That's the One with the Bengals, Right?

Next Saturday, I'll be a guest at the inaugural Cincinnati Comic Expo in the Queen City. I'll be there with a number of people, including Murphy Anderson, Russ Heath, Michael Ulsan, Lora Innes and more! I'm very much looking forward to it. If you're in the area, come on out to the Cintas Center and check it out!

Baltimore, Briefly

Baltimore's going well. Yesterday was pretty busy. Random highlights: 1. One of the commission requests I received was "Draw Charlotte in the superhero costume she'd wear for Halloween. After much thought, I drew her wearing one of those store-bought impractical but oh-so-cute Batgirl costumes. Then I had her in a sassy pose saying "Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot… unless you're going to mention that Mary Jane said that and I'm dressed like a Batman character, in which case, move along."

2. Joe Murray at Captain Blue Hen Comics arranged a tour of the Geppi Museum, full of comic book goodness. It's the first time I was able to go there, since it's usually closed after the show. There was a lot of fun stuff there and a chunk of stuff I had or have. And some of the Toon Tumblers I designed were in there, too.

3. At the bar last night, a couple wedding parties came in. I accidentally walked into a photo of the bride's parents and apologized. The picture taker said (jokingly) "How could you do that? Wait, you're handsome! Get in the photos." So, there are a couple of photos they'll have of me in their group.

Also, the father of the bride was a dead ringer for the Dos Equis guy, you know, The Most Interesting Man in the World. When they send me the photos, I'll post them for you to see.

Speaking of which, for some reason, my iPhone can't upload photos to the Twitpic website. So I haven't been able to post images from the show. I can't tell why I'm not able to do it, whether it's a password issue or a connectivity issue or what. So, there are photos, but they may have to wait until I get back.

And finish that page of Love and Capes that's waiting for me, of course.

There's Something About a Bad Girl

One of the other things I like about doing commissions is the specificity and originality of the requesters. As an artist, the mission statement "Draw whatever you want" is always daunting. There's too much to choose from. Well, not too much, I can wrangle it down, but it takes effort.

I love when people come up with a sketchbook of all one character or theme. It gives me a starting point, and usually the other commissions in the book make me want to up my game to compete. The estimable Chris Sims had a Jimmy Olsen sketchbook, and I drew Jimmy as Flamebird from the Bottle City of Kandor… life size. Too up all of an inch on the page.

Here, my requester wanted Major Kira, from the excellent and dreadfully-underrated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine looking in the mirror and seeing her Mirror Universe equivalent, the Intendant. I had to research the characters, and get out my Deep Space Nine Companion, which ate up a ton of time because I can never just look at the pictures. I start reading, and then I want to start watching again. Such a good show, and one that really schools you as a writer.

But, I eventually broke away and finished this piece. I'm pleased with how Nana Visitor's likeness was captured, the expression on each face, and the body language of each character.

Make Mine Ms. Marvel!

Speaking of conventions, I'll be doing commissions at Baltimore. I charge $20 for a black-and-white image, $40 for color. Color requires me to take the piece home and color it on my computer, since I color digitally. Here's a fine example of that, a Ms. Marvel piece that I did in San Diego and then brought home to add some color.

I actually posted this days ago on my Twitter feed. Twitter is so low-maintenance that it's easy to get stuff up there fast, as opposed to here where I feel compelled to write complete sentences. What? You're not following me on Twitter? Perhaps you should.

Baltimore or Less

Have I mentioned lately that the Thom Zahler World Tour continues with a trip to the most excellent Baltimore Comicon, where New Daddy Marc Nathan will be throwing one of my favorite shows off the year? I'll be there selling books, taking commissions and not eating seafood. Really, the Baltimore Comicon is a great, great show. If you're anywhere nearby, you should definitely come.

This is probably a good time to mention the pre-Convention Love and Capes t-shirt sale. Just like San Diego, you can pre-order some shirts at crazy low prices, and I'll bring them to Baltimore for you to pick up.

I'll also be doing the new Cincinnati Comic Expo, Detroit Fanfare, New York Comic-Con and, of course, Mid-Ohio-Con this year, too. Five conventions left this late in the year? That's a lot of traveling.

The One With the Bedbugs

I've decided to recount the story of my Three Week Tour of All The States In the Union with a Disney Park in bite-size portions, rather than a linear day-by-day kind of way. Today, we're going to start with the down note.

Last year at Comic-Con, I met a nice gentleman who worked at Pixar. After the obligatory gushing about Up and holding back the tears, he said "Hey, if you're ever up in the Bay Area, come on by, I'll give you a tour."

After that, it was my goal to get to San Francisco. I've heard Pixar is a great place to work, but this guy might have left for another job and he was my only contact there. I wanted to jump on this as soon as I can.

Enter Airfarewatchdog and Southwest. Southwest was having a crazy-low sale on flights within the Golden State. For $90, I could fly from Burbank to San Francisco and back the same day. Ninety bucks! I would have paid that to take a tour of Pixar if they were across the street from me. I figured it was totally worth it.

Later, at Comic-Con, I mentioned to some friends that I was going north to visit Pixar the next Thursday. One of them said "Hey, I have a friend who works at Industrial Light and Magic. I bet he could get you a tour, too." Turns out, he could. The only catch at all was that ILM's Friends and Family Day was Friday. It'd be better if I could stay over that one day and extend my trip. For the chance to be one away from the geek trifecta (sadly, Steve Jobs and Apple never called to complete it) it was a no-brainer.

So, I now needed a place to stay in San Francisco. I went to Hotels.com and found a cheap hotel (one whose name I'm withholding for now, as they're investigating the problem). It was $49 to stay about six blocks from Fisherman's Wharf. The hotel had a number of bad reviews, but there were more than a few good ones, most of which said that the place had been recently remodeled and was much better. Plus, I've found that sometimes people complain about hotels not because it's not a good place to stay, but because it's not the place they wanted to stay. Kind of the "Can you believe this Motel Six didn't have a workout center or an in-room whirlpool?" variety. So I gambled on it.

And the hotel was exactly the hotel I expected. It wasn't the kind of place you'd take your significant other on a romantic weekend, but it was totally the place you'd take her when the concert she wanted to see was only playing in San Francisco and you had a day to plan. It wasn't the hotel you wanted, it was the hotel you needed.

Except for the bedbugs.

Friday, I woke up and my right arm was itchy. Briefly, I thought that I might have developed a new allergy to chocolate. (Fortunately, this was not the case. I tested it several times over the rest of the trip.) Then the bumps started to appear, all up and down my right arm, and a little bit on my right leg. By the time I landed in Orlando on Saturday, I knew they were bites. Apparently they're often underreported and misdaignosed, and I didn't go to a doctor to be sure, but I'm pretty sure they were bedbug bites.

Still, the trips to Pixar and ILM, and the obligatory side trip to Ghirardellii's (one of three I made it to on this trip which was a different kind of trifecta), was totally worth it. It just would have been more worth it without.

That's it for now. Don't worry, I'll talk about the tours and the rest of the trip later.

Just Like Superman II

After three weeks of conventions, meetings and a little bit of a vacation, I'm back. For some reason, the "Sorry I've been away so long. I won't let you down again" scene from Superman II is running through my head.

I've started to find that Twitter and Facebook are ideal for updates while I'm on the road. I don't get to spend a lot of time in the hotel or connected to my computer. Heck, I think last night may have been the first night I've gotten eight hours sleep in over a month. It's totally worth it, but it does take its toll, especially regarding my online presence.

I think this was on my mind during my travels, because I seem to have bought heavily in the coffee mug category. I came back with no less than five new mugs, which is five more than the last few trips.

I now have, going clockwise from the upper left corner, a mug from Pixar, a Disney coffee mug based on the artwork from their tasty and well-designed coffee products, a Javva the Hutt mug from Industrial Light and Magic, a "Have You Seen This Wizard" Sirius Black much from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and near as I can tell, the only product Disney makes that features their villains, including Jafar, Cruella DeVille, Captain Hook, Ursula, Scar, Malificent and the Wicked Queen from Snow White. Missing: Chernobog and the guy who took the villians out of the Villain Shop.

Day Zero

All right, things have been crazy already. I'm not sure how many of these I'll be able to punch out. And, for now, I can't really post photos here on the site because of a Photoshop issue. That said, I am posting photos over at the WMJI.com site where they're taking my raw photos and making them work.

Today was Day Zero, preview night here at the show. Things started at 5:30, which was odd, because the San Diego Comic-Con website said 6:00. I got there right at 5:30 to set up, and was rushing to get everything out.

I must have done okay, as by 5:32 I sold my first trade. She ran over and said "I love you!" I responded as James Taylor does, "It helps that we don't know each other." She was a fan of the book, obviously, and it was nice to make a sale so quickly.

I met some great people, fans and professionals alike, and saw some friends, too. It was pretty packed for 180 minutes of show. Kind of makes me worried/hopeful about the rest of the show.

All right, I'm big with the sleepy. More tomorrow, I hope. And keep watching the Twitter and Facebook!

I've Hit the Big Time! USA Today and Pop Candy!

Hey! I wrote a guest blog for Whitney Matheson over at the USA Today blog. She was taking a well-deserved vacation, and asked for some guest bloggers. I threw my oversized hat into the ring and she, in a rare moment of poor judgment, said "okay". Click here to check it out. It's all about what it's like to be an exhibitor at a Comic-Convention, San Diego in particular.

I've been bad about posting panels, I know. It's been a crazy summer, and it's just getting crazier, in a good way. And soon I'll be heading to the aforementioned Comic-Con in San Diego and off doing the LA thing, and a side trip with some friends, for three weeks or so. I'll try to post, but expect a little slowdown to be sure.

This is an image from page six of Love and Capes: Ever After #2. Charlotte's got a bigger part in this issue, so we'll see more of her.

I like throwing little things in to amuse myself. Here, you might recognize some of the other patrons of the Café Mobius.