I hope you all had a good Christmas. Mine was pretty great.
I constantly mention the Christmas Eve event at my house which is, by far, my favorite part of the season. 
It's the one time of the year that Zahlerdu is full of people and kids and food and Santa (who does stop by because Uncle Thom is all kinds of connected).I know my neices and nephews*love coming here, seeing and playing with all the toys and learning to color on my computer.
Well, that last one is just enlightened self-interest. I need some workers to help me speed up my Love and Capes process.
And yes, giving is much better than getting. It's great to find the right present, something special or unexpected to give to someone equally as special.
But the getting can be pretty awesome, too.
Over the years I've received the amazing gifts, from custom action figure "dollhouses" from my aunts, to a DVD of my television appearances on local news and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, to a Star Trek voice activated-light switch. And, of course, the Mighty Men and Monster Maker Kit, which may be the most awesome toy ever and featured art by Dave Stevens.
This year, I recieved a copy of Love and Capes.
I was understandably surprised when I saw it. I mean, I have dozens of copies here in the house, plus I created the darn thing. But my cousin Jamie, the gift-giver in question, saw my John Crichton-esque confused expression and said "It'll make sense when you open it."
Yes, Jamie had gotten Chris Sims of The Invincible Super Blog to annotate the collection the way that he does with so many other things, including Anita Blake. Except, that LnC is much better because, you know, stuff happens.
Chris marked the book up with such witty bon mots as writing "Who Watches the Watchmen" on brick walls in the background, demanding both more Fearleader appearances and an Elvis Bear spin-off, and predicting that Mark will sell his marriage in a bargain with Mephisto in #25.
Like with most humor, the retelling loses something. It's great! I can say two things with absolute certainty: Chris Sims is a very funny man and he has the handwriting of a serial killer.
I don't know how much Jamie paid for this service, but I can only guess it's in the low four-figures. It's certainly worth it, though. So, if you're the significant other or good friend of some comic creator, I can't recommend it highly enough.
And I'll take my ten percent commission, then, Chris.
Thank you so much, Jamie. This was great!
So, I hope you and yours had a great Christmas, and here's hoping your New Year is everything you want it to be.
* Okay, in this case it's second cousins and Goddaughter and her brother, but nieces and nephews is just easier to type.
A lot of cartoonists have been saying great things about Manga Studio. There's a special going on from the Manga Studio Folks right now where you can get the full version for $149. So I bought it to check it out. Hey, if it's good enough for Dave Gibbons, it should be good enough for me. The deal only runs until the end of the month, so you don't have much time left.
And, because I know I haven't been posting much, here's a new Love and Capes panel, too. I name-check a lot of people in my book. Here, I've named Darkblade's police chief contact after Chris Sims, uber-Batman fan, writer for Comics Alliance and all around good guy.
