You Only Want What You Can't Have

The phenomenal Glenn Gordon Caron TV show, Now and Again, is coming to DVD. Finally! Eric Close, Dennis Hayspert and Margaret Colin rocked this slice of life meets Six Million Dollar Man show in a way that hasn't been done since. I can't recommend this enough.

Have Some Comicpalooza Commissions!

While I'm waiting for United to find the bag that they lost on my direct flight (what the heck?) back from Houston yesterday, I thought I'd share some of the commissions that I did over the long weekend. There was a great mix of Ponies, heroes and some obscure cool stuff. Check out in particular the tae kwon do pony I drew to look like the girl who bought it, and some of the obscure Martian Manhunter characters. Take that David Goyer!

The Adventure of the Red M&M's

So here's what happened. A couple days ago I get a mildly frantic email from the Andrew at Comicpalooza. They're trying to accommodate me for the Pony spotlight panel that I'm insisting on. Only one problem: I never did that.

What happened, I think, was a game of telephone. Someone asked me online if I was on any of the Pony panels. I said that I hadn't been asked but if offered, I'd be glad to do so. That metamorphosed into a prima donna demand about how I just had to have a panel all about me.

Andrew and I quickly set things right. In fact, I have now been asked to be on the 2:00 Houston Brony panel today and tomorrow's 5:00 Pony Draw Along. But then, after establishing myself as a reasonable creator again, I did joke: "But I insist on ONLY red M&M's. This is NOT NEGOTIABLE!" And we laughed.

And so, Friday morning, Andrew comes to my booth and gives me a bag of red M&M's. Totally made my day. Bravo, sir!

Take Me Out To the Ball Game

I'm on my way down to Comicpalooza today, but I just got the official okay to announce that I'll be at the Akron Rubber Ducks game as part of their comic event and to promote November's Akron Comicon. I've done a poster for the day which features their Webster, the Ducks' mascot and the Crusader from Love and Capes.

Also, I'm going to fulfill a long-time dream and throw out the first pitch. And yes, I am absolutely practicing. My goal is to not appear on YouTube the next day.

The Akron Rubber Ducks (formerly the Aeros) are the AA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Just in case you didn't know.

Crusaders (Cutie Marks and Mine) for Comicpalooza!

Here's a commission that I did in advance for Comicpalooza this weekend. He wanted Scootaloo from My Little Pony's Cutie Mark Crusaders flying with my Crusader, from Love and Capes, obviously, in a kind of Can You Read My Mind kind of way. It's not the kind of combo I would have thought of at all, but I think it came out really well.

This is probably a fine time to mention that I've updated my commissions page, too.

Doctor Who Commissions

My friend Jesse Jackson has an awesomely cool Doctor Who sketchbook. You see, he commissions DW art and has those pages, rather than promo photos, signed by the actors at shows. I think it's a great and more personal way to celebrate the show. I've been fortunate enough to do more than a few pieces for his book, including a new Colin baker Doctor, Madame Vastra, Captain Jack Harkness and Paul McGann Doctor. I thought I'd share them here.

A New Print for Comicpalooza

For a bunch of reasons, I did a new illustration of all the Doctors Who strolling out of the Tardis, clown car-style. I'm going to be selling these at Comicpalooza. They're 18" long, about 5" high, and will be $15.00 each. There are going to be three Doctors at the 'Palooza, too. Coincidence? Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey? Who knows.

They're Looney! They're Tuney!

A couple days ago I had to dig through my comic collection to find the excellent Kraven's Last Hunt arc for Amy to read, and, well, my convention is far less organized than it used to be. Eighty percent of it is still alphabetical, but there are individual runs that were pulled out for space reasons and new stuff that hasn't been filed, and of course the boxes aren't marked. So I had to go through them all. Especially since Kraven's Last Hunt spills through three different Spider-Man titles. Along the way, I came across this: Looney Tunes #29. I briefly lettered for Warner International Publishing (often spurring a very 90's Thom to say that he was under contract with the same company that employed Jennifer Aniston) and did three stories. I did a Bugs/Wile E. Coyote story and a Daffy Duck story. The third was a Hampton Pig story for Tiny Toons which was only published overseas. It is the one thing I've done that I have never seen and do not have a copy of. If you see it floating around the planet, let me know. It'd love to get a copy.

It also spurred an internet search that led me to the Comic Book Database and my page. It's pretty complete, and the stuff that's not listed is stuff I'd just as well never see again. But it was a nice walk down memory lane. I mean, Prattman? I'd forgotten that completely.

Please consider Love and Capes for the 2014 Harveys

Today's my birthday. You know what would be nice? If Love and Capes got nominated one more time for a Harvey Award. If you're a comics pro, you can vote here. Whether or not you think Love and Capes should get a nod in the "Special Award for Humor" category, be sure to vote. A diversity of voices enriches the awards.

Lessons From Joe Kubert

Joe Kubert taught me a lot of things. They range from how to lay out a cover to the most important of all artist's lessons: get paid. One of the ones that has come to be the most useful is to learn how to do everything. He told me that he wanted to teach his students enough skills so that if they went into a one-horse town with only one art job opening, he or she would be qualified for it. So we didn't just learn to draw, we learned to letter, to ink, to color, to design and more. At the time, a lot of us pushed back on that, knowing that comic book editors wanted to see you specialize in one thing rather show you could do everything.

It may not have been what comic companies wanted to see, but Joe was more right that I could have imagined. As the industry has shifted and self-publishing has become common and necessary, being able to do it all has been essential to my success. He taught us to be able to do every stage of making and printing a comic. I create it and then get the final file to the printer and not need to bring anyone else in. When you're producing on a shoestring, having to hire less people is invaluable. I could not have done Love and Capes or Raider without that broad skill set.

Fortunately, that "Learn everything" stayed with me. The Kubert School didn't teach much about computers when I attended there, so I learned how to use them after I graduated. I learned how to color in Photoshop and lay out a book in inDesign. And I learned how to build websites and shoot video and edit commercials. I've learned how to use MangaStudio. All sorts of stuff. And every new skill is one more tool in my toolbox that gives me more flexibility.

It's something I was thinking about as I was redesigning my website. I never formally learned PHP, but I was able to dig around in enough code that I could make the tweaks I needed to and sought out resources when I couldn't. I experimented with all sorts of changes in the CSS. I Googled more than a few things to learn how to build the site I wanted. And if I broke things, well, it wasn't live and I was the only one who would see it. But I'd learn something along the way.

That's the thing I wanted to share, and the reason I'm writing this atypically evangelical post: Learn things and don't stop. Make yourself better. Don't just be one of those people who learns what button to press, learn why it does what it does. You'll be all the richer for it.