Free Comic Book Day Plans!

I'm writing this while on my flight to LA. Yes, I'm living in the future, baby! US Air apparently has WiFi on their flights, and there's a free promotion for first time users like me. Given that I have four some hours in the air, I figured it'd be worth it to try it out.

Gotta say, I like it so far.

Anyway, there were a couple things happening and happened that I needed to mention.

First, tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day. That means it's times for you to get yourself to a comic shop and pick up some of the over forty free titles. Yeah, Love and Capes #13 is certainly one of those freebies, and I wouldn't mind if you tried it. And, if your shop runs out, first gently chastise your shop owner for not ordering more of an obviously stellar book, letting him know that the series picks up at IDW in a few months, and then check the Love and Capes website on Monday or Tuesday, when the retail version of the FCBD issue will be available for purchase.

And, hey, be sure to buy something at that shop while you're there. The books are free to you, but the shops do pay for those books that they're giving out. We publishers provide them at a greatly reduced rate, but that man free books do add up.

Second, I will be at Four Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga, California that day, doing signings and sketches and all sorts of fun stuff. There's even a bouncey house, but I'm going to guess a I'm a little big for it. If not, look for photos of me and Mark Waid reenacting scenes from Superman 2.

Third, if you're in the Lake County area and are a baseball fan, why don't you check out the Lake County Captains game at Classic Ballpark in Eastlake, Ohio? Not only will you see some future Indians, but you'll get a free Captains Comic written and drawn by me! Aliens challenge the Captains to a baseball game, and hilarity ensues.

In fact, if you like seeing photos and interviews with me, you can check out The News-Herald and read a article explaining more.

That's all for now. I'll try to update the blog this weekend, but no promises since this California Dreamin' weekend promises to be busy. But I do promise to try to keep up the Twitter updates and maybe even the occasional Love and Capes Facebook page update.

And who knows? Maybe I'll be tempted to get the free wifi on the way back and write more.

Baseball on the Brain

I've mentioned previously that I'm working on a Free Comic Book Day comic for the Lake County Captains. Now, I can reveal the cover…

In case you're wondering, that's The Captain, Skipper and Skippy, Grover the on-field announcer, and the three racing fish, Willy Walleye, Pauley Perch, and Buster Bluegill. You may remember them from when I designed their bobble fish.

Wow, it's less than a month away! I really need to start busting out pages, don't I?

Promoting Baseball, Captains Style

I'm partnering with the Lake County Captains once again this year. I'll be doing three promotions for them.

1. In previous years, I've arranged to have my Free Comic Book Day issue of Love and Capes available at Classic Park on FCBD. This year, I'll be doing an original eight-page Lake County Captains comic.

I've already committed to be at Four Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga that day, so I won't be there for the giveaway. But it'll be a great time, regardless!

And I'll be posting some art and the cover soon.

Free Comic Book Day: May 1, 2010.

2. I've designed a Skipper "Bobble Belly"with Skipper as a rockin' guitar player to celebrate Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Skipper's playing a specially designed Fender Stratocaster.

Rock-n-Roll Nght: July 3, 2010.

3. And, to tie in with Cleveland and the A Christmas Story connection, we're going to be doing a Skipper Leg Lamp. Yup, you read that right. Hot electric baseball action that will look great on your desk. (It's not full size.)

Christmas in July, July 25 2010.

Click on either to see them embiggenated!

Luthor, You Treacherous Snake!

Thought you might like to see the third and final Bobble Fish, along with his brothers. And a certain bald scientist who may or may not have something to do with them. And, if you'd like, click and embiggen, Super Fool!

Here Fishie, Fishie

Oh, look what's on eBay already.

Captain's Log

I have a motto: Appreciate the good times.

Well, I have many mottos, including Why pay more to someone else when you can pay more to me, and Faster pussycat, kill, kill! I am a man of infinite complexity.

But, back to the first one. Appreciate the good times. Today was a good time.

I started the day over at my cousins’ sons’ birthday party. Yeah, technically the kids in questions are my second cousins, but calling anyone thirty years younger than me “cousin” just seems off. I can’t explain why, but it was just such a nice, sweet day that I didn’t want to leave.

I did leave, though, because I had to go to do my signing for the Lake County Captains. Today was the day they were giving away the last in the series of Bobble Fish that I designed.

Last time I did this, back in June, it rained like crazy before the game. A couple little things went askew, and although it was a fine day, I couldn’t help but think it could be better.

I was right.

Today was a great, sunny day. The Captains staff, helpful as always, made a sign indicating that I was the designer of said Bobble Fish, so I got a lot more people coming over. In fact, I signed for a good twenty minutes straight without a break. And until the second inning, I signed a pretty steady stream of them.

The people are always the best part, and I met a bunch of great ones. To a person they were all fun to meet and talk to. I even met someone who I might be able to get some work from, I hope.

The game was good, and despite being down a couple of runs in the last innings, the Captains managed to win. (More than I can say for the last time.) We played launch-a-ball and I almost won an entry to get a big appliance gift certificate. I was so close with most of my throws that people behind me were cheering. If I had only had a couple more tries…

Then there were fireworks, and I have to say for a Class A ball club, they were pretty impressive. I then went home by way of a gas station, top down on a perfect summer night, “He’s a Pirate” from Pirates of the Carribean blaring away.

Hey, what do you expect? It was the Lake Couty Captains. Nautical themes were on my mind.

Anyway, it was just a really nice day. Hopefully, the Captains will have me back next year and I can have some more.

Because How Often Do I Get To Sign My Name in Silver Ink?

Saturday is the third and final Bobble FIsh giveaway at the Lake County Captains game. I'll be there, signing pen in hand, to autograph the Willy Walleye version of the giveaway. I had a great time at the first one I did. (I was in San Diego for the second and not able to attend.) I'm looking forward to doing it again.

While I Was Out

The Lake County Captains had the second Bobble Fish giveaway, this one is Pauley Perch. There's one more to go, Willie Walleye, and that will be out later this month. I'll be there to sign at that one.

Also cool…this one was going for almost $60.00 on eBay. How weird is that?

Blub Blub

Now that I have one of my own, I can post a larger picture of the first Bobble Fish, Buster Bluegill. Here, the King of the Seven Seas attempts to communicate with the Bobble Fish.

Captain's Log

Saturday night was the signing at the Lake County Captains' game. It was a lot of fun, but it didn't go off without a hitch.

It rained on Saturday. On and off, soft and hard. Very hard. It stopped raining a couple hours before the game, but the field was so soaked that they had to really work to make it game-ready. So the game was pushed off to 7:30, then 8:00, and finally 8:30. The game went until 11:30 or so, and then there were fireworks, too. It was a late night.

Of course, years of being an artist have steeled me for such late nights.

The bobblefish just flew that day, too. I maybe signed for half an hour, because that's about how long it took for them to run out of the fish. After everyone dispersed, there wasn't too much doubling back. Still, it was worth it. I got a lot of compliments and met some great people. I even got to autograph one, and then later sign a card for, some lady having a birthday.

The bobble fish even made it onto the scoreboard before the game. That was pretty sweet.

But, best of all, a lot of my family and friends showed up for the game. It's nice sharing such a time with then.

I won't be at the July signing, as matters of state (well, Comic-Con International) will keep me away. But I'll be back at the August one. Let's all hope for nothing but clear skies.

Oh, and click on any photo to embiggen.