Ow, My Drawing Hand!

I solicited a six-pack of Love and Capes through Diamond a month ago. To sweeten the purchase, the pack not only included the six issues, but an original sketch as well. I expected to move a handful of six-packs, and generate some revenue out of existing stock. Then I got the orders: about 130, not counting reorders.

That's a lot of sketches.

So I've spent the last few days drawing. Thanks to the people at Jones Printing, I got some custom made LNC sketch cards, They're a little larger than the normal sketch card, more like 4x6 or so. I did a ton of sketches of the Crusader, Abby, Charlotte, Darkblade and Amazonia. I also did more than a few of the Arachnerd and Doc Karma, who for some reason was my favorite character to do. There's something about the good Doctor that's fun to draw.

There are two characters that I only did one of: Major Might and Windstar. So, if you get either of those, you got the rare ones.

Then I spent the last two nights sorting and packaging six packs and getting them ready to ship today. And watching Torchwood. Bob lent me the DVD set, and man I dig that show. I may switch cable systems just to get BBC America so I can catch the second season.

Anyway, everything's all bundled up and will be off to UPS later today.

Maybe the Special "Mighty" Version?

Now, not only am I done with the meat of Love and Capes #7, but I can reveal the alternate cover. I was thinking of drawing a completely new cover, but I found myself realy liking the joke that I did for the FCBD cover. Last year, I did a "Secret Identity" version where Mark was out of costume. It worked well, and also had the advantage of letting me do less work. I was stumped as to what to do. Everything I was coming up revealed to much of the ending until I lay down for my nap... er, mid-afternoon artistic sabbatical, and it hit me.

So, the Free Comic Book Day version will have Steel Worker on the cover. But the alternate cover will have Major Might, who admittedly doesn't appear in the book. I recolored parts of it and took out the FCBD store stamp area. I think it works pretty nicely.

Quote Answers

Since LNC#7 is now wrapped up, I can reveal the quote answers for the second half of the book.

13. Ah, but you have heard of me.
Pirates of the Carribbean. Captain Jack's brilliant response to a character telling him "You're the worst pirate I've ever heard of."

14. Who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?
Riley Poole in the first National Treasure.

15. This is your last chance… free us or die.
Return of the Jedi, and one of my favorite movie scenes of all time. Luke and all of his friends are captured by Jabba the Hutt, Artoo is serving drinks, Threepio is translating, and Princess Leia is wearing a costume that will burn into the brains of males everywhere. As Luke is forced to walk the plank, he turns to Jabba and with the kind of ego only a Jedi has, offers him one last chance to free them or die.

16. If you don’t want to tell me exactly what you’re doing, when I’m asked, I don’t have to lie.
Lucius Fox from Batman Begins. A line I've had to quote to people for many reasons over the years.

17. She seems to have such nicely rounded diphthongs!
Here's an overlooked gem. Oscar, based on the play and starring Sylvester Stallone as a gangster trying to go straight. He hires Tim Curry's character to teach him how to speak properly. Marisa Tomei plays his daughter, and apparently doesn't have the same elocution issues, according to Tim Curry.

18. You are a barbarian!
The movie I like way more than I should: The Shadow. Lamont and Shiwan Khan have a conversation over bourbon and discuss world domination and ties.

19. They said Stage Two was going to be underground.
In honor of my friend Mike, who's building a house and they'd just poured the footers when I posted this. It comes from Kirk, discussing Project Genesis in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

20. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we’re gonna take this luggage with us!
Joe vs. the Volcano. I haven't seen it since I saw it back in art school during the weekly Friday afternoon keep-you-sane-at-Kubert movie trip that exposed me to such cinematic gold as Deceived, Sleepwalkers, Q&A, Funny About Love and Sibling Rivalry. It seems that 1989-1992 period (not counting summers) released a lot of bad movies and that I saw most of them.

21. Today we sail into history.
From one of the few good movies we saw during that Kubert time: The Hunt for Red October. Man, that movie still holds up today. It's just darn near perfect.

22. You are dealing with the oddity of time travel with the greatest of ease.
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Be excellent to each other... and party on, dudes!

23. Did you say you were a fast cook, that’s it?
My Cousin Vinnie, during Vinny's cross-examination of a grit-cooking witness.

24. I find myself showing off, which is the idiot’s version of being interesting.
I know I'm undercutting my 89-92 was a cinematic wasteland argument (minus the summers, really) but this was one of my favorite movies from that time period: L.A. Story. It's a layered quote pick. Love and Capes has sent me out to LA three times last year. Let's hope that after the Strike is settled that happens again.

I find myself showing off, which is the idiot's version of being interesting.

I'm enjoying a Mocha of Victory right now, as I've just finished page 24. I'd show it to you, but unfortunately my camera was lost in the Mid-Ohio-Con of Lost Lunchboxes. Trust me, it's here, and it's delicious.

So, here's the last redacted panel, showing Mark changing back to the Crusader. It also shows one of the cheats of the series. When I started out, I wanted to work in a new style, something very cartoony and graphic, like those E-insurance commercials. While I eventually settled on something a little more naturalistic, there are still holdovers from the grand experiment in the character designs. Case in point: The Crusader's costume. His cape has attaches at his chest emblem, but it does so in an impossible way. The cape has mass, let seems to fold under a logo with no mass.

If someone ever made a live action Love and Capes, the emblem would have to be raised from the uniform, a la the Superman Returns s-shield.

Okay, it's probably little to you, but it's always jumped out at me.

With this, the content of the book is pretty well done. I've got to design the biography and some of the extra back content. And I've got to do a the alternate LNC#7 retail cover. And there's one other thing but, much like the dialogue in this panel, I can't reveal that. Yet.

Did you say you were a fast cook, that's it?

One page to go! Here's a scene from the end of the book. You'll notice I've blurred out some of the dialogue. Not that the ending is necessarily a surprise, but I'd rather not spoil the "how" of the "what" as it were. A guy's got to have some secrets, right?

If all plays out the way I expect it to, the final page will be done this weekend. It's not a full page splash, unlike some past issues, so there'll definitely be a fair amount of drawing. Really, it will depend on if I go to work out tomorrow morning, paying work, and stuff like that.

All things considered, I'm really surprised at how fast this issue is going.

You are dealing with the oddity of time travel with the greatest of ease

So close I can almost smell it.

I've changed the coloring on the Maui scenes at the advice of some learned friends and professionals to give it a very exotic look. All things considered, I think it's working pretty well. I hope that it prints as well.

It's getting harder and harder to focus on other things as I'm winding down. I've got other artistic responsibilities, but man, would it be good to be done with it this weekend.

Okay, I don't have much else to say about these pages, since it's the big finale and I'm trying to play it closer to the vest.

Today we sail into history.

Or should that be "shail"?

Here's the blackjack page, page 21. I think I've now designed all the backgrounds that I need for the rest of the book, so the last three pages should go pretty quickly compared to some of the others. At least, I hope so. Today's a Pub Quiz night though, so I know there won't be one tonight.

I can't say too much about these last pages, as it involves Mark finally asking Abby to marry him, and I'd like to keep those specifics a little cloudy.

This issue is going faster than I expected, too. I can't quite explain why, but I'm not arguing either.

Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're gonna take this luggage with us!

Here's the last Crusader/Darkblade scene for the issue. These have been one of the tentpoles of the series, and are among my favorites to write. I just like the dynamic between Crusader and Darkblade, which is inspired by the old 70's Superman/Batman best friends relationship. I always thought putting the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight at odds was in mistake when they did it in the 80's. It looks like I wasn't the only one, either, as the friendship has come back over the last few years.

My friend Dee has pointed out that Mark drinks coffee with one of those thermal sleeve things on it (not visible in this panel). Being invulnerable, he wouldn't need one of those cardboard rings. I probably draw it that way because it's the way I drink mine, and even when the coffee gets cool enough, I still need the sleeve. There's a tactile feel to it that I've become used to. And from a visual storytelling point of view, it makes the coffee look more like coffee without saying "This is a cup of coffee."

As far as why Mark does it, I really don't know. Maybe he likes the sleeve like I do. Maybe Darkblade bought the coffee, or he bought it as Mark and tries to look like everyone else. I think I'll leave that as one of the mysteries of the series.
 

They said Stage Two was going to be underground.

Mark's Season of Pain is almost over. Here's the last frustrating aborted attempt before he actually manages to ask Abby to marry him. Now, will she say yes? Will she say no? Will the Cloverfield monster show up and kill them both?You never know with me.

I also wanted to call back to Blurstreak, who I introduced in the first few pages of this issue. I was toying with the idea of giving him an arc where he starts to change from the super speed dater to someone in a relationship, but I wasn't sure I wanted to take him there. So instead, he gets to do impulsive jokes, if you know what I mean.

For those of you paying attention, you'll see that the stock photo earth is now gone, replaced by a cartoon. If you're really paying attention, you'll notice that I drew it for part of a Fort Worth Weekly illo a few months back. Nothing's wasted here at Thom Zahler Art Studios.

I also refer to a charity race between Blurstreak and the Crusader. I always liked the old Silver Age stories where Superman would race the Flash. (Here's a bit of comic book wisdom: Who was faster, Superman or the Flash? Since most races ended in a tie, it was assumed that the Flash had to pace himself, and as such, could win in a sprint. Over a long haul, Superman would win since he didn't get tired.) The races gave me the idea for the page capping joke at the end.

Guess What's Back

I am trés impressed with the people at Chair MD, who fixed my much-beloved Herman Miller chair insanely quickly. According to FedEx tracking, it arrived yesterday and it's back here today. So I am again sitting in the command chair of the Starship Art Studio, and my back appreciates it muchly.