Women With Brooms

I'm not normally a fan of the Olympics. I'm glad we have them, and think they're great competition, but I'm just not a fan of the sports. Well, until this year.

Somehow, I got hooked on curling. Some of it comes from my appreciation for Paul Gross, star of Due Southand Slings and Arrows, who also wrote and starred in a movie called Men With Brooms. The movie was about a curling team, and was really enjoyable. Check one, or all, of them out.

The United States' women's team still has a chance to medal. The men have been eliminated, but are still playing out the round robin. I'm sure you can find an Olympic schedule if you're interested.

Darkblade Hangs Up His Cape?

Just to keep it from getting wrinkled.

Wayback Wednesday: Another Swimsuit Story

My good friend and fellow Kubert School student Sean Tiffany has been doing a series of "From the Vault" posts on his blog. In these, he brings out some old piece of artwork from school or early in his career. Always one to steal from someone smart, I'm going to do the same thing here with Wayback Wednesdays. First up is a project from my "senior" year at Kubert. (Kubert was a three year school, but I hate saying "third" or "last" since it sounds like I didn't finish.) This was actually in Joe Kubert's class. We had to adapt a TV show into comic book format, doing a cover and a couple of interior pages. I did Quantum Leap. Innovation was doing a comic at the time, and I figured this might be a nice set of samples to show them. Plus, I was a fan of the show and wanted to do the scene that they could never really afford to do.

Quantum Leap had Sam Beckett leap into the life of another character, usually at in inopportune moment. When he got there, Sam's reaction would inevitably be "Oh, boy." So I threw Sam into a skydiver. Sam leaping into someone who, literally, was leaping through the air was too good, plus the things you could do with Al were too much fun to pass up.

The cover was a parody/homage to the Kathy Ireland Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover, which had come out a couple years before. It was iconic enough, and lent itself well enough that I thought it was a great fit.

As it was The Old Days, the artwork was done on bristol board, the lettering done by hand, and the colors done with Dr. Martin Watercolor Dyes on a photocopy pasted onto a piece of illustration board. Ah, pre-computer color. There's some aspects of actually brushing wet color on paper that I miss, but all things being equal, I much prefer computer coloring.

And, as always, click to embiggen!

Fat Tuesday and Coffee

Today's Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent. In recent years, I've taken to giving up coffee. It's a bit rough, but I think it's good to practice that kind of self-control. After all, I have a job where I have to motivate myself to do work, so it's good to have learn discipline.

So, enjoy this panel of Something while I enjoy this Kona coffee out of my cool stainless steel Uncle Scrooge coffee mug.

Send Me a Postcard

I mentioned the idea of doing postcards for this Con Season. I think I'm committed to it. I'm planning on doing a different card for each day of the show, too. The city photos are comps right now, but will be the full purchased versions when I get them printed. But I figured you might like to see what they're going to look like.

Snowverkill

Can't say what this is for, but it's definitely for something.

The Love and Capes Swimsuit Edition?

I have no doubt that this would totally happen in the Love and Capes universe, if it hasn't already. Hmmm, maybe there's a story in there somewhere.

Trading Card or Postcard?

Once again, I turn to you, the readers of Love and Capes. Con Season is approaching. Heck, there's supposed to even be a Wizard World Cleveland now. Just as long as it doesn't park on any other shows, especially Mid-Ohio-Con, I'll be trés interested to see it. Anyway, for the upcoming year, I'd like to have something new.

First, I toyed with the idea of trading cards. I figured I could sell them at each show, and then make the package available online. I though $1.00 a card might work. Anything less means making coin-change, and I don't know if anyone wants that. But the printing cost is pretty reasonable, and it could be a neat thing to do.

Then, I had another idea, which in a moment of "great minds think alike" also came across my Twitter feed to do an actual postcard. I could feature every city I'm visiting and have Mark and Abby (or Amazonia or Darkblade) hanging out in the city, with a "Greetings from [CITY]!" on them. But, if I did that, I think that they need to be giveaways.

I've got rough mock-ups for both of them displayed here. Click on either to see them embiggened. So what do you think? Do the postcard? The trading card? Both?

The Dog of Steel!

In my ongoing attempt to make this The Coolest Blog in the Multiverse, and with a tip of the hat to Andy Ihnatko, I'm trying out the WordTwit plugin for my blog. Now, blog posts will be automagically sent to my Twitter feed. You'l be up to your eyebrows in up-to-the-minute Thom Zahlerishness If that's your thing.

Here's a commission I did for Jon Knutson's Random Acts of Geekery blog. He's a Krypto fan, so I decided to put Superman's real best friend in front of the Doghouse of Solitude. I'm pretty sure the Doghouse in no longer in continuity, but I'm sure DC will fix that soon.

First Up: Chicago

I just realized I haven't announced my first convention of the year: I'll be at CEC2, the Reed Chicago show. Or, as I call it, New Chicago… which reminds me of the Buck Rogers TV show, and that's enough of a reason to call it that right there.

So, I'll be in Artist's Alley. I'll let you know my exact booth space when I have it, but I'll be there with all sorts of Love and Capes stuff, including issue #12.