Look, Up in the Sky!
Here's a Superman commission that I recently did for a fan. There's a lot I like about this. I've made no secret of the fact that the Crusader borrows liberally from the Superman well, so it's nice to find a different way to portray a similar character. I think this would be a great style to do a Superman all-ages kids book in.
In fact, in drawing it, a great idea struck me for how to handle such a book. Obviously, I can't reveal it here, especially since I might eventually need to recycle that idea somewhere else. But, hey, DC call me. We'll talk.
That's the One with the Bengals, Right?
Next Saturday, I'll be a guest at the inaugural Cincinnati Comic Expo in the Queen City. I'll be there with a number of people, including Murphy Anderson, Russ Heath, Michael Ulsan, Lora Innes and more! I'm very much looking forward to it. If you're in the area, come on out to the Cintas Center and check it out!
Baltimore, Briefly
Baltimore's going well. Yesterday was pretty busy. Random highlights: 1. One of the commission requests I received was "Draw Charlotte in the superhero costume she'd wear for Halloween. After much thought, I drew her wearing one of those store-bought impractical but oh-so-cute Batgirl costumes. Then I had her in a sassy pose saying "Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot… unless you're going to mention that Mary Jane said that and I'm dressed like a Batman character, in which case, move along."
2. Joe Murray at Captain Blue Hen Comics arranged a tour of the Geppi Museum, full of comic book goodness. It's the first time I was able to go there, since it's usually closed after the show. There was a lot of fun stuff there and a chunk of stuff I had or have. And some of the Toon Tumblers I designed were in there, too.
3. At the bar last night, a couple wedding parties came in. I accidentally walked into a photo of the bride's parents and apologized. The picture taker said (jokingly) "How could you do that? Wait, you're handsome! Get in the photos." So, there are a couple of photos they'll have of me in their group.
Also, the father of the bride was a dead ringer for the Dos Equis guy, you know, The Most Interesting Man in the World. When they send me the photos, I'll post them for you to see.
Speaking of which, for some reason, my iPhone can't upload photos to the Twitpic website. So I haven't been able to post images from the show. I can't tell why I'm not able to do it, whether it's a password issue or a connectivity issue or what. So, there are photos, but they may have to wait until I get back.
And finish that page of Love and Capes that's waiting for me, of course.
There's Something About a Bad Girl
One of the other things I like about doing commissions is the specificity and originality of the requesters. As an artist, the mission statement "Draw whatever you want" is always daunting. There's too much to choose from. Well, not too much, I can wrangle it down, but it takes effort.
I love when people come up with a sketchbook of all one character or theme. It gives me a starting point, and usually the other commissions in the book make me want to up my game to compete. The estimable Chris Sims had a Jimmy Olsen sketchbook, and I drew Jimmy as Flamebird from the Bottle City of Kandor… life size. Too up all of an inch on the page.
Here, my requester wanted Major Kira, from the excellent and dreadfully-underrated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine looking in the mirror and seeing her Mirror Universe equivalent, the Intendant. I had to research the characters, and get out my Deep Space Nine Companion, which ate up a ton of time because I can never just look at the pictures. I start reading, and then I want to start watching again. Such a good show, and one that really schools you as a writer.
But, I eventually broke away and finished this piece. I'm pleased with how Nana Visitor's likeness was captured, the expression on each face, and the body language of each character.
Kilowog a Doodle All the Day
Right before I left for San Diego, I got a couple of commission requests. I take orders online, too, and I'm actually pretty quick. These took 
almost a month because I had to fit in my World Tour of All The US States With Disney Parks in. This one is of Kilowog, of the Green Lantern Corps.
He's fun to draw, especially because of his cartoony proportions. I can never remember how his face is constructed, though, so it always takes reference to do it. Fortunately, I have the action figure.
Make Mine Ms. Marvel!
Speaking of conventions, I'll be doing commissions at Baltimore. I charge $20 
for a black-and-white image, $40 for color. Color requires me to take the piece home and color it on my computer, since I color digitally. Here's a fine example of that, a Ms. Marvel piece that I did in San Diego and then brought home to add some color.
I actually posted this days ago on my Twitter feed. Twitter is so low-maintenance that it's easy to get stuff up there fast, as opposed to here where I feel compelled to write complete sentences. What? You're not following me on Twitter? Perhaps you should.
Baltimore or Less
Have I mentioned lately that the Thom Zahler World Tour continues with a trip to the most excellent Baltimore Comicon, where New Daddy Marc Nathan will be throwing one of my favorite shows off the year? I'll be there selling books, taking commissions and not eating seafood. Really, the Baltimore Comicon is a great, great show. If you're anywhere nearby, you should definitely come.
This is probably a good time to mention the pre-Convention Love and Capes t-shirt sale. Just like San Diego, you can pre-order some shirts at crazy low prices, and I'll bring them to Baltimore for you to pick up.
I'll also be doing the new Cincinnati Comic Expo, Detroit Fanfare, New York Comic-Con and, of course, Mid-Ohio-Con this year, too. Five conventions left this late in the year? That's a lot of traveling.
In Which I Explain DC Comics Geography
According to my good friend Paul Storrie, Superman's east-to-west Walk Across America is taking him from Michigan to… Ohio? That seems like the wrong direction. It's obviously of note to us, since Paul lives in Michigan, and I live in Ohio. Paul asked me, as a Supermanologist, how this was possible. I could only come up with ten reasons. A Top Ten list, as it were…
10. Road construction detour re-routed him back into Ohio.
9. The little known Flint, Michigan Stargate messes up everyone.
8. JMS is bringing back rarely remembered Silver Age Geography Vision power.
7. Superman walked into Detroit, got scared, and slowly backed out for a couple hundred miles.
6. Lexcorp GPS sucks, although the downloadable Clancy Brown voice is pretty cool.
5. Red Kryptonite caused Superman to briefly lose his sense of direction by a lot.
4. Superboy punched the walls of reality and Ohio and Michigan have flopped places in the DC's United States.
3. Realized too late Columbus is hosting the Michigan-OSU game this year.
2. Superman tried walking backwards to reverse the spin of the Earth and fix the Ohio-Michigan War of 1835.
1.He heard about Melt Bar and Grilled and had to rush back to try it.
Of bigger note to me is that Superman is somehow skipping Cleveland, the land of his literal birth.
The One With the Bedbugs
I've decided to recount the story of my Three Week Tour of All The States In the Union with a Disney Park in bite-size portions, rather than a linear day-by-day kind of way. Today, we're going to start with the down note.
Last year at Comic-Con, I met a nice gentleman who worked at Pixar. After the obligatory gushing about Up and holding back the tears, he said "Hey, if you're ever up in the Bay Area, come on by, I'll give you a tour."
After that, it was my goal to get to San Francisco. I've heard Pixar is a 
great place to work, but this guy might have left for another job and he was my only contact there. I wanted to jump on this as soon as I can.
Enter Airfarewatchdog and Southwest. Southwest was having a crazy-low sale on flights within the Golden State. For $90, I could fly from Burbank to San Francisco and back the same day. Ninety bucks! I would have paid that to take a tour of Pixar if they were across the street from me. I figured it was totally worth it.
Later, at Comic-Con, I mentioned to some friends that I was going north to visit Pixar the next Thursday. One of them said "Hey, I have a friend who works at Industrial Light and Magic. I bet he could get you a tour, too." Turns out, he could. The only catch at all was that ILM's Friends and Family Day was Friday. It'd be better if I could stay over that one day and extend my trip. For the chance to be one away from the geek trifecta (sadly, Steve Jobs and Apple never called to complete it) it was a no-brainer.
So, I now needed a place to stay in San Francisco. I went to Hotels.com and found a cheap hotel (one whose name I'm withholding for now, as they're investigating the problem). It was $49 to stay about six blocks from Fisherman's Wharf. The hotel had a number of bad reviews, but there were more than a few good ones, most of which said that the place had been recently remodeled and was much better. Plus, I've found that sometimes people complain about hotels not because it's not a good place to stay, but because it's not the place they wanted to stay. Kind of the "Can you believe this Motel Six didn't have a workout center or an in-room whirlpool?" variety. So I gambled on it.
And the hotel was exactly the hotel I expected. It wasn't the kind of place you'd take your significant other on a romantic weekend, but it was totally the place you'd take her when the concert she wanted to see was only playing in San Francisco and you had a day to plan. It wasn't the hotel you wanted, it was the hotel you needed.
Except for the bedbugs.
Friday, I woke up and my right arm was itchy. Briefly, I thought that I might have developed a new allergy to chocolate. (Fortunately, this was not the case. I tested it several times over the rest of the trip.) Then the bumps started to appear, all up and down my right arm, and a little bit on my right leg. By the time I landed in Orlando on Saturday, I knew they were bites. Apparently they're often underreported and misdaignosed, and I didn't go to a doctor to be sure, but I'm pretty sure they were bedbug bites.
Still, the trips to Pixar and ILM, and the obligatory side trip to Ghirardellii's (one of three I made it to on this trip which was a different kind of trifecta), was totally worth it. It just would have been more worth it without.
That's it for now. Don't worry, I'll talk about the tours and the rest of the trip later.