I've been sent to spread the message

By my original plan, I should be on page 16 at this point. I'm not. I'm only on 15. I'm one page behind, but that's okay, especially since at the beginning of this month, I was five pages behind. I'm mildly impressed with myself that I was able to catch up even that much. November is a month fraught with busyness, including Wizard World Dallas. So it's good that I'm down to single digits by now.

I can't show much about this sequence, but I'm sure we all guessed that a scene like this was coming.

In other news, it took a lot of calls, including three hours on the phone with AT&T, but I managed to restore the internet service that was destroyed by my foolish attempt to upgrade to the AT&T uVerse package. Oh, sweet Lord did that go badly. I'll share that later, after I get through some of the work that piled up as I was handling that crisis.

Big wheels keep on turning

Yes, this could be the most interesting issue of Love and Capes ever. Here I present a couple watching TV.

Admittedly, they're watching Battlestar Galactica, and that is pretty exciting. It's probably one of the last episodes where they reveal the Final Cylon, which only increases the excitement.

Especially coming off fourteen superhero heavy pages, it's nice to get to do a couple of these much more low-key moments. They're the core of the series, actually. The capes are important, but the love is moreso.

Ten pages left, and then designing the cover for #10, and I can put this one to bed. I love doing the book, but I love being done with the book, too.

Mid-Ohio-Con Charity Auction

When I was at Mid-Ohio-Con this past year, I participated in a charity auction. Many of the guests got together and drew something to benefit Make-a-Wish and The Hero Initiative. Well, the auction is live now. And, if you feel a burning desire to buy some Thom Zahler artwork, you can go directly to the Amazonia sketch.

Every different nation, Spanish, Hatian, Indian, Jamaican

I'm getting silly about this now. I finished this page late last night, technically early this morning, and then I plopped in front of the couch to watch Life on Mars. I got to bed pretty late, but the page got done, and I got my 1973 fix.

Here's my panel from page thirteen, which features someone you've never seen… well, you have, you just don't know it… screaming about wanting some peanut butter and jelly. It's not the best panel on the page, to be sure, but everything else reveals something about the upcoming issue that's too spoilerish to post. So here you get a guy in a Star Trek-style cell.

After I clear page twelve, things seem to speed to the finish. With eleven pages left to draw, there are three pages already written, so just eight blank pages left. That's not bad.

(And, to any new readers, especially from the aformentioned Mental Floss readers, I post a panel from every page as I get it done, and every post has a song lyric for a title. There's a theme tying them together. See if you can guess it!)

Mental Flossing

A month or two ago, I posted a link to the always-excellent Mental Floss magazine, which was having a Tuition Giveaway contest. I did this because it was a good cause, and the promise of a link back. Well, said link back has been posted, so I expect to be flooded with a bunch o' new readers. So welcome, fellow Mental Flossers. Sit down, stay a while, and be sure to check out the Love and Capes stuff.

But my city was gone

Here's a panel from page twelve. I'm halfway home on #9. Yay, me!

Heavily borrowing on the foundation of the 1980s, I've co-opted the idea that the Liberty League works via a UN charter. For an international law-enforcement agency, you'd need to have such a structure. It also helps me get around some due process issues that would occur with the ending to this sequence.

By the way, I messed up on the song lyric contest. The "Deep greens and blues for the colors I choose" actually doesn't work for the theme I was going for. So, let's use this one instead: I go for younger women, lived with several awhile.

And you thought it was all James Taylor lyrics, didn't you?

Then it's me and my machine for the rest of the morning

I had a light client day today, mostly sending clients roughs and waiting for replies. As a result, I managed to bang out another page of LNC today. Here, we get a scene of domestic bliss aboard the Liberty League Satellite.

Two more pages in this sequence and then the story will break off in another direction.

I go for younger women, lived with several awhile

Things are really cranking along now, helped along by a couple of panels of really simple backgrounds. Here's a panel from page ten, where Mark is shaking off a hangover.

Okay, not really.

And Another One

Another review, from Comics Worth Reading:

I was laughing from the cover, where Darkblade shakes down the artist to get featured on the cover. As the issue opens, Abby is having a hard time letting her sister Charlotte go study in Paris. Abby’s got her own concerns, though, as she’s planning her wedding to Mark, aka the Crusader… though, the appeal for me is how realistic Abby and Mark’s relationship is. They act like two adults deeply in love and figuring out how to make their lives work together, with friends and family and occupations. I love it.

Read the full review here.

Branch water and tomato wine

Just finished page nine, a little earlier than I thought. I like it when the pages come easily.

I don't know if anyone will notice, but the device that Darkblade is pulling out is based on the Neutralizer that Rom the Spaceknight used. It's not a point-for-point duplicate, but it's clearly based on it. To me at least.

With page nine comes a new lyrics contest. This one will be harder that the previous ones, so bring your A-game.