What Are the Frakes Calendars by Brandon Bird?

Updated

The Frakes calendars are an annual project on Brandon Bird's website built around Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Jonathan Frakes. Each year Bird releases a new calendar featuring Frakes, and the site's news feed has announced new editions at least twice: a 2022 edition ("Frakes calendars are back for 2022!") and a later return announced simply as "He's back! Get ready for another year filled with Frakes!" If you want to see or buy one, the calendars are announced through the site's blog-style news posts, which link to the current offering.

What the project is

Brandon Bird-O-Rama! is the artist's personal site, organized as a running feed of posts about new art, cards, calendars, and other projects. The Frakes calendars sit alongside recurring items like the annual T-mas (Christmas) card and Valentine-related art, so they function as one of the site's regular yearly releases rather than a one-off product.

The subject is consistent: Jonathan Frakes, best known for playing Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The humor of the project comes from treating a single actor as an inexhaustible annual theme.

How releases have worked

From the site's own announcements:

  • 2022 edition — posted July 5, 2021, under the heading "Fact! Frakes calendars are back for 2022!" The phrasing "back" indicates this was not the first year.
  • A later edition — posted September 30, 2022, under "He's back! Get ready for another year filled with Frakes!" The post does not name the year in the excerpt, but the timing suggests the next annual cycle.

The pattern to expect: a new Frakes calendar is announced roughly once a year, usually in the second half of the year, in a short news post.

How to find or buy a calendar

  1. Go to brandonbird.com and open the news feed on the main page.
  2. Look for posts mentioning Frakes — the announcements are short and use his name or a clear reference to him.
  3. Open the post; it links to the current calendar offering.
  4. If the current year's calendar isn't visible, check the archive by year (the site lists posts by month and year going back to at least 2013) to see how past editions were announced and whether ordering details are included.

Note that the site excerpt does not state prices, shipping terms, or whether calendars are in stock year-round. Those details appear only in the individual posts, so check the linked page for the edition you want rather than assuming availability.

What else is on the site

If you're browsing for the calendars, the same feed covers related items:

  • T-mas cards — an annual Christmas card tradition, including a 2021 card by John Larriva inspired by J.C. Leyendecker's Saturday Evening Post covers.
  • Valentine art — including a downloadable e-book of cards and activities (24 pages, 15 black-and-white and 9 color) priced at $8, which includes the "SVU Valentines" and a buildable Hannibal card holder.
  • Other art posts — paintings and pieces tied to stage shows and other projects.

The Frakes calendars are best understood as one recurring thread in this larger stream of yearly releases, so the news feed is the reliable place to catch each new edition when it's announced.