Mark Thy Calendar!

Bob Ingersoll and I will be doing a book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Mentor, just across from Great Lakes Mall, at 7:00pm on November 14th. We'll be promoting that oft-mentioned Star Trek: The Sky's the Limit. Yeah, the one that's over there in the sidebar on the right.

We'll be up there to say "hello" and sign things and talk with y'all about all things Star Trek and anything else that might cross your mind. Come up and see us!

The Sound of Helicopters

The obsession's getting worse, given that I've had my first double day, where I did two pages of Love and Capes. I had the advantage of a full Sunday to work, a fairly simple page where I'd already designed most of the backgrounds, and an Indians game to watch. Well, the Indians game wasn't so much an advantage after the fifth inning.

This page was oddly painful to write. Here, we see how Zoe and Mark end their relationship. Over the years, I've broken up with a few people, and been broken up with a couple more times than that. I had to call on a lot of those experiences to write the super break-up, which wasn't particularly pleasant. And I like both characters, so making Mark say those things, and having Zoe hear them wasn't all that fun either.

But, I think the page works. And, I'm pleased that each end panel (four and eight) does end with a joke. Not one that takes the edge off the scene, but given that there are a lot of "serious" beats near the end of the book, I'm glad that I could keep some smiles in this section.

And, here's a little bit of trivia: In issue #4, I did a "How a page comes together." In that, you can see that I've drawn a lamp, based on an IKEA lamp that I saw once. It was supposed to go in Mark's apartment, but it didn't work. That lamp appears in Zoe's penthouse in the left hand corner. Nothing's ever wasted here in the Love and Capes universe.

En fuego

I have officially reached the "obsession" stage of Love and Capes. I now have eight pages (or one-third for you mathies in the audience) left to go. And I'm sorely tempted to start, and maybe finish, page 17 tonight if I can. I'd love to blow off the next week and just finish things up, but that's not feasible.

I guess when I hit this stage, I'm pretty set on the finish. There are chunks of the middle where I write something like "put funny stuff about Abby's taxes here" but no real concrete idea what will happen. By page 16, I've already got everything up to and including the dialogue locked in, and it's just kind of going through the motions and I just want it done. In a good way.

Flying (Sequences and Insects)

If you could read all of page fifteen, you'd say "Aha! That's the big reveal for issue #6." And you'd be wrong, because there are three, count 'em three, major revelations in this issue. Wow, that's a lot to pack into 24 pages.

In this page, Amazonia and the Crusader are flying back from meeting the winner of the Who Wants to Create a Hero contest. And, obviously, Amazonia was not impressed.

For the most part, I write LNC as if it were a sitcom, complete with the occasional budgetary restraints. I don't show superhero fights or do big special effects sequences. I'm playing fast and loose with this as a flying sequence might be a little too complicated to film on a TV show budget. But, on the other hand, it's still not an action sequence, so I think it fits in seamlessly.

And, I have to say, I think I'm pretty good at staging flying sequences. I'm not sure why, maybe it's years of watching Star Trek and Star Wars movies learning how to orient objects in space.

As dopey as it is to point out, notice that Mark and Zoe are flying to the left in this sequence. They flew to the right when they went to meet the Hero-to-be-Named-Later.

On a completely unrelated note, how evil and soulless do you have to be for God to send a plague of locusts to attack your relief pitcher? Yankee Evil, that's how much. Maybe next frogs will take the field or the East River will turn to blood. Go Tribe!

And Presenting [Name Withheld]...!

Fourteen already? Why, ten more to go and still 27 days left in the month (and my deadline)? Things are kind of going okay then.

A lot of times I have to decide what panel to post. This one was simple, though, as every other panel features the winner of the Who Wants To Create a Hero contest. I don't want to reveal that character or the winner yet, and this is the only panel that the winning character doesn't appear in. So there really was only one choice.

I'll talk more about who won and why at some later date. But the winner created a character who inspired the first joke of the page, and I certainly appreciated being served a hanging curve to nail out of the park.

Speaking of baseball, the Cleveland Indians start the playoffs against the soulless New York Yankees. Go Tribe!

Star Trek: The Sky's The Limit Press Release

For Immediate Use.Contact: Thom Zahler (440)269-8653 or tz@thomz.com

LOCAL AUTHORS FEATURED IN NEW STAR TREK BOOK.

There's a Cleveland connection to the newest Star Trek book coming out on Tuesday October 16. That's the day "Star Trek: TNG: The Sky's The Limit" hits bookstores nationwide, featuring the talents of local authors, Bob Ingersoll & Thomas F. Zahler.

Redefining a familiar universe for a more modern time, Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the officers and crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, and the worlds of the twenty-fourth century to a new legion of Star Trek ® fans. In the two decades since, viewers and readers have embraced these heroes, thrilled to their personal achievements, their shared victories, their passionate loves...and mourned their painful losses.

"Star Trek: TNG: The Sky's The Limit" ,celebrates the twentieth anniversary of this landmark series by joining these now-legendary characters for all-new adventures: fourteen stories that span the time from before their earliest voyages through their missions on board the Enterprise-E -- untold tales of intrigue, action, insight, and exploration. One of those stories, "Till Death" is written by Cleveland area authors, Bob Ingersoll and Thomas F. Zahler. The story deals with Commander Riker in a time shortly before his wedding, as seen in the motion picture "Star Trek: Nemesis".

Author Bios:

BOB INGERSOLL:

Bob Ingersoll is a practicing attorney with the Cuyahoga County Public Defender Office in Cleveland, Ohio, who hopes to get it right one of these day. For over twenty years he used his legal background to write the regular column, "The Law is a Ass" for Comics Buyer's Guide, a weekly trade newspaper for the comic-book industry.

He has written numerous comic-book scripts including Star Trek, Star Trek: the Next Generation, Lost in Space, Quantum Leap and Hero's Alliance. He was the co-author of the novels Captain America: Liberty's Torch and Star Trek: The Case of the Colonist's Corpse.

He has no idea what he wants to be when he grows up.

THOMAS F. ZAHLER:

When Thomas F. Zahler’s father introduced him to Star Trek and comic books, he probably had no idea what an impression they would make on the boy. Thom became obsessed with both, but decided it would be easier to become a cartoonist than join Starfleet.

After graduating the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, where he learned to draw funny pictures and tell stories, he began a successful career as an artist, working for clients across the country. His work has been seen everywhere from advertising campaigns to magazines and thoughout the world of comics. He wrote and drew the action-adventure-spy series Raider, and is currently writing and drawing the critically-acclaimed super hero sitcom comic book, Love and Capes.

Zahler lives in northeast Ohio. He has not yet completely given up on a career in Starfleet.

He can be found on the web at www.thomz.com #########

Come Fly With Me

Finally past halfway!

This is from an extended flying sequence between Crusader and Amazonia. You can't see it here, since I chose this panel because it was a cool image and not the dialogue, but I worked hard to show the passage of time without any of those much-hated "as you knows". For instance, Amazonia calls Crusader "Mark", showing that they've been together long enough for him to reveal his secret identity. There's also reference to her being a member of the Liberty League, too, another change since the first flashback.

I'm pretty happy with how this sequence turned out, especially with how well the clouds worked. There's nothing like the interweb for doing a little photo reference to get these things right.

Where's the Call Box?

Here's the first page since my writer's block, which is probably more accurately described as "writer's drought."

I almost cut this scene out completely, but realized it served a function so it put back in. I wanted to show Amazonia actually doing the signing, and that merged well with my idea to have Amazonia try to win Charlotte over. Or maybe she's just being nice. You can never tell with Zoe.

I also felt inspired to put another TV show duo in the background. Often I need to have a character or two in the background, just to fill. Rather than design a completely new character, I'll base them on someone I know, or someone on TV. It keeps me from defaulting to a generic character who looks like the same generic character that appeared somewhere else. It's a shorthand, but it's also kind of fun.

So, for some reason, Martha Jones and the Doctor, from Doctor Who have crosssed the pond, and the space-time continuum, to get their book signed by Amazonia. Or maybe there's some other reason they're in Deco City. You never know with those two.

Sometimes I Forget

Last night, I was getting ready to do a caricature gig at a wedding. It was a long one, five hours of work and a one hour break. And I had to wear a tie. Most events I can get away with cross-trainers and my Nightmare Before Christmas baseball jersey, but at a wedding, a certain amount of decorum is expected. So, between the time and the dressing-up and all, I was fighting a little malaise about working last night. I just wasn't looking forward to it.

And then I did the reception. Man, it was one of the best events that I've ever done.

Everyone was delightful to talk to. That's why I've always thought I'd never give up live caricatures, even if other aspects of my career take off to the point where I don't need to do caricature events at all. For a guy who spends a huge chunk of his life in a 20x8 studio alone, getting to talk the craic with people is pretty nice.

Heck, a lot of the people were firefighters or EMTs and a fair amount of them said that they admired what I did. To which I'd respond: "What? You run into burning buildings and save lives. I do a little monkey trick where I make you look like a cartoon."

Both the groom and the bride's father came up to thank me for being there. I always feel weird about that, since I'm not doing it out of the kindness of my heart, but because my checking account got a little boost for showing up. But still, the appreciation is nice.

Heck, the groom invited me to the after party, stressing the open bar and the block of hotel rooms that were available. I declined, but it's always nice to be invited.

Going home, it just hit me, as it does every once in a while, that I have one of the best jobs in the world. I made a fine amount of money to have a free good dinner, make some tips, look at pretty girls (not that I don't look at the guys when I draw them, of course, it's just not as much of a perk), talk to some intersting people, and just flamin' draw for an evening.

I get paid to pursue my passion, and every once in a while I forget how fortunate I am to be able to do that.

Writers and Blocks

My good friend Jesse Jackson (no, not that one) just wrote a TV review column about "My Name Is Earl", or, if you saw it, "My Name Is Prisoner #28301-01." It's pretty good, and I think you should check it out here. As for me, I've been suffering a bit of writer's block on Love and Capes, hence the Week of No New Pages. I just made a breakthrough today, so I should be back on the horse soon.