My Little Pony Sketch Covers

IDW does a lot of variant covers for their My Little Pony books. They did sketch covers and, something I haven't seen before but really dig, sketch back covers. They print them on something that's effectively bristol board, takes pencil and ink really well, and people can commission us to draw on them. Coming out of last week's My Little Pony event at Beach Ball Comics, I got a series of four covers, two fronts and two backs to draw. I'm pretty happy with how these came out. I do have some blank covers in my box of comps from my Twilight Sparkle issue, so if you're interested, drop me a line and we can talk price.

Either way, here are the covers I did. Click and embiggen!

Book Covers Project

For the past year or so, I've been designing cover artwork for the Laina Turner's mystery books. The design is by the excellent 801Red who saw fit to bring me in on this project.

They've been a lot of fun to do. I have a lot of flexibility once I get the title, and I've used it to expand my capabilites, too. The art is drawn in Adobe Illustrator on my Cintiq, so I've learned how to bring brush-inking techniques to that indispensable vector program. It's a skill I've been able to use in other projects, including the red Love and Capes shirts I did earlier this year.

Pony Party Recap

Yesterday I was at the My Little Pony event at Beach Ball Comics in Anaheim. I had a fantastic time. Thanks so much to Thomas and his staff at the store for taking such good care of us.

It was me, Amy Mebberson, and Heather Nuhfer behind the counter and signing and signing. I dropped by the store at a couple hours before the signing to drop my gear off and have lunch over at Disneyland. When I got there, there was already a sizeable line! The fans were amazing.

Attendance was solid but never overwhelming. You'll notice in the picture of the line that there's a display of My Little Pony comics. By the time the four hour event was over, that rack was almost empty. Also, the three of us did a couple of interviews with My Little Pony fansites. As soon as those links are active, I'll share them here.

It was so much fun. Amy and Heather were great tablemates, and I'd do another signing with them in a heartbeat. Amy pointed out that the biggest assemblage of Pony artists/writers will be at C2E2 in a couple weeks. Hope to see you there.

(Also, the photo of Amy, Heather and me was taken by Neo Edmund, a good guy who won't mind that I stole it off his Facebook page, I'm sure.)

Beach Ball Pony Party Preparations!

Tomorrow I'll be appearing at the Beach Ball My Little Pny event. I'll be doing sketches, selling books (including Love and Capes), selling original art, and best of all, meeting and talking with fans.

To prepare for it, I did a few advance My Little Pony commissions. All of these will be for sale tomorrow.

By way of explanation, these are hand-drawn and inked originals with a digital color print. I don't mass produce prints of other people's characters, so each one of these pieces is the only one. I won't print another.

Take a look at the links here, too. Click on any of them to embiggenate.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow.

Oh My Stars and Garters

My Composite Superman commission got me a little bit of notice and a second commission to do Beast of the X-Men in both his furry blue and original forms.

Sometimes art just comes together, and this is one of those times. The way the mask blends into his blue furry hood is just so perfect that I wish I'd thought of it before I'd started drawing. I love the pose, his flurry blue foot is one of the best feet I've drawn (almost typed "foots") and his right hand has the perfect amount of Kirby to it.

As the Beast might say, in those perfect Kelsey Grammer tones, "Click the lesser illustration to prompt a view of the larger one."

Aw Yeah Comics with a Dash of Thom!

I was part of the Aw Yeah Comics Kickstarter! I did a four page story all about Cell Phone Guy. It's not locked down when or where it will appear, but as soon as I know, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, I'll be at C2E2 at the end of the month, home of Aw Yeah Comics! I'm sure fun will ensue there, too!

Beach Ball Comics, MLP and Me!

This Saturday I'll be appearing at Beach Ball Comics along with Heather Nuhfer and Amy Mebberson! The fun starts at 1:00pm. We'll be signing and selling tons of stuff. I'll have the original art for my My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle issue with me, too. It should be a lot of fun.

More details here if you're interested.

WonderCon Commissions and Other Fun

WonderCon has come and gone. I had a great time, and the show was even better than last year. Now that I have my new status as a Pony Artist, my commissions have increased (and certainly changed a bit). Here, let me share them and you can see…

The Marshal Law commission was an advance commission, where someone contacted me before the show to get on my sketch list. I certainly recommend that to make sure you get a piece from me. Hey, I'm going to be at C2E2 in Chicago at the end of the month. I bet you could do that there, too!

Also, Neo Edmund was nice enough to have me on the Kids' Comics panel, where I blathered about things and made jokes while other people said much smarter things. But people seemed to like it, so I can't complain. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully I'll be on a similar panel at Comic-Con in a couple of months.

There was lots of interesting work stuff, none of which I can share, unfortunately. Besides, it's April Fool's Day, and you wouldn't believe anything I say today anyway. The best part, as always, is seeing friends and making new ones.

Well, and having my first Easter coffee, but that's a special case here.

WonderCon this Weekend! My Commission List is Open!

This weekend is WonderCon, Anaheim-flavor. I'll be there again, set up in Artist Alley at table 184. I'll have all the normal stuff, as well as a full stock of the brand-new fourth Love and Capes collection! I'll also be signing and chatting and doing commissions.

I'll also be on the Kids' Comics Panel at 11:00am on Saturday in Room 210A, along with Neo Edmund, Heather Nufer and Barbara Kesel! And I'll be signing at the IDW booth at 2:00 on Sunday.

As a warm-up for sketching at the show and for figuring out a style for my next project, I've been messing around with doing some trading card headshots. Just because I like a theme, I did the original seven members of the Justice League. Click and embiggen!

My commission list is open for the show, too. Drop me at line at tz (at) thomz.com and we can talk specifics. I'm discounting prices for pre-ordered commissions. My normal rate is $25 per character (black and white), $50 for color. Today and tomorrow only, pre-orders will be $20 and $40 for black and white and color.

See you at the show!

My Vampire Won't Sparkle

One of the next places you'll be seeing my work is in the new TikiMachine book featuring various artists drawing good vs. evil confrontations. I chose Dracula vs. Van Helsing, and had a lot of fun with it. I'm not going to reveal it until the book prints, but here's a little clip of it. When the books go on sale, I'll let you know, and I'll have them available at conventions, too.

This was a lot of fun and I'm glad to be part of it.