An Unidentified Artist and a Flying Banana

I picked up this sketch card a while ago, figuring that it would be pretty easy to track down the name of the artist. So far I haven't had much luck in that department. The character depicted is Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel as Captain Marvel, and the card comes from the 2014 Upper Deck Guardians of the Galaxy set.

I thought it was a pretty good depiction of the character, and I think I got a decent discount on it due to the lack of an artist name on the card. There is a signature on the back, but I haven't been able to tie it down to a known name from the sketch artist list for this product. I could probably put more effort into it, but I haven't got around to it yet. One cool thing about Carol Danvers is that she's a member of the United States Air Force, and that is my awkward way of tying this in to my visit to the Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, this morning.

It's not quite as large as the big Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, but it's still worth a visit. The bigger aircraft are outside, like your large bombers (B-29, B-1, B-52), cargo planes (C-130, C-7, C-123, C-47), and assorted other stuff, like this H-21 Workhorse helicopter, which carries the nickname "Flying Banana" due to its shape.

This is a picture from the balcony housing the museum's art collection. This building holds the older generations of airplanes. Highlights for me were the P-51, B-17, P-38, and the TH-13T. This museum was much better lit than the one in Dayton, which I thought was better for viewing the different parts of the aircraft. Many of the aircraft also had panels opened up so that you could see some of the internal features, like machine gun mounts, cockpits, and the various electronic modules sitting in their brackets. I don't recall seeing as much of that at the other museum.

I didn't take a photo in the other building, but it housed the newer stuff. The big highlight for me in that room was the SR-71 Blackbird. I wanted to look at the F-15 and the A-10, but there was an Air Force unit there having some kind of ceremony, and I didn't want to be that guy milling around while officers make speeches about someone's retirement or promotion.

Overall it was a good place to spend a couple of hours. I've seen most of the aircraft before in one form or another, but it's hard to get tired of looking at military equipment. The exhibits did a good job of tying each aircraft to Utah's history, as well as some interesting stuff about military involvement in Alaska, like the building of the Alaska-Canadian Highway and the recovery of the museum's P-38 many years after it crash-landed in Alaska.

Guardians of the Galaxy Hulk Sketch by Brian DeGuire

I've been thinking about doing another Sketch Card Week, but it's hard to post only sketch cards for a whole week. Sometimes there are other things I want to post, but I feel obligated to keep posting sketch cards because it's a themed week. You can't tie me down like that.

I haven't exactly been silent on the blog in September, but I've had a couple gaps in posting. Our fiscal year ends on 30 September, so in my current job this is a pretty busy time for us. I've had just one full day off since some time in late August, and like 28 hours of comp time in the last week. I am done with all of my heavy work for now, and the last couple days of the month should be pretty light. In another couple of weeks things will pick back up again as we follow up on all the stuff we did this month, but for now it's a bit of a break.

The Astros were in the thick of the Wild Card race, just needing to close out strong against the Angels and Mariners to have a pretty good shot at a Wild Card spot. So of course they fell flat on their faces. They didn't lose every game, but they've lost enough to fall out of the race. As of tonight (Wednesday) there is like a one in a zillion scenario in which they still make it, but I am assuming that by tomorrow night that will be over with and they will be officially eliminated.

And now. the sketch card of the day.

This one depicts Marvel character Hulk by artist Brian DeGuire. I've been watching DeGuire's art cards ever since I saw the stained glass designs he did for his Star Wars Masterwork sketches, but this was the first piece of his art that I landed for my collection. It comes from the Upper Deck Guardians of the Galaxy set that was released in 2014. I think this one is a pretty cool sketch, and I really like DeGuire's depiction of the Hulk.

We named all three of our sons after Marvel comic book characters, and Bruce Banner, Hulk's alter ego was the name we chose for one of our twins. The twins are 5 years old now, and Bruce's temper sometimes rivals that of his big green namesake. I guess we should have named him after the Jolly Green Giant.