Love and Capes Vol 2 - Going To the Chapel By Thomas F Zahler! 
|  |  - Photo this column: Thomas F Zahler at the 2011 Long Beach Comic Con (LBCC) with a copy of Love and Capes Vol 2 - Going To The Chapel! - Top Photo Left Column: A Close Up of The Front Cover to that same TPB (trade paperback)! | | |
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TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3568: I hadn't actually read a copy of 'Love and Capes' before meeting Thomas F Zahler at the 2011 Long Beach Comic Con, (aka LBCC). Of course I had heard of the series, and had even seen him at a comic con before, with lots of attendees at his table at those times. Tina and I actually caught Thomas during a very brief lull at his table during the 2011 LBCC, where the top right photo was shot. After talking with Thomas briefly about his series, he showed me a copy of Vol 2, the TPB (trade paperback) of the collected series. So what exactly is in Vol 2? Here's a brief promo: "The Crusader and Abby are going to the chapel, and they're gonna get married! Along the way, though, there will be secret wars, evil twins, earthquakes, disasters, and the Crusader's ex-girlfriend, Amazonia. It's wedding planning, super hero-style! Collects issues #7-12 of the Harvey-nominated series." Okay... So I started reading this TPB, thinking that coming in at issue #7 of the series, (see this link from GCD for the entire Love and Capes series), that I could have trouble catching up with it... Well, I didn't have any real trouble catching up with the storyline! I quickly picked up on who was whom, and how they fit into the storyline. A nice collected story arc, and the artwork was darn good too! Quite often when a comics creator has this much control over an intellectual property, it goes off track or derails partway through a story arc. However, not in this story arc! I found it to be exactly what it stated on the front cover on the TPB: "The Heroically Super Situation Comedy". Yes, indeed! I would actually think of giving this to a person who does not like 'superhero' comic books, as even though it has superheroes throughout the pages, there aren't mindless slugfests or inane plots on conquering the world. Yet, I would even think of giving this to a person that likes 'superheroes' because it reminds me of the 'Lois & Clark' style of presenting superheroes on TV. Not that it copies anything, but this TPB gets more into the lives of the superhero and his girlfriend than a 'mainstream super hero comics' would. Which I found refreshing! I looked forward to reading each chapter (comic book issue) separately at each reading. So my comic book grade for this TPB is a NEAR MINT MINUS (NM-) 9.2 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grading scale. That's because although there are features at the end of the TPB on this story arc, there wasn't an 'intro' to the characters at the front of the TPB, other than a general 'intro' by Kurt & Ann Busiek. To have new readers, like me, get totally involved and want to purchase Vol 1 or even Vol 3, there should be character bios / illustrations or even a mini-review of what happened in Vol 1 to make the new reader want to know what happened prior to this story arc. As this TPB Vol 2 is almost a 'done in one' compilation, there isn't the immediate desire to want to rush out and purchase the other volumes, after reading this one. Which has both a good point to it as well, as some readers don't like 'continued' story lines in a TPB. Marketing is always a little tricky, as the 'floppy' publication format (comic book) doesn't always blend into a 'compilation' format, (TPB). In this case, other than that minor point I'm making, this TPB is worth purchasing and sharing with family / friends. Speaking of purchasing... Yes, it's a little late for a Christmas present, unless you have a bookstore near you where you could pick up a copy. However, if it isn't a rush order... Here is the link to purchase a copy online: Love and Capes Volume 2 ! My thanks again to Thomas for bringing this TPB of his to my attention at the 2011 Long Beach Comic Con! ~Michael D Hamersky On Comics!
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happy
caffeinated
My thanks to Al Wiesner for showing me this issue at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con. Here is 
It's starting to feel like Christmas around here... Which is hard to do sometimes living in the San Diego area, with no snow!