The One Where I'm Interviewed by The News-Herald
It's a pretty good article, underneath the obligatory sound effects headline. I don't think I said anything too boneheaded, and it does a good job representing Love and Capes, which is always important. Hopefully it will both spur some sales, and drive people to my appearance at Barnes and Noble in Mentor this Sunday.
Here's the start of the article:
During the easy days of summer, some kids sell lemonade as a fun way to earn a little change. When Thom Zahler was a youngster, the commodity he peddled to neighbors was his artwork. “I can’t remember not drawing,” the lifelong Timberlake resident said from his art studio, which is lined with hundreds of colorful action figures. “When I’m drawing, I just know that’s what I’m here for. It’s that perfect feeling that goes along with it.”
It's true. My Mom wouldn't buy us Kool-Aid or Lemonade, so I set up a little drawing stand. I made $1.35 one day. That was a pretty good haul. It was four comic books at the time.
Read the full article here.
Twenty-one to go!
Love and Capes #10 is coming together slowly. Here's a panel from page three.
Here's another Doc Karma and Abby panel. I had forgotten how much fun the good doctor is to write, as well as how much space to leave for his flowery speech. Page four should be his last appearance for the book. At least I think so. He could always make another appearance.
And, just a reminder, tomorrow my interview appears in the News-Herald. Hopefully, it'll be on their website, too. Even more hopefully, it'll turn out well and I won't look like a complete doofus.
Fingers crossed.
Where's My Pasta?
Sunday I was at Bravo with my Goddaughter, my NotGodson, and their parents. Bravo is one of those cool restaurants that covers their tables in white paper and gives you crayons. Sure, they say they're for the kids, but I never pay attention to that.
Eating with young kids is always an adventure. It's sitting still longer than they'd prefer, to be sure. They're five and two, and well-behaved as opposed to a lot of kids I see, but still, it helps to be able to occupy them.
So I draw for them. Fortunately, drawing is so automatic that I can do that while talking intellegently with their parents. NotGodson started suggesting, though some would say demanding, characters after I knocked out a quick (and not very good) Lightning McQueen. Before I knew it, he was rattling off the lineup of the Animated Justice League. The fact that a two year old is asking me for "Jonn" (the Martian Manhunter) and "Hawkgirl" makes me feel like my Godparentage has been a success.
It reminds me of that late lamented Baja Brewery restaurant that used to be across from the San Diego Convention Center that would do the same. By the end of the show, the walls would be covered by artwork from the table papers, and I personally had gotten more than a few free beers. That's just the advantage of being able to do caricatures of the wait staff.
Anyway, for your edification are my crayon scribblings from Sunday's dinner, taken on my iPhone of Awesomeness.
See, It's Not All About Me
One of the books that helped me become a small publisher myself was a book I stumbled upon at a San Diego Comic-Con years ago. It was Astounding Space Thrills. It was a cool little black and white book with an awesome cover and an infectious sense of fun. I mean, Little Green Men who are photosynthetic? Brilliant! It also had one of the coolest designs for a t-shirt, and one that I would have bought even if I hadn't liked the book (and was the inspiration for the marketing plan behind the Raider t-shirts).
Best yet, the writer and artist of the book was a great guy. Steve Conley has gone on to become a friend of mine. He's so damnably likeable. This must be how people feel about me. Or so I'm told. Or maybe so I hope. Either way.
Now, IDW, publisher of a certain other collection of a small press book (you know which one I mean) has collected all of AST, it's miniseries and its online strip, into one convenient and great-looking trade. It's coolness collected between a cardstock cover, and I highly recommend that you pick it up.
Get it at Amazon here. And, use that link, and I even get a little bit of a kickback.
It's Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter, I Think
If there's two things that go together, it's Love and Capes and the Punisher.
The guys at Comixtreme.com have done another podcast, this one focusing on Frank Castle and his war on crime. But, in their picks of the week is a book of my acquaintence, Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? Blake says some very kind things about it, and I'm very appreciative of them.
What, you want to check out the podcast? Well, make with the clickety-click here.
My Virtual Refrigerator
I think I mentioned here, and definitely mentioned in my Twitter feed, that I'll be the subject of a News-Herald article coming this Friday. It's set to tie in with a book signing I'll be doing on this coming Sunday at Barnes and Noble in Mentor. The interview was fun to do, and it's very flattering to be the focus of such a thing. I have't seen the article, and I'm hoping that I didn't say anything stupid in it. I was able to recall exactly how many houses I had, as well as not pushing anything off as being "above my pay grade", so I think I did okay.
I remember being proud of it, and showing it to Bob Wiacek, who was generally complementary. I don't expect that Bob was geniunely impressed by a 12-year old's scribblings, but he was positive enough in a "keep at it kid, you're on a decent path" kind of way. That kind of support is priceless in a young artist's journey. Gil Kane was also there, whom I knew from his Star Hawks strip and other similar work. Gil's art didn't appeal to me then, and much like Kirby or even Simonson (whom at that show I mentioned disliking, since he made the grevious error of not being Paul Smith on the X-Men) I didn't start to appreciate and even like until later in my life. I kind of regret that. It would have been nice to talk to him a little more.
So, presented here are two drawings from that portfolio. One is of Laser Raider, a character I created for my grade school newspaper and was heaviy influenced by Dynamite Magazine's Dynamite Duo (later drawn by students of the Kubert School that I would even later attend myself). The other is Firestorm, proving my fascination with the character started at an early age. I remember being a young kid and drawing characters whose limbs looked like sausage links, since I didn't understand musculature, as well as not being able to draw noses or feet. With that in mind, I'm a little surprised at how inoffensive these drawings are. They aren't great, to be sure, but they hold up just a little better than I thought.
I also notice that I was using a signature different from my "family" signature. The now-familiar elongated ZAHLER with the united H and L and curved R going to the year was on all my Dad's and Aunt's paintings. I think I was somehow rebelling against it, although later I'd come to embrace it and I like the continuity that comes with having the family signature. I did change it a little, elimiating the vertical line in the E. Every generation adds something, I guess.
A One and a Two
I'm a little burned out on the lyrics contest, so I'm going to take a few pages off and just post some panels. Here's page one (which you can embiggen) and a panel from page two (which you can't). Abby goes to see Doctor Carmody,
This issue should be a fun one. I'm looking forward to working on it.
The Love and Capes bookplate revealed!
The trade paperback comes with a custom bookplate, which I'm sharing with you here. I've pixelated the purchaser's last name, just to be safe. If you order one, I promise that your surname will be clear as can be. Joel requested that I do a sketch of the Crusader, which you can see here. This bookplate measures 4x6 and comes on the inside cover of the book.
Click on the bookplate here to biggemize it so you can see it larger.
FCBD Advertising
Since Free Comic Book Day is looming on the horizon, I wanted to mention advertising. For the FCBD issue, I take advertising. You can download a PDF that explains the ad rates here. Almost 20,000 copies of LNC were in circulation last year, and I expect even better things this year. If you're in the market for a comic-based ad, this is a great place to be.