The Ballad of Earl Sleek

While Battle of California will soldier on into the dark and unknowable future, this week we celebrate the retirement of a true legend, the Reverend Earl James Sleek.

As all true fans of his know, Earl considers himself a visual artist first and a hockey blogger fourth (dancer is second, seamstress is third). There is no more fitting tribute to Earl than to look back at the very finest artistic creations he crafted during his illustrious career.

Join me, won't you?

Just magnificent.

Incredible. Sleek is truly a master of the "black lines so thick they screw up the faces" art style.

Rembrandt. Van Gogh. Earl Sleek.

*wild applause*

This is my favorite of all your pieces, Earl.

A fever dream. A beautiful nightmare. A Sleektoon.

I'm particularly fond of the fuzzy white outlines around the states, here.

Wait a minute...Earl, are you the illustrator of Three Word Phrase?

Check this out:

Earl, you drew your cartoon five years before this dude did - you may have grounds for a lawsuit.

Okay, in all honesty this one kind of sucks. Not your best work, Earl.

I'm sorry, I can't comment on this one. I'm just...I'm overwhelmed by emotion.

* * *

And now, a reading from the book of BoC:

In the beginning, there was the void.

And James Mirtle said: "Let there be blog."

And there was blog,

and Mirtle looked upon the blog,

and he saw that it was fine, I guess.

And Mirtle begat Earl Sleek,

and Earl went out into the world,

and did great works.

And in time, Earl begat Rudy,

which was, in retrospect, a bad idea,

and Rudy begat Meg,

and there was much joy among the people,

and Meg begat some new guys,

and the jury is still out on that.

Godspeed, Earl Sleek. For a guy with no apparent talent whatsoever, you sure did keep going for a very long time.