Donut Be Too Hasty

Yesterday, I stopped at my local Dunkin Donuts to bring some coffee back to the house and fulfill my hunter-gatherer instincts. I had to get up a little earlier than I would have liked to get to church, and it was particularly snowy and sloppy, all of which may have grumpified my mood a bit. But as I turned into the parking lot, which has a weird little curly drive to get into the drive through line, this blue truck with South Carolina plates cut me off and hopped in front of me.

I'm generally a pretty calm guy. I try not to sweat the small stuff. But for some reason, this just burned me. I yelled some things in the car. When his rear wheel drive started to fishtail, I may have even rooted for him to smack into the big yellow pole. (That didn't happen.) And look, I fully realize that this person cost me all of three extra minutes. In the grand scheme of things, this was nothing.

But, when I got to the window with my money out, the lady working there waved me off. "The guy in the truck paid for you. He realized he cut you off and felt bad about it."

It totally changed my morning. It was such a nice thing to do and shows the value of the little things. I don't think I would have thought of doing what he did, even if I realized that I'd made the same mistake. This gentleman raised the bar. I hope I keep it in mind the next time I do something stupid.

Saluting the Comic-Con Ticket Warriors

Saturday was the big rush for Comic-Con tickets. I appreciate these people like you wouldn't believe.

It's easy to tease and make the Hunger Games references and watch from a distance. There's certainly a place for that. But the thing I try to keep in mind is what these fans have to go through to attend the show. Heck, it's hard enough for me to get a hotel and a guest badge, and I'm an exhibitor.

I have a very charmed life. Every day, I get to wake up, usually whenever the heck I feel like it, kiss my sweetie, and then put on some awesomely geeky t-shirt, pour some coffee in an equally geeky mug, and draw things and tell stories. I don't have to wear a tie or go to an office or have to ask for time off to do a convention. The freedom I have is largely because my industry and I have fans who are willing to support our work, buy our products, and jump through the flaming hoops to attend these conventions.

So I just wanted to take a minute and say a big "thank you" to these Comic-Con warriors.

(Also, it was cool to see my little cartoon knocked out the morning of the big ticket rush show up on Robot6 with attribution. Thanks, guys!)

Zecora Premium Commission

Here's the second of my runs at doing a premium commission: Zecora. I really like the way these watercolor pieces are coming.

Zecora's kind of a favorite of mine. It's probably the Z thing.

I'll be at Indiana Comic Con with a new print!

This year I'll be making my first trip to the Indiana Comic Con. I'm looking forward to it, both to experience a new show and to see some old friends. And, since it's a new place for me to visit, I've done another new con print. These things are expanding a bit, aren't they?

You know, I'd love to do a Sydney one. Hint hint.

New for 2014: Premium Commissions

I want to try some new things at my 2014 conventions. One of them is this: a new "premium" commission. I want to take a limited number of much more complicated pieces, colored in watercolor rather than marker. I'm only going to do a couple for each show, and you can either place an order or select out of the ones that I already have done.

To start, I'm trying some My Little Pony stuff. I draw the ponies a lot, but I haven't had much of an opportunity to play with the backgrounds and those are a lot of fun. Also, I haven't done watercolors in a long time, so it's nice to start refreshing that skill. Here's Twilight Sparkle as a premium commission. I've got a Zecora one on the drawing board that I'll be showing soon, too. Both of them will be available at Connooga next month.

If you're interested in getting one, give me a shout and let me know. I'll certainly do a few through the mail. For these, 9x12 in full color, one character in an environment, I'm going to charge $125.

Coming Soon: The Complete Love and Capes!

The news broke on Twitter last week, but I wanted to officially announce that there will be a Complete Love and Capes collection from IDW this summer. It's going to include all 24 issues of the series. The only new story page will be the one-page "Hostess" ad I did with Just Jenn (which is the only post-baby story so far). I'm going to put some rarely-seen things in the back matter, including the complete collection of Love and Capes con prints, art done by some comics pros that haven't been seen before, all the t-shirt designs and more.

It's going to be quite the package of goodness. You can preorder the book on Amazon here.

1000 Deadbeats and More

This past week isn't just the anniversary of the Mac, but it's also a work anniversary for me. I just lettered my one-thousandth issue of the online Deadbeats strip.

I started working for Claypool back in 98 or 99. Honestly, I don't remember. It almost seems like I've always worked for them. At the time, Richard Howell contacted me about doing a pick-up Elvira story. The first one went okay. The second one was a little rocky because of production reasons on my end, but we talked through it and, the next thing you know, I was the regular letterer of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. Along the way, I did an issue or two of Soulsearchers and I think even a Deadbeats. Then, in 2001, became the regular Deadbeats letterer as well.

Claypool has been an important part of my career. The regular assignments became the framework that allowed me to start a full-time freelance career. They were the known quanity that made taking the leap into the unknown so much easier.

We've gone through a lot of changes, from lettering on boards to paste-up to lettering completely digitally. Richard's been a good friend, and I'd like to think I helped the company a little, setting up the Claypool website and helping the transition from print to digital using some of the lessons (and mistakes) I made along the way on my own projects.

We've had a good run, and I'm glad it's still going.

ConNooga Exclusive Print!

In preparation for my appearance at ConNooga in Chattanooga, Tennessee next month (and my first show of the year!) I've done a con print for the show. It's Lookout Mountain, with Mark and Abby having their own look. As usual with these, these will be limited to 25 prints, and the original will be for sale, too.

I'm also looking at creating some limited edition, hand-colored Pony commissions that are a little more detailed and involved than my normal con sketches. We'll see how that goes.

Either way, my commission list is open, as well. If you'd like to get one booked before the show, send me an email at tz (squiggly at) thomz.com!

WIP: My Indiana Comic Con print

I'm working on a cover for something, but I can't show you that yet. And I just finished another cover, but I can't share that yet, either, darn it. But I just gots to share something, so here's the work-in-progress con print for my first appearance at the Indiana Comic Con. It's Monument Square in downtown Indianapolis.

I'm also working on a print for Chattanooga for next month. Two new cities, two new prints!

Manga Studio on Sale!

I wrote at absurd length about my experiences using Manga Studioin my December #tzadvent project. The program is on sale at Amazon today for less than $40. It's worth checking out.