Guess What I'm Going To See Tomorrow?

I don't expect it to be good, I just want it to be fun. It's going to be a big action version of a cartoon and a toyline I really liked growing up. Heck, my Dad made me a rockin' Optimus Prime costume (if I had a picture, I'd post it) for Halloween one year. I love that they got the voice of Optimus from the cartoons to do the voice again. I am less thrilled that Bumblebee is a Camaro and not a Volkswagon Beetle, but you roll with the punches.

Red Shirts Are For More Than Just Landing Parties

Here's the final design for the San Diego exclusive Love and Capes t-shirt. The front features the artwork you've seen before, and the back prominently displays The Hero Initative logo, and, of course, the website information for your favorite romantic comedy superhero book.

The shirts are available on the website, and then only at San Diego. Pre-order them to make sure you get your size. Or take your chances and get them there for a donation to the Hero Initiative. And please, wear them around the show.

Click on the image to see it biggerated, too.

Kneel Before the iPhone!

So, did I get one? No.

Do I want one? Hells, yes!

Will I buy it? No.

From everything I've been reading about the iPhone, it's living up to its expectations. I really think that the iPhone will raise the bar for cell phones in general. There's a lot of slickness and ease of use to it that people have been craving in a phone. Look, I like my RAZR just fine. It's a really good phone. But it's lousy at pulling e-mail where it won't read some and won't display attachments. Voice mail is decent, but man the visual e-mail on the iPhone will be so much better, so that I can skip old messages.

Heck, how cool is it that you can just buy the phone off the shelf. No asking Chad to grab a phone from some samples, assuming he's not with another customer, and then begin the long phone activation process. Now you can do that from home.

I think the limitations of cell phones are the keypads. Current cellphones have to make everything work using the number keys and a couple of extra buttons. Think of that T9 for text messaging, or triple clicking a button to get the letter "C". The iPhone dodges that problem by creating a redefinable interface where if you need different buttons, you can generate them. (Incidentally, this technology was the theory behind the displays on the Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation.) I think that's brilliant. And, if you can't text by feeling the buttons, that's okay… maybe it'll cut down on the text-and-drive people.

The other thing about it is that it's not for everyone. If you don't travel, don't have a job where you need an array of communication options, then just get a regular cell phone. But, for those of us that travel to a comic book convention every couple of months and run our own business, the idea of being able to check my e-mail from the shuttle from the airport to hotel it's going to be great.

So you're probably wondering why I don't have it yet, aside from having had plans to see Ratatouille (which, by the way, was excellent) that kept me away from an Apple store? Well, it's a first-generation product. I'll let people shake it out for a while and let the fine folks at Apple make it even better. I don't like that it lack voice dialing features, as that's something I use all the time. Yes, I talk and drive from time to time, and being able to say "Call Dad Mobile". And, I think a physical "press to talk" button will be needed, rather than the touch screen, because you'll need an equivalent of the flip-to-talk feature that I have on mine.

And, my Alltel contract doesn't expire for a little while yet. I need to let that lapse as well. I'm waiting for the next revision, which I think will be killer. And if the next generation comes out before the end of the tax year, so much the better.

So how cool is it to be Steve Jobs this week? He releases the iPhone and Ratatouille on the same day.

Drivin' Like the Demon the Drives Your Dreams

My friend Mike Horkan surprised me with some pictures this week. I don't know much about video games. Tetris was probably the last one I played regularly. But Mike's big into them, and recently got Forza Motorsports 2 for the XBox 360. You can customize the cars in the game, but you can't import graphics. Everything's done with a series of pre-designed images and polygons. Mike was surprised by this because he'd seen some really creative and detailed paint jobs for the cars online. Mike became intrigued with overcoming the limitations of the graphics editor and the idea of "wouldn't it be cool if Thom had pictures of a Raider-themed race car."

I was blown away with what Mike did. He placed the decals on a Mitsubishi Eclipse, given that I drive one myself. (They didn't have a Spyder, though.) It looked great, and I sent Mike a response about how, if I got a car painted like that, I could write it off. And then I mused about putting the decals on a Pontiac Solstice which is currently one of my favorite cars on the road. The next day, some new pictures showed up, too.

I think they look great and wanted to share. Who knows, maybe my next car will look like this? (Click on any image to see a bigger version.)

So What Do You Do For an Encore?

You start the next one.

Well, not really "start" so much as do the cover. This lets me advertise it in the back of #5, and I have to have it done soon anyway, as it'll be time to send it into Diamond for the solicitation.

The story for #6 actually came as I was starting to work on #5. And it's an ending I've been planning since about the time I started the book entirely. Hopefully, I'll be able to execute is as well as I hope. As for what the book is about, here's the solicitation copy from the back of the as-yet-to-be-published #5...

Amazonia's latest book reveals her past with Mark, and Abby gets to sell it in her store. Plus, an ending that will change everything!

'Fess up, you really want to read it now, don't you?

To warn you, too, the plan is to take a break, go on hiatus as the kids say (if the kids live in Hollywood) after issue six. I've done six solid issues in a year and a half, and while it's been fun, I'm starting to char from the burnout. My tentative plan is to re-emerge with issue seven for Free Comic Book Day, but we'll see how that goes. Why, there's a whole San Diego Comic-Con to deal with before then, and, as always, that could change everything.

Doneish!

The big hurdle has been, well, hurdled.

I finished page 24 of Love and Capes, so the brunt of the book is done. I still need to write my author's page, and maybe do the cover of #6 so I can toss that in the back of the issue. But with this finish, hopefully my brain will be a little clearer now.

And I still have a week to get it to the printer, too!

She Makes That Outfit Work

One page until the big finale. Heck, I'm so jazzed about being this close that I almost want to stay up and finish it. Of course, I'm typing this at 1:00am with a rerun of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Hide and Q" if you're interested, which is also one of the first scripts I ever bought and read.) on in the background. So perhaps I'll take a break, something some people refer to as "sleep", and then start renewed in the morning.

You may notice that Abby is wearing the same outfit as Paris Hilton wore upon her release from jail yesterday. Hey, I thought it was a cute outfit, so I gave it to Abby. By the time it sees print, no one will notice the connection.

Okay, it's bedtime for Thomzo now. See you tomorrow with page 24!

To Boldly Go...

More pictures from the Licensing Show. Here, Matt, Sandi and I encounter the Bratz booth.

So Close I Can Almost Smell It

I don't know that the finish of a book has a smell, but if it did, that scent would be wafting through the studio today. Page 22 is done! There are only eleven panels left to draw, color and script now.

Mark's trying to make Abby feel better, and offers up a trip to San Francisco. I have on many occasions mentioned by chocolate "habit", although some would say "problem." And one of my favorite chocolate dens is Ghirardelli's, based in that city. I've been to any number of their soda fountain/ice creameries, including Las Vegas, Chicago, Orlando and San Diego, but there's none quite like the SF one. It's kind of got the feeling of the Soup Nazi's joint from Seinfeld, except slightly more charming.

I think I'll have another page done tonight, and then page 24 the night after. Then the book can go on proof to the Secret Society of Super Reviewers while I try to do the cover for #6, so that I can run an ad for it in the back of the issue.

Blackjack time

Almost done now. Three pages left, and I think I can do a page a day from here on in.

In this page, Abby's bad day continues and she calls Mark for a little support. This page also features a reappearance by my friend, fellow Councilman, and mailman, Robin, playing the part of, well, the mailman.

I designed a new "set piece" for the book with this page. Set pieces are complicated, layered backgrounds capable of easy changes that I know are going to be used frequently. I have ones designed for Mark and Abby's apartments, for the bookstore and a few other places. This set piece, seen here, is the L-Train station, or whatever they call it in Deco City. I've made no secret that I've templated Deco City on Chicago, so it's no surprise that they have a monorail/elevated train. Actually, the monorail can be seen in the very first issue, but I've never had a chance to show it since.

So, this set piece is designed so I can move the train along the track, change the color of the buildings and the sky and everything else. It'll work out well, but it also delayed me much more than I would have thought. Once again, this was another post-midnight page.

I love the book, I really do. But it'll be nice when it's done.