They're Coming Around the Mountain
I picked up my inital copies of Love and Capes #12 today. More boxes will come later, and the books will ship out to Diamond later this week. I'm not sure when they'll arrive in stores because of that Diamond skip week and all. Hopefully, they'll be there by the end of the year.
I'm taking my copies to Alter Ego in Lima, Ohio this weekend where I'll be doing a special advance signing.
And, if you're one of the guests on the cover, your copies will be going out tomorrow along with information about getting extra copies if you need them.
A Mocha of Victory may be in order.
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.
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.
Turning Left and Swimming With the Fish
Earlier this summer I illsutrated a couple of children's books for Roarke Publishing. They're for a series of books about "Jobs That Rock." The two I pulled were NASCAR Crew Chief and Animal Trainer. Honestly, cars and animals aren't my favorite thing to draw, but I think I did all right with them. And, now I can add "children's book illustrator" to my list of accomplishments, and that's pretty cool, too.
The covers are by ace comic book artist Ken Hooper, as best as I can tell. The interior illustrations, though, are all me.
I bring this up because I just noticed that they've gone to press and are available at Amazon.com! The books are part of a series, so maybe there will be one for some child you know.
New Products in the Love and Capes store!
You've been waiting for it, I know, and now it's here: New Love and Capes merchandise. What have we got? Both the Baltimore Comicon and Mid-Ohio-Con exclusives, new lanyards, the new "sketch" shirt design on blue and white ringers, black shirts, spaghetti strap tops, ribbed tank tops, and black hoodies. All sorts of coolness. And, as always, the full Love and Capes Store is available here.
But, let me throw a little more into the mix. All orders placed before October 31, 2009, will receive a free copy the convention exclusive. (In the case of convention exclusive orders, the other version will be supplied. So, if you want the Baltimore version, you'll get a copy of the MOC version free!)
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NEW! Love and Capes #11 1/2 12 pages. Full color cover and interior. $2.00 plus 50¢ shipping and tax where applicable. Available NOW! |
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NEW! Love and Capes #11 1/2 12 pages. Full color cover and interior. $2.00 plus 50¢ shipping and tax where applicable. Available NOW! |
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Love and Capes Lanyard Magenta lanyard with Love and Capes logo and clip! $6.00 (includes shipping). Available NOW! |
Love and Capes Convention Exclusives
You know, I should probably do something special for the upcoming cons. Wait, did you say "What cons?" Why, Mid-Ohio-Con, and Baltimore Comicon, two of my favoritest shows ever. MOC is always a great time, and as I've mentioned once or twice, I'm up for a Harvey Award at Baltimore. So, with all 
that, and with the guidance of my own personal Jiminy Cricket named Marc, I'm doing a Love and Capes exclusive comic for each show!
Now, I don't have time to do a completely original book. I toyed with the idea of doing a "clip show" version of the book, where during the bachelor party, Mark and Abby reminisce about things that happened to them in the past eleven issues… er, three years. Then I started working on #12 and realized I had something special. And, since I am taking an extra month to get the twelvth issue done, how about a preview book?
So, at both Mid-Ohio-Con and Baltimore Comicon, you'll be able to buy a twelve page preview comic with the actual first twelve pages of Love and Capes #12. The Mid-Ohio-Con version will feature Mark and Abby dancing in the sky above Columbus, and the Baltimore Comicon version will have them dancing over the night sky of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.Click and embiggen either cover!
Best of all, each issue will only be $2.00!
If I have any leftovers after the shows, I'll put them up for sale on the Love and Capes store.
Your Mileage May Variant
This was revealed by Chris Ryall of IDW over at CBR today:
There will be variant covers by guys like Joe Corroney (paying tribute to Alex Ross, who said he was amused and not offended by the cover, which shows what a good sport he is), Thom Zahler, and a couple other folk I’m working on. And we’re going to offer the first issue as a variant black and white issue printed on newsprint-type paper, to really use the “Weekly World News”-influenced cover to its fullest. And maybe even rope in fans of the paper who confuse the comic for a new print edition of the paper…
Mallrats
As photographed by ace shutterbug and good friend Bob Ingersoll, here's a picture of my "mascot" along with the sign for Comics and Friends, the new comic shop in the Great Lakes Mall.
I'll be up there from 12-5 on Saturday for the grand opening, along with some guy named Frank Cho. I hear he draws comics.
Comics and Friends
When I was at Heroes Con in Charlotte this past June, I met the John Haines, owner of the now newly-opened Comics and Friends in Mentor, Ohio. He was looking for a mascot, for lack of a better word, for his store. He wanted a cute, comics-reading girl. He had had some problems finding "the right look." So I sat at my booth and did a sketch.
Apparently, I nailed it.
So, here's the Comics and Friends girl, in both her headshot phase and one of the full-body images I designed. There are more than a few of them, so you'll probably be seeing her around more.
I was interviewed by The News-Herald in conjunction with a story about his store opening. You can read it here.
Comix4Site Auction
While I was at San Diego, I was asked to donate some art to the Comix4Site auction, raising money for John Ostrander's glaucoma surgery. It's a good cause, and John is a great guy, being kind enough to spend way more time with a younger version of me at a Mid-Ohio-Con years and years ago. The auction will take place in Chicago this week, and hopefully much good will come from it.
What did I donate? Being a comics heavy group, I thought that one of my obscure ideas would do well there. So, I gave them Black Lantern Cheeks.