NASCAR Comix

Bristol, then and now

2011-03-26T11:55:00.001-04:00

During the off week

2011-03-17T11:50:00.000-04:00

My next comic...

2011-03-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

is in development. So far this is shaping up to be a good year, material-wise. There has been comic-worthy NASCAR rule changes, great races, Danica, and the antics of Robby Gordon warrant their own comic graphic novel.

Stay tuned, you legion (i.e., 4 or 5 people) of NASCAR Comix fans!

The Adventures of ShepherdMan #1

2011-03-04T00:18:00.004-05:00

Not a comic, just a proud poppa

2011-03-02T08:12:00.000-05:00

My son Luke, who is autistic, playing the piano.

Luke loves NASCAR. He always opines, when seeing any crash, "I'm guessing it was Robby Gordon."

We'll be at Pocono in June. Anybody want to hook up, drop me a line.

PIR, or: It ain't broken, so naturally we'll fix it!

2011-03-01T16:10:00.001-05:00

It's coming

2011-02-28T14:09:00.000-05:00

A comic is on the way. I haven't already gone dormant! It will be out tonight or tomorrow.

To my readers interested in Christian theology--I provide a link to my Christian blog: He Lives.

A NASCAR Comix Special Investigative Report

2011-02-24T12:20:00.000-05:00

The Weekend that Was

2011-02-21T11:33:00.002-05:00

Cutaways? We do cutaways.

2011-02-18T11:34:00.004-05:00

Preach The Imbecilic

2011-02-16T18:15:00.003-05:00

(Tip O' the hat to The Daly Planet.)

We are so much better

2011-02-16T11:47:00.001-05:00

Are you ready for some NASCAR?

2011-02-11T16:04:00.001-05:00

Avoiding Burnout and About ME!

2011-02-11T10:54:00.003-05:00

Not burnout as in spinning the tires, but as in abandoning a blog.

This is my third attempt and second resurrection of NASCAR Comix. The first two times I burned out after 15-20 comics.

I hope I learned my lesson.

In particular, when happened in the previous incarnations is that I put out comics as soon as I thought them up. Doing that made me run out of ideas quickly.

This time I will force myself to put comics out slowly. (It feels so good to have the next one sketched out already!) I'm am not even going to tell myself: it has to be at least one per week--but that will be my unwritten (except I just wrote it) goal. Maybe I'll post the occasional text blog in between. Not sure about that--then are many great NASCAR bloggers, so my niche, such as it is, will always be the comics.

About Me

Here is a mini-bio. I am nuclear physicist. I do research here and I am a physics professor here. As a physicist I'm a bit embarrassed that I don't do something academic like "the physics of NASCAR," but she has that covered.

I live in Virgina, but grew up in Pittsburgh, so I am still hurting over the %^$%$!! Superbowl. Especially the next day, at the gym, when a row of eight TVs in front of the treadmill was looping Superbowl lowlights.

I have a fantastic wife and two great sons. One son is autistic. You can see (and hear) him play the piano here.

About the Comics

I am still a relatively new NASCAR fan--I started getting interested in 2003. I'm sure, like me, you get asked: "why do you like watchin' cars goin' round and round?" I probably give the same answer you do: 1) If you invest some time and learn the details you see there is a lot more to it, 2) The readily identifiable bigger-than-life personalities, and 3) The inevitable titanic clashes of those personalities.

So the comics try to take those personalities and exaggerate them (not always easy to do!), while blending in pop culture and sometimes biblical references. Some personalities I don't know--so I just made them up. I portray Brian France as a kind good hearted but simple-minded Mr. McGoo figure, with Mike Helton having no choice but to pay lip-service to his lunatic ideas while trying to hold the ship together. (And in doing so he has sold his soul--a recurring theme wherein Helton interacts with a impish devil out to destroy NASCAR by making it boring.)

Another device I use is the the silhouettes from Mystery Science Theater. That's the wise-cracking guy and robot in the foreground of many of the comics. I figured even if you didn't know Mystery Science Theater you'd still grasp that these two are used to inject commentary and pop-culture references.

I like to imagine people asking me what my favorite comic was. I don't think I have one, but I have favorite jokes within comics, and my favorite is either at the end of this one, where Zippy the Pinhead announces that he is proud, as part of NASCAR's diversity program, to be NASCAR's first Pinhead driver--and someone from in front of the fourth wall says: "Ha, ha! That's a good one!" (I should have had the shout-out read: "First pinhead! Ha! Yeah, that's a good one!) Another one that still makes me chuckle is the first entry in the fake Jayski page on this one. This is way back at the beginning when, new to NASCAR, I first noticed that Mikey could (and would) under any circumstances, rattle off a list of sponsors better than anyone. I once saw him say, crawling out of his car after a DNF, "I don't know, something failed in the engine" then, without skipping a beat, "it wasn't a NAPA part!". He's the master. So I imagined what would happen if he won a race in an unsponsored car...

I mention these because blogging comics has something in common with text blogging. As a general rule what you think is great, nobody comments on. While the most comments are delivered to what you think is mediocre. You can't let it bug you it--it is what it is.

Nothing New Under the Sun

2011-02-09T18:04:00.000-05:00

I'm back!

2011-02-09T15:22:00.000-05:00

New comics above this post. Old comics below.

Racing with the Stars

2009-05-14T07:14:00.001-04:00

Tonight on Fox: House's most Perplexing Case Yet!

2009-05-08T11:30:00.004-04:00

Maybe HSN should broadcast NASCAR?

2009-05-05T16:41:00.001-04:00

Macho, macho, macho-meter

2009-05-04T08:06:00.004-04:00

The Stopwatchmen Graphic Novel, Part Deux (or: probably nobody will make sense of this, still!)

2009-04-27T20:18:00.003-04:00

NASCAR à la TiVo, or, This can't be good for ad revenue!

2009-04-23T14:11:00.004-04:00

The Stopwatchmen Graphic Novel (or: probably nobody will make sense of this!)

2009-04-17T11:27:00.006-04:00

Minion Opinion

2009-04-15T09:52:00.003-04:00

Me, Whining

2009-04-14T14:37:00.003-04:00

Working on my next comic. But I needed to vent. <cue: OK, let's vent.>

Thinking up comics is harder than before because: this year NASCAR is friggin' boring!

When I did my string of comics during the chase in 2006, they practically wrote themselves!

Topics in the news included:

The Erin Crocker-Ray Evernham saga.
The Ray Evernham-Jermy Mayfield fallout from the Erin Crocker-Ray Evernham saga.
One of the most newsworthy crashes in history: Vickers winning his first race by taking out Johnson and Jr. at Talladega.
RCR being accused of cheating following Harvick's win at New Hampshire.
Robby Gordon losing tires again.
Robby Gordon throwing stuff out of the window to get a debris caution.
The pending COT.
A service truck still on the track when the green flag was waved.
Tony not making the chase.
Edwards going after Jr. following a Busch race.

And more. Not to mention the commercials were better--with the All State girls. And "I'm so glad we brought Kevin Harvick on our vacation."

This year--nothing. Not good commercials. No controversy. No fights. No cheating. Bleh.

OK, I'll stop whining.

Misunderestimating the residents Busch

2009-04-07T15:32:00.006-04:00

Please click here for the comic in question.

My Son's Blog

2009-04-03T20:59:00.004-04:00

Many readers of my other blog know I have an autistic son, Luke. He likes to ride around on his bike and take pictures, mostly of highway signs. We setup a blog for him to post some of the pictures. He uploads and posts without help, and the accompanying text is all his.

Do I sound like a proud dad?

His blog is named Luke's Signs.

NASCAR Imitating Art

2009-03-31T13:55:00.002-04:00

Guarded Words

2009-03-26T11:06:00.005-04:00

♪ Dum dee dum da-da dum dee dum ♪

2009-03-24T09:55:00.005-04:00

Failed NASCAR Blogs

2009-03-19T16:50:00.001-04:00

NASCAR Logic

2009-03-17T11:23:00.001-04:00

Things that don't end well

2009-03-11T13:03:00.003-04:00

Bizarre News

2009-03-09T20:58:00.002-04:00

Follywood

2009-03-06T07:55:00.002-05:00

She's Everywhere

2009-03-03T16:49:00.002-05:00

Bad...

2009-03-02T09:30:00.006-05:00

What color flag do they have for this?

2009-02-27T16:33:00.002-05:00

Odds and Ends from Las Vegas

2009-02-27T13:44:00.002-05:00

Robby, don't forget to empty the trash!

2006-11-03T10:39:00.001-05:00

Sorry Folks!

2006-10-30T09:05:00.000-05:00

I'll be back--I was traveling all last week. In fact, I got caught in the Colorado blizzard. I was in Colorado Springs, and on Thursday I got snowed into my hotel. Quite strange.

For a couple days I'll be putting out fires. But then I'll get back to the comics business.

NASCAR Safety

2006-10-17T09:27:00.001-04:00

Produced by Dick Wolf...

2006-10-12T10:34:00.001-04:00

Hendrick-dega

2006-10-10T09:20:00.001-04:00

Scenes from Kansas

2006-10-04T12:56:00.001-04:00

Monday Morning Debriefing...

2006-10-02T11:07:00.001-04:00

Scenes from Bizarro Earth

2006-09-28T12:32:00.001-04:00

New SUNOCO Commercials: Honey, I'm so glad we asked...

2006-09-26T09:29:00.000-04:00

We were wondering...

2006-09-23T11:34:00.000-04:00

Four Eyed Jacks are Wild...

2006-09-21T15:13:00.000-04:00

Courage...

2006-09-20T11:47:00.000-04:00

The stuff of dreams...

2006-09-18T10:20:00.000-04:00

I feel a whole lot better now...

2006-09-14T11:42:00.000-04:00

Sould Out

2006-09-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

Dave Despain says "Don't Despair..."

2006-09-11T15:00:00.000-04:00

"Weber's World" guest commentator this week: Triumph the Insult Dog!

2006-09-08T15:34:00.000-04:00

Progress...

2006-09-05T18:08:00.000-04:00

Now That's wEIrd...

2006-09-01T11:41:00.000-04:00

We Need Miracle Max...

2006-08-29T10:06:00.000-04:00

It could never happen here...

2006-08-28T07:08:00.000-04:00

Express Yourself...

2006-08-25T10:20:00.000-04:00

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...

2006-08-24T09:44:00.000-04:00

Separated at Birth?

2006-08-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

What's in a name?

2006-08-22T11:24:00.000-04:00

Nothing But Commercials

2006-08-21T16:12:00.000-04:00

Keep Your Eyes on the Road...

2006-08-18T18:18:00.000-04:00

The Rise and Fall of Kurt Busch...

2006-08-18T14:50:00.000-04:00