Seeing Green

Guess what movie I'm seeing tomorrow?

I've been meaning to tackle She-Hulk for a while, but I could never find a look that I liked. She's harder to draw, as she has to look strong and muscular while still being sexy. I don't think she's ever had a uniform or look that worked, aside from her time in the Fantastic Four. So, for this one, I went back to those Savage She-Hulk roots and did the ripped blouse look.

When I roughed this out, I just saw a green field and worked backwards, adding the non-green and the darker green areas. It's a decent piece and a great experiment.

She ain't into wine and roses, beer just makes her turn up her nose

So you want to know what the next exciting issue of Love and Capes will feature? Here it is, True Believer, it's going to be people having dinner and not talking. In fact, I may just repeat this panel over and over for the next fourteen pages.

Okay, it won't really. In fact, there's dialogue on this page, just not in this panel or the two before it. And it'll be funny, trust me.

I also like the sportsbar setting for this page, too. It's different than most of the other restaurants I've had scenes take place in. And you may not be able to make it out, but that's a Lake Catholic Cougars banner above them, although what it's doing in Deco City, I don't know.

Except a scene or two erased by sweet red wine

After a ten-day block, I've finished page nine. Worry not, I know exactly what will happen on page ten, so I shouldn't get so stuck on the next one. This one came out better than I thought, and has some pretty solid artwork. It's also got a couple of in-jokes, too. And, I did managed to make it funnier after I drew it, thanks to a kickboxing epiphany. (Finally, one that didn't happen in the shower.)

There's also a reference as seen in this posted panel to one of the inspirations for Love and Capes. That's the TV show Mad About You. I loved the show. I thought Paul and Jamie were two wonderful, well rounded, interesting characters. Jamie's sister, Lisa, was one of the major inspirations for Charlotte (who has since morphed into a character of her own). And, they've just started replaying them from the beginning on TV Land, so I've told the TiVo to grab the episodes as they air. They're great to work to.

And Mr. Rieser's book Couplehood is just great. It's inspired by his stand-up, but it holds together tighter than a lot of stand-up based stuff. The book starts on page 46, as I recall, so that you feel like you're really flying through it.

I also managed to pump this page out thanks to a bout of insomnia that kept me awake from 3:00am today on. On the upside, I caught a fantastic biography of Alexander Hamilton on PBS. I highly recommend it.

X'Hal!

I was a big fan of the Teen Titans, back in the Wolfman/Perez era. I came on board late, right around the time of The Judas Contract. But it was a different type of storytelling than what I was used to, and it was pretty darn fun.

If you're going to do a book of beautiful, powerful women, you can't go wrong including Starfire. Heck, she probably should have been in the first one, but she was a little... I don't know, obvious. I'm making up for lost time with this one, though.

This one is a lot more airbrushed than a lot of images I've done recently. And I worked in (relatively) dead line, rather than my usual brushy style, to get a different look on this one. You've got to shake things up every once in a while to keep them fresh.

There are still six more spaces to get your commission done and be in the next Powerful Women collection, too!

Fish Tales

I got to see the Bobble Fish in person today.

I went up to Classic Park, where the offices of the Lake County Captains are, and got to see the one sample of each of the fishies. The rest are in transit, so I wasn't able to get any for me.

That's my artwork on the boxes, too. Jonathan at the Captains did a good job with it. And my logo and website are on the bottom of every box, so that is sah-weet. I am so looking forward to seeing these at the big signing on June 28th. You can get tickets here.

Below are a passel o'pics. Click on any for biggimization!

It's That Time of Year Again

Ten years ago or so, I did the Big-Easy-Con in New Orleans. I loved the show, due in no small part to it being run by Super Con Promoter Roger Price. It was a great show, and did well, but not well enough to continue, unfortunately. But I have nothing but fond memories of the show.

The New Orleans Tax People though, are a different matter. They've got the tactics and the charm of the Stormtroopers who raided Hoth. You need to get a seller's permit and file tax forms to set up at the show. Perfectly understandable. But that they demanded your tax bill be paid in cash at the end of the show. And they couldn't wait. I went upstairs to my room to get some change to pay them and then they were gone. I escaped New Orleans without paying, but then I sent them a check for the outstanding amount. A check they held on to for over six months, long enough for me to switch banks when my existing one closed up... and then they hit me with charges for that.

And they were really rude.

They also wouldn't let me fill out my own form. No, I had to dictate it to them. When you live on a street which takes its name from The Poem of Hiawatha, that's always dicey.

I haven't been to the Big Easy since 2000. That's something I need to rectify one of these years. I really enjoyed my time there. But every year, since my two con appearances, I get not one, but two tax forms from them.

One is apparently to Thom Zahler of Zahler Thom, the other is to Thom Faber Art Studio. Mr. Faber, no relation to the talented Rich Faber, has been so successful that he's gotten credit card applications, too. All of this because I, the guy with immaculate comic book handwriting, couldn't fill out his own form.

I'm not the only one, as I know other attendees who get our yearly junk mail from New Orleans. And I've written them to tell them to stop. They don't. So, how much money are they wasting sending out such notices?

All this as I've just found out that the California Board of Equalization has managed to lose my Sellers Permit forms for San Diego for the second year in a row, after being told my permit was mailed out a week ago. It does befoul one's mood.

That Nancy-Boy Hair Gel I Like So Much

I read the blog of one of the frequent Pub Quiz opponents of the much-vaunted Team Eleven. It's a fun read, and she mentions her love of the Spike "To the Angel-Mobile, away!" monologue from "Angel." Along the way, she links to a product I did not know existed, but am not strangely intrigued by.

Keeping with nettiquette, I'm linking to her blog so you can see it, rather than stealing the link and passing it off as my own. It's only proper.

Super Secret Project Revealed

I've mentioned a Super Secret Project here once or twice. Actually, I think I use it to describe a lot of things. But now I can reveal what the latest SSP is...

Toon Tumblers DC Glasses.

That's right, Toon Tumblers, one of my favorite pieces of comic book merchandise and the good china here at Casa de Zahler, will now be making DC glasses. I dig the Marvel ones to be sure, but I've always been more of a DC guy. It's going to be cool to get some of my favorite characters on glass.

Now, I can't reveal the first image or where it will appear, or characters in the planned lines. That I'll save for Toon Tumblers to reveal, but once they do I'll post it here. If you wanted to guess that I've lobbied for a certain Nuclear Man to make his appearance early in the line, though, you wouldn't be wrong.

The Bobble Fish was a Tremendously Useful Creation

Here's the first photo I've seen of the first bobble fish I designed for the Lake County Captains. It's Buster Bluegill. I'll be at that game, June 28th, signing statues for anyone who would like. I haven't done too much three-dimensional stuff, and I was a lousy sculpture student, so it's cool to see something I've drawn in three dimensions.

Well, a two dimensional-photo of said three-dimensional item, at least. I'll let you know when I actually get my mitts on one.

Does she speak eloquently? And would she have your baby?

Here we go, page seven. This has one of my most in-jokey jokes ever, and it's visible here in panel one. Anyone want to take a guess as to what it is?

I thought I was hitting a nice little roll here, but now I'm a little stymied as to page eight. A lot of times, I have the writing work done on the next page while I'm working on the current one. It's not that I don't know what happens next. I certainly do. It's just a question of feeling like I need another beat before going on with the story.

Still, I'd like to get page eight done by the end of the month. Then I'd be a third of the way through the book and a third of the way through my self-assigned deadline of end-of-July. That may change a bit given that I do realize that San Diego is the end of July and that does take some time up. Even so, I should be doing well on getting three months ahead of things, which I need to do to have a certain amount of safety room to get the next FCBD issue printed in time.