We're Going to the Chapel… soon

It's been a long haul with over 100 guests attending (and, by extension, 100 caricatures to do) but I finished the cover for Love and Capes #12. There will be two versions, the "Love" verson (featuring Mark and all other superheroes in civilian garb) and the "Capes" edition (featuring Mark as the Crusader, and superheroes in the congregation). They'll be a 50/50 split, but if you're an attendee, don't worry. You'll get the one with you on it. And I'll be e-mailing you soon about it.

The full cover images will be released sometime during Comic-Con next week. Hey, everybody else is making announcements, why can't I? But for now, enjoy the little thumbnails I've shown above.

All in all, the wedding cover promotion worked better than I could have hoped, and I think it's a really strong image. Thanks to everyone who participated!

The Huntress is a Lonely Hunter

This choice of Huntress was a suggestion from my friend Dee when I was looking to fill out this volume of Powerful Women. It should have occured to me before, though. I bought her first appearance in DC Super Stars Secret Origins or whatever it was called. It was also one of the first times I remember seeing a "behind the scenes" about the creation of a character, complete with sketches and roughs for the cover. That always stuck with me, and I'm sure was one more brick on the road to doing what I do for a living now.

The Real G-Force, Not That Thing With the Gerbils

When I was a kid, Battle of the Planets was everyone's plate of awesome. Before I knew about Japanese animation, I still knew there was something different about that cartoon. And I even noticed that the 7-Zark-7 scenes seemed incongruous to the rest of the cartoon.

We used to play G-Force on the playground, too. My friend and I took turns switching between being Jason and Mark, and we'd spin around a basketball pole doing their whirlwind attack.

So anyway, here's Princess from Battle of the Planets.

Now You Don't See Her

A while ago I did an Estella Warren caricature that I thought came out really well. I hinted at her shape with color, rather than drawing with complete lines It was a nice effect, and I used it for this image of the Invisible Woman. I wanted to get the impression of invisibility while still, you know, actually drawing something you could see.

I also put her in the John Byrne reverse uniforms that I thought always looked pretty neat. The colors did well with the invisibility effect.

And Done. Now I Can Start Again!

Last page done! Woo. In fact, woo and hoo!

This issue will lead into the big wedding issue in #12. Not that I'm showing the last page, but I will say, it's the first time the last page has had a full eight panels on it. In previous issues I've had a half splash or even a full splash. The ending of this issue isn't as "big" as previous issues, but that's fine. It's the calm before the storm.

Now to package this thing up and get it to the printer.

2009 Harvey Nominees Announced and… Great Googly-Moogly!

Wow! I've been nominated for not one, but two Harvey Awards. I've been nominated for Best Letterer for Buzzboy, which is cool enough, but I've also been nominated for Best Cartoonist for Love and Capes. That's fantastic. Amazing. And humbling. I'm up against some great competition, too. But hey, it's an honor just to be nominated. And yes, I am practicing saying that.

The awards are given out (well, I'd say earned) at Marc Nathan's awesomely awesome Baltimore Comicon in October. All of the cool kids will be there. You should be there, too.

Almost There, Stay on Target

Yeah, I like name checking and putting in some in-jokes here and there. Why I didn't think of making a Rick Castle joke sooner, given that Abby owns a bookstore, I'll never know. Well, it could be that Castle came out only while I was working on #11, and page 23 has the first bookstore scene in the entire issue. That could be it, but I still feel like I missed a boat.

Just one page left.

Twenties One and Two

My friend Sean suggested I change the pacing of one of my jokes on page 21. I'd be upset if he wasn't right. In fact, the suggestion was something that I was toying about doing myself. I expanded one joke, and finished off with a cut line from an original draft.

All of this makes little sense, I'm sure, since I'm not showing the page. But it gives you an idea of how this process works. And will work over the next two pages until this bad boy is done. Man, am I looking forward to that.

So, now, our heroes are back on Earth. Why's the Crusader flying from an aircraft carrier? What adventure did he just have. Even I don't know. Make your own story.

The Famous Blackjack Page

Page 21 is done. Well, done-ish. The more I think about it, the more I think I need to move a few things around to really make it sing. I do the plots in advance, but sometimes they take on a life of their own. For instance, this whole "In Leandia" segment was originally going to end pages ago. I think it's working well, and now can't imagine doing it in less.

Yes, much thinking will be done. I'll try to fit that in between Secret Project X, a new cover for the Fort Worth Weekly, and, of course, a trip to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. You have to have your priorities.

Blink and You'll Miss Her

Okay, I admit, I have no idea who Blink is. (I know now, though, so I know she's from the X-Men books. Don't worry.) But it's part of the fun of doing convention sketches, when someone comes in with a character you've never heard of. As well as reference, man is reference important. At HeroesCon, if necessary, I could use the insanely useful iPhone to pull some reference off the web. At San Diego, that's not going to be possible, I presume, since I think everyone in the Creative Services and Hollywood has an iPhone, and that's going to slam the 3G network at the San Diego Convention Center.

Back to Blink, though. She was fun to draw. I think this is a definitely different pose, and her skin tone was fun to color since it's not a traditional tone. It made it fun to color.