What Says "Christmas" More Than Decapitated Elves?
I've been working with The Institute for Justice, a civil rights organization, for over five years now. The saw an illustration I did for Scene Magazine and they wanted to buy the art for republiciation. Because of that, I wound up doing other illustrations for them including two different Christmas cards. Three, now.
This was a cool job for more than just the normal reasons. This time I got to try out a new process. At the recommendation of some fellow artists, I purchased a Brother MFC-6490CW scanner/printer/fax combo. The new machine solved the problems I had with my Apple USB modem receiving faxes. Apple makes a great product, but the modem/fax combo is one of the places they've completely dropped the ball. I loved going to digital faxes, so I could only print out the ones I wanted, but the fax kept glitching.
But the scanner aspect was the big draw. The Holy Grail of scanners for comic book artists is an 11x17 scanner. On that, you can scan a complete comics page without stitching it at all. Every page of my three Raider graphic novels were scanned in two pieces and digitally combined to form the 11x17 final image. Most 11x17 scanners are scary 
expensive, but this one was under $300! Under $200 after the rebate that was being offered at the time. (Amazon now has it at $279.99.)
It can even print on 11x17 bristol board. You're probably wondering why that's so cool. That'll take even more explaining.
Most issues of Love and Capes are drawn on tracing paper, then lightboxed onto Layout Paper (also called Vellum). That's a very translucent paper that takes ink much better than tracing paper. Then, I'd cut it up into pieces and scan it, and put together evey page in Photoshop, one panel at a time.
But now, I could print onto bristol, which is a paper with a very ink-friendly surface and one on which I can get more effects than I can on vellum. So, I can print my pencils in non-reproducable light blue onto a piece of bristol, and then ink right on the bristol without having to erase, since the light blue lines disappear when scanned, or with exceedingly little tweaking.
That was a godsend on the IJ job. They needed 60 elves or so holding a giant piece of parchment, upon which they'd put their Christmas poem. I could work at a manageable size, scan in the pencils, and then print out a final piece on bristol where I could ink with no issues, and then rescan it at full size and not have to try to line up two sides, which is usually problematic at best.
Then I colored my headless elves in Photoshop. 
Headless because the Institute was going to put photos of their employees on those elves. And then I sent the final file to IJ, where they composited the heads and had it printed.
The cards just came out this week, and they look great! It was a fun and challenging job, especially trying to make 60 distinct elves, all doing something individual. It kind of reminded me of my famous Where's Slider job. And it came out just as well.
Another Day, Another Page
This page was a bit of a cheat, I suppose. It has a half-page splash on panel five, and one with a really easy background. But I needed a really big beat for that scene, so the story called for it.
It also occurs to me that this is the first daylight scene on Abby's balcony. Abby's apartment is based on an apartment building in Willowick here in Ohio that overooks the lake and kind of stands alone. I originally had that apartment in mind when I was creating Windstar, since I wanted him to have a location he could come and go from without being seen.
With Abby's apartment, I've added a bunch of trees around it, too, to try to make it seem more secluded. I haven't been able to work in the lake, since it tends to look like the ocean and I don't want it to seem like Abby has some ultra-swanky apartment either. In my mind, she lives about 30 minutes outside of Deco City in an adjoining suburb where she can afford the rent.
If I can do one more page between today and tomorrow, I will be completely on track with my compressed schedule for issue #10. I'm trying to get a little further ahead, since there are some of these holiday things that I keep hearing about coming up at the end of the month.
I'm pretty happy with the way this issue is coming out. I think it's definitely going to be my strongest Free Comic Book Day entry yet.
Twenty-one to go!
Love and Capes #10 is coming together slowly. Here's a panel from page three. 
Here's another Doc Karma and Abby panel. I had forgotten how much fun the good doctor is to write, as well as how much space to leave for his flowery speech. Page four should be his last appearance for the book. At least I think so. He could always make another appearance.
And, just a reminder, tomorrow my interview appears in the News-Herald. Hopefully, it'll be on their website, too. Even more hopefully, it'll turn out well and I won't look like a complete doofus.
Fingers crossed.
Where's My Pasta?
Sunday I was at Bravo with my Goddaughter, my NotGodson, and their parents. Bravo is one of those cool restaurants that covers their tables in white paper and gives you crayons. Sure, they say they're for the kids, but I never pay attention to that.
Eating with young kids is always an adventure. It's sitting still longer than they'd prefer, to be sure. They're five and two, and well-behaved as opposed to a lot of kids I see, but still, it helps to be able to occupy them.
So I draw for them. Fortunately, drawing is so automatic that I can do that while talking intellegently with their parents. NotGodson started suggesting, though some would say demanding, characters after I knocked out a quick (and not very good) Lightning McQueen. Before I knew it, he was rattling off the lineup of the Animated Justice League. The fact that a two year old is asking me for "Jonn" (the Martian Manhunter) and "Hawkgirl" makes me feel like my Godparentage has been a success.
It reminds me of that late lamented Baja Brewery restaurant that used to be across from the San Diego Convention Center that would do the same. By the end of the show, the walls would be covered by artwork from the table papers, and I personally had gotten more than a few free beers. That's just the advantage of being able to do caricatures of the wait staff.
Anyway, for your edification are my crayon scribblings from Sunday's dinner, taken on my iPhone of Awesomeness.
My Virtual Refrigerator
I think I mentioned here, and definitely mentioned in my Twitter feed, that I'll be the subject of a News-Herald article coming this Friday. It's set to tie in with a book signing I'll be doing on this coming Sunday at Barnes and Noble in Mentor. The interview was fun to do, and it's very flattering to be the focus of such a thing. I have't seen the article, and I'm hoping that I didn't say anything stupid in it. I was able to recall exactly how many houses I had, as well as not pushing anything off as being "above my pay grade", so I think I did okay.
I remember being proud of it, and showing it to Bob Wiacek, who was generally complementary. I don't expect that Bob was geniunely impressed by a 12-year old's scribblings, but he was positive enough in a "keep at it kid, you're on a decent path" kind of way. That kind of support is priceless in a young artist's journey. Gil Kane was also there, whom I knew from his Star Hawks strip and other similar work. Gil's art didn't appeal to me then, and much like Kirby or even Simonson (whom at that show I mentioned disliking, since he made the grevious error of not being Paul Smith on the X-Men) I didn't start to appreciate and even like until later in my life. I kind of regret that. It would have been nice to talk to him a little more.
So, presented here are two drawings from that portfolio. One is of Laser Raider, a character I created for my grade school newspaper and was heaviy influenced by Dynamite Magazine's Dynamite Duo (later drawn by students of the Kubert School that I would even later attend myself). The other is Firestorm, proving my fascination with the character started at an early age. I remember being a young kid and drawing characters whose limbs looked like sausage links, since I didn't understand musculature, as well as not being able to draw noses or feet. With that in mind, I'm a little surprised at how inoffensive these drawings are. They aren't great, to be sure, but they hold up just a little better than I thought.
I also notice that I was using a signature different from my "family" signature. The now-familiar elongated ZAHLER with the united H and L and curved R going to the year was on all my Dad's and Aunt's paintings. I think I was somehow rebelling against it, although later I'd come to embrace it and I like the continuity that comes with having the family signature. I did change it a little, elimiating the vertical line in the E. Every generation adds something, I guess.
A One and a Two
I'm a little burned out on the lyrics contest, so I'm going to take a few pages off and just post some panels. Here's page one (which you can embiggen) and a panel from page two (which you can't). Abby goes to see Doctor Carmody,
This issue should be a fun one. I'm looking forward to working on it.
The Love and Capes bookplate revealed!
The trade paperback comes with a custom bookplate, which I'm sharing with you here. I've pixelated the purchaser's last name, just to be safe. If you order one, I promise that your surname will be clear as can be. Joel requested that I do a sketch of the Crusader, which you can see here. This bookplate measures 4x6 and comes on the inside cover of the book.
Click on the bookplate here to biggemize it so you can see it larger.
Thumpety-thump-thump
In case you missed it in the papers and on TV, it's Christmas Season again. It means that it's also time for me to do my annual Christmas card. Waaaaaay back in 1993, I decided to design my own Christmas cards with a little cartoon on them. They were just simple photocopied and cut cards that went out to fifty people or so. Since that time, they've changed to become full-color cards and go out to much more than just those original fifty people. They're an advertising piece as well as a Holiday wish.
The hardest part as usual is coming up with the joke. My first
This year's? Well, they haven't gone out yet, so you don't get to see them until they do. Here's a preview of the art for the card, though, featuring a certain snowman who's been the subject of a song and a couple Rankin-Bass specials.
It's Only Six Months Away…
Now, if you miss it, or don't have a comic shop near you, or they run out of the FCBD issue (as does happen), there will be a retail edition released shortly thereafter and available on the website. The only difference will be a variant cover. Otherwise, it's identical to the FCBD issue.
In the meantime, tell your comic shop you want them to make sure you get a copy of the FCBD issue. It's going to be a good one. I think it's my strongest free offering yet, and it'll surprise some people.
I'll announce later where I'll be for the day in question. I will be doing a signing at a comic shop somewhere, but I can't announce where yet. And, if you're a comic book shop and need some kind of love for that day, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do.
I tried so hard, and got so far
Well, there's a fix or two to be made. And doubtless some typos to be fixed. But it's as done as I need it to be right now, and I'm pretty happy with it. There's going to be a lot of interesting in this issue, and while it's not continued per se, it does have a plotline that teases the next issue.
Geez, next issue?
The next issue will be out for Free Comic Book Day in May. It's a couple weeks later than it should be, being a quarterly book and all. But, you can get it for free, so I'm going to guess that you all will be okay with it.