I Like to Think of Myself as the Antithesis of Decompressed Storytelling
More good words about Love and Capes from Blake Petit:
With so much fear about the price hikes (argh!) I have to single out Thom Zahler’s Love and Capes from Maerkle Press. The book is $3.95 an issue, but it’s worth it, not just for the story, the characters, or the artwork – as splendid as those things all are. No, it’s worth it because of how deep the book is. This is a comic with actual words, and lots of ‘em, and the rare silent or sparsely-dialogued panel is always worth it. This ain’t no comic you can read in five minutes, that’s for sure.
You know, Blake brings up the reason I can't watch people read LNC. It takes 2-3 months to make an issue, and watching someone fire through that work at a minute a page… well, it's just too much.
Read more stuff from Blake here.
New York Comic-Con Bound!
I'm heading up to New York for the fourth annual New York Comic-Con tomorrow. I'll be there all three days, set up at booth #2446, in Small Press. So you can plan your shopping accordingly, I'll be doing/bringing:
- All nine issues of Love and Capes, as well as the trade paperback collection, Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret?There will be deals a'plenty on multiple issue purchases, too.
- Both the "Mark and Abby" Love and Capes t-shirt, as well as the new "Amazonia" shirt. I've got sizes small to extra large, and even some double and triple XL sizes. Quantities are limited, though, so stop by early.
- The set of Love and Capes trading pins, with Mark and Abby, Darkblade and Amazonia designs.
- I'll have the Love and Capes Valentine Cards that I had printed for this show. And there may even be an exciting announcement at the table.
- Freshly printed copies of both Powerful Women sketchbooks. How fresh? I'm picking them up today, in fact.
- I'll be doing commissions left and right, of course. As a baseline, all commissions are finished inked drawings. $20 per character, and we can do color if you send me a scan of the image or if I take it back home and scan it myself.
Not going to be there? You can order everything at the Love and Capes store, and order commissions here.
We Have a Winner!
We have a winner! The first annual Love and Capes Valentine's Day contest is over, and David and Carla Rose have won! Yay! Clapping sounds! Woo-hoo. Tell them what they've won, Johnny…
This contest was a resounding success. I may have to do another one sometime.
Browsing the Shelves
Since it started, I've had half-page previews of Love and Capes up on the Love and Capes site. A strip, from the already-published run, appears on the site every Monday and Friday. I think that free sample has been part of the reason of the success of the strip.
The thing I didn't have was any sort of way to view previous strips. There are lots of reasons why, mostly how I wasn't able to properly write the HTML code. No more, though. Thanks to the Comicpress plugin for WordPress, I've been able to create the Love and Capes Archive site. It's accessible off the main site, but you can check it out directly here.
The online strips cover the book from issue #1 to (currently) the beginning of issue #4. And, thanks to that same Comicpress plugin, I've got the next three months live and ready to go. You can even subscribe to it with your RSS reader.
And, of course, if you don't want to read online, there are a plethora of ways to order the book as well.
Reviews News
Blake Petit at Comixtreme put up a nice review of Love and Capes #9. Here's just a part of it:
This issue was just a bit of a departure -- Zahler usually leaves the actual action part of superheroing off-camera, showing us a more ground-level view of the superhero life. We actually see most of the fight between Mark and Psi-Clone this issue, though. It works -- I don't think the story would have been as satisfying if we didn't get to see it
Go read it and his other reviews of comics this week.
All Access
The fine people over at the Comics Podcast Network have put up their Weekly Comics Spotlight #75. In it, they cover Love and Capes #9, and have some far-too-kind things to say about it. They particularly call out how accessible the book is to new readers. That's something I work very hard at and it's nice to see it appreciated.
Check out the podcast here.
Dogs and Cats Sleeping Together
I've got a little bit of time before I need to start this, but I did have to do the cover for the "coming attractions" at the end of Love and Capes #10. So enjoy your first look at the new issue.
Mark Waid Has a Blog!
Mark Waid, who was nice enough to write the intro for Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? now has a blog off of the Boom Studios site. Mark's a great guy, and Boom's doing some great stuff, so I recommend it. Heck, I've added it to my newsreader already. Go on over and welcome him to the internets.
New Items in the Love and Capes store!
By popular request, I've added some items to the Love and Capes store:
- First, if you've already ordered or bought a copy of Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? and just need a self-adhesive individualized bookplate. In the "special instructions" part, put the Love and Capes character you'd like drawn, and to whom you'd like it personalized to. And, if you're going to be at any of my upcoming shows (Next two are the New York Comicon and MegaCon in Florida) let me know, and I'll bring it with me.
- The nine-pack of all current issues is now available for purchase at a special price.
- Likewise, the advertised 8-pack (if you've bought one issue and need the rest) is also up. Just let me know what eight issues you need.
Thanks for all your support. It helps keep the book going.
Just sayin'...