Oh My Stars and Garters

My Composite Superman commission got me a little bit of notice and a second commission to do Beast of the X-Men in both his furry blue and original forms.

Sometimes art just comes together, and this is one of those times. The way the mask blends into his blue furry hood is just so perfect that I wish I'd thought of it before I'd started drawing. I love the pose, his flurry blue foot is one of the best feet I've drawn (almost typed "foots") and his right hand has the perfect amount of Kirby to it.

As the Beast might say, in those perfect Kelsey Grammer tones, "Click the lesser illustration to prompt a view of the larger one."

Aw Yeah Comics with a Dash of Thom!

I was part of the Aw Yeah Comics Kickstarter! I did a four page story all about Cell Phone Guy. It's not locked down when or where it will appear, but as soon as I know, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, I'll be at C2E2 at the end of the month, home of Aw Yeah Comics! I'm sure fun will ensue there, too!

Beach Ball Comics, MLP and Me!

This Saturday I'll be appearing at Beach Ball Comics along with Heather Nuhfer and Amy Mebberson! The fun starts at 1:00pm. We'll be signing and selling tons of stuff. I'll have the original art for my My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle issue with me, too. It should be a lot of fun.

More details here if you're interested.

WonderCon Commissions and Other Fun

WonderCon has come and gone. I had a great time, and the show was even better than last year. Now that I have my new status as a Pony Artist, my commissions have increased (and certainly changed a bit). Here, let me share them and you can see…

The Marshal Law commission was an advance commission, where someone contacted me before the show to get on my sketch list. I certainly recommend that to make sure you get a piece from me. Hey, I'm going to be at C2E2 in Chicago at the end of the month. I bet you could do that there, too!

Also, Neo Edmund was nice enough to have me on the Kids' Comics panel, where I blathered about things and made jokes while other people said much smarter things. But people seemed to like it, so I can't complain. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully I'll be on a similar panel at Comic-Con in a couple of months.

There was lots of interesting work stuff, none of which I can share, unfortunately. Besides, it's April Fool's Day, and you wouldn't believe anything I say today anyway. The best part, as always, is seeing friends and making new ones.

Well, and having my first Easter coffee, but that's a special case here.

WonderCon this Weekend! My Commission List is Open!

This weekend is WonderCon, Anaheim-flavor. I'll be there again, set up in Artist Alley at table 184. I'll have all the normal stuff, as well as a full stock of the brand-new fourth Love and Capes collection! I'll also be signing and chatting and doing commissions.

I'll also be on the Kids' Comics Panel at 11:00am on Saturday in Room 210A, along with Neo Edmund, Heather Nufer and Barbara Kesel! And I'll be signing at the IDW booth at 2:00 on Sunday.

As a warm-up for sketching at the show and for figuring out a style for my next project, I've been messing around with doing some trading card headshots. Just because I like a theme, I did the original seven members of the Justice League. Click and embiggen!

My commission list is open for the show, too. Drop me at line at tz (at) thomz.com and we can talk specifics. I'm discounting prices for pre-ordered commissions. My normal rate is $25 per character (black and white), $50 for color. Today and tomorrow only, pre-orders will be $20 and $40 for black and white and color.

See you at the show!

My Vampire Won't Sparkle

One of the next places you'll be seeing my work is in the new TikiMachine book featuring various artists drawing good vs. evil confrontations. I chose Dracula vs. Van Helsing, and had a lot of fun with it. I'm not going to reveal it until the book prints, but here's a little clip of it. When the books go on sale, I'll let you know, and I'll have them available at conventions, too.

This was a lot of fun and I'm glad to be part of it.

Hey, I Did a Gutters Strip!

This week, I did a guest strip for the guys over at The Gutters. They've decided to open up some of the writing chores, too, so this is one drawn and written by me, with lettering by Ed Ryzowski and colors by Rus Wooton.

Mine pokes some fun at the flaming hoops that must be jumped through to get a hotel room at Comic-Con in San Diego. Check it out here!

Many Things I Have Drawn This Week

I've been drawing up a storm in preparation for Emerald City Comic Con. I've had people request commissions, people who won t-shirts and commissions as part of the Valentine's Day promotion, and a couple of ones to have in my portfolio to sell. I've been posting these on Twitter (which is why you should follow me there, too) but if you don't, or if you missed them, here they are.

All of these are purchased except for the Twilight Sparkle/Spike one, which can be bought at Emerald City.

Drilling for Work

This post is going to be about art, but it's also going to be about the business of art. I have a great dentist, Dr. Nemeth. And while I like him a lot and recommend him highly if you're in Northeast Ohio, his reminder postcards left a little to be desired. Every six months I'd get one of these things and wince at the cartooning. They were serviceable, to be fair, and did the job. The front had a cartoon and I just didn't care for it. (Apologies, dear reader, if you're theone who drew it.)

So, the last time I got my teeth cleaned, I asked him about doing new cards. I proposed caricature cards of him as different cartoon characters with different headlines. As we keep going, we could do new cards. We hammered out a price, and then I drew some cards.

You can see them here on this post, and as always, click for biggimization.

Two things about this:

One, the good doctor loved them, and the next time he's going to a conference, he's going to bring them and show them to other dentists. That could very well mean more clients and more work for me. That's all to the good.

Two, I think this is one of the important things about being a freelancer. Sometimes work comes to you, sometimes you have to get the work. I saw an opportunity here, put myself out there, and got the job. Hopefully many more jobs.

The great thing about freelancing is the control of your job. But that means taking the reigns, too. Sometimes you have to shake the tress for work. It's part of the job, and it's not always my favorite part, but if you're going to do one, you have to do the other.

My Little Pony: About the Coloring

This week my Twilight Sparkle story appeared in the first issue ofthe My Little Pony micro-series, published by IDW. I'm happy with the reaction I've seen, and while I'm trying not to read too many comments, I have seen a lot of people commenting on the animated style of the art. Specifically, the colored ink line effect.

I have to say right here, that wasn't me. That was the colorist, Ronda Pattison. Not only did she have to color bookshelf after bookshelf (and, if you've read the story, you know just how many books I drew in that issue) but she colored the ink lines. I couldn't be happier with the result, and I want to make sure she gets the credit for that.

I've only really had my art colored by someone who wasn't me twice. First was in the installment of The Gutters that I drew last year where I was colored by Rus Wooton. The other was when my good friend Sean Tiffany colored the cover for the second issue of Love and Capes: What to Expect.

It's a very different experience to have your work colored by someone else, at least for me. For the past five years of Love and Capes, I've been coloring it myself. I can see the colors while I'm pencilling it, and I don't have to convey that to anyone, because I'm everyone in the process. I'm lucky that my My Little Pony had such a good colorist on it. It's very different than what I would have done, but I think it's much truer to the show than I would have done.

For instance, in my head all those bookshelves were browns and golds. Ronda colored them in cool blues and purples. It works very well, but it's not the way I saw it. I also didn't say anything because it wasn't "true to my vision" or whatever nonsense artists often say. You hire people who can do the job and then you trust them.

So, when you see my heavy brushy cartoon lines converted to color, that's all her, and I couldn't be happier. It really punched up my art.

What would it have looked like if I'd colored it? Different, that's for sure. I drew all those crazy books, I certainly wouldn't have colored all those lines.

You can click on the artwork here to embiggen the image and see the difference.