Look, I finished the art. I'll tell you where it'll be appearing, and how you can get it, soon.
Dancing Among the Stars
Hmm, this looks kind of cool. Maybe even like a cover image. But the next issue of Love and Capes is issue #12… isn't it?
End of Act One
Hmm, this panel might be better as a panel from an Angel comic, don't you think?
Actually, there's a clue to what's going on in this issue in this very panel. But it's really subtle. I actually don't expect anyone to notice.
Twelve pages done, twenty-eight to go. Man, it seemed like the other books I'd be half-done by now. Oh, wait, I would be.
New Love and Capes T-shirts Coming Soon!
Hey, it's a picture of a model in a Love and Capes shirt. And it's about the same time as last year when I announced a new Love and Capes shirt. Could it mean…?
Yes. There will be a new Love and Capes shirt done in conjunction with Mid-Ohio-Con. It'll be the Con Crew shirt, and the VIP shirt. I'll have some made that I can sell here, too. So, if you're not going to be at the show and want one, now's the time to let me know. And, if you've been one of those people who wanted a larger size, or a babydoll or something, now is the time to let me know. It's a lot easier to make decisions about those early!
The shirt is the first one to feature Charlotte and Darkblade (as well as Amazonia, Crusader and Abby). It's a "sketch" shirt, designed to look like a lot of my originals do. Except not on crumpled paper and with coffee dripped on it. You can feel free to spill your own coffee on the shirt.
The main design will be a ringer shirt, blue to match the simulated Col-Erase pencils on the shirt. Get one, it'll be awesome!
Now if only we could get someone from Big Bang Theory to wear it.
Seven Come Eleven
I'm back from holiday and cranking out pages again. Here, have another page, this time with actual dialogue from the book. As for who that lady is next to Doctor Karma, man she looks kinda familair, doesn't she?
What's going on in this issue?
Comics and Friends
When I was at Heroes Con in Charlotte this past June, I met the John Haines, owner of the now newly-opened Comics and Friends in Mentor, Ohio. He was looking for a mascot, for lack of a better word, for his store. He wanted a cute, comics-reading girl. He had had some problems finding "the right look." So I sat at my booth and did a sketch.
Apparently, I nailed it.
So, here's the Comics and Friends girl, in both her headshot phase and one of the full-body images I designed. There are more than a few of them, so you'll probably be seeing her around more.
I was interviewed by The News-Herald in conjunction with a story about his store opening. You can read it here.
That's Why they Call It the Blues
Let's take a break for a little process stuff.
With this issue of Love and Capes, I've started using a Col-Erase pencil to do my layouts. These are colored pencils that are far less waxy and more erasable than the more prevalent Prismacolor pencil. Prismacolor's a fine product, but it's the right tool for the right job.
I'd heard a bunch of my artist friends talk about these pencils, but it wasn't until the inordinately kind Yves Ambrun gave me one to mess around with at New York Comic-Con that I fell in love with it. I found some at Pearl during my Los Angeles trip and have been using them this issue.
The advantage is this: Previously, I'd go through three pieces of tracing paper to make a page of Love and Capes. There would be some really rough pencils, a second more structured drawing, and then the third tight pencils, from which I'd ink the page. But now, I can combine steps one and two into one page. The colored pencils allow me to do a second pass with my standard lead mechanical pencil. I can use the blue as an underdrawing without having to have like colored lines compete.
I think it's keeping a lot more of the energy to my artwork, too. Roughs always have more pop than the tighter pencils, and trying to keep as much of that intact is one of the constant battles of the cartoonist.
Plus, I think the rough pencils look cool this way, too. Like a lot of animation drawings I've seen.
There's More to See Than Can Ever Be Seen
Ahead of schedule, I have finished page ten. Now, don't get all hyper, I'm taking a little holiday until Friday, so part of my Barry Allen-like approach to the book has been to make sure I was clear before I left. I do have a post or two scheduled on the Blogginator, so I won't be completely quiet. I know you'll miss me.
In this exciting panel, we find out Doc Karma is a Broadway showtune kind of guy. Or a Disney film fan. Maybe both.
Nine, Nine, Nine!
Amazonia also gets a makeover in this issue, including a new hairstyle. After I've drawn her for a couple of pages, I've started to think that Amazonia looks a bit like Olivia Munn. What do you think?
I'm kind of proud of this page. If it goes right, there will be two "Holy Smokes! That was surprising, and yet so in character!"
This is probably the last page before my well-deserved vacation. Nine pages down, and one left to go before the end of the month. I think I can do that. It's good to be on schedule.
Darkerblade
For reasons which will become clear when you actually read it, Darkblade gets a costume redesign in issue #12. He gets darker (hence the internal name Darkerblade) and a little more intense. You know, gritty, 90's style.
Or maybe there's something else going on.
Here, he makes a dramatic declaration. As I will saying "Eight pages down! Twenty percent there! I am on a roll, baby!"