Of course it could. What kind of cereal prize will Mark get?
Crusader and Iron Man?
In other news, the official announcement about Free Comic Book Day 2010 has been made. Love and Capes #13, of course, is on it. But when I went to the website the day of the announcement, I saw this:
According to the site, the thirteenth issue of Love and Capes will feature Iron Man and Nova fighting the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.
I, of course, was surprised. Fortunately, it was just a mistake which Diamond quickly corrected, and I didn't have to rip up the twelve pages I'd finished to make it in line with the FCBD announcement. Plus, I'm sure Marvel is just as happy to keep my grubby mitts off their characters.
The error has been corrected, but I still think it's kinda funny.
Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth
I hope you all had a good Christmas. Mine was pretty great.
I constantly mention the Christmas Eve event at my house which is, by far, my favorite part of the season. 
It's the one time of the year that Zahlerdu is full of people and kids and food and Santa (who does stop by because Uncle Thom is all kinds of connected).I know my neices and nephews*love coming here, seeing and playing with all the toys and learning to color on my computer.
Well, that last one is just enlightened self-interest. I need some workers to help me speed up my Love and Capes process.
And yes, giving is much better than getting. It's great to find the right present, something special or unexpected to give to someone equally as special.
But the getting can be pretty awesome, too.
Over the years I've received the amazing gifts, from custom action figure "dollhouses" from my aunts, to a DVD of my television appearances on local news and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, to a Star Trek voice activated-light switch. And, of course, the Mighty Men and Monster Maker Kit, which may be the most awesome toy ever and featured art by Dave Stevens.
This year, I recieved a copy of Love and Capes.
I was understandably surprised when I saw it. I mean, I have dozens of copies here in the house, plus I created the darn thing. But my cousin Jamie, the gift-giver in question, saw my John Crichton-esque confused expression and said "It'll make sense when you open it."
Yes, Jamie had gotten Chris Sims of The Invincible Super Blog to annotate the collection the way that he does with so many other things, including Anita Blake. Except, that LnC is much better because, you know, stuff happens.
Chris marked the book up with such witty bon mots as writing "Who Watches the Watchmen" on brick walls in the background, demanding both more Fearleader appearances and an Elvis Bear spin-off, and predicting that Mark will sell his marriage in a bargain with Mephisto in #25.
Like with most humor, the retelling loses something. It's great! I can say two things with absolute certainty: Chris Sims is a very funny man and he has the handwriting of a serial killer.
I don't know how much Jamie paid for this service, but I can only guess it's in the low four-figures. It's certainly worth it, though. So, if you're the significant other or good friend of some comic creator, I can't recommend it highly enough.
And I'll take my ten percent commission, then, Chris.
Thank you so much, Jamie. This was great!
So, I hope you and yours had a great Christmas, and here's hoping your New Year is everything you want it to be.
* Okay, in this case it's second cousins and Goddaughter and her brother, but nieces and nephews is just easier to type.
Do You…?
I meant to post these in dribs and drabs, but I saw a couple during Monday Night Football yesterday and realized I hadn't posted any of the rest of them yet. So I figured, what the heck, post 'em all.
So, here are the other three spots of the Family Planning campaign.
Seven come Eleven
Page eleven took some doin'. I knew basically what characters I wanted to use and what I might say, but it took forever to break the page. I wound up cleaning for two days trying to break the writer's block to no avail. And then I became creatively dyslexic. 
Waiting in line at a Wendy's I figured it out and broke… page thirteen. And with Love and Capes I like to work in order, so.
Finally, it came to me in church what to do on this page. Some people would say it was me not paying attention to the homily, but I like to think of it as divine inspiration.
Still one more clunky page to do, but I've got a bit of a car ride ahead of me. Long car rides do help jar things loose.
In the Words of Han Solo, "It's Not My Fault"
I'm getting some reports that Love and Capes #12 hasn't shipped everywhere. I don't know why Diamond would list it in their new releases and then not deliver it until after the Holidays, but apparently that's what they're doing. Anyway, if you're one of the people affected, I wanted you to know that it wasn't something I did on my end.
Meanwhile, I managed to finish page ten of the next issue. I've hit the spike strips of writing and these pages are coming out a lot slower than I expected. Also, if you compare these posts against what actually prints, you'll notice that I'm going to rearrange pages in the print edition. I realized this Abby sequence needs to happen earlier in the book.
Do You Know It All?
I recently completed working on some Male Health commercials for Family Planning of Northeast Ohio. I did much of the writing on the spots, did the animation, and produced them. The expert voice-over is by the phenomenally talented Roger Price, and production work by Fraser Video.
There are four commercials in this series, two :30 spots and two :15 spots. I'll post one them every day or so from here on out.
The animation is simple, but effective. They work pretty well, and form a nice, unified message. The campaign is designed to work in a couple different formats, including giveaway coasters.
It was nice to work in video/television again. Maybe I'll make working in that arena one of my New Year's resolutions this coming year.
They Get No Respect
I went to the Post Office yesterday to drop fifty-some packages chock full of the Love and Capes wedding issue to the guests on the cover. (Check out my box o' envelopes here.) There were a couple of difficulty factors in play: Each envelope was 13x18, so it was a large size, and they all weighed different amounts, since they contained different numbers of books.
It took a little under fifteen minutes to get through the line. That's not too bad, I think, especially for the Christmas season. Then it took thirty minutes to get through the shipping process. That's not bad either. So thanks, Post Office, for being so good.
The only thing I wish is that there were an easier way to do it. They used to have Postal Stores as part of the facility that handled the simple stuff, like stamp buying. If there were a special line or place for Clients of a Difficult Nature, I would have been glad to go there instead, and spare all the poor souls stuck in line behind me.
Thankfully, I'm not running for office this year.
Then, when I got home, I heard that yesterday was the Biggest Shipping Day of the Year. Glad to help, I guess.
And There Shall Come… a Ninth!
I don't know why, but after a burst of incredible productivity, I hit page nine and everything just stopped. This page languished on my drawing board for a week before I finished it.
Sometimes pages are hurdles and sometimes they're sprints. Either way, you have to keep going.
Also notice that on the back wall are copies of Tony Isabella's 1000 Comics You Must Read. A book which, I have it on good authority, mentions a certain a certain book with the initials L and C.
"War of the Supermen"? What About "LOVE of the Supermen-types?"
All right, if DC can let their cat out of the bag, I figure it's okay to announce my cat, too. Love and Capes #13. Free Comic Book Day. Be there.
Oh, you want more? Well, it's no secret that Mark and Abby get married in issue twelve (or do they…?) and issue thirteen picks up where that one leaves off. I'm eight pages into working on the book so far, and I have to say, it includes one of the funniest pages I've ever done.
After that, we have much to discuss. Diamond minimums and new plans and things like that. But, let's just say that while issue thirteen isn't continued, it coulda been if that's the way we'd wanted it.
And, just to cap it off, here's a scene that may or may not appear in the new issue.