Toys Redux

Yesterday, I posted about my "I Love Comics Toys" article at Newsarama. I sent a link to it to my aunts who built the houses, and they responded with photos from that Christmas (thankfully there's only one where you can see me at all). This is what the dollhouses looked like before we lost so much of the stuff.

My Aunts were even smart enough to buy us two sets of figures, and hold on to the second set until we, as kids do, lost much of the first.

Here are the photos showing the superhero houses in their prime...

The Big Time

I'm a Trivia Question!

Over on the Comic Geek Speak podcast they do a regular "Stump the Rios" trivia question segment. They do three questions: DC, Marvel and an independent book.

On episode #458, the Indy Question is: In Thom Zahler's "Love and Capes", Amazonia writes a tell-all book. What's the title of the book?

Wow. That's just cool. I've never had anything I worked on hit big enough to qualify as a trivia question before. Thanks, guys!

Toy Boy

JK Parkin over at Newsarama asked me to write a guest blog for their "I (LOVE)" series. I was honored and thrilled to do it, although sorry that their venerable institution had fallen on such hard times that they contacted me. My article is all about my crazy love for comics toys. It includes such revelations as how my brother John is partially responsible for my obsession, how my cousin Jamie made an authentic Jason Todd figure, and how my aunts built John and me a way-awesome superhero dollhouse (er, actionfigurehouse) for Christmas one year.

Click the link to see some toys!

Father's Day

I am blessed with two great parents. Every Father's Day and Mother's Day, I intend to write something about them. They're the single biggest influences on my life, my biggest fans, and I thank God every day that I have them.

This won't be the entry about them, though. I won't do them the disservice of knocking something like that out in twenty minutes. But, since it's Father's Day, I wanted to share this card that I made for my Dad.

Yes, I still make cards for people. Especially my Dad, because so many store-bought cards are about golfing and sleeping and not fixing things. None of those apply to my Dad. He's pretty unique, so he deserves a unique card. I will say, one of the great things about my Dad is that he'll get this card. He knows all these characters and who they are and everything that comes with them.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Fish Tales

I got to see the Bobble Fish in person today.

I went up to Classic Park, where the offices of the Lake County Captains are, and got to see the one sample of each of the fishies. The rest are in transit, so I wasn't able to get any for me.

That's my artwork on the boxes, too. Jonathan at the Captains did a good job with it. And my logo and website are on the bottom of every box, so that is sah-weet. I am so looking forward to seeing these at the big signing on June 28th. You can get tickets here.

Below are a passel o'pics. Click on any for biggimization!

That Nancy-Boy Hair Gel I Like So Much

I read the blog of one of the frequent Pub Quiz opponents of the much-vaunted Team Eleven. It's a fun read, and she mentions her love of the Spike "To the Angel-Mobile, away!" monologue from "Angel." Along the way, she links to a product I did not know existed, but am not strangely intrigued by.

Keeping with nettiquette, I'm linking to her blog so you can see it, rather than stealing the link and passing it off as my own. It's only proper.

Morning Had Broken Me

Man, waking up at 4:00am will mess you the frak up.

I felt like I was in a haze all day, even after I slept for an hour after the show. I managed to pump out a couple more parts of the Scene cover I'm doing. I even finished it this morning (and by morning, I mean something like seven or eight, not four) assuming my art director gives me the big okay. Part of said cover is even shown here. I'll post another image or two, probably, before I show the full cover on Wednesday when it prints.

Anyway, Good Morning Cleveland was great. I was surprisingly conscious for that early in the morning. Everybody there, from Todd the producer to Paul and Kim and Susanne and Patty to everyone else were fantastic. And a big shout out to Kimmy, who I went to Lake Catholic with and brought me to their attention to be on the show. You can see a slideshow of those caricatures here. I think most of them came out pretty well, and I was lucky enough to get the subjects to sit down for me. Last time I was on the show (it can't be seven years ago, can it?), I had to look across the studio to try to get a glimpse of them. There's probably one of the set I did yesterday that I'd do differently, but I won't out it here.

I think I even came across well in the interview, although I must admit that I've not had the intestinal fortitude to pull it up on the TiVo yet. I'll probably burn it to disc and never look at it again. I really have a hard time watching myself on TV.

But don't let that stop you if you're the producer of another morning show and want to bring me out to your studio. Good Morning Dallas... Good Morning Poughkeepsie... whatever. It's all about the self-promotion.

Set Your TiVos!

I'll be on Good Morning Cleveland here on WEWS-TV5 on Wednesday. It should be between 6:00 and 8:00. I'll be talking about Love and Capes and the whole cartooning thing. It should be fun, aside from having to wake up at 4:30am to get ready for the show. I did GMC once before, and really liked it.

I told my friend Mike about it, and his response? "You know, there was a time where I would have set a tape." He's right. I seem to be on TV a lot.

You Say It Was My Birthday?

This past weekend was my birthday. I got to spend time with my loved ones, which is always the best present. But this giant Shogun Warrior (Dragun, for those of you in the know) from my cousin Jamie is certainly the most photogenic for the blog. He's two feet of giant robot, and he is vastly cool. I'm sure this won't be his last appearance in this digital forum.

Thanks to everyone who was part of celebrating, as my friend Rog says, one more successful trip around the sun.

Second Review!

So, the second review is in, this time from Douglas Wolk at Salon.com. And it's another good one. An A-minus in fact. Cooler still is that they've got an image on their home page, with a montage of some of the Free Comic Book Day books. There's Superman, and Spider-Man, and Hellboy, and…Mark and Abby? Man, that's sweet.

Here's Doug's review, but check out the full review on Salon's site, too.

Love and Capes #7 • A neat little romantic comedy in superhero drag: The Crusader wants to find exactly the right moment to propose to his girlfriend, but family issues, holidays and occasional spates of crime fighting are getting in the way. It's an airy, self-contained coda to the recent miniseries, and artist Thomas F. Zahler makes visual ideas from contemporary animation work on the page. A-