Almost Halfway There

I'm one page away from reaching the magical Halfway Point in Love and Capes #6.

We're out of flashback and Amazonia is teleporting into the bookstore. The Liberty League has teleporters, but for a bunch of reasons I made them point-to-point teleporters. So, there's a portable teleporter pad in the back room, which Abby is at the controls of. If you look at LNC #4, you'll notice that when Mark teleports into Box Canyon, he arrives on the same portable pad.

I also had to redesign the back room of the bookstore. It's been seen before, but usually it's just a wall. I wanted to make it a little more storage/break room like, so I tweaked the design. At various points, you'll be able to see a ladder, some boxes, and even a time clock, although I'm pretty sure that came with the building. I don't think Abby or Charlotte use it. There's even an overhead storage area, too, in case I need it down the road.

And don't forget, you can order Love and Capes #6 in this month's Previews catalog. Order code SEP073844.

Second Cup of Weirdness

As long as we've had one cup of weird...

I went to Starbucks today, as I do most Saturdays. I usually go up there and cash whatever checks came in over the last couple of days at the next door Sky Bank now Huntington, and the grab some coffee. I got there a minute before the bank opened and when they let me in…everyone in the bank was looking at me. Then there was some clapping.

Did you notice that I said in the previous paragraph "Sky Bank now Huntington?" That's because my old bank merged with Huntington, and today was their first official day as the new bank. And I was their first customer. Everyone congratulated me, and I got a lovely electric screwdriver set. Personally, I prefer my screwdrivers served in a glass with Grey Goose vodka, but it was still a nice touch.

Heavy is the Head That Wears the Crown

Our Mayor, John Roskos, is currently on vacation. I'm Council President which makes me the equivalent of Will Riker without the beard and inability to stave of a Ferengi attack. I'm the second in command.

Now, normally I'd crack a bunch of jokes about my secret service detail and how I wish that the Village Hall had longer corridors so I could do that West Wing walk-and-talk. And, if you catch me in person, I'll probably tell you some. But really, I'm taking it seriously.

I don't think anything will happen during my brief stint at the helm of the Village. I doubt Canada will invade or the Mole Man will burst through our sewers or anything huge. But still, there's the little extra bit of weight to knowing that I'm occupying the center seat.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to rename my street to Thom Zahler Lane.

So You May Have Noticed

While I was trying to upgrade the blog today, so that I'd be able to put some nifty widgets on here, maybe pimp my Amazon available stuff (like Star Trek: Sky's the Limit) and in upgrading, managed to crash the blog hard. It's a big issue, first of all because of the amount of work that the blog represents, but also because, through RSS feeds, I manage pages on the Thomz.com site and the LoveandCapes.com site.

It took a bit of time, a bit of research, and a little help to get it back up. When I did, I had that computer-stare-buzz in my head. The one where you swear you were thinking so hard that all the blood hasd rushed to your head, and when you're done, you just don't want to tackle any other huge projects. So, I decided to work on something I wanted to work on to get me over that hump. And, fortunately, Love and Capes #6 page 10 was already inked.

The page isn't the funniest in the book, but it's one of the most important. It shows that Crusader and Amazonia had chemistry. That they were a good couple, at least for a while. And, since these eight panels involve stopping an alien invasion and watching a volcano, they serve to highlight the things Abby can't be for Mark. That should cause some conflict over the next fourteen pages.

99 Word Balloons

It's another fascinating moment of superheroes having wine, featuring the best dialogue I've ever written.

The nights working on Love and Capes are getting longer. I was up until 2:00am working on the art for the page, and then scripted and lettered it this morning. It's a good sign that it's the late nights are getting more frequent, too. It means I'm in the zone, and ready to churn out and finish the book.

Here, Amazonia and the Crusader go to Las Vegas for their first date. Why Vegas? Because they needed some privacy, and like they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It's the kind of place with private dining rooms available to superstars, and Amazonia's definitely that.

I had to design Vegas-style buildings for the window. Two of them are new artwork. The other is the Eiffel Tower, which I drew for the splash page at the end of #3. It was nice to be able to reuse that and get that extra Vegasiness without having to spend them time to draw the Tower again.

See? Pretty sneaky, sis!

Boldly Arriving

Behold! Look what arrived in ye olde mail today. It's an advance copy of The Sky's the Limit, the Star Trek: the Next Generation collection that includes a story by me and Bob Ingersoll. (That's the book, that's my Captain Kirk action figure, and that's my big ol'hand.) It's right there, starting on page 321. The book comes out next month, you can preorder it from Amazon here, and…

…well, it's just cool.

Here we Arrrrrrrgh Again

Today's National Talk Like a Pirate Day. It's a little less impressive when you work alone, although it does cut down on the weird looks you get. Everybody else is doing all the "Avast" and "Ye Maties". I'm flexing my fingers and saying "Savvy?" and hoping someone says "You're the worst cartoonist I've ever heard of" so I can reply "Yes, but you have heard of me." No eye makeup, though.

Gay Cowboys Eating Pudding

Look! Superheroes having tea! Why isn't this book getting more recognition? I should have an Eisner, a Harvey, and a Grammy because of this brilliance.

But seriously, here we go with another flashback panel. The Crusader has gone to visit Amazonia at her office tower, and then they have the aforementioned tea. This page was hard to break. I knew what ground I had to cover, but I couldn't figure out the jokes. I struggled with it for three days, and then...

Well, when I was a kid, I used to sit on my bed and toss a ball into the air, all the time thinking of stories and ideas. So much of Raider was originally written that way and a bunch of other things that haven't seen print. At least not yet.

So after three days of racking my brain, taking walks and long drives, I sat on my couch to watch some football. I grabbed a beach ball that I got as a promotion from some photo stock house, and tossed it in the air. Before it even came down, I had both jokes.

Sometimes the old ways are best, I guess.

Actually, I'm pretty happy with this sequence. The next page is pretty strong. And, since this is page eight, I am officially one-third of the way through issue six.

One Last Time, NOT the Video Game...

Another story from the Baltimore Comic-Con...

I got to talk to Joe Kubert. Obviously we've met before, given that he taught me in my third year of school at his oh-so-appropriately named Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He didn't really remember me, but that's no surprise. I went there fifteen years ago, and in his class I was by no means notable. That's less a feature of my talent and more how I was dwarfed by classmates.

Here's what was cool, and what surprised me. He asked how I was doing, and what art I was doing. He exuded this genuineness when he asked. I could tell that he really wanted to know that the education that he was responsible for had paid off. And he was genuinely pleased when I told him that I was making my living as a cartoonist, and was doing pretty well.

Of course, I say "genuinely pleased" and for all I know he was actually thinking of ways to kill me using a Hunt 107 pen tip. But, I thought he was being genuine, and in these cases, I find perception is reality.

As for why I was surprised, that comes from my experience at the school. I've referred to my time there as "boot camp for artists." It wasn't always pleasant. And there were times that it felt I was getting a good education in spite of the administration. I don't hold Joe responsible for that aspect, as I think he was pretty removed from the day-to-day operations. I also had some great times there, and made some fantastic friends there.

I was just surprised at how much I wanted Joe to be proud of me. With all those mixed feelings from the school, I would have thought I would have been a little more distant from Joe himself and that his opinion wouldn't matter. But it did, and it was kind of nice that it did.

Joe also has what a friend of mine describes as "a young man's walk." When he said that, my friend was referring to Stan Lee. It gives me hope that a lot of my artistic heroes, both in terms of style and business, seem to live so well so long. Viktor Shrekengost is almost 100. Al Hirschfeld lived to be about 100 and was still working. Carl Barks and Will Eisner both seemed to live long, full lives. Joe Kubert and Stan Lee are still doing really good work.

In an Uncle Scrooge story, Carl Barks suggested that Scrooge McDuck was so old and so spry because he was doing what he loved. I think there's a lot to be said for that and makes me appreciate that I get to do what I love for a living.

Flashback!

Here's my first new page since Baltimore, and it's also the first of many flashback pages.

There were a number of design challenges in this page. One was to come up with a way to visually show that it was a flashback. The faded edges do that okay. I also muted the colors of all the flashbacks just a little bit. So, for example, the red of Crusader's costume is just a little more washed-out in the flashbacks as opposed to the current stuff. Also, and you can't necessarily see it here, the Crusader has sideburns.

I was tempted to bring back the mulletted Crusader from the time travel scene in #5, but I thought that was too much. So the sideburns are a subtle reminder that we're in flashback.

Pictured here, Mark and Zoe's first kiss.