Another custom Tintin cover by my Dad, Doug Hansen. This one is for my brother: he is on stage with David Byrne, Tina Weymouth and Tintin (wearing a RISD shirt) at CBGB's, while Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison have been arrested by the Thompson Twins (foreground).
The cover is reminiscent of The Castafiore Emerald.
This is the coldest winter I've experienced in the seven years I've lived in Chicago.
There has been record snowfall, and now this:
A Tintin cover, featuring me (firing the Oerlikon cannon), as imagined and executed by my dad.
The description on the back of the painting reads:
Operation Cerberus, 2009
Gouache + ink on canvas
"Operation Cerberus" was the codename for the German squadron of ships which broke out of Brest to Germany via the English Channel. Also called the "Channel Dash".
Tintin pilots the Vosper MTB while Nat fires the 20mm Oerlikon at one of Gallano's famed "Yellow Noses". Captain Haddock brings another 60-round drum magazine to Nat.
Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and a destroyer evade the onslaught of the MTB.
Homage to Hergé and Nat.
(Compare the water in Operation Cerberus to the water on The Red Sea Sharks.)
A couple of years ago, he asked me for a list of potential custom Tintin scenarios to illustrate. Here is the list I generated:
1. Climbing up side of a Mosquito in flight suit, or running across an airfield towards some 1950s British jet fighter, or a souped-up Hawker Tempest or Sea Fury
2. Pushing through a secret door in a big library (like in the Black Island), revealing a storeroom full of crates of ammo and Schmeissers (or equivalent)
3. Firing a Bofors on the deck of a sub or destroyer, with the spider-web like gun sight, with big shell casings all over the deck
4. Being chased by a tank while driving an MG or an Austin-Healy
5. Driving a LRDG Land Rover with a bunch of Vickers machineguns,
maybe firing one with one hand at a runway full of parked Ju-88s
The Iowa-class battleship USS Wisconsin is moored in Norfolk harbor. There are short tours of the foredeck, on which you can inspect the battleship's teak deck, a couple of 16" shells, and the massive turrets. 
The Wisconsin's guns are trained on downtown Norfolk.
This is a 16" high explosive shell. These shells are invariably described as weighing more than a VW beetle. A VW is obviously not very dense. 
Our docent was a gregarious Navy veteran who served on the USS Salem, CA-135, a heavy cruiser. The most interesting story he told involved the only battle damage every sustained by the Wisconsin, in Korea. A Chinese 125mm (?) field artillery piece managed to store a hit on the battleship, wounding two sailors and "ruining part of the beautiful teak deck". The captain then flattened the artillery position with a volley from the battleship's 16" guns. An escorting destroyer commented on this disproportionate retaliation by sending the captain of the Wisconsin the message, "temper, temper" in Morse code.
Post-interview lunch in Philadelphia with Chauncey, James, and Ben. Ben ate his entire sandwich, while the rest of us made it almost halfway through each of ours.
