In today's installment of Messin' Around, we present the Scarlet Witch.
One of my art school teachers
I also like the wacky Ditko-esque background that I was able to achieve. Part of it was a Happy Accident in using the Photoshop Twirl filter and applying it to the wrong area.
Now, if we could just get Wanda here back together with The Vision.
Just messing around a little bit today. I wanted to try a different style, different color approach, different color choices. So here's the Superman illo I kicked around today.
I've had a little time to experiment and keep up the sketches. So, today, it's Phantom Lady.
I used to love DC’s Freedom Fighters comic. There was just something cool about a new universe of heroes (who all seemed to relocate to Earth One like it
Only later did I find out she was part of Quality Comics. That’s something I miss about comics these days, that sense of history that they had. So many characters today are clean reboots and you don't have that desire to find the old comics, see what they were about.
Phantom Lady’s costume has got skimpier and skimpier as the years have gone on... and I’m apparently not going to deviate too far from that tradition here.
These are illustrations for a prose book, and I wanted to do them in a kind of classic pen illustration style. But I don't have any of those crow quills anymore, and was never all that comfortable with one anyway. So I decided to work all in brush. This one, a picture of an old-time coffin shop, turned out particularly well. I like that there are no ruler straight lines. I think I got some interesting textures, too. And working with only one gray helps keep it simple yet interesting while separating the image nicely.
My friend Thomas who runs the excellent Say it Backwards blog has started a new one, the Underwater Jiu Jitsu blog, devoted to Aquaman. I love SIB, and while Aquaman isn't on my short list of top characters, I look forward to seeing the Sea King through Thomas' unique prism of humor and insight.
Heck, Aquaman killed her when she went insane. Well, he threw her onto a sharp piece of wood by accident, impaling her. It didn't take, as she got out of her casket the next day saying "I'm an alien from another dimension. Did you think my anatomy was the same as yours?" Well, you two did have a kid together, so it was a safe assumption that you kept your vital organs in your stomach cavity, but that's beside the point. Then she screamed at him some more and disappeared into a wormhole. Or something.
Anyway, in honor of the new Underwater Jiu Jitsu blog, and just because, here's my Mera illustration. If you really like it, you can buy it here.
Oh, and I think I'm winning the battle with the cold. Hopefully I'll be back to normal in a day or two.
If, four years ago, you would have asked me what my favorite TV show would be, there's no way I would have said Battlestar Galactica. I like sci-fi, and was looking forward to the miniseries, but Galactica, really?
The mini-series had that languid mini-series pacing and that turned me off a little bit. I wasn't sold on Starbuck being female, and there were other things that left me cool to the project. Still, there were two scenes that stand out that were so cool that I knew I'd give it a chance if it became a series. One was that, in a scene where the Colonial anthem needed to be played, that anthem was the original series theme song. That was a nice nod to the fans of the original show. The other was in the first couple of minutes, the Cylon now known as Number Six was examining a little baby and, in doing so,
Then the first episode aired, and I was blown away. There was something about doing one hour instead of two that tightened everything. And it's never looked back since.
Battlestar Galactica is just a perfectly executed piece of entertainment. Actors, writers, special effects all work so seamlessly that there's no weak link. It's one of the few shows that have inspired blind trust in me. If Ronald Moore and David Eick said "For the next season, we're going to do BSG as a three-camera sitcom, shot on tape with a laugh track, and bring in Norman Fell as Cylon Number One" I'd have to say "Okay, I'll check it out." That's the kind of trust they've engendered.
The last season of Battlestar starts this Friday. It had dropped of my radar (or DRAIS as we BSG peeps would say) thanks to Sci-Fi's odd "whenever we feel like it" scheduling. But it's back now, and I'm going to enjoy every last minute of it. And, with Galactica on my mind, I've done an illo of the sexy Cylon, Number Six.
The Lake County Captains are the single-A franchise of the Cleveland Indians, and their ballpark is maybe five minutes away from Fortress Zahler. I finally made contact with them last year when Comic Heaven and I provided them books for Free Comic Book Day. Since then, we've spoken of a
The Captains have a fish race, featuring Buster Bluegill, Pauley Perch and Willy Walleye. It's the same as the sausage races or condiment races at other parks. Now these three characters will get to live in three-dimensional form, designed by me.
The fish in question are costumes that are more giant masks than full costumes that the runners wear. I had to translate this format into a more cartoony fish figure. I like to call them Bobble Fish, as a little nod to Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. They share a common form and will each sport unique colors.
Click on the fish to the left to see the complete style guide sheet.
They'll be given away on Saturday June 28, Saturday July 26, Saturday August 23. We're working out details so I can hopefully do a signing of the bobble fish one of those days.
And thanks to Comic Heaven, copies the FCBD version of Love and Capes will be given away this Free Comic Book Day, too!
While I was in Orlando for MegaCon, I met a Green Lantern fan who wanted a sketch done. We wound up doing it through the mail for reasons which don't need exploring at this juncture. He asked which member of the GL Corps I wanted to draw and I gave him three choices: Arisa (I am
The customer wanted everything done on green paper, which is all kinds of appropriate for Green Lantern stuff, hence the emerald hue to the illo.
Wow, five years. I hadn't redesigned the main Thomz website in five years. In art terms, that's an eternity. So, I figured it was time to slap on a fresh coat of paint.
The first thing you might notice is that the site is much more blog-driven. I use the great WordPress engine to run my main weblog, and I've folded some of that in. So, when I post something on my blog that has to do with my caricature work, that post will appear on my caricature page on the main site, too. It'll serve to generate new content with very little work, and I'm all about that.
It also means that some of the pages have one generic post on them right now, but that will change soon. And I'm making this post appear in all the newer pages, too.
The portfolios have been changed around, too, so there's new content there. The calendar has been updated in all locations to go to my iCal page. So, if you're looking to book me for an event, you can find my schedule there. The phenomenally successful Commissions page has been linked to the main site, which it wasn't earlier. The Con Reports section, which hadn't been changed in four years, now grabs the blog feed as well.
Also gone is the little Thom Zahler cartoon from the main page. I didn't want him to overstay his welcome, but the main viewer on the home page is swappable, so maybe he, or some of his cartoon brothers, will reappear some time. The idea is to show a representation of what I do, but also have a plank I can swap out, maybe even make rotate again, so I can highlight a particular project or event on the main page. And, the shape of said plank lets me have a lot more freedom to do so. That's a little inside baseball, but I thought I'd share.
So, sit and stay a spell. Walk around these digital corridors and see what there is to see. And let me know how you like it.