Words I've Always Wanted to Type

"I'm proofing the galleys now."Galleys are the just-as-it-will-appear proof of a novel or story. Friday, I received the galleys for "Til Death", the Star Trek: The Next Generation story Bob Ingersoll and I wrote for the forthcoming short story collection (available for purchase at the sidebar to the right). It's been a trip writing a prose story, and I certainly hope it's not my last such trip. Regardless, I'm enjoying the whole journey, including the proofing process. Incidentally, yes, there's a change or two, but very minor. It's amazing what little things can slip through so many people and proofs...which is why I guess we proof them in these stages. I'm proud of the story, and hope you enjoy it too. I'm looking forward to October.

A Lonely Place of Working

My big Mac, Denny Crane, is at the Apple Store right now, getting a tune up. He's been a little crashy lately, and I have some high end graphics work to do on him in the next couple of weeks. So, I cleared the time and took him in for some work.Normally, I would have reinstalled his system software and done a clean restart, but for the fact I don't have the software anymore. Oh, I dutifully bought a five-user license of the latest Mac operating system when it came out. But I only have two computers, so I lent it to my cousin last year to update hers. Then her condo complex burned down. She's fine, and dealing with it far, far better than I would have. And the insurance company has offered to reimburse me, but I want to wait a couple more months. Mac is releasing a new update of the software in a couple months, and it seems silly to buy the old when the new is so close to being released. So I'm here, in the studio, running off my laptop. The studio feels empty without Denny Crane's whirring and two widescreen displays (also at the Apple Store for a good cleaning) taking up a good chunk of my working space. I'm taking the time to clean everything now, and the studio could definitely use a good scrub down. I'm also trying to untangle the spiderweb of USB, Ethernet and Power Cables that have amassed behind my desk. Anyway, I thought I'd share. Denny Crane is gone for a couple of days, but at least you guys are still there.

How Big a Geek Have I Become?

A couple of years back, I was introduced to the Harry Potter series. The series has been really solid, with the exception of the speed bump that was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but got back on track with the sixth book. Of course, that's just my opinion, and I'm still looking forward to the movie of it this summer regardless.

Anyway, I thought I'd share how much of a Potter geek I've become. I was actually at one of the midnight releases, ironically before I was a fan of the series, just because I was hanging out with some Borders employees. I'd love to go to one for real, and in fact have been invited to do caricatures at a couple… but the book comes out the same week as Comic-Con in San Diego. That night I'm sure I'll be at the Hyatt bar doing the schmoozing thing.

But, I really want to get it. Heck, a couple days after San Diego, I'll be up in Los Angeles, with some pool time and a cross-country flight back to the Buckeye State ahead of me. I needs me the book. I'd just buy one on Monday, but there's all these cool pre-orders on Amazon, so…

Well, I've ordered the book via Amazon and it will be shipped to me at my Los Angeles hotel. It'll be waiting for me when I check in, and it'll be part of my post-Con recovery.

See, I'm not just a geek about comics and Star Trek.

Picks and Clicks

I'm adding a new category here to the Thom Zahler blog, one that I call recommendations. I don’t really want to get into writing full-blown reviews for too many things. If I don’t like it, I’m probably not going to talk about it. But there are a lot of cool things out there, and when I stumble upon one, I’d like to share it with you.

Here, I’ve got two. One was introduced to me by Christine, the oh-so-tasty Caribou Coffee granola bars. I’m a fan of their coffee (though my Starbucks baristas and baristaettes keep me coming back to there), and am now a fan of their snack bars. I’m hooked on the mint chocolate ones, which have just the right amount of coffee bite, and at 175 calories, they’re not crazy bad for you.

The other is a CD I bought from iTunes recently. I’ve been a big fan of Captain Tractor since I stumbled upon them on a Due South soundtrack. But they’re a Canadian band, and their CDs are hard to find in the States. Apple’s iTunes knows no such boundaries, though, and you can snag their CD in digital format for just $9.99. Their album North of Yellowhead is the first complete album I bought off iTunes, and man, do I like it.

It’s hard to explain the Captain’s sound. Kind of Celtic/rock/Canada/folk. It’s punchy and, more importantly, a lot of fun. These guys don’t take themselves seriously. Heck, to coincide with the album’s release, they even made their own North of Yellowhead beer. Unfortunately, that doesn’t dispense across the computer.

So, coffee bars and Canadian CD’s. I recommend ‘em both.

Big and Beautiful

My buddy Jamar Nicholas is a wonderfully talented artist, and possessor of the greatest self-promotional prose since Stan "The Man" Lee. When he's not working for Tokypop, or creating things like Detective Boogaloo, Hip Hop Cop, he runs BBWW: The Fat Wonder Woman Blog. It's hard to explain, but a heck of a lot of fun. Clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel, he's posted a new image by some Ohio hack artist.

Wanna see it? Click here.

Order Up

I've gotten my orders for the non-Free Comic Book Day version of Love and Capes #4 and I have to say, they're pretty darn good. They're actually in line with issue #3, and this is for what is, essentially, a reprint of the Free Comic Book Day edition that everyone could have gotten for free last month. So I'm happy, yes indeed. Now, what's going to be really interesting is what orders will be for #5. How many FCBD readers can I hold on to? Let's hope it's a lot.

With My Sword and Magic Helmet

I can't talk too much about this one, but I'm kind of jazzed about it. Raider is going to appear on a mass-marketed helmet. (What kind of helmet? Why a helmet? All will be revealed in time.) I got to go through previous issues of Raider and grab panels to create a collage, kind of a wrapping paper, really, that will be used for said helmet. The process, as my addled brain understands it, is similar to shrink wrapping. I design the flat sheet, and then it will be melted onto the helmet itself.

So, click on the thumbnail and see the black and white artwork for the helmet. Once the client approves it, I'll color it and apply a halftone filter to it so it looks like a big comic book page. Which, I guess, it is.

Going through the art kind of makes me want to get back to Raider, but with Love and Capes doing so well, as well as the rest of my freelance work, it'll be a little while. Unless, of course, some publisher backs a truck full of money up to my front door. I'm not made of stone, you know.

In other Raider news, I am officially sold out of Raider #1! It only took five years, but better late than never, right?

Recipe for Comedy

What? Mark's Mom saying something nice about Abby? You know that can't last.

Here's a panel from page fourteen. (Ten left!) Abby has to pick Mark's parents up at the airport, so Jerry and Joanne Spencer get to spend some time with Abby. I've said before, I think, that Mrs. Spencer one of the hardest characters in the book to write. Everything she says has to have a double meaning. It has to be on the surface negative to Abby, and then upon reflection, actually kind of nice.

In the second issue, Abby apologizes for being the reason Mark's away for Christmas. Mrs. Spencer responds, "That's fine, this year." Yeah, it sounds nasty, but on the other hand, Mark's Mom is also expecting Abby to be around the following year. But Abby hears the former and Joanne implies the latter.

Ah, such is the recipe for comedy.

It's Not Fair!

Thanks to the guys on Comic Pants, I've gotten hooked on the Tokyopop manga series Battle Royale The basic premise is the standard bunch of people on an island who have to kill each other until one is left with a twist: the contestants are all relatively innocent high school students. The fact that none of the students wanted to be there really gives it an edge. The series also shares Lost's penchant for flashbacks, which works really well.

I asked for a couple volumes of the remainder of the series for my birthday. My Mom surprised me and bought them all. I've been parceling them out since, really wanting to finish the series but not wanting to rush through it. Last night, the rubber band in my brain broke, largely due to the Adventures in Sanitary Sewers I'm having at Fortress Zahler, and I decided to veg out and read the rest of the series.

I get to the last issue, and about twenty pages from the end, my Spider-Sense starts going off. Something's wrong. My fears are realized as I get to the end: This isn't the last volume. It's the second last, and Mom didn't get the last one.

Now, let's be clear, it's not my Mom's fault. Heck, I'm impressed she bought them at all. Mom's not a big comics person, and while she's absorbed a lot of comics knowledge from me, her buying specific comic series is like sending me to buy car parts. I only know what I have written down. There's no way she knew she was one shy. Heck, I didn't know she was one shy.

It's all good, anyway. It's nice to find a series that draws you in enough that you get upset you haven't reached the end. And I'll be buying the last volume off Amazon pretty soon, so I'll be set. But, as I'm avoiding working on anything large right now, I thought I'd share my pain.

Order It Now!

Love and Capes #5 is in Previews this week! It's order code JUN07 3740, so be sure to ask for it, well, by numbers I guess. Here's the official solicitation:

Spend some time with comicdom's favorite super-couple, and this time Abby's finding out that time is the problem. She's dating the world's mightiest workaholic, and getting some time alone with her boyfriend - the Crusader - is becoming as much of a battle as any menace he has to fight. How do you share your boyfriend with the world? Plus, learn how Darkblade stays sharp, and Amazonia continues to make her presence felt.

And, since I really, really want you to buy it, I'm posting two full pages of the book for you to check out. Here's page five and page eight. Enjoy!

The book will be out in early August.