A Daily Show with Jon Stewart

I'm of mixed feelings about the late night talk shows being back on the air, but I saw this and it was just too funny not to share.

Free Comic Book Day Advertising Opportunities!

I've mentioned repeatedly that Love and Capes #7 will be part of Free Comic Book Day. What I may not have mentioned is that I have advertising space available in it. The rates are pretty reasonable, especially for the national distribution and publicity. If you've got a product or service that might be well served by advertising in the book, you really should give it a shot. Below is the official press release and information. Give it a look!

* * * * *

Last year’s Free Comic Book Day was a huge success, and Maerkle Press and Love and Capes is doing it again. This year’s FCBD will be May 3rd, 2008, tied into the release of the Iron Man movie. It’s going to be huge, and we’d like you to be a part of it by advertising with us this year.

Love and Capes #7 will be a FCBD issue, with a special retail version relased one month later, giving your ad two separate opportunities to be seen. Between the two printings, almost 15,000 copies were bought and distributed nationwide.

You can download a PDF of the advertising information here:
http://www.loveandcapes.com/fcbd08.pdf

Text version follows.

BACK COVER • $1000
Full color, full bleed, 6 5/8" x 10 3/16" trim size.

INTERIOR BACK COVER • $725
Full color, full bleed, 6 5/8" x 10 3/16" trim size.

INTERIOR FRONT COVER • $850
Full color, full bleed, 6 5/8" x 10 3/16" trim size.

INTERIOR AD • $400
Full color, full bleed, 6" x 9 1/2"
5 Available

SPACE RESERVATION DEADLINE: January 31, 2008
AD DEADLINE: February 11, 2008

Need help designing your ad? Give us a call and we'll be glad to help you out.
Ads are accepted in PDF, EPS, TIF or JPG format. 300 DPI minimum.
Make all checks payable to MAERKLE PRESS or THOM ZAHLER ART STUDIOS. PayPal accepted at tz(at)thomz.com.

Thanks for your support!

I Have No Responsibilities Here Whatsoever

I didn't intend to get this one done already. I finished it last night around 1:30am, an hour or so after THE Ohio State University lost another BCS Championship. I'm not a huge college football fan, but I do support the home team and I think Jim Tressel's a good coach. And football is always good to work to.

So yesterday, I had no jokes for page ten. I knew I wanted to do a bit with Quincy, Abby's brother. I've described him elsewhere as the Lucy to Mark's Charlie Brown, if Charlie Brown really could kick the football but wasn't allowed to. He's a great foil for Mark, and puts a little conflict in the Tennyson family. But he's sometimes hard to get a handle on, or figure some new way he could torment Mark, so I was in the tall grass.

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to take more walks. I like taking walks, listening to the iPod, walking around the village. Weather doesn't bother me too much, but yesterday it was in the low sixties, and you have to take advantage of a gift like that. Besides, Stephen King takes walks to solve his writing problems. It's also how he got hit by that car, but that's another story.

I walked and thought of many things. The impending OSU game and Quincy mixed in my brain soup and I came up with an idea. Quincy's always competitive with Mark, due in no small part that Quincy always wanted a brother, and the concept of their respective colleges playing in a bowl game lent itself to a few punchlines.

When I got back to the house, I started working on the strip. It was late afternoon, and I didn't think I'd finish it. I started coloring it around nine and just couldn't stop. I know when I get like that, it's better to ride the wave and just finish it. Besides, it'd leave me clear for the work that must get done today. And, with the warmer weather and all, it was almost like those summer nights I stayed up until 2:00 or later trying to finish a page. I know it's bizarre to say that staying up late to finish a page is fun, but it kinda is.

Oh, and on a completely different note, yesterday was the first convertible day of the year. A little early, but I don't look gift horses in the mouth.

Come With Me If You Want to Live

What? You wanted funny, character driven panels? Nope. You get this establishing shot. I don't do many of them, and this one came out well. Nowadays, when I design these, they're set so that I can change the weather and time of day. That way, I can reuse them when the situation arises.

This panel also touches on something that I've never said or dealt with: Abby's parents have a fair amount of money, compared to Mark's. Abby's parents aren't crazy rich or anything, but definitely live in a much nicer area.

With this page, we shift from Christmas with the Spencers to Christmas with the Tennysons. That's when the story really gets going.

See Ya, Oh-Seven!

I am back from my Vegas New Year's Vacation. It was a fine time, although the blackjack tables hated me with a vengance. It was the first time it wasn't fun. I can usually put down some money and play for a couple hours and not be completely out, and often be up a bit. Here, it was like putting money in a paper shredder.

I'm not saying I won't go back. Heck, when I got home, there was an offer from the Harrah's casino properties offering me some free nights, which was pretty cool. But, I've got other fish to fry first, including Love and Capes #7.

Since it's the New Year, it's time for resolutions. Yes, I make them, and I probably run about 50/50 in keeping them. Some are the annual food related ones, but I'm going to wait until Monday to start those. Nothing about Vegas is conducive to healthy eating. I keep my resolutions fairly small and to myself, but if you're a fellow resolution-maker, I say soldier on, my brother (or sister).

As far as a year in review, I had some big goodness happen. In no particular order, I became Council President here in the Village of Timberlake. I saw my first published short story, in Bob Ingersoll and my Will Riker story in Star Trek TNG: The Sky's the Limit. I published four issues of Love and Capes to great critical fanfare, including the Free Comic Book Day issue which was so much fun that I'm doing #7 as another FCBD book. Love and Capes also generated excitement, causing me to have my first (and second, and third...) Hollywood meetings. The Writers Strike has paused a lot of that progress, but I can't complain too much as now I'm in the game. And there's one Big Announcement that will be coming later this summer, but I can't say anything about that yet.

I got some Love and Capes glasses and t-shirts done, which was way cool. And I started doing convention sketches, which has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. So, it's been a great career year, and hopefully that upward slope will increase.

Speaking of those commissions, I got a scan of a Supergirl piece I did at Mid-Ohio-Con from its owner, and I've now been able to color it and I can post it here. She's wearing her current outfit, which I refer to as Strippergirl. Yeah, it's sexy, but a little too so for the Maid of Might. At least for my tastes. The client dug it, and the drawing turned out great, so I can't complain too much.

All right, I just wanted to clear my head here. Sorry it's so disjointed, and I'm sure my next post will be more cogent. Hope your Old Year was good, and that your New Year only gets better.

A Driver Don't Pick the Car

I managed to crank one last page out before the New Year, and my New Year's trip to Las Vegas. Yay, me.

This should be the last page of the Christmas Eve party at Mark's parents. The next page will be the transition, and then on to Abby's where Mark plans to ask Abby to marry him. Note that I said "plans."

Here, Mark has to try to open a "Trampz" doll for his neice.

Christmas isn't complete without kids, so I've made sure that there are kids at the party. He's got no actual nieces or nephews, since he's an only child, but he does have cousins who have kids. The same is true for Abby, who does have a brother and a sister, but none of them have kids. Yet in issue #4, we saw plenty of kids at the family picnic. It's been a tradition in my family that the younger generation refers to most of the older generation as "uncle" or "aunt" and I've carried that over here.

This is all by way of explaining how Mark can be "Uncle Mark" when he's got no siblings. But having the kids refer to Mark as "Cousin Mark Once Removed" or something like that is just too clunky. Shorthand is often important in these things.

Village of Timberlake on YouTube

Someone named "Eggcheese" made a video of the great Village of Timberlake. It shows off some of the coolness that is my town. I laughed at the shot of the stairs (and, as a Councilman, let me tell you we're working on that). The one safety taped piece of playground equipment has been fixed, though.

Nice Suit...John Phillips, London... I Hear Arafat Gets His There

This page went a lot easier than the ones before. Maybe that whole rushing the cover thing helped get me running. Or maybe it's that both jokes were pretty easy to write. Here, Mark tells his Dad that he's going to ask Abby to marry him.

It's nice to write the heartwarming scenes. And the humor is probably easier because of my family (and my) habit of never leaving the tender moment alone, as Billy Joel might say. We just can't be serious for that long. Probably too many eighties sitcoms.

Speaking of families and such things, Christmas went well, with no less than five families/friends/houses visited on the day itself. That's fine with me, it's part of the holiday. And I received a lot of great presents, and only one that I needed to return. (Nope, won't tell you what. It wasn't the giver's fault and it was easy enough to exchange, so I'll leave it vague like that.) In other years, because my reading tastes are so well known, I've had quite a few books to return. This year was pretty easy as far as that goes.

Hope your Christmas was just as special!

Of Course You Did, You Saucy Minx You

I know what you're thinking: He worked on Christmas?

Hells, no. I actually did this the Sunday before, but then there was the whole late cover thing and that took precedence over everything else, so I posted it first. This is page six, which I'm very happy but took almost as much effort as page five. More so, I think. I just had some sort of writer-artist block that wouldn't let me get past it.

And I don't know that I know the cure for such blocks, but I know what at least starts to help: inspiring writing and stories. So I saw Charlie Wilson's War, which I liked on its own merits but I have to acknowledge that I am just stupid for the writing and dialogue of Aaron Sorkin. I watched Notting Hill, which I'd actually never seen before, and was worried about. Not worried about liking, but even without seeing it, I knew that "just a girl standing in front of a boy..." line and was afraid that it might be a little too much like the ending I have planned for Love and Capes #7. (Fortunately, it wasn't.) The movie was pretty good, too, but I've noticed that I'm becoming stupid for Richard Curtis scripts, too. And, I watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, which is your hint for today's headline/movie quote.

Anyway, today's page was another plot-page, where I knew what had to happen, just not why it was funny. Here's a little Christmas glimpse into My Process. As you can see here, the joke was always about Mark not telling his relatives (aside from Mom and Dad) that he was a superhero. I realized that the extent of the secret was good to pass on to the readers, as it would set up other jokes.

Originally, the joke was supposed to end with something like Abby saying, "So you spend Christmas Eve lying to your relatives?" Mark responded,, "It's a Christmas tradition. I hear a lot of people do it."

In a rare bit of point-to-point clarity, the line was inspired by the bit from Charlie Wilson's War where, when asked why does Congress prattle on and do nothing, Tom Hanks responds, "Tradition mostly." The word tradition stuck, and inspired the joke thinkin' process.

The problem is, the lying line was too dark for the book, and for Mark. Being a superhero is a burden, but Mark never treats it as such. And to end with a bit about Christmas being a season of lies just didn't sit right. I had to hammer it a little more, but I did come up with the joke that I did use.

Of course, you'll have to get the book (it'll be free on Free Comic Book Day, so you don't have to buy it) to find out what I did do.

So If You Believe in Christmas, Come On and Let It Snow

I'm sure this has become an annual thing, but I just love Christmas. Christmas Eve especially.

In 2003, I'd just moved into the House That Meredith Bought when my Mom suggested that we have Christmas Eve at my house. My house having the virtue of being clean, I guess. I told her it was fine as long as she did all the work. I'm such a good son.

On Christmas Eve, my Mom's side of the family gets together. It's her sister and the rest of the applicable cousins and kids and all. And my Mom's side of the family is the one with little kids, which is great because Timberlake has this cool village-wide arrangement with Santa where he stops by and drops off some presents on Christmas Eve. (I learned the specifics of the deal when I became a Councilman, and I'd love to tell you how our little Village arranges it, but it's classified.) We'd drifted away from Christmas Eve in the Village as my cousins and brothers got older, but having kids again, it was a perfect fit. Even my Goddaughter and her family managed to come by.

The family's gotten bigger, and it's probably too many people in too small a house. There's always too much food, despite my brother Mike and I trying to deflect that. We started getting the Christmas Pizzas from The Pizza Market. We figure, everyone likes pizza, and we get all sorts of exotic flavors in addition to the traditional pepperoni. And it's always great. I even took the oath of office for being a Councilman on Christmas Eve in front of my relatives a couple years ago.

Still, that first one's always going to be particularly special. First house, first Christmas and all that. It even snowed just right that first Christmas Eve here. You don't get a lot of perfect moments, so you need to appreciate them when they happen.

There's still a lot of Christmas left to go today. More relatives and friends to see and more presents to get (come on Peanuts collection...) but I wanted to take the chance to wish you and all of yours a very Merry Christmas or other holiday of your choice.