Con/Appearance Schedule 2009

With the big FCBD coming up, I thought I'd finally post my 2009 con/appearance schedule. Hopefully some other signings and such will be added as I go.

Free Comic Book Day • May 2
I'll be at Rogues Gallery Comics and Games in Austin, Texas.

Heroes Con • June 19-21
Charlotte, North Carolina. My first time at this show!

Comic-Con International • July 22-25
It's the biggest show of the year, and I'll be at booth #2000.

Mid-Ohio-Con • October 3-4
It's my home show, and I'll be there again!

Baltimore Comicon • October 10-11
What? The weekend after? Am I crazy. Wait, don't answer.

Button Up

Affordable Buttons produces those little band buttons that I giveaway at conventions. They had a special running to get some two-and-a-quarter-inch buttons made at a crazy good price. No fool I, I ordered 100 of these new, bigger Love and Capes buttons. So, my question to you, Interwebs, is what do I do with them?

I could certainly just give them away to people at conventions. Maybe people I have a good conversation with, or cute girls, or Felicia Day (who actually would qualify under any of those criteria). But there seems like there should be some promotional thing I can do during con season. Does anyone have any ideas?

The button here can be, wait for it… wait for it… clicked and embiggened.

And Now We're Walking Out of the Forest

You know, for a book that I announced I was taking an "operational pause" on to work on a couple other projects, I seem to be doing a fair amount of pages. Really, I just needed a week off and then poof there were two more pages.

Today's comes from page twelve, a scene in Leandia with Mark and Abby, Amazonia, one of Amazonia's sisters, Oriana, and the Queen Leandia. I figured that the dimension, the city and the ruler's name are all interchangable. Hey, it's my world, I get to build it the way I want.

I had to design another set piece for this one, the royal chambers in the castle. It's open enough that I can reuse it a few times over this issue. And I think the giant Kirby Krackle energy pillars are kind of cool.

And, to show you how much I love this book, and the craziness it brings, here's what happened. Yesterday, I had a busy day, but I managed to pencil page twelve. Then, after fulfilling my duties as a Timberlake Councilman at one of our longer Council meetings, I inked it. After that, I colored and "built" the royal chambers set. By the time it was all done, it was 1:00 am.

My alarm went of at 6:00, as it often does. I'm a freelancer, and my morning workout class doesn't start until 9:00. I could have gon back to sleep, as I've done so many other times. But I couldn't. I had to get up and start working on the page, managing to color and almost finish lettering the page before I left to go Kick the Boxes.

There are other times and other projects that Ive had to get up early for. It's never pleasant, and I don't always roll a save against sleep. But for LNC, it's actually kind of easy.

Twelve pages down. Twelve to go. Do the math.

Ooops, I Did Page Eleven

Really, I meant to take a mini-break with page ten. I mentioned on Twitter that I had an epiphany about how the end of this issue will work, and I was glad about that. But I didn't really expect to do another page over the weekend.

Then, of course, the page just bubbled in my head until I went ahead and did it yesterday. I finished coloring and lettering it yesterday.

It's more adventures in Leandia, as Amazonia, Abby and Mark are heading to the Queen's castle.

And here's something I can't figure out how to mention: the big flying disc. I think it's a cool way for them to get around but it looks kind of unsafe, right? Well, borrowing off an idea I think I may have read in an old V novel, the discs have artificial gravity which help "lock" you in place. So, the disc could turn sideways or upside down, and you'd still be drawn to the disc as if you were right side up.

Okay, I thought it was cool.

First Mention of Love and Capes #10 in the Wild

JK Parkin over at Robot 6 gave some online love to the Free Comic Book Day issue of Love and Capes.

Thom Zahler sent me an advanced copy of Love and Capes #10…Page eight is hilarious, and pages 22 and 23 kind of choked me up. You’ll be able to get this for free on May 2, so definitely check it out.

Read the full article here. Heck, if you haven't bookmarked Robot 6 in your RSS-o-tron, you're missing out on comics reviewing the way Shakespeare intended it.

Also in the same article was this from Tim O'Shea:

I am jealous that you got a sneak peak of Love and Capes #10. Zahler deserves all the praise he gets for his work and much more.

I'm sorry, Tim! I thought you were on my mailing list.

While that mistake is being in the process of being rectified, if there's anyone else out there in the comics reviewing world, be sure to send me your information and I'll make sure to add you to my reviewers list. Just e-mail tz (swirly at sign) thomz.com.

Page Ten

There's other stuff I should have been working on other than page ten, which you'll probably notice is done by the panel I'm posting. Sometimes time management is a tricky beast. I'm at a break point in the Love and Capes #11 story here. I know what happens next, but I don't have the exact how yet. So, I decided to pound out this last page that I had figured out.

Then, I can work on some other projects while the page 11 percolates in the back of my mind. I won't have to fight against my urge to do more Love and Capes and will be more productive on the other project.

And that's the way my mind works.

Wolverine Wants You to Get Love and Capes (I think)

In front of this trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hugh Jackman does an ad of sorts for Free Comic Book Day. He can't come out and say it, of course, since he's got to publicly support the whole Marvel/Wolverine franchise, but you can see in his eyes that he wants you to get the FCBD issue of Love and Capes. He's almost pleading, really. It's kind of sad. Dude, you're Wolverine.

Seriously, though, it's great that he did this. More promotion of FCBD is always a good thing.

See Exotic Places

When I work on Love and Capes, I do it in what I call "animated" style. I design a background/set and then lay the characters on top of it. Coming in the next issue, we go to Amazonia's home dimension. So I had to design an exterior.

Amazonia is obviously based on Wonder Woman, but I didn't want to borrow too much from her. So, instead of making it a Paradise Island kind of place, I went with making it a little more Flash Gordon-y, circa the "I know it's not good but I still dig it" 1980's extravaganza. I wanted a bright, technicolor landscape that Amazonia would look natural in. The film was famous for some skimpy costumes, so it makes sense that Zoe came from a place like that.

Click to embiggen, as usual.

And, Lo, There Shall Come a Ninth Page

Here's an oddity. I usually have the jokes written when I start drawing. Here, I didn't. The panel eight beat was essentially "Abby accepts the situation. And make it funny." What had to happen was dictated by plot. I just had to bring a smile, which isn't always easy.

So I did what I usually do in these situations, I talked it out. I played both characters and it just kind of happened. On top of that, I kept cutting words until just minimum was there, which made the last beat funnier.

Of course, you'll have to wait until July to see if I'm right.

State of the Tart

One of the fine ladies at Sequential Tart sat me down for an interview about Love and Capes, just in time for Free Comic Book Day. Check it out here.