Doneish!

The big hurdle has been, well, hurdled.

I finished page 24 of Love and Capes, so the brunt of the book is done. I still need to write my author's page, and maybe do the cover of #6 so I can toss that in the back of the issue. But with this finish, hopefully my brain will be a little clearer now.

And I still have a week to get it to the printer, too!

She Makes That Outfit Work

One page until the big finale. Heck, I'm so jazzed about being this close that I almost want to stay up and finish it. Of course, I'm typing this at 1:00am with a rerun of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Hide and Q" if you're interested, which is also one of the first scripts I ever bought and read.) on in the background. So perhaps I'll take a break, something some people refer to as "sleep", and then start renewed in the morning.

You may notice that Abby is wearing the same outfit as Paris Hilton wore upon her release from jail yesterday. Hey, I thought it was a cute outfit, so I gave it to Abby. By the time it sees print, no one will notice the connection.

Okay, it's bedtime for Thomzo now. See you tomorrow with page 24!

To Boldly Go...

More pictures from the Licensing Show. Here, Matt, Sandi and I encounter the Bratz booth.

So Close I Can Almost Smell It

I don't know that the finish of a book has a smell, but if it did, that scent would be wafting through the studio today. Page 22 is done! There are only eleven panels left to draw, color and script now.

Mark's trying to make Abby feel better, and offers up a trip to San Francisco. I have on many occasions mentioned by chocolate "habit", although some would say "problem." And one of my favorite chocolate dens is Ghirardelli's, based in that city. I've been to any number of their soda fountain/ice creameries, including Las Vegas, Chicago, Orlando and San Diego, but there's none quite like the SF one. It's kind of got the feeling of the Soup Nazi's joint from Seinfeld, except slightly more charming.

I think I'll have another page done tonight, and then page 24 the night after. Then the book can go on proof to the Secret Society of Super Reviewers while I try to do the cover for #6, so that I can run an ad for it in the back of the issue.

Blackjack time

Almost done now. Three pages left, and I think I can do a page a day from here on in.

In this page, Abby's bad day continues and she calls Mark for a little support. This page also features a reappearance by my friend, fellow Councilman, and mailman, Robin, playing the part of, well, the mailman.

I designed a new "set piece" for the book with this page. Set pieces are complicated, layered backgrounds capable of easy changes that I know are going to be used frequently. I have ones designed for Mark and Abby's apartments, for the bookstore and a few other places. This set piece, seen here, is the L-Train station, or whatever they call it in Deco City. I've made no secret that I've templated Deco City on Chicago, so it's no surprise that they have a monorail/elevated train. Actually, the monorail can be seen in the very first issue, but I've never had a chance to show it since.

So, this set piece is designed so I can move the train along the track, change the color of the buildings and the sky and everything else. It'll work out well, but it also delayed me much more than I would have thought. Once again, this was another post-midnight page.

I love the book, I really do. But it'll be nice when it's done.

Talkin' 'Bout My Reputation

With Love and Capes #4–the retail edition in stores, reviews are starting to filter in. And they're good!

..let's look at the indie publication Love and Capes. It's a fairly simple light comedy about a superhero who reveals his identity to his girlfriend. The main character is a Superman analog, and there are analogs of (at least) Batman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League around as well. Although the correspondence is decidedly loose and tilted towards humour. What makes this series so great is the characterization. While there are other more obvious gags in the book, most of the humor and fun come from the interactions between the protagonist, his girlfriend, and a few other characters. They have well-developed enough personalities already that creator Thom Zahler can play them off each other well enough to make a whole interesting book.

Love and Capes isn't trying to change the world of comics or make any other such grandiose claims. But if you like secret identity hijinks and light romantic comedy, you should really make the effort to track down this book.

Ixat_totep
Comic Book Lover's Anonymous

This is a really fun series, which could best be described as crossing Superman with a 30-minute sitcom. The art is crisp and iconic, and the dialogue flows quickly and snappily. Heroes may be one way to take superheroes onto the television screen and make them really work, but Love and Capes is absolutely the other way to do so.

Greg McElhatton
Comics Alliance

My First, Best Destiny

I'm back from the Licensing Show, and will hopefully write much more about it tomorrow. Really quick, though, it was a good show and I think good things will come from it. One of the coolest parts, though, was that the CBS/Paramount booth had a replica of the bridge and command chair. And I, um, may have gotten my picture taken in the center seat.

Best Laid Plans

Here's another rarity. Two panels from page twenty.

Panel three seems like it's making fun of Harry Potter fans. It's not, and I've detailed my own plans to make sure that I can get a copy of the book during Comic-Con. So I put it in the "Nobody can make fun of my brother but me" category.

Panel five is the Amazonia panel. According to my original plan, Amazonia wasn't going to be in issue five at all. But, much like what happened with her in issue two, she forced her way in. She's a strong-willed woman. What her appearance here does is set up the framework for the next issue."Amazonia comes to Abby's bookstore for a signing" was among my ideas for this current issue, and I liked it so much that I knew I'd need more room to do it justice.

I'm headed off for the Licensing Show tomorrow, so I'll get back to things when I return. I should be in good shape to finish things up on deadline.

They're a Leavin' On a Jet Plane

Last night I finished page nineteen, so I've got just five pages left. If I'm good, and manage to channel a little bit of the Speed Force, I might even be able to get page twenty done before I leave for New York City.

This page turned out pretty well. It's split between a Mark and Abby scene and a Crusader and Darkblade scene, and both are fairly funny. With this page, Jerry and Joanne Spencer leave the book, never to be seen again… for the rest of the issue. And one of the sub-jokes in the superhero part came about just because I needed them on ground level for the punchline. I wound up situating them on the docks outside of town, and that inspired me for the first joke. You'll have to trust me that it's funny, as it's not the scene that I posted.

As I wind down to the end of the series, I'm one page short of the 24 that I need. Usually at this point I have everything completely locked in. This time there's one scene that I need to extend. It'll work out fine, but it's different problem to have, going from too much story to not enough.

Color Your World

While I was working on page 17, I drew a panel that I thought "That's a decent image. Very iconic." I used the end of issue four as the design for the t-shirts and glasses, and this panel reminded me of that. So, I turned it into a desktop background, available for download.So, if you just need more of the Love and Capes on your computer, click and install one of these sparkly designs.
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