Knock Knock Knockin' on the End of the Issue

Oh, fine, have some dialogue again. It won't spoil anything.

Normally, I'd be done. Love and Capes stories run 24 pages. But I couldn't rush this part of the story, hence the extra two pages. This part is coming together nicely, I think. Charlotte actually makes an art history joke at one point, which I think is so delightfully character driven, given that she's studying art history in Paris right now. I like it when the characters step up and take the reins of the funny.

Two pages left. I have a feeling once I start page 25, I won't stop until page 26 is done. Sleep? What's that?

Quiet Time

No more dialogue from here on out. In fact, I'm not even showing the version with dialogue balloons. This panel, from page 23, is from the raw art files. I'm pretty proud of this sequence. Lots of good acting. Even without any dialogue, you can feel what might be going on here.

Three pages left, and the last one should be pretty easy. It's a larger panel page. There's a more than even chance that I can get the book done this week, depending on client work and Council duties and other wackiness that may ensue. Every day's an adventure.

I'm getting that "Is this any good?" feeling about this. That's pretty common, especially in the last couple of pages of a story. You always doubt yourself, at least a little. I'm now of the feeling that this issue will either be the greatest issue ever or a spectacular fireball. I've described Love and Capes as a sitcom, and using that analogy, this is like the episode of Family Ties where Alex's friend dies and he spends the show in a psychiatrist's office. (It's called My Name is Alex, by the way.)

I think Michael J. Fox won an Emmy for that one, too.

The Countdown Continues

With four pages left, we're now at the point where dialogue will start disappearing from my preview panels. I don't want to spoil the ending.

This sequence is interesting. It's probably the most extended serious sequence in the series. It's also led to some really interesting discussions with the Secret Society of Super Reviewers. Maybe I'll reveal some of those after the book comes out.

Honestly, I just want to lock myself in a room and pump out the remaining pages. Honestly, I'll probably be done by the end of the week. I won't be able to stop myself, and the last pages seem to go a little faster since most of the backgrounds are already designed.

Back to work!

Done with Twenty-One!

Things get a little more serious as we get to page 21. I think this one's got some drama to it, and I like the way this panel conveys the urgency and power of the scene.

I had a bit of artist's/writer's block on this one. My panel six was kind of weak and I didn't have a great half-page joke to it. I tried all my typical things, finally taking a drive and going to Starbucks to try to dislodge the brain block. It worked, too.

After this page, everything's pretty tightly written and thumbnailed (well, thumbnailed in my head and occasionally on my shower wall in bath crayon) so there shouldn't be any more pauses, at least for creativity's sake. And now, I'm just at the point where I want it done and out of my head. It's great to have that drive to finish, but it can also be a little irritating.

It's Raining Men

Okay, that title only makes sense to me. It'll make sense to all of you in May. Promise.

Page twenty! Things gets a little more interesting. Of course, I can't show you why.

The more I work on this story, the more I realize how atypical it is for Love and Capes. It's the Free Comic Book Day issue, so I figure I'm expected to take a couple more liberties. But this one has more super heroics, and probably more serious beats, than any other issue I've done.

Don't worry, there's still a lot of funny in it, too. Still, it's gonna be a way interesting issue. Can't wait for y'all to read it.

Plop Plop Fizz Fizz

Things are starting to speed up a little bit now. I mean, Abby's got a stomach ache when she shouldn't. (And no, she is not pregnant.) And that's the harbinger for the last act of this issue of Love and Capes.

There's a joke earlier in the book where Abby forgets to put on her mask. Oddly, on this page, I did the same thing. I drew it, the way I usually do, and scanned it into the computer so I could color it. Only then did I realize that I forgot to draw her mask on in the superhero scenes. Fortunately, I've gotten good enough with the Wacom tablet that I could draw the mask in without doing it by hand and rescanning it.

Whew! Dodged a bullet there.

With this, there are only seven pages left to draw, as well as figuring out the cover for issue #11 so I can run an ad for it somewhere in the FCBD issue. It's close enough to being done that I can almost taste it.

Burning Up the Book

Okay, now, I have eight pages to go. Here we have what is probably the most exciting panel of Love and Capes ever. I've had internal rules about LNC since I started, many of which I violated. I planned to only introduce one new hero per issue, which I smashed in #4, I planned on not doing continued stories, which I did in #8, and I said "no fights", which I broke in #9. Since this issue is Abby with powers, there's the most superhero stuff I've ever put in an issue of Love and Capes.

And, looking at the big breakdown of page Post-It notes sticking on the wall of my kitchen, there's a lot of serious to the end of the book. Maybe it's good that I added pages, so there was more funny before it became, well, less funny. I'm still barrelling forward, because I think the story's good, but I sometimes get a little nervous. Plus it's the Free Comic Book Day issue, which means my biggest audience of the year. Whew! It's a lot to have hanging out in your brainspace.

Enough of that introspection! Enjoy the panel, and being announced shortly (like later today)… the First Annual Love and Capes Valentine's Day Giveaway!

So Close, So Close and Yet So Far

I'd love to type "Eight more pages! Two-thirds done!" But I don't think I can.

I did my Post-It Note breakdown of the last pages, and while I could end it in 24 pages, I think the story calls for 26. Fortunately, this is the FCBD issue, which has 32 pages in it, as opposed to the 24 that a regular issue has. So I can add the two pages without messing up my printing or pricing.

And the last page will be a full page splash but, still, man, I was down to single-digits for a bit there. Now I have to get cracking on it again to winnow down to those one-digit numbers. Okay, really, I just need to do a page tomorrow and I'm back below ten. But still, it's a little deflating.

But, the story is the story, right? And you tell the story the way it demands.

Single Digits, Baby!

Nine left!

Page fifteen is done. There's a lot of cool stuff to it, I think, unfortunately nothing that I can post without spoiling too much. So, you get this establishing shot. Well, there are some sound effects. I'll let you figure out what's going on inside the First Colonial Bank.

And yeah, it's First Colonial Bank since Battlestar Galactica is on my mind. It's coming back you know, and it's gonna be awesome!

Page Fourteen

I think this marks the first gunfire in Love and Capes. There's a weapon fired in #9, but you haven't seen that yet. (It should be soon, I think they're done printing it, so it'll be in stores soon.) But that's more a sci-fi thing.

I've always wondered why people shoot at Superman. I mean, you have to know he's invulnerable, right? Maybe it's just tradition. Afriend told me the next scene should be someone throwing the empty gun at Abby, too, in full Adventures of Superman tradition.

I made sure to draw all the bullets bouncing downward, and Mark catching the one stray. There's no crowd behind him, but still, you can't have stray bullets flying around a city. Mark's nothing if not responsible.

I'm down to ten pages now. It'll be a couple of days before I can get to the next one and down into single digits. Still, this one is going pretty quickly, and that's a good thing.