My Brave and the Bold Spec Script

It's Valentine's Day, which is usually when I promote the heck out of Love and Capes. (Have you heard of it? Check it out here if you haven't.) But today I want to share something different. It's one of the animation spec scripts I did that helped lead to my upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man episode. I wrote a spec for Brave and the Bold, featuring Batman and Wonder Woman. The show's off the air, sadly, so I figure I might as well share it here.

And this story has Batman being called upon to fill in for Cupid, the God of love. Perfect for Valentine,s Day, right?

My friend Dwayne McDuffie helped me on this. He saw my first spec and thought it was all right and spent a couple hours on the phone telling me what was wrong and right, but he challenged me to do "A Thom Zahler" script. He'd felt the one I wrote was generic, and he wanted to see the one that would be the one that only I could write.

So I did. Sadly, I never got a chance to show it to him as he passed away before I finished it.Dwayne not only made me a better writer, he made me want to be a better writer. That continues to this day.

So, here's a PDF of my spec. Check it out if you'd like.

Amazing Arizona Comic-Con

This weekend I'll be attending Amazing Arizona Comic Con [image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/phoenix_final_pre.jpg" align="right" border="image_border" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]for the first time. I'm really looking forward to it! It'll be my first time in Arizona for anything more than driving through the corner of it or stopping in an airport. I'm looking forward to seeing the actual city for once. And, new city means a new con print. They're limited to 25, like all the rest of the set. Hope you like it.

It also kicks off another crazy con season for me. Here we go again!

I Did Not Want To Draw a Page Today

I did not want to draw a page today. I lettered sixteen pages. I ran errands and got my hair cut. At best, I wanted to do one of the commissions on my stack. The last thing I wanted to do was draw a page.

Still, I sat down at the Cintiq and opened up my template. I figured maybe I'd just lay out the page. So I did that, and, against my better judgment I laid out a page that had a complicated pose and a brand new background. That meant more work.

More work I had no energy to do. But I didn't get up.

I figured I'd ink the easy panel before dinner. Then maybe work out the new background.

I never got up.

[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ld070.jpg"  border="image_border" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]

A couple hours later, the page was done.

You want to get something done? You do it. There's no other way around it. You just sit down and you do it. You just sit down at your damn desk and you do it. Everything else is details.

Amazing Arizona Comic Con Print

[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/phoenix_button.png" align="right" border="image_border" link="#http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/phoenix_final_pre.png" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ] I'm attending Amazing Arizona Comic-Con in Phoenix next weekend. I've never been before, and I'm really looking forward to going.

As is my tradition, I did a limited edition print of my characters taking in the local sites. Click to enlarge it.

My Art (and many others) Immortalized on Fabric

Over on Twitter, Canterlot Radio shared this pic of My Little Pony fabric. See that "EVER" and the picture of Twilight Sparkle in the center of it? That's pulled from my Twilight Sparkle "Pony Tales" story. How cool is that? Also on there looks to be Andy Price, Tony Fleecs, Heather Breckel and more.

[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mlpfabric.jpg" align="center" border="image_border" link="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mlpfabric.jpg" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]

All the Tools in Your Toolbox

I was reading on StarWars.com about the new Star Wars comic by Jason Aaron and John Cassady, and came across this: [testimonials_box_style client_name="StarWars.com"] [p]In the original films, masks and costumes were hand-made. In order to maintain a visual continuity with those movies, Cassaday followed the rules of practical effects. “The key approach to design on this book,” Cassaday says, “is very much in touch with the original trilogy and the technology, make-up, and costuming of the time. No intricate CGI or mo-cap. When I design a new character or alien, I think of it as an actor wearing a rubber mask, prosthetics, or possibly a puppet, and I try to work within those given boundaries.” [/p] [/testimonials_box_style]

That’s an interesting thought. It may work just fine for this project, but in general, I’m against it.

When you adapt something into comics, or any medium, there are changes you have to make. There are things that work in one medium that don’t in another. Car chases are the usual example. Singing, too.

On the other hand, comics can offer things that other media doesn’t. As long as you’ve got the likeness rights, you can bring back any character you want. You can also do longer plots and subplots in a way that you can’t in a feature film. Marv Wolfman, when editing DC’s Star Trek comic, demanded that it be written like a comic, with new characters and multiple plots. It’s one of the reasons it was one of the best Trek comic adaptations.

Speaking of Star Trek, Peter David wrote about this very issue, focusing on how much humor he used in his run.

[testimonials_box_style client_name="Peter David"] [p]What’ve we got in the comics? Music? No.

Visual effects? Not that pack the same punch as TV, no. Besides, when people read the comics, they spend most of the time trying to determine whether the likenesses are consistent. You think anyone tunes in Next Gen saying, “Let’s hope that Riker looks like Jonathan Frakes this week?” “Let’s hope they got the bridge right”?

Acting? Only what the readers can conjure in their minds upon reading the words. Sound effects? Silent medium. Again, lacks that TV punch.

Make up? Come on. We have an audience which is used to seeing Nightcrawler or The Hulk every month. If Ensign Fouton, the tall, skinny blue alien, appeared on the TV show, fans would be singing praises about the makeup required to give him life. In the comic book, the most response we’ve had to something visual was R.J. Blaise, and she was human! Exotic aliens and civilizations don’t have the same effect on comics fans as it does when they see the same thing on the series. Face it, the comics can’t possibly work as well, on all levels, as the TV series– both old and new– do.

Except for one thing: humor.[/p] [/testimonials_box_style]

If you’re going to do a comic of something, I think you should do all the things you can in comics that you can’t somewhere else. One of the many things Whedon’s Buffy comic got right is focusing less on clever banter and long scenes in the library and more on the type of scope and effects that were cost prohibitive. I’m not objective about the My Little Pony franchise for obvious reasons, but I love that the second series, Friends Forever, focuses on characters who would never get to carry their own episode.

As a creator, you have to make decisions about how you’ll tell a story. I like leaving as many things in my toolbox as possible

Color is Part of Storytelling

I came upon this over at Comicbookmovie.com… [blockquote sub_text="James Gunn" blockquote_border="border_top_bottom"] I believe color is a part of what made Guardians successful. When so many huge, spectacle films have the beige color palette of Saw, the brain becomes thirsty for color. We were that Technicolor pitcher of water at the edge of the summer desert. [/blockquote]

I can't say how important I think this is. One of the things I really liked about the first Pirates of the Caribbean was it's warm gold and orange palette and how different it was than anything else out there. The next movie went to that more common desaturated blue and green and was a lot less fun and visually interesting. Same with the third one.

A Christmas Co-inkie-dink

Every year I do a Christmas Card. It started back when I was in art school, and it's taken off to the point where its actually a pretty daunting task to do these days. There are people who tell me they have kept all the ones I've done and look forward to the new year's. It can be a bit of pressure. So, I was in Target looking to see what cards were out there in hopes of inspiration and I found this one.

[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/christmas_copy.jpg" align="center" border="image_border" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]

Which obviously reminded me of this one I did in 2011.

[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/xmas2011_front.jpg" align="center" border="image_border" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]

These kinds of parallel development happen, I know. How many volcano movies can Hollywood make in one year? I like to think this validates a good idea I had a years ago. And props to this artist for actually drawing the reindeer.

Akron Comicon 2014

This past weekend was the Akron Comicon. They were gracious enough to have me as a guest for a second year, and man I just really like that how. It's a smaller show, vaguely reminiscent of the old Mid-Ohio-Con from it's hotel days. But it manages a killer guest list (including Gerry Conway, Graham Nolan, Tom Batiuk and more) in an environment where everyone is still accessible. It's so engaging that I actually went to a panel I wasn't on, the Gerry Conway one. I can't remember the last time I actually attended a panel. Traffic was good, attendees were awesome, and the show really takes care of its guests. The Quaker Square area of Akron is a lot of fun to hang out in, too.

Among the many things that happened there this show was that I got to see someone take a commission I did of Spike playing guitar from a show last year and put it on their actual base guitar. There were an amazing number of costumed attendees for a smaller show. And I got to reconnect with old friends, like some of the crew of the U.S.S. Lagrange, as well as spend more time with greats like José Delbo, who taught at Kubert. Sadly, I never had José as a teacher, but it was so cool discussing tools and techniques with him.

And I got to spend the show next to Paul Storrie, who I don't get to see enough of. I'm glad he made it out for the show. It's something you should think about doing next year, too!

Big Damn Hero Six

I'm looking forward to checking out Big Hero Six. I hear great things about it, and it's a great way to blend Disney and Marvel. Every commercial so far has looked great. Amy pointed out a tweet from Nicole Campos reading: I'm not the only one who keeps saying "Big Damn Hero 6" by mistake, right?  Then Amy said, "You should totally make that happen." And she was right.

So, I present to you Big Damn Hero Six. One of these days I might make a print of it.