Comics, Palooza-style and Texas-fried!

This past weekend, I went to Houston for Comicpalooza! (I think the exclamation mark is required.)It was my first time at the show, and my first trip back to Texas in a couple of years.

First, I was shocked to learn that the Houston Astros would be moving to the American League. What's up with that?

But, oh yeah, comics!

The show went pretty well. Right now, I'm hurting when it comes to conventions. Not so much because of my insane travel schedule, although that does factor in sometimes, but because I'm nearlyout of stock on everything. As I type this I have one, count 'em, one, copy of the second Love and Capes collection left. None of the first, none of the third. Success is awesome, except for the part where I don't have stuff to sell.

Of course everything is being reprinted right now and I'll have them for Comic-Con. Why, they're in Previews right now, along with the first new issue of 2012! Order codes for the collections are JUN12 0385, JUN12 0386 and JUN12 0387 respectively. And the new issue is JUN12 0384. End of commercial, back to talking about what I sell.

With less hard stock, I'm trying to do more commissions and sketches at my table. The show didn't disappoint, and I got a bunch of really interesting requests. The 1940's Martian Manhunter… yeah, I never heard of him either… Squirrel Girl, Marilyn Monroe, superheroes as Tiny Toons, Scud the Disposable Assassin, and Power Girl. All fun choices.

I also did a panel at the show, Gender Representation in Comics. Characters, obviously. I was on the panel with artist Michelle Dilecki and Rod Thornton. It was one of the best panels I've ever been on. I get a lot of "breaking in" panels and a fair number of "digital comics" panels, but this was a pretty sharp topic, and there was a lot to talk about.

Plus, as most people who know me are aware, there's a little bit of frustrated stand up comic in me. I kind of love talking in front of a microphone.And judging by audience reaction, apparently I can be funny from time to time.

Big thanks to Kevin Travers for creating it and for asking me to be on it.

It also brought people over to my booth, more people ever from any single panel I've done. So it definitely touched a chord. Hopefully I'll get to do more of those.

The show also had a live event charity auction which asked me to participate. Because of some booth conversations, I was inspired to draw a pic of The Marvel Family, or the Shazam Family or whatever DC is calling them now. I miss this iteration of these characters, and I wish there was a place for them to exist.

The final piece went for $75, which isn't bad. The auction raised over $4000 for the Ronald McDonald House. As noted philosopher B.A. Barracus once said "You gotta do it for the kids."

I was lucky enough to be sitting next to David Marquez, currently of Ultimate Spider-Man, and the lovely Tara, who were excellent booth neighbors for the entire show. It's great meeting new people at these shows, even better when they're actually nice people you want to see again. And, being freelance and working alone in a studio,I miss that art shop talk that I get when I'm sitting next to a good an interesting artist like David.

And two big shout outs. First, the always-delightful Jesse Jackson. We've been friends for over ten years (odd, since we're obviously only in our early twenties) and I've been lucky enough to see him three times in the last year. It's always fun to hang out with him, and he's a great confidant, assistant, aide-de-camp and trusted friend.

The other is Alex Johnson, who arranged to bring me down to Houston for the show. Alex and his wife were on the Love and Capes wedding cover, and has been a fan ever since. Now he's a friend, too, and the trip wouldn't have been possible without him. Thank you so much, Alex.

I had a great time, and I hope I getthe chance to come back.

For those of you playing "Where in the World is Thom Zahler?", I'll briefly be in Denver for a wedding next week, and then I'll be at HeroesCon in Charlotte at the end of June. Hope to see you there!

HAPPY FREE COMIC BOOK DAY,!

Happy Free Comic Book Day! I'm in Delaware for Joe Murray's event at Captain Blue Hen. I hope you're doing something great today, too. FCBD was essential for my success with Love and Capes. I did four issues for the day from 2007-2010. It let me get the book out to a much wider audience, find some new fans, and hopefully helped make the day better. I even did all-new done-in-one issues for each day, something some of the bigger publishers didn't always do, and I'm very proud of that.

I don't have a book out this year, unfortunately. It's just not possible right now for all the best reasons. (Have I mentioned that the new Love and Capes series comes out in August, and is available in the next Previews, from my friends at IDW? Six issues of superhero romantic comedy goodness!) But I can't not make something available, so here are a couple links to digital content you may have missed.

First up is my 24 page 24 Hour Comic Book Day book, Haunted. the ghosts of the past revisit a young man as he's about to get serious with his present.

And, I gave away the six-page all-new Love and Capes Valentine's Day story back on, well, Valentine's Day. But that was only for three days. Here it is again. This story has never been printed, but will appear with design notes in my Rhinos Bowling artbook, coming out later this summer.

Oh, and before you ask, yes, I saw Avengers and yes, it was two hours of awesome. I can't believe they pulled it off! And boy, Cleveland blows up really good. (They filmed the Germany scene and a lot of the street level battles there.) I'll definitely be seeing it again.

Kickstarter Bonus: The Time I Almost Did "Up"

One more time, today is the last day of my Kickstarter project. It's completely funded, but I'd like to overfund and add some other benefits. As bonuses, I'm offering some art that's never been seen and won't be in the final art book.

I completely fell in love with Up when I saw it. It was a heartbreaking, nearly perfect film. Boom had the Pixar license, and they were talking to me about Muppets, and it took all of seven hours for me to write them an e-mail begging to do an Up comic.

At the end of the movie, Carl is clearly living in the zeppelin, and hanging out with Russell and Dug. It was just begging for a sequel. You know why? Because with that setup it's Uncle Scrooge! Old guy, boy scout tagalong, going off having adventures.

The idea was almost instant, too. Living aboard the zeppelin, Carl finds a never mailed letter from Muntz. And while Muntz was crazy, he was still young Carl's idol. so he decides to deliver the letter himself. The letter takes him to Australia and gives the book the awesomely awesome title Up: Down Under.

I'm still proud of that, title, pitch, concept and everything.

Here's the thing: it got approved. The pitch went to Disney where we were told that they didn't really see Carl traveling much or very far after his adventure in the movie. But they thought the idea had merit.

So, here's what I did: I realized the end scene of Up takes place at a famous ice cream place near Pixar. That meant the movie took place in Northern California. That meant I could use Southern California. So the trip to Australia following in Multz's footsteps instead became a trip to glamorous 1930's Hollywood. My Outback Flying Doctor was replaced by an actress who, Doris Day-style, started an animal shelter/farm.

And you know what? It was better. The dog shelter made Dug even more important, and Hollywood was a better backdrop. I liked it more, even if I had to lose the title.

In my dream world, one day I'll pitch it to Pixar and we'll make the thing. It sure would be swell. And it could happen someday. After all, adventure is out there.

Kickstarter Bonus: My Incredibles Sample Pages

Today is the last day of my Kickstarter project. It's completely funded, but I'd like to overfund and add some other benefits. As bonuses, I'm offering some art that's never been seen and won't be in the final art book.

So, I, like everyone, wanted to do The Incredibles. I think my Love and Capes artwork style was absolutely perfect for it. So I put together this two page sample page showing how I'd handle the characters.

Compared to the previous Muppets piece, I tried something more standard for the lettering, a more traditional comic style for a comic book family.

This was also a soft pitch for a plot, too. I don't remember all the details, but basically I wanted to focus on Frozone (because he's literally and figuratively cool) and give him an ex-girlfriend super villian as a bad girl to mess around with him. It'd also show some great contrast with Mr. Incredible and Elasti-Girl's marriage, and even Frozone's own marriage,

Alas, not to be. Maybe someday.

As I type this, you're $55 from seeing the Up pages. Have at it!

Kickstarter Bonus: The Muppets

Today is the last day of my Kickstarter project. It's completely funded, but I'd like to overfund and add some other benefits. As bonuses, I'm offering some art that's never been seen and won't be in the final art book. In 2008, I was pitching Boom Studios on working on the Muppets. Plots were submitted, some even approved, but for a bunch of reasons, nothing ever went forward. That's the nature of the game, especially when working on a licensed property, so there are no hard feelings.

But, I still like to share them as I think they came out pretty well and show a different style and capability. And, since we've hit our 101st backer, this is the first reward.

(Depending on amount hit, I'll be showing off sample pages for The Incredibles, Up, and maybe even some stories.)

These pages weren't from an actual story, but a quick sample script I wrote to show how I could handle characters, environments and more. Click on any thumbnail to embiggenate!

Leap Day Means Superman's Birthday!

So today is Leap Day. It's your Once Every Four Years Day to mangle a song from The Pajama Game. And, it's also Superman's birthday.

Well, technically it's Kal-El's birthday. Krypton rotates slower around it's red giant sun than Earth does, so their year is four of ours. The man who would be Superman was conveniently born on February 29th, even though Clark Kent celebrates his on June 18th, the date his rocket landed on Earth.

Interestingly, Kyrptonian birthdays were not a celebratory event, instead one of great sadness… okay, maybe that's just interesting to me and to Joe Murray of Captain Blue Hen Comics in Delaware. Joe, you see, is celebrating The Man of Steel's Birthday in style today, complete with an auction by one of his guests for this year's Free Comic Book Day, Thom Zahler.

Hey, that's me!

Yeah, that's right, I did a new Superman piece for Joe's auction. You'll have to find out from him what you can to do bid on it, but he told me I could share it. Hope you like it!

And as always, click the image to super-size it.

BRAND-NEW Love and Capes for FREE! (Because I love you all.)

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and there should be something I could do with Love and Capes. Maybe I could give it away? Nah, that would be stupid. I couldn't… could I?

HECK, YES I CAN!

For three days only (February 13-15), the great people at The Mary Sue are hosting an all-new, original Love and Capes digital comic! This six-page story is not a preview, not a part of the new IDW series coming later this year, but a brand-new story. It's an unlocked, shareable PDF file suitable for downloading and sharing. So, you know, download and share. And enjoy.

In fact, the only thing I ask is that you do share it. Share it on Facebook, on Twitter, on Google+. Tell your friends. Give it to your siginifcant other. But share, share, share!

And it's only available until Wednesday night!

(Also, for those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, this is the Project: Super Secret Ghost Protocol that I mentioned.)

And thank you again to The Mary Sue for hosting the story.

Always Going Forward

I'm always overly optimistic about how quickly I can hit the ground running after coming back from a trip. I did manage to get a new page of Love and Capes done in my shortened week. I'm well into issue #2 of the new miniseries. Come, see domestic bliss.

This past week I went to Rancho Obi-Wan, the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia on the planet. They say "private collection" but I can't imagine who has more. It was a great weekend, and I owe you some pictures and stories, but I also need to get some pages under me, too.

For those of you asking why Love and Capes: Wake Up Where You Are has disappeared from Amazon and other retailers, the issue has been identified and there is a plan in place to fix it. I'll let you know when I have details.

Don't forget I'll be at MegaCon next month (more traveling, I know) and you can be on the next print! Details here.

Start Spreadin' the News

Now that I've been home for a week, it's time to start planning my next trip. I'll be in New York City for the New York Comic-Con. I'll be set up with the Comic Book Diner guys, so look for me there.

And, as you may have guessed, a new show means a print. Here's the New York Love and Capes print.

Still yet to come this year, Columbus, where I'll put something special together for the Buckeye fans, and Long Beach, where I might do something that everyone across the country might be interested in. Hopefully, I'll let you know about that later this week.

Detroit Comic City

Cincinnati was a blast! Such a good time, and such great people, too. I spent some time with José Delbo, and met Stan Goldberg, who did the alternate cover for Love and Capes #5. He presented me with the original art for that cover, which left me speechless.

But, I can't be confined by the borders of the state of Ohio for long. This weekend I'll be at Detroit Fanfare where, hopefully, Mr. Bruce Campbell and I will become good friends. And a new con means another new con print, so feast your eyes on the Detroit print below.

I've got three more shows this year (New York, Mid-Ohio and Long Beach) and then a few more (Emerald City, MegaCon, Wonder Con, C2E2, and Houston) before I hit Charlotte and complete the cycle I started last year.