The Love and Capes Valentine's Day Giveaway!

Valentine's Day is coming up, and since I write comicdom's most romantic superhero book, I figure I ought to do something to celebrate. So I am. I'm doing a giveaway.

Love and Capes is the perfect Valentine's Day present for the comics fan, or someone you want to introduce to comics. No Valentine? Enter the contest and maybe Love and Capes will help you win over that special someone. Sign up using the form below.

• You and your valentine could win:
• All nine issues of Love and Capes, signed by the author
• Two matching Love and Capes t-shirts
• A set of Love and Capes pins
• A box of Ghirardelli chocolates. (No endorsement implied. They're my chocolate of choice, and I think you'll like them too.)
• Your name in the Free Comic Book Day 2009 issue of Love and Capes.

No purchase necessary. Winner will be chosen by random drawing on February 2nd, 2009. Winner will be notified and prizes will be sent immediately thereafter.

And, if you haven't already picked out a present for your special valentine, may I suggest the new Love and Capes TPB? It's available at better booksellers nationwide or you can pick up a copy here.

And, as an added bonus, download a printable Love and Capes Valentine to give to your sweetie here!

Okay, Back to One Digit Numbers Again

I think issue #10 has more scenes of Abby getting dressed than any other issue of Love and Capes before.

Here's page seventeen, which has Abby going to visit Charlotte in Paris. Charlotte's not in much of this issue, which is a little sad, but there's just not enough space to put too much of her in it. The perils of being a supporting character, I suppose. I also got to design a new part of Charlotte's Parisan apartment, her closet. I know it's a little thing, but I think it's kind of cool.

With this, I'm back down to single digits again. Nine pages left! But I think I need a little bit of a break to figure out page twenty, which will be a little more of a montage, and to work on one something that I'll be bringing out for the New York Comic-Con.

Have I mentioned I'll be there, by the way? I'm in Small Press at booth #2446!

Love and Capes #9 in stores next week!

According to Diamond, Love and Capes #9 will be in stores next week, January the 14th. It's the conclusion of the first (and hopefully only) cliffhanger. I can promise that the FCBD issue is not continued.

In it, we'll see a resolution to the Psi-Clone storyline, the search for Mark's Best Man, and Abby makes a big decision. Most importantly, we'll see two of our characters sitting on a couch watching Battlestar Galactica. How awesome is that?

It's available from better retailers everywhere for just $3.95. And if you didn't ask for it, tell your comic shop to order it. You know you want it.

So Close, So Close and Yet So Far

I'd love to type "Eight more pages! Two-thirds done!" But I don't think I can.

I did my Post-It Note breakdown of the last pages, and while I could end it in 24 pages, I think the story calls for 26. Fortunately, this is the FCBD issue, which has 32 pages in it, as opposed to the 24 that a regular issue has. So I can add the two pages without messing up my printing or pricing.

And the last page will be a full page splash but, still, man, I was down to single-digits for a bit there. Now I have to get cracking on it again to winnow down to those one-digit numbers. Okay, really, I just need to do a page tomorrow and I'm back below ten. But still, it's a little deflating.

But, the story is the story, right? And you tell the story the way it demands.

In Which Thom Goes to New York and Does a Panel

Hey! I'm going to be doing a panel at the New York Comic Con! Douglas Wolk asked me to be on the panel, and I was jumped at the chance. It's great to be on the other side of the panel more and more.

Panel info follows:

Her Face Was an Open Book: The Art of Character

How does character design play into a cartoonist's working process? Does a creator's idea of who a character is ever change after that character appears as an image? How hard is it to draw a character that fits a prose description? We'll discuss these questions and more with Christine Norrie (Breaking Up), Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button), and Thom Zahler (Love & Capes). Moderated by Douglas Wolk (Reading Comics).

Friday 6:00pm Room 1A24

The full schedule is up here.

Yeah, I Just Like Seeing My Name In Print

Years ago I went to the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Arts to train to be a cartoonist. Given that I actually am a cartoonist, it seems to have been a pretty good choice.

The Kubert School runs ads in comic books. It's one of the ways I heard about them. They've put together their ads for the new year, and look who's on it… me! Yeah, it's an ego stroke, but it's also just kind of cool to be recognized by your alma mater for the work you've done since graduation. I'm pretty proud of it.

It's too small to see here in the full page, so I've reproduced it, color added for clarity.

Now, if I could just get Lake Catholic to build that statue of me, everything would be perfect.

It's an Honor Just to be Mentioned

Publishers Weekly has their Comics Week Third Annual Critics' Poll. And guess what perfect-for-Valentine's Day collection made it on the list of Honorable Mentions. If you guessed Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret, you're right. If you guessed anything else, you probably landed on this page by mistake.

I'm mentioned alongside Joss Whedon and John Cassady's Astonishing X-Men, Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson's Astro City, and Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal, among others.

Anyway, it's great to be noticed. And yay, me!

Single Digits, Baby!

Nine left!

Page fifteen is done. There's a lot of cool stuff to it, I think, unfortunately nothing that I can post without spoiling too much. So, you get this establishing shot. Well, there are some sound effects. I'll let you figure out what's going on inside the First Colonial Bank.

And yeah, it's First Colonial Bank since Battlestar Galactica is on my mind. It's coming back you know, and it's gonna be awesome!

Call for Ideas

Time to do some crowdsourcing.

I mentioned this over on my Twitter, and want to bring it here. It just hit me that Valentine's Day is coming up, and I produce a romantic comedy comic book. Weird, huh? There's got to be a way for me to turn the holiday to my advantage.

I've received ideas to do a special Valentine's Day comic. That's a great idea, but it's a little late in the game for that. What I might do is have a special web-only Valentine's Day comic here on the site. That could certainly work.

The other one I've received is to put up a photo gallery of happy couples enjoying Love and Capes. That one's great, too, so if you want to send photos of you and your Significant Other reading the book, go ahead. Send them to me here at thom(little squiggly at sign)loveandcapes.com. I'll set up a gallery and show them off.

A Love and Capes Valentine is an idea, too. Maybe I'll design a Valentine's Day card that I can give out at New York this year? Like one of those grade school Valentines? Maybe I Choo-Choo-Choose You?

Any ideas? Give me a shout and let me know.

Look What's Done!

Ah, if only pressing that Easy Button made issues of Love and Capes fall, fully-formed, from the sky.

Still, they're printed and look wonderful. They'll be in stores soon!

And yes, the Mocha of Victory will soon follow!