Goodbye Darlings!
I finished the actual lettering on my last issue of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark for Claypool Comics today. I still have to paste it up, whenever the boards roll in, and I'll still be doing Deadbeats. But it's a bit of a milestone.
Elvira was the regular project that, as much as anything else, allowed me to leave the Salt Mines (better known as the Markell Company) and regular employment for the Wild West that is the World de Freelance. You can think what you like about the property, I make no judgments about the book. But it was good work, regular work, and I'm a better letterer for the almost ten years I spent lettering her adventures. Fortunately, I have enough work to fill the void, but that doesn't mean I won't miss the 
Mistress of the Dark.
I got to meet Elvira in person a couple years back at the Claypool 10th anniversary panel in San Diego a couple years back. She was nothing but sweet, and very funny. IMDB says there are a couple of Elvira projects in the works for her. Hope she's doing well.
Traffic and Other Steve Winwood Bands
Then again I could change my mind and do an entire issue that's one continuous fight scene. I'm flaky that way. (Just kidding. Heavy on the love, light on the capes.)
With this page I am officially one-third of the way through the book, too! Yay, me!
And, don't forget, Love and Capes #3 is available at your local comic book shop today! Not only is it all kinds of good fun, but it's got the funniest biography copy yet.
Kidifcation
I just designed a logo for Catapult Online for their Catapult Kids brand. I'd already designed the kids for their Holiday Card and mousepad jobs, and now they wanted them to become part of a new logo. The logo has more variants than a 90s Marvel comic. There are full color (pictures), limited color, two color, gray, and black and white versions, along with versions that include the kids and versions without.
My theory, being a former newspaper guy, is that no matter how cool your logo, eventually it's going to run an inch high in black and white on newsprint. So I always design with that in mind. Clicking on the large logo to the left will bring up the color versions, clicking here will bring up the black and white variants.
Car Wars… Nothing But Car Wars…
I hate drawing cars. I really do. They're complicated, and hard to get right from every angle. But, I try not to let my art get in the way of my writing. So, page seven features Mark, Abby and Charlotte on a road trip to Abby's family picnic. There are times I do curse myself for the scenes I write, but I think that's far more preferable to those artists (and they know who they are) who write scenes solely based on what they want to draw.
Fortunately, the car appears in only two more panels past this one. I'm willing to work, but I'm not insane about it.
There are a couple of concepts from this scene that cut for space reasons. Abby and Mark essentially live in Chicago and use mass transit, and Mark obviously flies everywhere. I was thinking that either Mark didn't own a car, or that he's actually a really bad driver, both since he doesn't drive very much. Would you if you could fly?
Also, I'm doing something different with the coloring in this issue. This panel should give you everything you need to figure it out. Hopefully, it's not jarring enough to be immediately noticable, but I think it makes the book look better.
It's Awards Season After All
Tony Isabella is a friend of mine. He also posts his reviews of comics, and I made sure he got an advance copy of Love and Capes #3. He's never let his awe and admiration, or mosre likely tolerance, of me get in the way of honest criticism. You can read the full review here, and I certainly encourage you to do so. But if that button on your mouse is just too much effort, here's an excerpt to give you a feel for his review.
Zahler has a gift for writing clever, humorous stories for Abby and Mark. There are familiar sitcom and super-hero notes to the tune, but his variations on these themes keep the series fresh. When it comes to the art and coloring, I don’t think there’s another comic being published today that has a style more likely to appeal to a truly mainstream audience.
Yup, I got the full five out of five Tonys. I'll let you know as I get more reviews.
Falling Down
Another one down… another one down… another one bites the dust.
I just finished page six of Love and Capes #4. I think the narrative is starting to come together. I'm trying to make sure that characters are introduced and explained since, being part of Free Comic Book Day, it's going to be a lot of people's first issue. I'll have a "For those who came in late" recap on the inside front cover, but I want to make sure it's pretty clear in the story, too.
The other thing I'm doing is making things more physical. More physical comedy, more physical stuff, so that it's not as conversationally heavy as other issues. Free Comic Book Day will give me some younger readers, too, I hope.
Besides, I've got a rule about the super heroics in Love and Capes… we don't see them. At least not much of them. Part of it is from its genesis as a sitcom, so the special effects are intentionally limited. The other is that I want the focus on the characters and relationships, not on the superhero stuff. If you want that, there are a lot of other comics out there. I'll play to my strength.
With all that in mind, we'll see Darkblade doing the typical interrogation scene, but it's not the important part of the scene. Oh, and don't worry, this guy doesn't die.
Also, Love and Capes #3 will be in stores this week! So will Raider: Dead Men's Tales. Support your local comics shop and pick it up. And, if they don't carry it, point out the error of their ways, and order it here. Sure, there's a shipping charge, but you'll get your Love and Capes fix in time for Valentine's Day.
So What Were the First Eleven?
I've been watching the excellent series Slings and Arrows
eason two, unfortunately also the last season, and it's pretty good. If anything, it suffers from being not-as-good as the first season. Anyway, I've mentioned it before, and still recommend it. And, possibly because of it, Shakespeare's been on my mind.
I'm passing some of that on to Abby in Love and Capes #4, as evidenced in the panel to the right. Oddly, though, the plotline that will spiral out from this scene came to me as I was watching The Good Shepherd, which I thought was pretty good too, incidentally. Just didn't want you to think that my mind was wandering because of the film.
For those of you keeping score, that's five pages in and nineteen to go.
The New Kids on the Block
I got to design a mousepad for Catapult Online, a frequent client of mine. I created some cartoon characters, The Catapult Kids, for a quick little job some time ago and they really stuck. This one was a bit of a challenge to have so many characters in such a small area, and to give them each something unique to do. I suppose it's kind of Alex Ross in it's composing. Either way, I like it, and so does the client.
Three for Three
Yesterday was a pretty good day. Why? Because, in no particular order:
I was elected Council President of the Timberlake Council. I'm honored to be chosen by my fellow councilman to serve in this capacity. Frighteningly, it means that if the Mayor is unable to perform his duties, I take over. Some people think that this means that Mayor Roskos needs to watch himself. Actually it means the opposite. I'll be going over to his house later today to remove all the transfats from his kitchen just to be safe.
The first thing I did was have the Police Chief say "Mr. President?" so that I could respond "Get me Jack Bauer!"
- Love and Capes #3 is back from the printer. Review copies are going out today, and it'll be in stores in a couple of weeks. The issue looks great! There's one typo that's all my fault, not my reviewers', and hopefully no one will notice. I'm finding that no issue is ever perfect, but I'll keep trying.
- And, the last thing is something I won't talk about too much. I and co-writer Bob Ingersoll will be writing a prose short story for a collection published by a big book publisher. Our story proposal received the official blessing of the Corporate Powers That Be and now we can go ahead and write the final. It's a big deal for me for any number of reasons, but not the least of which is that finally, someone else is paying me to write something. Raider and Love and Capes are great, don't get me wrong, but there's something cool about being hired, too.
It's a major book publisher, and you'll recognize it when you see it on the shelves of your local bookstore. That's all I'll say for now. I don't know that I can say more, and besides, I don't want to jinx it.
The World Must Be Peopled
I realized that something was missing from the last issue of Love and Capes, specifically in the bookstore: customers. We saw a few customers in the first issue, and the store was flooded with kids in the second, but I think no one bought any books for Valentine's Day. 
So I've tried to make sure there are some people in the store this issue.
I also try to make my "extras" look normal, since my supporting cast is so good looking. So you'll see some average, balding, overweight and every other sort of shape. Although, one of my ideas as a little joke was to do a caricature of Anthony Stewart Head as Giles and have him picking up some arcane tome. Keep an eye out for that.
Most of the names I give my characters have significance, too, even if just to me. Here, Professor Russell is named for Russell Johnson, best known as the Professor on Gilligan's Island.
I've also kept my questionable practice of having the bookstore highlight books I like and am reading. In this panel, we have The Complete Peanuts
Incidentally, all the links above are Amazon Associates links. I'll try to post links to the books I've been enjoying and highlighting here, and better yet, if you click through and buy a book, I get a little bonus from the folks at Amazon. Hey, we all win!
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