Sign My Name… Across Your Book

Sunday I was honored to do a book signing of Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? at the Mentor Barnes and Noble. It was pretty awesome. I'm from the area, so a lot of friends came to the signing and it's always good to see them. But the people I especially appreciate are the people I don't know. There were more than a few people who had seen the News-Herald article about me and come specifically to talk to me and buy the book. That's really important.

The crew at Barnes and Noble is always aces, too. They're great people and really take care of you and make you feel comfortable, which is really nice when you're sitting in the middle of a bookstore during the Christmas shopping season. Hopefully, there'll be a second trade, and I can come back and promote it.

The Mocha of Victory, part nine

Issue #9 of Love and Capes is at the printer! You know what that means! It's time for…

…The Mocha of Victory!

Guest starring Supergirl, from the Alex Ross collection, wearing my favorite of her many costumes.

In a day or two, I'll be getting a proof of the book and it should be printed and out to stores the first part of January. Then you can all find out the resolution to last issues exciting cliffhanger!

Page Six, and not the New York one.

Yesterday, I did my signing and then did the bulk of my remaining Christmas shopping, and then had dinner with some friends. By the time I got home, I was pretty beat. I was thinking about wrapping Christmas presents as I watched the obligatory Sunday night Cowboys game, or maybe just collapsing on the couch.

Instead, I found myself drawn into the studio to finish the sixth page of Love and Capes #10. The storyline's taking off (HAH-hah… oh, wait, that's only funny if you've actually read the whole page, which you haven't), and the jokes are coming easily. Things really seem to be clicking on all cylinders, which I always appreciate.

Obviously, Abby gets super powers in this issue, and this panel is one of my favorites. I always like a panel that has a joke in it and yet isn't the last panel in the sequence.

I know the next page pretty well, but I can't start it until I get some clienty work done. After that, though, who knows?

What Says "Christmas" More Than Decapitated Elves?

I've been working with The Institute for Justice, a civil rights organization, for over five years now. The saw an illustration I did for Scene Magazine and they wanted to buy the art for republiciation. Because of that, I wound up doing other illustrations for them including two different Christmas cards. Three, now.

This was a cool job for more than just the normal reasons. This time I got to try out a new process. At the recommendation of some fellow artists, I purchased a Brother MFC-6490CW scanner/printer/fax combo. The new machine solved the problems I had with my Apple USB modem receiving faxes. Apple makes a great product, but the modem/fax combo is one of the places they've completely dropped the ball. I loved going to digital faxes, so I could only print out the ones I wanted, but the fax kept glitching.

But the scanner aspect was the big draw. The Holy Grail of scanners for comic book artists is an 11x17 scanner. On that, you can scan a complete comics page without stitching it at all. Every page of my three Raider graphic novels were scanned in two pieces and digitally combined to form the 11x17 final image. Most 11x17 scanners are scary expensive, but this one was under $300! Under $200 after the rebate that was being offered at the time. (Amazon now has it at $279.99.)

It can even print on 11x17 bristol board. You're probably wondering why that's so cool. That'll take even more explaining.

Most issues of Love and Capes are drawn on tracing paper, then lightboxed onto Layout Paper (also called Vellum). That's a very translucent paper that takes ink much better than tracing paper. Then, I'd cut it up into pieces and scan it, and put together evey page in Photoshop, one panel at a time.

But now, I could print onto bristol, which is a paper with a very ink-friendly surface and one on which I can get more effects than I can on vellum. So, I can print my pencils in non-reproducable light blue onto a piece of bristol, and then ink right on the bristol without having to erase, since the light blue lines disappear when scanned, or with exceedingly little tweaking.

That was a godsend on the IJ job. They needed 60 elves or so holding a giant piece of parchment, upon which they'd put their Christmas poem. I could work at a manageable size, scan in the pencils, and then print out a final piece on bristol where I could ink with no issues, and then rescan it at full size and not have to try to line up two sides, which is usually problematic at best.

Then I colored my headless elves in Photoshop. Headless because the Institute was going to put photos of their employees on those elves. And then I sent the final file to IJ, where they composited the heads and had it printed.

The cards just came out this week, and they look great! It was a fun and challenging job, especially trying to make 60 distinct elves, all doing something individual. It kind of reminded me of my famous Where's Slider job. And it came out just as well.

Another Day, Another Page

This page was a bit of a cheat, I suppose. It has a half-page splash on panel five, and one with a really easy background. But I needed a really big beat for that scene, so the story called for it.

It also occurs to me that this is the first daylight scene on Abby's balcony. Abby's apartment is based on an apartment building in Willowick here in Ohio that overooks the lake and kind of stands alone. I originally had that apartment in mind when I was creating Windstar, since I wanted him to have a location he could come and go from without being seen.

With Abby's apartment, I've added a bunch of trees around it, too, to try to make it seem more secluded. I haven't been able to work in the lake, since it tends to look like the ocean and I don't want it to seem like Abby has some ultra-swanky apartment either. In my mind, she lives about 30 minutes outside of Deco City in an adjoining suburb where she can afford the rent.

If I can do one more page between today and tomorrow, I will be completely on track with my compressed schedule for issue #10. I'm trying to get a little further ahead, since there are some of these holiday things that I keep hearing about coming up at the end of the month.

I'm pretty happy with the way this issue is coming out. I think it's definitely going to be my strongest Free Comic Book Day entry yet.

Page the Fourth

Another day, another page.

This page has an Abby/Charlotte phone scene. I tried to show Charlotte actually doing some homework here just to remind people she's in school.

I started thinking about the breakdown of this page compared to other issues. This is the latest that Mark or the Crusader has appeared, with him arriving in the last panel of page four. In previous issues, FCBD specifically, Crusader appeared on the first page of issue #7, and while Mark appeared on page one of issue #4 he didn't appear in costume until page four. I figure that was okay since the Arachnerd appeared on the first page.

It's just something I try to keep in mind for the FCBD issue, since I want this to serve as a vehicle for new readers. Despite Mark's delay in arriving in this new one, Doc Karma appears on page two, so there's a lot of superheroing that appears. I want people to know that it's not just a romantic comedy, that it's a superhero romantic comedy.

Urm, heroically super romantic comedy. Don't want to get sued, you know.

The One Where I'm Interviewed by The News-Herald

I've mentioned, incessantly, I know, that I was going to be the subject of a News-Herald interview. Well, said interview has now appeared and can be seen by clicking here.

It's a pretty good article, underneath the obligatory sound effects headline. I don't think I said anything too boneheaded, and it does a good job representing Love and Capes, which is always important. Hopefully it will both spur some sales, and drive people to my appearance at Barnes and Noble in Mentor this Sunday.

Here's the start of the article:

During the easy days of summer, some kids sell lemonade as a fun way to earn a little change. When Thom Zahler was a youngster, the commodity he peddled to neighbors was his artwork. “I can’t remember not drawing,” the lifelong Timberlake resident said from his art studio, which is lined with hundreds of colorful action figures. “When I’m drawing, I just know that’s what I’m here for. It’s that perfect feeling that goes along with it.”

It's true. My Mom wouldn't buy us Kool-Aid or Lemonade, so I set up a little drawing stand. I made $1.35 one day. That was a pretty good haul. It was four comic books at the time.

Read the full article here.

Twenty-one to go!

Love and Capes #10 is coming together slowly. Here's a panel from page three. One of the things I like about doing a comic book, as opposed to a graphic novel, is how fast it flies by. With page three, I'm already one-eighth of the way done. WOOT!

Here's another Doc Karma and Abby panel. I had forgotten how much fun the good doctor is to write, as well as how much space to leave for his flowery speech. Page four should be his last appearance for the book. At least I think so. He could always make another appearance.

And, just a reminder, tomorrow my interview appears in the News-Herald. Hopefully, it'll be on their website, too. Even more hopefully, it'll turn out well and I won't look like a complete doofus.

Fingers crossed.

Where's My Pasta?

Sunday I was at Bravo with my Goddaughter, my NotGodson, and their parents. Bravo is one of those cool restaurants that covers their tables in white paper and gives you crayons. Sure, they say they're for the kids, but I never pay attention to that.

Eating with young kids is always an adventure. It's sitting still longer than they'd prefer, to be sure. They're five and two, and well-behaved as opposed to a lot of kids I see, but still, it helps to be able to occupy them.

So I draw for them. Fortunately, drawing is so automatic that I can do that while talking intellegently with their parents. NotGodson started suggesting, though some would say demanding, characters after I knocked out a quick (and not very good) Lightning McQueen. Before I knew it, he was rattling off the lineup of the Animated Justice League. The fact that a two year old is asking me for "Jonn" (the Martian Manhunter) and "Hawkgirl" makes me feel like my Godparentage has been a success.

It reminds me of that late lamented Baja Brewery restaurant that used to be across from the San Diego Convention Center that would do the same. By the end of the show, the walls would be covered by artwork from the table papers, and I personally had gotten more than a few free beers. That's just the advantage of being able to do caricatures of the wait staff.

Anyway, for your edification are my crayon scribblings from Sunday's dinner, taken on my iPhone of Awesomeness.

See, It's Not All About Me

One of the books that helped me become a small publisher myself was a book I stumbled upon at a San Diego Comic-Con years ago. It was Astounding Space Thrills. It was a cool little black and white book with an awesome cover and an infectious sense of fun. I mean, Little Green Men who are photosynthetic? Brilliant! It also had one of the coolest designs for a t-shirt, and one that I would have bought even if I hadn't liked the book (and was the inspiration for the marketing plan behind the Raider t-shirts).

Best yet, the writer and artist of the book was a great guy. Steve Conley has gone on to become a friend of mine. He's so damnably likeable. This must be how people feel about me. Or so I'm told. Or maybe so I hope. Either way.

Now, IDW, publisher of a certain other collection of a small press book (you know which one I mean) has collected all of AST, it's miniseries and its online strip, into one convenient and great-looking trade. It's coolness collected between a cardstock cover, and I highly recommend that you pick it up.

Get it at Amazon here. And, use that link, and I even get a little bit of a kickback.