Test Flight
I'm testing out a new sharing link on my blog, so I needed to post something. I decided to share this bit of art.
They seem pretty tan, don't they?
Memories of the Future
Wil Wheaton and I have a hate/hate relationship.
He and I have a lot in common. We’re about the same age. We both have brown hair and brown eyes. We’re both ruggedly handsome. And, in 1987, while Wil was the youngest member of the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation, I was the youngest member of the Starship New Promise, a Star Trek fan club.
Oh, and we both seemed to wear a lot of sweaters.
So it’s no surprise that my friends in the Trek group teased me by calling me “Wesley” and I grew to really hate that character.
There’s a thing that happens with actors and their parts. You know the actor is only playing a character, but since that character is all you have to go on, you do blur the two of them. So, my disdain for Wesley was transferred to Wil.
Wil and I grew up. Wesley got a real promotion and eventually left the show. But I always associated some of that Wesley Ick with Wil.
Then, a few years back, I found Wil’s blog. It’s why I tell you about how I felt towards Wesley and the actor who played him. I had a fair amount of irrational predisposition to dislike the blog.
What I found there was an surprisingly honest accounting of being a creative person. He wrote about the difficulties of writing, what he had to do to bring a character to life. I’m stupid for behinds the scenes stuff, and he was delivering it gangbusters. It wasn’t long before, solely through the strength of his writing, that he won me over completely.
So now he’s written a book. Another book, as he’s written a few. This one is called Memories of the Future, and it’s his recapping of the first half of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Hmmm, more behind the scenes stuff. Wonder if Im going to like it.
He’s described his book as “looking through a yearbook and saying ‘Oh my God, can you believe we thought that was cool?’” That’s a pretty accurate description of the book’s vibe. It’s irreverent fun.
I’m a big Star Trek fan. There are parts of that show that have actually defined my life. I once turned down a big job by quoting Kirk in Generations when he told Picard to not do anything that got him out of That Chair. As such, I’m sensitive about people hacking on the franchise too much. (Except for Voyager and the first three seasons of Enterprise, but that’s another story.)
It’s very much “nobody picks on my brother but me.” Wil’s part of Trek, so he can deconstruct some of the early season missteps and do it without malice. The books a lot of fun, and I’m not sure anyone else could have written it.
Wil’s writing style is breezy in the best possible way. Each chapter is candy coated with humor over a solid center of content, and you wind up wolfing it down. Yeah, it’s literary Twix. And eI recommend it.
Here’s the thing that really impressed me, and why I’ve decided to devote a chunk of blog real estate to the former Sweatered One and his book. Wesley was pretty reviled, and Wil could have taken the tack of I read the lame lines I was given as best as I could, dudes, so deal, and he’d be more than justified in doing it. But he takes it a step further and shows, from a writerly point of view, why the character was so unsuccessful.
That shows a pretty impressive intellectual honesty.
The first volume takes covers Encounter at Farpoint to Datalore. He breaks down each episode with a funny recap, some insider’s memories, and a criticism of the episode itself. If you like Star Trek: The Next Generation or behind-the-scenes process stuff, I recommend it completely.
Like I said, I have a hate/hate relationship with Wil Wheaton. When I was younger, I hated the character he played and the teasing I got from it. Now, he’s been on Big Bang Theory, hangs with Felicia Day, and has a family that liberally quotes Monty Python.
So now I just hate him because I’m jealous.
Keep It Under Your Hat
Because I'm just mean like this, I wanted to show you some art.
Wish I could tell you what it's for.
A Banner Day!
I'm alw ays trying to think down the road. Next comic, next convention and so on. I wanted to update my Love and Capes banner stand which is now three years old. I had to wait to see if I could put "Harvey Nominee" or "Harvey Winner" on it. Now that that's done, I'm ready to go forward with a new look for the booth.
My idea is to do a diptych. There will be two stands that will work together or separately, depending on what kind of booth space I have. The left image, with Mark and Abby will be the main banner used at artist alley tables, etc. When I have a booth, like at Mid-Ohio-Con, I can use the other one and get almost seven feet of coverage.
The art should be a little cleaner, and definitely a little more representative of my current level of art monkeying. What say you all?
Maybe I Need a Crown… or a Chainsaw
Yeah, I Google myself, and Love and Capes. So I found this from Ultron7 on the DC Comics Bulletin Boards where posters were writing hiakus:
"Love and Capes" is great!
The funniest comic out!
Thom Zahler is king!
Hail to the king, baby!
Advance Reviews
For the first time, I sent out preview PDFs to some comics reviewers. Which means the first review of Love and Capes #12 is up, by Avril Brown from Comics Waiting Room:
An enjoyable balance between the pure heart of a children’s book and the intelligence of an adult story, LOVE AND CAPES is a pleasurable read for all ages…The aesthetically awesome artwork is a unique blend of ’50s comfort and security and modern-day sexiness and sharp lines. LOVE AND CAPES provides a nice change of pace from death and destruction, offering instead a smile-inducing story filled with laughter and love.
Now They Can Make Margaritas
For my next trick, a commission for a couple of fans of mine. Their initial idea was to have themselves drawn 
in the Mark and Abby's receiving line. I did something along those lines, with Mark and Abby, post-wedding, opening up a present from them. You'll have to click and embiggen to see what they got.
You can see these two at the wedding on the cover, too.
You Can Do Magik
With Major Combat Operations complete on Love and Capes #12, I've been able to catch up on some commissions. Here's one I did of Magik, Illyana Rasputin from the mid-Eighties run of X-Men and New Mutants. I always liked her. Next to Kitty Pryde, she might have been my favorite mutant.
I read her Wikipedia entry to see what happened to her after I stopped reading. My brain twisted inside itself and then exploded. Oh, Illyana, what did they do to you?
Killing Time
I'm at the Apple Store right now. No, really right now. I'm working with one of the Geniuses to try to get my Finder up and running.
If you don't know what a Finder is on a Mac, well, I won't bore you with it here. It's just really important. Fortunately, with Love and Capes #12 pretty well done except for the screaming and the printing, I've had time to kill the day up here watching little shiny blue bars fill up on the Mac. It's not ideal, but it's manageable.
I've spent some of the time on one of their Macs, surfing the web and all, and I found this. It's a new review of the Love and Capes: Do You Want To Know a Secret collection on Amazon. And it's glowing. So I thought I'd share it.
After all, I appear to still have 16 minutes to kill and counting.