First come, first served to purchase this 9x12 full color original of Lois and Clark, in the Bombshell style of Ant Lucia for $80.00! Buy by 2:00pm, February 9 and save $20!
My #NYCC 2016 Schedule
I'll be at New York Comic Con this week. I'll be at C12 in Artist Alley the whole show, excepting… Thursday 3:00-4:00pm: Signing at the IDW booth
Friday 12:30-1:30pm: I’m doing a teaching workshop Family HQ – 1E16
Also, my "Captain Kirk and His Ladies" piece will be auctioned at the NYCC charity auction. The original and a giclee print (24x6, full color) are a package. This is the only place you can get the green wrap shirt Kirk.
I'll have two giclee prints with gold shirt Kirk for $75 at my table. And then a more in the smaller 18x5 size, the same as my Doctors Who print at the table for $15.
Also at the table I'll have Love and Capes, Long Distance, My Little Pony and more, including original art, sketchcards and more. I'll be sketching all weekend long, and being a mildly amusing conversationalist, too!
My SDCC Schedule
My SDCC schedule:
THURSDAY
3:00-4:00 MY LITTLE PONY SIGNING
IDW Booth
FRIDAY
MODERN ROMANCE COMICS
2:00-3:00 Room 32AB
Once a staple of the Golden Age, romance comics have faded into the background in recent years, but now they're making a comeback and tackling a wider variety of love stories than ever before! Carrie Sessarego (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books), Janelle Asselin (Rosy Press publisher), Sarah Kuhn (Heroine Complex, Fresh Romance), Thom Zahler Cartooning (Love and Capes, Long Distance), and Cecil Castellucci (Shade the Changing Girl, The Plain Janes) discuss both classic and new romance comics, some of comics' most enduring love stories, and the challenges and joys unique to creating romantic stories in comics!
SUNDAY
2:00-3:00 MY LITTLE PONY SIGNING
IDW Booth
EVERY OTHER DARN MOMENT OF THE SHOW
Booth 2000
My Wizard World Cleveland Schedule
I'll be at Wizard World Cleveland this weekend. Sure, my commission list is open and I'll be at my table most of them time, But if you like seeing me on a stage talking about stuff, you'll have three separate opportunities to do that, too! FRIDAY 4:30 – 5:15PM HOW TO DRAW FUNNY! WITH THE SIMPSONS’ PHIL ORTIZ, LOVE AND CAPES’ THOM ZAHLER AND NANCY’S GUY GILCHRIST (ROOM 26A) Ever wonder how humor artists are able to create characters and stories that leave us laughing like idiots? Here, one of the finest practitioners of the simple art of humor, Phil Ortiz (The Simpsons), Thom Zahler(Love and Capes) and Guy Gilchrist (Nancy) tell and show you how they do it! Moderated by Danny Fingeroth (How to Create Comics from Script to Print).
SATURDAY 4:00 – 4:45PM HOW TO EXHIBIT AT A CONVENTION (ROOM 26A) Are you ready to cross the line from fan to pro? Ready to set up and exhibit at a convention. Join Thom Zahler (Love and Capes, My Little Pony) and friends as they discuss the ins and outs of setting up at a convention. What do you bring? What do you need? How do you do a show across the country as well as you can do one at home?
SUNDAY 1:00 – 1:45PM CREATE A COMIC WITH MARVEL ZOMBIES’ FRED VAN LENTE, LOVE AND CAPES’ THOM ZAHLER AND SPIDER-MAN’S DANNY FINGEROTH (ROOM 26A) Ever wonder what it would be like to collaborate on making comics with top professionals? In this fun-and-educational session, celebrated comics creators Fred Van Lente (Marvel Zombies; Action Philosophers), Thom Zahler (Love and Capes; My Little Pony) and Danny Fingeroth (Spider-Man; How to Create Comics from Script to Print) create a new character and story before your eyes, incorporating audience members' ideas and suggestions! Come see—and join in—the creative process!
Amazing Arizona 2016
I just got back from the Amazing Arizona Comic-Con. It's a bit of a difference, going from walking around in shirt sleeves and writing out by the pool in Phoenix to the admittedly-pretty but very chilly Cleveland tundra. I had a great time out at the show! I hosted a My Little Pony meet up and got to meet a bunch of fans. We did a trivia contest and some lucky winners went away with some of my art. And then, on Sunday, we had the Pony Hour of Power where I did free sketches for kids ten and under. That was a blast! (Most obscure request: Cheese Sandwich.)
It's also the first show where I've had and sold the Long Distance trade. And the second, and the third… After having worked on that project for so long, it's nice to see the collection out in the world and finding an audience. Love and Capes continues to sell, too, which is also nice.
I got to hang out with the show crew a little bit more than previous shows, as well. That was a blast! It's nice getting to see Jimmy and Holly and Erin and Ben and lots of people I'm forgetting, I know, outside the show itself in a more relaxed environment. And Jimmy is a great host!
Best of all, as always, was meeting and seeing friends and fans. I 'm sure I've mentioned it before, but so much of being a cartoonist is isolation, that being able to get out and see people and have discussions is a wonderful thing. Thanks to everyone for coming out!
Lastly, this trip seemed a little more foodie than the last. Maybe I'm just figuring out how to use Zomato better. I had doughnuts at the Fractured Prune, and dinner at The Phoenix Public Market Cafe and Angels Trumpet Ale House. And then I played some video games at the Cobra Arcade Bar, where, for at least a little bit, I had the top score on Donkey Kong. All of which was awesome!
I even managed to finish up writing a script while sitting out by the pool. It was like being Stan Lee, except without the standing.
So I Got My Apple Pencil
My Apple Pencil finally arrived last week. I've been experimenting with it in whatever free time I have. Overall, I like it quite a bit. It paired easily and charges quickly. It's got a great feel to it. Mostly, I've been drawing in Procreate, which I like quite a bit. It does a lot of the things that Photoshop does and has a pretty quick learning curve. I do wish it had a straight-up magic wand tool to select an area.
I adore the different brushes, especially the pencil, graphite and chalk ones that create a really natural tool. They're better than anything in Photoshop and at least on par with Painter.
The problem I've had so far is line fidelity. The iPad Pro is almost too good. I'd like to be able to tweak it so there's a little more smoothness to my line, the way that I've done with my Cintiq and Manga Studio. I can make a pretty crisp line with a brush, but the Apple Pencil isn't a brush and doesn't have the same feel.
I'm following the same learning process I did with the Cintiq, Manga Studio and my Nostromo where I forced myself to do a drawing a day using that tool. That's been helping a lot. The Captain Cold sketch below took almost two hours to do. The Wonder Woman one took less than an episode of Castle. That's improvement.
The iPad Pro is doing what I expected it to do. Ultimately, I wanted what I call an Eighty Percent Device. Something where I could get 80% of the way to finished. With my current setup, I'd be able to at least create tight pencils for projects. I'm working on getting my inks where I want them. And I'm finally going to be able to sit on the couch and color comics pages! That will work well for me. Ultimately, I'll still need to take it over to the desktop and tweak and finish those files off, but being able to do 80% of the work on the iPad when I need to makes my convention travel schedule a lot more manageable, so I'm definitely happy with my purchase.
My Weekend at Alter Ego Comics
This past weekend, Marc Bowker invited me to his store, Alter Ego Comics, in Lima, Ohio. I've done a few events for Marc, and they are uniformly excellent. They're a lot of fun, Marc's staff is delightful and they all take care of me. If you're a creator and you get the chance to do something at Marc's store, jump at the chance! (Marc also has an unerring ability to find great places to eat, too.) Saturday's event included a screening of my Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors episode, a Q and A afterwards, and lots of signing and sketching afterwards. Lots of people came by and I had a wonderful time meeting and chatting with everyone.
Photos are courtesy of the Underground Video Network, who also interviewed me. The interview is linked here, too.
Live from New York Comic Con
This past weekend was the excellent New York Comic-Con. I've just about recovered from it. I had a busy show, appearing on ConTV, doing two signings at IDW, and teaching a drawing class. I would have liked to have been at the table more, but it's the perils of being popular, I suppose. Sales were good, and I think I may do more commissions in NYC than anywhere else. I've got some regulars who like to challenge me, including doing a Teen Titans/Star Wars mashup, and a Princess Leia pony. (The hard part there: Figuring out her Cutie Mark.)
I also had a fantastic time after the show. Great friends and great conversations at great restaurants. I had marrow, or "meat butter" for the first time! Cucumber soju continues to be my kryptonite. And New York pizza is still New York pizza… which means tasty but no Chicago pizza.
The highlight of my nights was when Tony Fleecs and I got to go see the taping of Saturday Night Live, as well as getting a tour afterwards and hanging out with some of the writers. Seeing SNL live has been on my Bucket List for a while, and it was great to check that off. It is so much better, so much funnier in person. It's amazing to see what they do to make that show happen in such a small space, and how great the band is to perform flawlessly while so much is going on around them. It was definitely a treat, and I don't know how much I should say about how this trip happened, but thanks Person Who Arranged It! Thank you so much!
The other highlight happened at the show when a mother came up with her daughter who was in my drawing class. I taught a higher-level class because it was mostly teens in the class, but her younger daughter was there and just absorbed the whole thing. She always liked to draw and took classes in previous years, but her mother said that she saw the light go on in her daughter's head in that class, and that I was going to be "her memory" of learning to draw.
I like doing what I do, but I can get a little cavalier about it. Moments like that remind me how I can actually have an impact on people. It's very humbling.
A big thank you to everyone who came by. I hope I gave some good advice to the Kubert School students who stopped. Thank you to everyone who came by and said kind things about Long Distance. That book is finding an audience in ways I never would have expected.
I'm looking forward to next year already!
Man, I love the Baltimore Comic-Con
Last weekend I was at the always-excellent Baltimore Comic-Con. It was so much fun. I got to host Katie Cassidy's panel, be on a panel with writers far outside my fighting weight like Amy Chu, Terry Moore, Jamal Igle, Louise Simonson, Mark Waid and Christy Blanch, sell a bunch of stuff and meet a ton of people. The Baltimore Yearbook entered it's fourth year, spotlighting David Petersen's Mouse Guard. There was some excitement getting it there on time, but in the end everything worked out and I'm pleased to work with and recommend everyone I dealt with. But if I looked particularly tired on Friday, that's why.
Cons can be a grind and often, by the end, I'm ready for things to wrap up. Baltimore is the only show I ever want more of. Like ice cream, you have to know when to stop, but you always want more. At least for me.
Thank you, Marc, for a fantastic time. Let's do it again next year.
Long Distance Wrap Up
Last week, the last issue of Long Distance came out. It seems like not long ago that I started this particular journey, and it seems like it’s over before it started. I know that’s not so. I started drawing this story on November 15 of last year. But it’s weird to have all the issues done before the first one really hits the stands. [image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ldtrade-132.jpg" align="right" border="none" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]
I am humbled by the outpouring of affection and great reviews for this book. I never expected how many people would come up and say “I was in a long distance relationship…” There was an audience for this book that I didn’t know was out there, and I’m glad that I could created something for them.
As it stands, I’m pretty happy with the book. It was a challenge a couple of different ways. Love and Capes was so well received that creating a follow-up project of any kind was daunting. Would people like it? Was Love and Capes a fluke? Looks like the answers were “yes” and “no.”
Also, doing a new project in a different style and without a lot of the Love and Capes structure was scary. Near the end, I was cranking out four pages a day to hit the last deadline. (The third issue, for some reason, just crushed me under its gears, eating up all my slush time.) But I made it, and I think the quality remained consistent.
[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ldtrade-112.jpg" align="left" border="none" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]
So thank you, each and every one of you, who read it, supported it, tweeted about it and enjoyed it. You’re the reason I do it.
As is my wont, I thanked a host of people in the last issue. There are two in particular I have to call out:
Lisa Manglass was my technical advisor for Lee’s career. I didn’t actually have to be a rocket scientist to write Lee, thankfully, but Lisa explained a lot about that job to make it as accurate as possible. My initial questions were “what kind of office would Lee be in” “what would she wear” and things like that. Basically, I needed her to have an office where she could talk to her friend a lot. Everything else was details.
Lisa explained the nature of the job and how much of it would be traveling, which fit well with the series. She also exlained how the job essentially goes fellowship to fellowship and they might not all be in the same area. All of which played into the ending in a way I hadn’t imagined when I started.
And Tony Fleecs helped more than just doing an awesome cover. I was talking to him about it when we were sitting next to each other at New York Comic Con. The basic ending was always there, but he challenged me to make it bigger, make it something unique. He forced me to come up with the ending that you all read, which gave me the structure for the whole series.
How much did that ending change the story? The whole flashback structure came about only because of that ending. I’ll be forever grateful for his guidance.
Twelve some years ago I wrote Long Distance to work out some feelings I had and to enter a contest. The original work is way-too autobiographical and the characters aren’t as rich as they should have been. It was definitely a first draft, but there was something there worth pursuing.
Some of the banter and chemistry in it inspired Love and Capes. And telling a superhero comedy, well, that was definitely a comfort zone. When I ran out of dating jokes, I always had superhero jokes. And vice versa. And that four panel format was a comedic metronome to keep me on task.[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ldtrade-140.jpg" align="right" border="none" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]
I don’t ever want to repeat myself too much. So I threw a lot of that away. Gone was the panel format, but that also meant the story wasn’t as kind to be able to show to my trusted readers a page at a time. I had to commit to 44 page chunks to put it in a format people could read and react. That’s a lot to do if something didn’t work on page eight and things needed to be reworked. (Fortunately, they didn’t.)
I also changed up some of my tools. Love and Capes has a tremendous amount of in-jokes and references in the art. Here, I got rid of all that. Computer screens are no longer screen shots of my favorite sites, but are abstract patterns. The Doctor doesn’t appear in the background. A lot of those crutches were gone. I think about Pixar, which did two movies with a faux blooper reel and then never did it again, because they didn’t want to be pigeon-holed.
There are worse things you can do than take guidance from Pixar.[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ldtrade-096.jpg" align="left" border="none" link="#" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ]
I even essentially got rid of color. I was terrified that the geographic dutotones would come off as a gimmick. Thankfully, they didn’t, and it’s been one of the things people have liked most about the book.I’m so glad that decision worked.
Long Distance is a deeply personal work for me. I’m very much in those pages, and very much not in the places you’d expect. And it’s hard doing a follow up project to something which was so well-received. So thank you for coming along for the ride.
And thank you IDW for taking a risk on a slice-of-life romantic comedy in a market deluged with superheroes and irony and spectacle. They’re good people, every one.
Will there be more Long Distance? Well, if you’ve read the book, there’s a lot of space to explore some new stories. I’m not sure if and when I’m going to go there. I think I want to do something new again, but we’ll see. I never intended to do a second issue of Love and Capes after all.