Comic-Con, San Diego, and ME!

Hey, Comic-Con in San Diego is next Wednesday! And I'll be there at my usual haunt, Booth 2000 in the Independent Press Pavillion. I'll be set up alongside Ben Thompson of the awesomely-awesome Badass book series (which has even featured a piece or two by me). Together we're the LOVE and HATE tattooed on the knuckles of the hand of the convention. Or something like that.

I'm not doing any panels this year as far as I know, so if you want to hear me blather about Love and Capes, you'll have to come see me. You'll have to come down here, Khan!

Sorry, I thought I was William Shatner for a minute. That happens sometimes.

In addition to talking and chatting and posing for pictures, here's some stuff worth stopping by for:

Thursday, from about 9:30am-12:00pm the lovely and talented Amy Ratcliffe will be cosplaying as a female Crusader. This was inspired by a cover for Love and Capes: What To Expect #5… oh, wait, you haven't seen that yet, have you?

I'll be signing at the IDW booth, Thursday from 3:00pm-4:00pm.

I will have all-new copies of all three Love and Capes collections, including the so-hard-to-find third trade. There are some fixes that have been made in these new printings, including fixing the two pages that were flopped out of order in the second one.

I will also have the first new issue of Love and Capes: What to Expect in glorious con-exclusive form! This cover features Mark and Abby figuring out baby names. You'll notice Abby's notepad has a blank area where I can write your name (or other name of choice) onto the cover. Since I drew it and lettered it, Abby and I do have the same handwriting.

And, thanks to Geekdom War over at booth B-04, I will have some brand-new Love and Capes t-shirts, including this Chibi style shirt that I'm thrilled to see actually produced! Be sure to stop by their booth and see their selection of Love and Capes and other shirts.

I'll be debuting my Rhinos Bowling art book that was started by Kickstarter. If you're already a backer and are attending already, contact me and I'll have it at the booth ready for you. It's available in softcover ($25) and hardcover ($50) and in limited numbers here at the show.

I'll also have some of of my San Diego Con Prints, showing Crusader and Darkblade enjoying some fine ribs at the Kansas City Barbecue.

As usual, I'll also be taking commissions, and feel free to e-mail me and be sure to get on the list! I'll be selling a lot of the pre-drawn con pieces that have been on my site this last month or two, too. And I'll be signing and posing for pictures and all that fun stuff as well.

Comic-Con is a huge show and a massive part of my career. I've often described it as not so much a sprint as a Battaan Death March. And while there's a lot of hurdles to the show, travel and shipping and printing and setup and forms and taxes and booth space, here's the thing: If the worst part of my professional year is the part where I have to spend a week in San Diego and talk and promote the work I'm proudest of and the thing I know without a doubt that I was put on this Earth to do, it's not so bad.

I mean, some people have to wear ties to work.

Con Piece: Brave

Last piece before Heroescon!

Brave comes out this weekend, which I'm very much looking forward to. Pixar consistently knocks their movies out of the park, and it seems like each movie raises the bar on the last. Water's hard to render? Let's do Finding Nemo. Hair is hard? How about Monsters, Inc.? Let's make our protagonist an 80-year old guy. Up. Every one does something new.

It's at the point where if Pixar said they were going to do a black-and-white movie about paint drying, I'd be there opening night. Their track record is so solid that I just assume every movie is going to work until they prove me wrong.

So, I've drawn Merida from Brave, as well as her brothers. It was a challenge, since I don't know the characters or the movie yet. But it was fun, especially drawing her hair. And I tried to make the archery accurate.

And you know where I'll be Friday night. No, HeroesCon. I won't see Brave until Tuesday when I get back. But that's because I put my fans and convention appearances over even my movie schedule. The things I do for you.

Con Piece: MJ and Gwen's Tug of War

When I was at FanExpo last year someone commissioned me to do a Mary Jane vs. Black Cat piece of them fighting over Spider-Man's uniform.

I liked it a lot and decided to revisit it for my portolio piece. I thought Gwen was a more natural foil, especially since she's prominent in the new movie.

I guess I have a running theme of Redheads vs. Blondes going. Tomorrow's post won't be that, I assure you.

Again, there's some nice body language here. They both look like they're really yanking on that uniform, and they've both got different poses. I scanned the pencils, too, so you can see what it started out as.

This, too, will be in my portfolio at HeroesCon and available for purchase at table AA230. It's the standard 9x12 brstol, colored with Copics.

And I'm not doing FanExpo this year, but its never far from my list. Hopefully next year they'll bring me out.

Con Piece: Queens Black and White, in Color

The newest piece in my con portfolio is this duel of wills between the Black Queen and White Queen from X-Men's Hellfire Club. Originally, it was going to be a Scott and Jean piece, and then it became Scott, Jean and Emma, and then I decided Cyclops was superfulous. I love Cyclops, and I'm still bothered that he ever dated the White Queen, but I thought he got in the way of the duel of wills here.

I think drawing one of these nearly every day, along with drawing a page of Love and Capes close to every day, is helping push my drawing again. I love the poses here, particularly the White Queen's body language and the Black Queen's hands. It's nice to see things start to click. That doesn't always happen, so I'm riding that wave.

I scanned the pencils so I could reduce them to transfer them to board. Pencils always have a little more life to them, so I wanted to share them, too.

The final piece is 9x12 on bristol with Copic color and will be for sale at my table, AA230, at this weekend's HeroesCon.

Avengers Auction Piece for Heroescon

I finished my auction piece for HeroesCon! Avengers were on my mind because, you know, there was a movie and stuff, so I thought they might make a good subject. I decided to marry that with my Child of the Eighties heritage and do the movie lineup as they looked back then. I was really tempted to give Thor a beard, because I do like that look, but it would have placed it outside the era I was going for.

The original is brush and pen on bristol, 11x17, and there will be a full color digital print along with it that will be donated to the auction. I also took the original pencils, moved some figures around and made a 9x12 version that I will have for sale at my table.

I'm still aiming at getting another couple of commissions done before Heroes. I'm thinking of doing The Marvel Family, because I'm such a fan of them. Maybe one more super couple.

And, if you want to get on my commission list, be sure to e-mail me and make sure you have a spot!

Commission: Stopping a War With Love

Here's todays available-for-purchase piece: Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. I think this couple would be really interesting to write, and it's one of the things that's been lost in the repeated reboots of the Amazon Princess.

I also like the dynamic that Wonder Woman is taller than the Colonel. Obviously, since I try to make sure Amazonia is taller than Darkblade in Love and Capes.

Click for the biggity-big.

Clearing Out the Commission List (2 of 2)

Here's the second of commissionpalooza! In this set, we've got a friend of mine (and big Kings fan, yay Kings!) getting beaten up by his kids' three favorite characters (Pikachu, Rapunzel and Katniss), Han and Leia having a moment on the Millenium Falcon, Captain Kirk taking on the Gorn, and Kitty Pryde and Colossus.

The Kitty/Colossus piece is an original colored with Copics and is available for sale at HeroesCon. I'm trying to do some original art for the show, kind of a pret-á-porter of sketches. So it will be available for sale in Charlotte. The Han and Leia, done in my standard black and white original with digitally colored print, will also be for sale there.

Clearing Out The Commission List (1 of 2)

This weekend I cleared out my commission list. That means that I worked a lot, and that I'm available for more commissions. My next show is the excellent HeroesCon in Charlotte, so if you're going to be there, give me a shout at tz (at) thomz.com and we'll set one up. And if you won't be there… hey, I do these through the mail, too.

This is the first what will be two postings of commissions. In this set, we've got Amazonia and Charlotte, a caricature of someone's dog as a ballerina, a Captain America putting on the Green Lantern Power Ring. The last one is a piece with the characters of the excellent webseries Shelf Life, done for the ashcan comic that they'll have available at Comic-Con in San Diego!

Comics, Palooza-style and Texas-fried!

This past weekend, I went to Houston for Comicpalooza! (I think the exclamation mark is required.)It was my first time at the show, and my first trip back to Texas in a couple of years.

First, I was shocked to learn that the Houston Astros would be moving to the American League. What's up with that?

But, oh yeah, comics!

The show went pretty well. Right now, I'm hurting when it comes to conventions. Not so much because of my insane travel schedule, although that does factor in sometimes, but because I'm nearlyout of stock on everything. As I type this I have one, count 'em, one, copy of the second Love and Capes collection left. None of the first, none of the third. Success is awesome, except for the part where I don't have stuff to sell.

Of course everything is being reprinted right now and I'll have them for Comic-Con. Why, they're in Previews right now, along with the first new issue of 2012! Order codes for the collections are JUN12 0385, JUN12 0386 and JUN12 0387 respectively. And the new issue is JUN12 0384. End of commercial, back to talking about what I sell.

With less hard stock, I'm trying to do more commissions and sketches at my table. The show didn't disappoint, and I got a bunch of really interesting requests. The 1940's Martian Manhunter… yeah, I never heard of him either… Squirrel Girl, Marilyn Monroe, superheroes as Tiny Toons, Scud the Disposable Assassin, and Power Girl. All fun choices.

I also did a panel at the show, Gender Representation in Comics. Characters, obviously. I was on the panel with artist Michelle Dilecki and Rod Thornton. It was one of the best panels I've ever been on. I get a lot of "breaking in" panels and a fair number of "digital comics" panels, but this was a pretty sharp topic, and there was a lot to talk about.

Plus, as most people who know me are aware, there's a little bit of frustrated stand up comic in me. I kind of love talking in front of a microphone.And judging by audience reaction, apparently I can be funny from time to time.

Big thanks to Kevin Travers for creating it and for asking me to be on it.

It also brought people over to my booth, more people ever from any single panel I've done. So it definitely touched a chord. Hopefully I'll get to do more of those.

The show also had a live event charity auction which asked me to participate. Because of some booth conversations, I was inspired to draw a pic of The Marvel Family, or the Shazam Family or whatever DC is calling them now. I miss this iteration of these characters, and I wish there was a place for them to exist.

The final piece went for $75, which isn't bad. The auction raised over $4000 for the Ronald McDonald House. As noted philosopher B.A. Barracus once said "You gotta do it for the kids."

I was lucky enough to be sitting next to David Marquez, currently of Ultimate Spider-Man, and the lovely Tara, who were excellent booth neighbors for the entire show. It's great meeting new people at these shows, even better when they're actually nice people you want to see again. And, being freelance and working alone in a studio,I miss that art shop talk that I get when I'm sitting next to a good an interesting artist like David.

And two big shout outs. First, the always-delightful Jesse Jackson. We've been friends for over ten years (odd, since we're obviously only in our early twenties) and I've been lucky enough to see him three times in the last year. It's always fun to hang out with him, and he's a great confidant, assistant, aide-de-camp and trusted friend.

The other is Alex Johnson, who arranged to bring me down to Houston for the show. Alex and his wife were on the Love and Capes wedding cover, and has been a fan ever since. Now he's a friend, too, and the trip wouldn't have been possible without him. Thank you so much, Alex.

I had a great time, and I hope I getthe chance to come back.

For those of you playing "Where in the World is Thom Zahler?", I'll briefly be in Denver for a wedding next week, and then I'll be at HeroesCon in Charlotte at the end of June. Hope to see you there!

Triple Shots: Wonder Woman and Harry, Hermione & Ron

My travel schedule hasn't let me finish these Triple Shots until now. I drew Wonder Woman and a set of the three main Harry Potter characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione. Since those were for the same person, I tried to give them a common feel. Click any to embiggenate!

Huh. It feels like it's been a while since I did these? Maybe it's about time to do it again?