Yes! It's the Love and Capes Trade!
I've been hinting at this for a while, but I can finally announce it now... the Love and Capes trade paperback.
Maerkle Press will be partnering with IDW, publishers of such fine stuff as Star Trek and Angel and Transformers, who will be publishing this collection of the first six issues of Love and Capes. The complete stories will be released, as well as a reprint of the "How a Page is Created" special from #4, and a six-page 
This has been a long time in coming, I know. I have to especially call-out Harlan Ellison (yes, that Harlan Ellison) who got this ball rolling. Chris Ryall, editor at IDW will be releasing an official press release soon, but I thought I'd mention it here, too.
Love and Capes: Do You Want To Know a Secret? will be coming out in November, just in time for Christmas. It's 168 pages, ISBN 978-1-60010-275-2. And, it will be solicited in both hardcover and softcover, so for those of you libraries that want to order a hardcover, you can (and please do). I'll link to the official press release as soon as I get it.
Maerkle Press will continue publishing the "floppy" issues of Love and Capes. Issue #7 will be the Free Comic Book Day issue, and I'm still lining up when issue #8 will come out. With issue #8, I'll be back on a regular publishing schedule for the second "season". I just had to make sure there was a FCBD issue, because it's such a great promotion, especially since I can now announce the trade. Yay!
Neverending Battle Part Two
I've mentioned before that I'm taking place in a charity auction for the Candlelighters. There's a pretty slick flyer that's been designed by Jesse, who's also part of the event which I'm showing here. Follow this link to the full story, and see how to download your own flyers.
Drawings with Sharp Teeth
The Big Project is done and approved by my art director. I'm not going to post any more art until it prints sometime next week, and then I'll show a lot more of it. I just want to allow the client to debut it.
It was a lot of fun to work on this one. A lot of stuff to draw, a lot of techniques to figure out, and a lot of things to make fit. This is definitely going on my next promo postcard.
Fun and Games
I've recently gotten a big assignment from one of my frequent clients. I don't want to step on their denoument, as Kingdom Come Batman once said, so I'm keeping their name and the name of this project quiet for now. But it's a mind-bendingly big job. The mind wobbles at it. It's going to feature a game board and
I know I'm going to need frequent breaks from this gig to keep my head from imploding. Especially since it's due on Monday. On the upside, it shouldn't be too terribly long before I can post the final. Until then, I figured taking a couple of Sanity Pauses to show you the work in progress t'ain't a bad thing.
Coffee Time
I mentioned a couple weeks ago how, while on my annual trip to MegaCon in Orlando I stopped by Downtown Disney and was disappointed to find out that they no longer carried the little itty-bitty coffee cans anymore. Well, good news! On his trip to Disney, Bob Ingersoll called to say that they'd now introduced little, itty-bitty vaccuum packed bags of coffee... and in new flavors!
So, guarded by several of my Super Deformed Star Wars toys are nine flavors of Mickey's "Really Swell" coffee, including Regular Disney Blend, and the previously released French Vanilla and Hazenut are new flavors Breakfast Blend, Cinnamon Pecan, Blueberry Cobbler, Chocolate Caramel Fudge, French Roast, and Pralines and Cream.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available for purchase on the interweb. So, I'll have to parcel this out until I make it out to Disneyland come Comic-Con International time.
Playing Hooky
Today's Opening Day for the Cleveland Indians and I have a lousy cold. Or do I? I mean, am I pretending to have a cold so that I can tell my boss I can't work and spend it on the couch watching the Tribe (and a couple episodes of the Battlestar Galactica marathon) play the White Sox?
Hmmm. My mind is a twisty, turny thing, isn't it?
Raise Your Glasses!
Yes, I understand the irony (pun intended) of an Iron Man pint glass. Doesn't mean it's not cool.
Actually, out of all the Toon Tumblers except maybe the Love and Capes glass, this may be my favorite. A lot of them are recreations of a cover or a panel. This one required a lot more design work and tasked my meager knowledge of the Golden Avenger. It features the Classic Bronze Age Iron Man in color, and then a lot of images of his previous armors, from the original clunky tin can look to the Ohio State-themed scarlet and white of the eighties. Finding and recreating the images was fun, even if a lot more work.
It'll be available at the New York Comic-Con, and oh my goodness, I'll be there too at booth 2446!
Frak Yeah!
If, four years ago, you would have asked me what my favorite TV show would be, there's no way I would have said Battlestar Galactica. I like sci-fi, and was looking forward to the miniseries, but Galactica, really?
The mini-series had that languid mini-series pacing and that turned me off a little bit. I wasn't sold on Starbuck being female, and there were other things that left me cool to the project. Still, there were two scenes that stand out that were so cool that I knew I'd give it a chance if it became a series. One was that, in a scene where the Colonial anthem needed to be played, that anthem was the original series theme song. That was a nice nod to the fans of the original show. The other was in the first couple of minutes, the Cylon now known as Number Six was examining a little baby and, in doing so,
Then the first episode aired, and I was blown away. There was something about doing one hour instead of two that tightened everything. And it's never looked back since.
Battlestar Galactica is just a perfectly executed piece of entertainment. Actors, writers, special effects all work so seamlessly that there's no weak link. It's one of the few shows that have inspired blind trust in me. If Ronald Moore and David Eick said "For the next season, we're going to do BSG as a three-camera sitcom, shot on tape with a laugh track, and bring in Norman Fell as Cylon Number One" I'd have to say "Okay, I'll check it out." That's the kind of trust they've engendered.
The last season of Battlestar starts this Friday. It had dropped of my radar (or DRAIS as we BSG peeps would say) thanks to Sci-Fi's odd "whenever we feel like it" scheduling. But it's back now, and I'm going to enjoy every last minute of it. And, with Galactica on my mind, I've done an illo of the sexy Cylon, Number Six.
Bobble Fish
The Lake County Captains are the single-A franchise of the Cleveland Indians, and their ballpark is maybe five minutes away from Fortress Zahler. I finally made contact with them last year when Comic Heaven and I provided them books for Free Comic Book Day. Since then, we've spoken of a
The Captains have a fish race, featuring Buster Bluegill, Pauley Perch and Willy Walleye. It's the same as the sausage races or condiment races at other parks. Now these three characters will get to live in three-dimensional form, designed by me.
The fish in question are costumes that are more giant masks than full costumes that the runners wear. I had to translate this format into a more cartoony fish figure. I like to call them Bobble Fish, as a little nod to Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. They share a common form and will each sport unique colors.
Click on the fish to the left to see the complete style guide sheet.
They'll be given away on Saturday June 28, Saturday July 26, Saturday August 23. We're working out details so I can hopefully do a signing of the bobble fish one of those days.
And thanks to Comic Heaven, copies the FCBD version of Love and Capes will be given away this Free Comic Book Day, too!
Youthful Indiscretions
A long time ago, or at least it feels that way, I did the illustrations and designed a book called Women Do and Say the Dumbest Things. I did this for Jimmy and Chip on WMJI, Cleveland's number one (and certainly my favorite) Lanigan and Malone Morning Show. The good-natured book did okay, but despite our best efforts all around, it wasn't the runaway hit we'd all hoped for.
Artistically, though, it was a watershed for me. It's here that I first used what would evolve into my Love and Capes style. I broke out of some of the traditional superhero stuff and did some cartooning that opened up a much larger world.
Now, thanks to Wowio, you can read this book for free. There are about 100 stories, all submitted by listeners to WMJI, as well as one submitted by me. It's a short, fun little book.
Jimmy, Chip and I always promised to do a sequel, Men Do and Say the Dumbest Things. "Buy this one and we'll do another," we said. We didn't get enough to do that, but here's a second chance for all of us. Download the book and if it does well enough, maybe you'll see another. And you can submit your stories at the book's website.