Of Course You Did, You Saucy Minx You

I know what you're thinking: He worked on Christmas?

Hells, no. I actually did this the Sunday before, but then there was the whole late cover thing and that took precedence over everything else, so I posted it first. This is page six, which I'm very happy but took almost as much effort as page five. More so, I think. I just had some sort of writer-artist block that wouldn't let me get past it.

And I don't know that I know the cure for such blocks, but I know what at least starts to help: inspiring writing and stories. So I saw Charlie Wilson's War, which I liked on its own merits but I have to acknowledge that I am just stupid for the writing and dialogue of Aaron Sorkin. I watched Notting Hill, which I'd actually never seen before, and was worried about. Not worried about liking, but even without seeing it, I knew that "just a girl standing in front of a boy..." line and was afraid that it might be a little too much like the ending I have planned for Love and Capes #7. (Fortunately, it wasn't.) The movie was pretty good, too, but I've noticed that I'm becoming stupid for Richard Curtis scripts, too. And, I watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, which is your hint for today's headline/movie quote.

Anyway, today's page was another plot-page, where I knew what had to happen, just not why it was funny. Here's a little Christmas glimpse into My Process. As you can see here, the joke was always about Mark not telling his relatives (aside from Mom and Dad) that he was a superhero. I realized that the extent of the secret was good to pass on to the readers, as it would set up other jokes.

Originally, the joke was supposed to end with something like Abby saying, "So you spend Christmas Eve lying to your relatives?" Mark responded,, "It's a Christmas tradition. I hear a lot of people do it."

In a rare bit of point-to-point clarity, the line was inspired by the bit from Charlie Wilson's War where, when asked why does Congress prattle on and do nothing, Tom Hanks responds, "Tradition mostly." The word tradition stuck, and inspired the joke thinkin' process.

The problem is, the lying line was too dark for the book, and for Mark. Being a superhero is a burden, but Mark never treats it as such. And to end with a bit about Christmas being a season of lies just didn't sit right. I had to hammer it a little more, but I did come up with the joke that I did use.

Of course, you'll have to get the book (it'll be free on Free Comic Book Day, so you don't have to buy it) to find out what I did do.

So If You Believe in Christmas, Come On and Let It Snow

I'm sure this has become an annual thing, but I just love Christmas. Christmas Eve especially.

In 2003, I'd just moved into the House That Meredith Bought when my Mom suggested that we have Christmas Eve at my house. My house having the virtue of being clean, I guess. I told her it was fine as long as she did all the work. I'm such a good son.

On Christmas Eve, my Mom's side of the family gets together. It's her sister and the rest of the applicable cousins and kids and all. And my Mom's side of the family is the one with little kids, which is great because Timberlake has this cool village-wide arrangement with Santa where he stops by and drops off some presents on Christmas Eve. (I learned the specifics of the deal when I became a Councilman, and I'd love to tell you how our little Village arranges it, but it's classified.) We'd drifted away from Christmas Eve in the Village as my cousins and brothers got older, but having kids again, it was a perfect fit. Even my Goddaughter and her family managed to come by.

The family's gotten bigger, and it's probably too many people in too small a house. There's always too much food, despite my brother Mike and I trying to deflect that. We started getting the Christmas Pizzas from The Pizza Market. We figure, everyone likes pizza, and we get all sorts of exotic flavors in addition to the traditional pepperoni. And it's always great. I even took the oath of office for being a Councilman on Christmas Eve in front of my relatives a couple years ago.

Still, that first one's always going to be particularly special. First house, first Christmas and all that. It even snowed just right that first Christmas Eve here. You don't get a lot of perfect moments, so you need to appreciate them when they happen.

There's still a lot of Christmas left to go today. More relatives and friends to see and more presents to get (come on Peanuts collection...) but I wanted to take the chance to wish you and all of yours a very Merry Christmas or other holiday of your choice.

We'll Skip Lunch

Nothing like a little pressure.

My buddy Mike Manley posted his fantastic cover for a TwoMorrows Free Comic Book Day issue. I thought it was cool, but asked "Why did you have to get it done so early?" Turns out, it was due on Thursday. I'm pretty sure that, especially with the holiday, getting it to them on Wednesday morning will be okay. But it still wasn't the plans I'd had for my Christmas Eve morning.

The joke actually came first, and then I realized that it took place in the sky and therefore had a nice, simple background. I took a page from last year's cover and threw on the character from the movie that's tied into this year's FCBD (this year it's the awesome looking Iron Man movie starring Robert Downey, Jr.). The joke was inspired by that Iron Man flying scene where he dusts the fighter jets.

I tried to come up with a name for the Iron Man pastiche, but I didn't have a good one and fortunately didn't need it. He probably won't appear in the book, and the retail cover will be completely different this year, as opposed to the "secret identity version" that I did last year. Man, at least that was faster. But, I wanted to do an actual proposal scene on the cover for the retail edition. I could have done that for the FCBD version, but I wanted something a little less plot heavy, and like I said tied into the Marvel movie, for that cover.

All right, I'm off to begin Christmas Eveing. So, have yourself a Merry Little Christmas now.

(By the way, the quote contest is still in effect with this one, but we've moved to movies now.)

A Little Early This Year

I got my confirmation from Comic-Con that I'll be back this year, same place as before, booth 2000. It's nice to have that taken care of early.

Incidentally...

I've hit 400 posts since I started the Thom Zahler Weblog 2.0! Actually, this is #402. I forgot to check when I posted #400, which was the "Hey Baby It's Cold Outside" post. But if you want to celebrate the big number four-zero-zero, the Santa Helperette cartoon is available for purchase over at my Commissions site.

Legen... wait for it... dary!

Some pages come easily. And some pages are page five.

There are two kinds of Love and Capes strips. There are the joke ones, where they joke is written first, and then there are the plot ones. Okay, technically, there are the serious beats, too, but those are essentially the same as the jokes in terms of writing. The other kind is the plot-based scene. It still has to be funny, but there's a higher purpose to the scene.

Like this page: I needed to establish that Abby is going to Mark's for Christmas Eve, and remind new readers that Abby and Mrs. Spencer have a contentious relationship. So, the first four panels are Abby and Charlotte closing down the bookstore, and the second set is Mark coming to pick up Abby to fly to his parents' house. So, I knew I wanted to do a "Mark's Mom Joke" and probably a "Christmas Joke".

Unfortunately, knowing what you need to do and actually doing it are two different things. It was just a pain to break this page. I finally did, and think it works nicely, but I have the feeling when I look back at this issue, this won't be my favorite page to be sure.

I did get to reuse the storeroom set, so I feel good about having redesigned it last issue.

Hey Baby It's Cold Outside

I am done Christmas shopping. Not that I mind Christmas shopping... I actually like it quite a lot. I'm often trapped in my 8x20 foot studio, battling the demons of art and design by myself. So spending time with the huddled masses of humanity is kind of fun. Yeah, I'm sick, I know.

There's still Christmas stuff to do. I have to prep Ice Castle Zahler for the Christmas Eve festivities, and order the annual Christmas pizzas from The Pizza Market. I've got kids and adults of all ages, vegan and not, so the cook-them-yourself pizzas are always a good solution. We can get some exotic pizzas and some more traditional ones, and everyone's happy. Then my Mom puts together UN-sized packages of appetizers and drinks that land on my doorstep over the next week or two. Food's not a problem for these events.

I broke up my wrapping chores a little more than usual, so no wrapping to Love Actually as per usual. The second wave of presents should be showing up from Amazon, and I bought the last couple of toys for the kids, so later this week I should be getting that done.

And I'm starting to play some Christmas music, which I tend to avoid as long as I can. I guess now I'm ready to be in the Christmas spirit. I can't recommend the Ally McBeal Christmas Album enough. I'd give it a high recommendation just for Robert Downey Jr.'s heartwrenching version of The River, let alone the other great Christmas tunes on it. I dig Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is You for a bunch of reasons, sentimental and musical. It's a Christmas song that has that right amount of cheesiness to make it work. And there's James Taylor's Christmas Album, which is pretty good too.

Okay, that's my spirit of Christmas contribution for the day. I think I'll try to do a page of Love and Capes next.

Let it Snow

Yeah, yeah. I know I haven't posted anything in a couple of days. Hey, it's Christmastime, which cuts into everything. It was kind of a mixed bag of stuff this weekend, complete with snow, which I was glad to see. I like the change of seasons and I like the cold. Besides, to say it again, it's Christmastime.

And since it is that Most Wonderful Time of the Year, I've been designing Christmas Cards. Mine went out a couple of days ago, so if you're on my mailing list, you should be receiving them soon. I also designed a card for Catapult Online, which I think I do every year now. They're changing their name to Educate Online, and the card had to mention that. The card is always a bit of a challenge, as the company needs to reflect diversity, which de facto means drawing lots of characters in a fairly small area. There's a lot going on in this one card, but I think everything works pretty well.

I've got one more Christmas present to buy, and some considerable wrapping to do. And then there's the big Christmas Eve at my house, complete with Santa. As my friend Mike told my Goddaughter, "Uncle Thom knows a lot of people."

Yeah, it's Not a New Page, But...

Tony Isabella, columnist for Comics Buyer's Guide, and in the interests of full disclosure, a good friend, has reviewed Love and Capes #6.

Thom Zahler’s Love and Capes is the best super-hero comic book being published today. It downplays the action to concentrate on personable characters, the romance that binds them, and the loving humor that makes their relationship so much fun.

Accountant Mark is secretly the Crusader, the world’s greatest hero. Independent bookstore owner and operator Abby is Mark‘s true love and vice versa. The alien Amazonia is an old girlfriend who, in Love and Capes #6 [Maerkle Press; $3.95], does a signing for her new tell-all book at Abby’s store. In 24 vibrantly-colored pages,
Zahler explores Mark’s past, reveals volumes about his character, and leaves us with a satisfying ending that will make readers eager for the next issue.

The writing, art, editorial material, production values, there isn’t anything Zahler doesn’t do exceedingly well in this series. He’s taking a bit of a break between the this issue and the next, but here’s hoping he’s encouraged to come back a little sooner when he finds out he just got five out of five Tonys.

I’d give him six, but those smiling Tony heads aren’t cheap. Maybe I should outsource them to China.

Crystal Duck!

When I send these out to The Secret Society of Super Reviewers, I've been making the e-mail subject lines TV and movie quotes. I've gotten bored trying to figure out clever puns involving the page number. Or burned out. After six books, it's kind of tiring. If you guys want to play, post your guesses in the comments and I'll post the answer after a couple days if no one guesses it.

Page four is the first appearance of Abby and Charlotte. It's odd, but doing a 24-page story, I get very conscious about when characters appear. The book is one-sixth over and only now does the other star of the book appear? I know it works okay and all, but still there's a weird vibe. At least in my head.

I've also redesigned the exterior of the bookstore. I guess having a sitcom template allows me to do TV series tricks and tweak things after they appear. It's a little more interesting to look at now, and from a production point of view, I can now change the weather outside. You can see snow and Christmas lights in this scene, and the next time I reuse it, I can make it spring or summer. If I need to, I'll design or redesign a couple of the bookstore interiors this issue, too. There are a couple new bookstore angles I'd like to try.

Wow, four pages done already. If I get my Christmas shopping finished this weekend, maybe I can get another page done, too.

In other Love and Capes news, there are some stars that are starting to align on something I've been trying to make happen for a while. I can't talk about it, as with so many of these things, but just wanted to let you know that good things are happening.