Swampoodle, in Color!

Two weeks of work, off and on, and I’ve finished my colorization of Washington’s 19th-century baseball field, Swampoodle Grounds. The “heavy lifting” — the field itself, the McDowell & Sons building over the wall in right-center, a couple of buildings toward center, the sky itself — was accomplished two weeks ago in a blitz ofContinue reading “Swampoodle, in Color!”

A Modest Request: A Moratorium on Multi-Doctor Stories

Next week Titan Comics’ Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension comes to an end. The Lost Dimension is an eight chapter multi-Doctor story that features all thirteen Doctors (including John Hurt’s War Doctor), River Song, and the Doctor’s daughter Jenny in one epic storyline with the fate of the universe at stake. It is also Titan’sContinue reading “A Modest Request: A Moratorium on Multi-Doctor Stories”

Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: Star Trek’s The Guardian of Forever

Last year, to coincide with Star Trek‘s fiftieth anniversary, Mattel released a line of Star Trek Mega Bloks sets. A few years previous, Hasbro had a line of LEGO-compatible Star Trek KRE-O sets, based on the Chris Pine/Zach Quinto films, and I thought those were well done, even if I did rebuild the miniature EnterpriseContinue reading “Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: Star Trek’s The Guardian of Forever”

Sherlock Holmes: A Betrayal in Blood

This weekend I read Mark Latham’s recent Sherlock Holmes novel from Titan Books, A Betrayal in Blood. Set shortly after “The Empty House,” Holmes is tasked by Mycroft to investigate the events described in “The Dracula Papers” (ie., what we know as Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula) and determine what, exactly, it was that happened whenContinue reading “Sherlock Holmes: A Betrayal in Blood”

An Off-Season Project: Colorizing Swampoodle Grounds

Sometime between 1886 and 1889, in either late March or early April, in the late afternoon, a photographer set up a camera and took a picture of the Washington Nationals practicing at Swampoodle Grounds, with the Capitol dome looming over the right field wall (and the McDowell & Sons Steam Elevator building). At work, theContinue reading “An Off-Season Project: Colorizing Swampoodle Grounds”

A Vacation Day in the District

Thursday I took a vacation day. I went to Washington, DC for the day. I hadn’t been in the District since March for Shamrock Fest (though I had been to a baseball game in Bethesda at the beginning of August), and I hadn’t made it to a Nationals game yet this season, and I’d beenContinue reading “A Vacation Day in the District”