Fish Tales

I got to see the Bobble Fish in person today.

I went up to Classic Park, where the offices of the Lake County Captains are, and got to see the one sample of each of the fishies. The rest are in transit, so I wasn't able to get any for me.

That's my artwork on the boxes, too. Jonathan at the Captains did a good job with it. And my logo and website are on the bottom of every box, so that is sah-weet. I am so looking forward to seeing these at the big signing on June 28th. You can get tickets here.

Below are a passel o'pics. Click on any for biggimization!

The Bobble Fish was a Tremendously Useful Creation

Here's the first photo I've seen of the first bobble fish I designed for the Lake County Captains. It's Buster Bluegill. I'll be at that game, June 28th, signing statues for anyone who would like. I haven't done too much three-dimensional stuff, and I was a lousy sculpture student, so it's cool to see something I've drawn in three dimensions.

Well, a two dimensional-photo of said three-dimensional item, at least. I'll let you know when I actually get my mitts on one.

Grand Theft Auto: Tremont

Here's why I love working for Scene Magazine.

With Scene, I get to do some really fun stuff. I get to mess around in styles that I wouldn't normally, and they're very supportive of such experiments. As a result, I think some of the best stuff I've done has been done for them. This one is just a little different, as it was very art-directed to start. My AD e-mailed and said "We want to do Grand Theft Auto Tremont." (Tremont is a Cleveland neighborhood, for those of you living in the great unexplored non-Northeast Ohio part of the world.)

I had to break it down and figure out how to do the GTA style. It's fun to do different styles, and learning how to break something down like that gives you another tool in your graphics toolbox, and that's always good. I like the angry eyes at the bottom, and the picture of the yuppies at the lower left. Especially the way that Lolita is treated as a background. I'm sure I'll be using that approach again.

It's out on newsstands now. Check it out!

I'm A Rockstar!

Today was a strangely busy day. I'd had it planned to work on the Scene Magazine cover that I landed yesterday, and maybe finish the HGR cover. Then my phone rang for an hour... and the Super Secret Project popped up... and I did a career day for my neighbor at Garrett Morgan school (not Garrett Morris, although he's "berry, berry" funny, if you know what I mean). And tonight I have to go be a Councilman as well as get to sleep early so I can get up at the unThomly hour of 4:30am to go do Good Morning Cleveland. So... yikes!

But, I did get the tight roughs done for my Scene cover. Here's a snippet. Yes, it's heavily photo referenced, and the final style will be kind of familiar to most of you. I'll post it when they print it.

It's an Honor to Be Next to those Nominated

Like last year, Maerkle Press/Love and Capes will be part of the Saturn Awards gift bags. They'll be celebrated on Tuesday, June 24th at Universal City in California. Some good films, TV, and actors are up there. Cloverfield, Stardust, Enchanted, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Amy Adams, Alan Rickman, Lena Headey, Brad Bird, the Cohen Brothers and more.

On of my favorite quotes from SportsNight is "show up and see what happens." The deal being, if you never show up, nothing will happen. That's why I do things like this, to get my wares out in front of people who can take it to the next level. It can't hurt, and can, in fact, only help. Maybe Sam Raimi is looking to produce a sitcom. You never know.

Gentle Reminder

I've mentioned before the Candlelighters Auction organized by Thomas of Say It Backwards. I've got a Supergirl piece up there, and there are still a couple of days left to bid on it. I'm even throwing in some cool Love and Capes swag as well. There are a lot of other auction items over there, too. It's great art for a great cause

More Thom Zahlery Stuff on the Internet

Jen Contino at The Pulse interviewed me about Love and Capes #7 and Free Comic Book Day. Check it out!

Blind, But Now I See

My good friend, the very observant Jesse Jackson, has noted that the Love and Capes: Do You Want To Know a Secret trade is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Thanks for pointing it out. The link is on the sidebars of the blog and the Love and Capes page, but here it is for those of you on the RSS feed.

Queen and Country

Here's my last holdover from the New York Comic-Con. A lovely lady asked me to draw Mera. She liked the Mera image that I had on display, but wanted something "more regal." I messed around with it a little at the show, but it was a color commission so I knew I needed to do it at home anyway, so I didn't get too far.

It's a good thing I waited, too. Originally, I was drawing Aquaman's queen walking, trying to get that royal vibe, and then it hit me: Put her on the throne. And then another thought: Make the throne a sea shell. I think this one works really well.

Go! Mighty Orbots!

So I was sitting there, innocently minding my own business at my table at the New York Comic-Con when someone comes up and says "Can you draw The Mighty Orbots?"

When I was a kid I loved The Mighty Orbots. It was the first Japanese animated cartoon that I can remember on Saturday mornings. And it was the first (again, that I recall) written for America. Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers were in syndication, but they were translated from the original country. Orbots featured writers like Michael Reaves, who worked with the studio on the show, and Marc Scott Zicree, both of whom would later work on Batman: The Animated Series. The resulting blend was a cartoon that mixed Japanese animation style with American writing sensibilites. It gave it a very different and very cool energy.

Having said that, I couldn't draw the Orbots cold. The series has never been released on DVD, and man, that's a crime. Of course some people have released bootlegs of the series. I wouldn't know anything about that. But, I was able to draw the requested characters (Bo and Boo, the sister robots) once I got home. Make of that what you will.

One of the things I love about doing con sketches is the great selection of characters other people come up with. As much as I loved Orbots, I never would have thought to draw them. I'm glad my purchaser suggested it, though.