and out with the first Lunar probes and the first Photos of the backside - If it hadn't been for his untimely death, the USSR may have stayed in the lead all the way to the Moon! Bunz here seems to be eating the last remaining Spudnik - intended as Yuri Gagarin's lunch, (he was too busy during his record breaking first orbit to nosh) - and so it had been on display at the Baikonur lunchroom, until um... recently... This month's calendar is a sort of a request... Sort'a, Kind'a, Maybe... Y'see, sometime ago, Surly Bill suggested a Sputnik calendar... An idea which I quickly dismissed... Then a few days ago, due to a cascading series of events, it became apparent that I would not have time to finish the kitty calendar pix which I'd been planning on using for October (It will likely appear for Nov.) So I poked through a few existing pix, looking for something that could be more quickly converted into something useable - I chose this pix of Bunz eating Fryz - Why? I Dunno, just a fun pix... As she was already fairly tightly penciled, I cleaned the sketch up a bit, applied colorz, an' then got to thinking about a background... After playing around with a few odd textures an' tints an' stuff, the idea of Sputnik sort of percolated back into my consciousness - or rather, Katz as a "Katznik" flying overhead, with a calendar trail in his speed blur... Toss in a star backdrop, a overlay of Jupiter's Red Spot, some fake dirt, clumps of grass, a repurposed CCCP Towel for Bunz - and here we are... Or: the calendar could also be commemorating the 29th anniversary of the founding of Fry's Electronics, a retailer of quirkily themed Computer & Electronics stores, here in California and a few other states... Hey guys, give me a discount the next time I drop by - Okay? •JQ • • |
