I'm back from San Diego and Los Angeles, and climbing a pretty tall stack of things that have piled up in my absence. But I wanted to make sure I posted this since some people have asked about it: You can now buy the San Diego/Kansas City Barbecue print from this year's show.
The Harvey Awards and Me, Together Again
It's happened again, and I'm once again humbled… I've been nominated for a Harvey Award, the Special Award for Humor in Comics. I'm up against Shannon Wheeler ("I Thought You Would be Funnier"), Ryan Sohmer ("The Gutters"), Roger Landridge ("The Muppet Show") and some guy named Matt Groening ("The Simpsons"). With that line up, let me just say that it's an honor just to be nominated. Still, if you're a comics professional and are going to vote in the Harvey Awards, I'd appreciate your consideration. The link for the ballots is here.
A Heroes Con Exclusive
So here's the thing I teased on Twtter last night. I'm going to test out doing extremely limited-edition, locally-focused prints at conventions.
My next show is HeroesCon in Charlotte. So take a gander at this piece of Love and Capes art featuring Charlotte and, well, Charlotte.
If this goes well, I'll do a series of these this year. So there'll be Miami, San Diego, Toronto, Columbus, Detroit and more. Each one will honor the host city of the convention. This one, for instance, is playing off the statue of Queen Charlotte at the Charlotte airport.
The prints will be 12x18 and, like I mentioned, these will be extremely limited. I'm going to make only 26 prints, each signed and numbered. I'll sell numbers 1-25 at my table for $20.00 each. The 26th will be marked as "number zero" and will donated, along with the original art, to the art auction. So not only will I have local prints, but new auction items for the shows I'm attending.
Big thanks to Jesse Jackson, who put the germ of the idea in my head, and Jeni, @zatannamomma on Twitter, who told me about the statue.
Just Sharing
I just finished page nineteen, which introduces Darkblade's parents. I don't have a lot to say about it, especially since you won't be reading it for another few months. I just like the colors on this panels, especially the clouds. So I just thought I'd share.
You Know What I'd Like For Valentine's Day?
I mean, other than Olivia Wilde?
You could order Love and Capes: Ever After #3 is 
in Previews this week. It's on page 159, right above the Suicide Girls solicitation. It's order code FEB11 0362, and this issue has the alternate Darwyn Cooke cover. Abby goes to her high school reunion while Darkblade, Charlotte and Amazonia have their own adventure.
Operation: Omaha!
So, there was on Facebook, not minding my own business at all. The oft-talked about Love and Capes: Ever After was cleverly coming out for Valentine's Day, and I didn't have a signing scheduled. 
That seemed, as the wise Ralph Wiggum once said, unpossible. So I mentioned this on the Love and Capes Facebook Fan Page.
Then I got a response from one of my fans, Chris.We'll cut the boring e-mails and flight info, but next thing you know, I'm waking up at 4:30 a.m.to catch a flight to Omaha.
Don and Lee brought me to Ground Zero Comics and took care of me something fierce. I had two tables that I filled with my Love and Capesishness: t-shirts, posters, trades and books. A pretty steady stream of people
came in and bought stuff. Honestly, I've had conventions where I didn't sell as much I moved enough product that out of the bags I brought, I managed to condense one down and fly back a bag lighter.
Also, I took two orders on my Square, which worked perfectly. Man, I love that thing.
I did commissions, as well. I did one of Number Six from Battlestar Galactica, one of Gwen Stacy for a guy who's cute little daughter is named Gwen, anda two-person Spider-Man and Venom piece for The Coolest 
Woman in the World.
I say this because, she came to the store for her husband. He wanted to come by, but work prevented it, so she went. And then she for the commission as a Valentine's Day Present. Okay, that's just awesome. But she's supportive of his comic bookness, and that's not always the case. I hope he's doing something equally as 
awesome for her.
(Also, if anyone was following me on the Twitters, this is the story that made me delay this post. I didn't want to ruin the surprise.
My friend Tom, whom I met years ago when we were contestants on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire lives here in Omaha, so he came by with his son. It was great to see him again, trade stories and catch up, and meet his son, too.
Afterwards, Chris and I went out to dinner and talked some more comics. Then I went back to the hotel and wrote some postcards for the godkids and nieces and nephews, and passed right out.
I have to put in another plug for the Catholic Directory app, too. 
Thanks to it, the hotel shuttle and a kind Ohio State fan, I got to Mass and back to the hotel. This little app has made fulfilling my Catholic obligations so much easier.
This signing was a lot of fun. I'd love to do more like this, and to return to Omaha again, too.
It's a Big Ol' Week of Awesome!
Love and Capes: Ever After #1 is out, and it's been getting some press coverage. Some really nice press coverage. I wanted to link to some of those.
First, with tomorrow's signing in Omaha at Ground Zero Comics, the Omaha World-Herald did an interview with me that you can read here. I'm so looking forward to this event and I'll let you know all about it when I get back.
As far as the issue itself, the first review I saw was from Jennifer Smith at Newsarama:
To do what he does on this book, Zahler must truly love his work – and he must also, secretly, be a superhero. What else could explain his ability to write, draw, ink, color, and letter all of his own work in a rigid 8-panel grid that features incredibly likeable characters, a fully-realized independent superhero universe, stunningly expressive art and design work, and a hilarious punchline at the end of every fourth panel? It’s enough to make even the most industrious fan feel like a slacker in comparison.
I will say, that one made my night.
Then, over at the Time Magazine Techland blog, I received some nice words from the gang there, including Douglas Wolk.
I've always had a big soft spot for Thom Zahler's superhero/rom-sitcom series Love and Capes, and I hope the new miniseries Love and Capes: Ever After brings a few more potential admirers into the fold. It's a little strange to see a romantic comedy continue after the wedding, but I'm also happy to keep seeing these characters.
And just today, from Comics the Blog:
Wait, did this review just get 300% sexier? Blame Zahler and what I can only imagine from his Twitter account is a raging, unquenchable libido. Or, you know, a guy who works hard, likes Nathan Fillion and makes great comics.
Okay, that's probably just my favorite part of the review. James actually talks about the book itself, too.
All right, I have to go pack for my trip. But thanks everyone for the nice reviews. And a big thanks to all the fans of Love and Capes who make making this book possible!
Love and Capes: Ever After #1 on sale NOW!
Yeah, that's right, your long national nightmare is over. Love and Capes: Ever After #1 is available in stores NOW.
Well, maybe not now, as I'm writing this on Wednesday morning at 8:00am eastern time. You should probably wait until your local shop is actually open. But once it is, go to town! It's been almost a year since the last issue, but now that the book's back, its going to go fast. Like monthly fast.
And let me know what you think.
The Best Tea-Drinking Comic Out There
Progress continues on the penultimate issue of the new Love and Capes: Ever After miniseries. I'm a third of the way finished with it, and hopefully I'll be hitting a nice little stride soon and going even faster.
As you might be able to tell by the image, Abby and Zoe's relationship has changed a little bit, especially since the first issues. I'm proud of the arc of Amazonia's story, and think it's one of the best, and frequently overlooked, aspects of the book. They're less oil-and-water than they used to be, but they still don't completely get along either. And it's always fun to write.
Every Time You Call My Name, I Heat Up Like a Burning Flame
I know you haven't even seen the first issue yet, but I'm well into the fourth issue of my five-issue IDW Love and Capes series. I thought I'd share the cover for #4.
The covers are often the hardest part. I treat them like one-panel gags that don't need to have anything to do with the story inside. Sometimes they do, of course, but I don't feel bound by that. They're kind of like Betty and Veronica covers that way.
Complicating things is that IDW and I are doing variant covers for each issue. My friend Chris Bailey, animation director of Hop, Alvin and the Chipmunks and way more than you can imagine is doing the alternate cover for this one. He'd asked for a layout, kind of an idea starter, and we were working on one that was okay, but didn't quite sing.
Then, I had an idea for my cover. As I started to lay it out, I realized that it would be a good Thom Zahler cover, but it'd be an amazing Chris Bailey cover. So I contacted Chris and said "Hey, if you're not too far, would this be a better cover." He said yes, and I have since seen that cover. It's achingly beautiful, and I'll be sharing that soon. But not right now.
Unfortunately, that left me without a cover. One of the ways I figure out the cover image is figure out what I haven't done. That's how Darkblade appeared on the cover of #8. I realized one of my favorite characters, Doctor Karma, hasn't appeared on a cover, so I thought about him.
I had this idea for Karma to be at a talent show, sawing Mark in half with Abby as his assistant. Too complicated, though. It didn't work… and then I thought: What about Abby as the magician?
So, what I wound up creating was this cover where Abby's using Mark's powers to fake a trick. I was a little worried about it, as for the cover to be funny, you have to know that Mark is the Crusader. There's no visual cue. Yeah, this is the 17th issue of Love and Capes, but every issue is someone's first. After 
showing it around to my Secret Society of Super-Reviewers and on the Love and Capes Facebook page, I was encouraged to go ahead with the secret identity cover.
This is the cover I came up with. I think it's pretty funny, maybe one of the best covers in this run.
Issue five, though, is no problem. I've known that cover since I started this series. It's gonna be a stunner.