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Thom Zahler Art Studios

Art With an Attitude

  • LOVE AND CAPES: HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
  • Works
  • THOM'S BLOG
  • The Legend of Thom Zahler
  • Conventioneering
  • Art For Your Eyes
  • Thom Zahler Store
  • Newsletter
  • Patreon
  • PRE-ORDER A COMMISSION
  • Threadless Store
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

NYCC2009 - Day Three, a bit late

I never did finish talking about New York, did I?

I should be used to this. It's so hard to write up the last day of a show because it tends to be your getaway day. And then you get back and you're busy and you just don't have time. Plus, things were really crazy back home with work that came in.

The Con Before the Storm

She really does have cool hairAnyway, the last day of the show was pretty good. The crowds were still thick, and I sold pretty well that day, too. I think as a lot of these shows max out and become almost exclusively 3-day attendees, Sunday becomes a huge sales day. After all, if you have until Sunday, why buy until Sunday? Well, because Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? was almost sold out, of course. By 1:00 or so, I was sold out, and only had single issues left. I'll have to keep that in mind when I go to San Diego this year.

Jennifer Kale-- who's that?I did a couple more caricatures, including Jennifer Kale from Marvel's Man-Thing. Yeah, I had no idea who she was either, but the customer had reference, which was good. There were a couple more that escape me, too. Kale and the Spider-Woman that I did are now colored and here on this page. Make with the clickin' and embiggenin'.

Let's review: I did a panel, sold out of a product, did some sketches, and lined up some work. Yeah, I think it was a success.

Bob and I helped Toon Tumblers take down their booth in trade for borrowing some space in their van to get our gear back to the hotel. I had a taste for pizza, so we wound up at Antonio's next to where the Late Night With David Letterman show tapes. It was pricey and it seemed to take forever, but the pizza was good, and it was a great end to a great show.

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On the way back, I wanted to stop at the Kubert School to buy some brushes. Good art brushes are hard to find, and the Kubert art store stocks a lot of them. I kind Cha-ching!of need to see a brush before I buy it as there's a whole process to choosing one. They only had one of my current brush, the Windsor Newton Series 7, but they had a selection of the Rafael, a brush I hadn't used since art school.

I bought three.

I even got to go into the school, which had been extensively remodeled since I'd been there. Ah, the memories, wait this is new!The school, the old Dover High School, had been lopped in half and a chunk of the JKS parking lot had been sold off. Kubert had a lot of unused space in it, including a full auditorium and a gym. Now those are gone. Computers are all around, the windows have been replaced (a source of contention for all of us in the old days) and they even have air conditioning now.

Man, these soft, coddled artists today. In my day I drew in the cold and the heat and lived off a box of Captain Crunch because I couldn't afford it and... well, I hated it, but I did it anyway.

Mike Chen was kind enough to give Bob and me a tour, and we even dropped into a couple classes. Bob had asked if I got the shakes coming back into the building. Truth be told, I did get the wiggins when we waited in the waiting room. I don't think I'd been in there since my first day at the school, or maybe when I came out for my interview when I was applying. That room brought back some worries. Everything else was fine, though.

When I was here we didn't even have a sign!Bob also said he had to get used to seeing classrooms without desks and instead with drawing tables. That never occured to me. I'd just gotten used to it.

The school looks good. The students seem the same, bantering with Mike when he brought us in. Well, there is one big difference: girls. The school got girls since Iwas gone. There were I think three women in my first-year class of 150. Now, with the success of manga and the like, there's a bigger female component, which is very cool. The school even has dorms for them now, which previously they weren't able to provide.

Big thanks to Mike Chen for taking the time out of his day to bring us around the school. It was a great time.

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Now I'm back and working again. I've got a couple of weeks before my trip to Orlando for MegaCon, so I'm trying to clear some things out before then. Thankfully, Love and Capes #10 is done, so it's just doing client work, of which there is a lot, thankfully. I've got some cool things coming up, which I'll tell y'all about as soon as I get a chance. So stay tuned, cool things are happening.

tags: commission, Commissions, convention, Conventions, kubert school, Love and Capes, new york, new york comic-con, toon tumblers
categories: Cartooning, Commissions, Conventions, Drawing Table, General, good times---good times
Friday 02.13.09
Posted by Thomas Zahler
 

NYCC2009 - Day Two

Second day, more of the same.

The show started out slow. I think that the Hollywood Presence and the Ticket Sellouts are being felt. There were so many good media panels that I think they drew from the floor early in the show. And, since the show is so successful, most of the ticket sales are three-day admissions. And, if you can shop on Sunday, why shop on Saturday? There's no impetus to buy more.

That said, I'm almost sold out of the Love and Capes trade. Sold out of what I brought to the show, I have pleny more at home. If I sell out. and I expect to, well, that alone is a good number.

I only did a couple of commissions. Today I did Star Sapphire and Medusa, yesterday I did Gwen Stacy and Spider Woman. The Spider-Woman's a color job, so when I get home, I'll scan and post it.

I had a couple of cool meetings with people I can't mention yet. And I did ride in the elevator with Bruce Timm this morning.

But, my highlight has to be the couple that came by the table near the end of the day. They were a little older than me, and the woman was palpably thrilled to see me. They brought their copy of #9 just on the chance that I'd be there, and she was so excited to have it signed. Then she bought a pin, too. She told me she hated Amazonia because she was always in Abby's way.

Really, you should have seen her. She was so excited. And it is so frakkin' cool that something I did touched someone like that. It's a special moment, and makes me think I'm doing something right wth the book.

Then Bob and I had dinner with our friend Josephine and caught up since we saw her last year. We wandered Times Square a bit, hit the Toys R Us and, oh my, there was a Starbucks there, too. How fortuitous.

So, it's to bed with me soon. Don't forget, tomorrow I'll be on This Week in Media. It's gonna be fun.

tags: commission, Conventions, Love and Capes, new york, new york comic-con
categories: Conventions, General, good times---good times, Hotsheet, Love and Capes
Saturday 02.07.09
Posted by Thomas Zahler
 

NYCC2009 - Day One

Today was the first full day of the show. There's a pro part that started at 10:00am and then the regular portion began at 1:00pm or so and went until 7:00. Whew! That's a long day. But it was a good day, too.

I met a couple of TV and film production companies. You never know what's going to pan out, but it's never bad to make those contacts. I met the lovely and talented Whitney Matheson from USA Today and we spoke of comics and conventions and Love and Capes. I did Douglas Wolk's character design panel, which was a lot of fun I met some friends, chatted, maybe even lined up some work.

One thing I didn't do, though: Twitter. Now, I'm sure you think it's because I was so busy and important that I wasn't able to get to my iPhone to document the day. You'd only be partially right. The big thing is that the iPhone is so frellin' popular that the 3G network is overtaxed at the show. I had a spotty connection at best, which is okay for some light e-mail, but is Of The Bad for Twittering.

I suspect tomorrow will be even worse. Well, better with the crowds and the selling and the awesome, but less good for the communicating and the writing. Sorry.

Guess y'all will just have to come here next year to experience it.

tags: Cartooning, commission, Conventions, Love and Capes, new york, new york comic-con
categories: Conventions, General, good times---good times, Hotsheet, Love and Capes, Press Releases
Friday 02.06.09
Posted by Thomas Zahler
 

If I Can Make it There I Can Make It Anywhere

Just a reminder that I, and Bob Ingersoll, are now on our way to New York City for the New York Comic-Con. I really dig this show. It was very good to me last year and I was barely there in any official capacity. This year I'll be there at booth 2446. I'll be selling Love and Capes, Powerful Women, and doing commissions. And, of course, meetin' and greetin' my fans. If you're there, be sure to come on by.

And, if you're there, be sure to get your sweet Iron Man Toon Tumbler, designed by me!

tags: convention, Conventions, new york
categories: Comic Book, Commissions, Conventions, Drawing Table, General, Hotsheet, Love and Capes
Thursday 04.17.08
Posted by Thomas Zahler
 

Seven Days and other cancelled UPN shows

This time next week I'll be at the first day of the New York Comic-Con. I'll be there, taking commissions, selling Love and Capes #1-6 and Powerful Women sketchbooks. And seeing those way-cool Iron Man Toon Tumblers fly off the shelves. Man, that glass looks sweet if I do say so myself.

Hope to see you all there. And I'll be posting my full convention schedule for 2008 shortly.

tags: commission, convention, iron man, new york, ny comic con, toon tumblers
categories: Cartooning, Comic Book, Commissions, Conventions, Hotsheet, Love and Capes, Press Releases
Friday 04.11.08
Posted by Thomas Zahler
 

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