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Geek Girl On The Street Reports: Then And Now, Looking At Thom Zahler, By Kate Kotler

Published Fri, 13 May 2011 14:44:31 -0500

Kate Kotler writes for Bleeding Cool

Part one of four in a series examining the early and current work of four popular comic book creators.

One of the perks of being a comic nerd who has built a career for herself as a pop-culture journalist is that I have access to all kinds of cool stuff and cool people. It's true, I have some very popular comic creators' cell phone numbers on my own personal speed dial. And, when I travel to other areas of the country (for whatever reason) I often have dinner or drinks or coffee with someone who you've stood in line to have sign your comic. While you might think the above is extemporaneous bragging about how cool I think I am*- I've written this with purpose. Over my years doing this crazy job of reporting on the geeky things I love, I've developed some nice friendships with comic creators. The boon of these friendships is that it has allowed to see their work with a whole different perspective. And, because that creator is a friend I have access to talk to them about their artistic process in a way that I wouldn't necessarily have with someone I was interviewing for the first time in front of a stand-and-repeat at a con.

Such is the case with Thomas F. Zahler: The pretty boy** of comics, Thom writes/inks/colors/letters the vastly popular "rom com with capes" comic book Love and Capes, (from IDW Publishing.) You may have recently seen Thom's work (Love and Capes: Ever After) touted on such important websites as MTV Geek, CBR and Comics Alliance… and, while L&C is a fantastically fun, witty romp in the comic book park, Thom Zahler hasn't always written or drawn comic books in the style which he currently does.

In 2002, after quitting his advertising job to pursue a career in freelance art, Thom realized a lifelong dream*** and became a comic book creator with the graphic novel Raider: From the Shadows (printed by Maerkle Press.) In 2004 and 2005 he released follow up titles Raider: A Cold Day in Heaven and Raider: Dead Men's Tales.

Raider is a hard-boiled spy vs. spy story that focuses on the threat of an unnamed "world conspiracy," the series is exactly the comic book that every little boy who wants to draw comics dreams of growing up to create. It is full of of action, 'splosions, hot spy romance and great gadgets; the art style harkens to the drawing style of artists employed by the "big two" comic houses. Zahler says that the character Raider (or, "Rai") has been running around causing trouble in his head since early adolescence (and, in fact he wrote a four page short story in comic format for the Lake Catholic High School literary magazine in Cleveland sometime in the late-80s.)

"I would do one or two pages of [Raider] and then stop," said Thom of writing or drawing the character in his early-early days, "Usually it was just to get him out of my head."

Conversely, Love and Capes is a lighter "rom com with capes" comic book that features snappy "bing-bang, zip-zap" dialog with a very vibrant, colorful artistic ethic and relationship driven characters.

So it might be curious to some how Thom Zahler got from A-to-B with these two vastly different projects.

Here is where being buddies with the creator comes in especially handy: Knowing Thom in a friend capacity (albeit a new friendship,) allows me some weighted insights into the content of his comics and also helps me see his development of process -writing and drawing- over the years. (Honestly, if you ever sit down with the whole Raider series and the L&C series thus far, and read them straight through, you'll most likely see the commonalities and development of process, too.) BUT ALSO, I can call up said creator and chat with them to get answers to the very broad questions I have about their work… which is exactly what I did with Thom "Pretty Boy" Zahler.

Of the difference in artistic style between the two projects, he says that while the ambitious artistic style of Raider was something he wanted and thought he needed to be reaching towards doing, as a freelance artist he was also always engaged in doing the more cartoon based artwork in the style which is currently featured in Love and Capes.

A lot of what I do when I'm not doing comics is illustration for magazines and newspapers," says Thom, "And, the cartoon stuff was getting more and more interesting to me, and [Raider became] the only place where I was using the very typical DC/Marvel superhero style artwork."

Eventually after having some conversations with trusted friends, he realized that he really-really enjoyed drawing in what would become his trademark art style. And, luckily, that style was actually more in his "wheelhouse" (so says, he) than the more realistic, hardcore superhero style he employed in Raider.

Writing wise, the synthesis moment for the style change between Raider and Love and Capes is a little harder to pinpoint. Issue #3 of Raider (Dead Man's Tales) focuses heavily on the relationship between Raider and Dominator Agent Vega. While Thom cites that the bing-bang dialog between these two characters (which he calls "Batman/Catwoman-esque") is partially responsible for the development of the dynamic between characters in Love and Capes, the focus on writing relationship heavy stories didn't really come until after the arc of Raider stories had been concluded:

When I finished up Raider #3…" says Pretty Boy, "I didn't have anything else lined up to work on — I always had client work, but I didn't have any storytelling, any comic book work to do at at that point. At about the same time there was a contest on Bravo that was kind of like Project Greenlight, which is where the script for the [unfilmed pilot] Long Distance came from. When I was writing that script book I found that I really liked writing romantic comedy. There's even other stuff [in Raider that reflects that] – one of my favorite scenes is of Jesse and his wife talking before he goes out on a mission where there is this sharp dialog, just the two of them, it doesn't slow down the story, it enhances both characters – it's a nice moment between the two of them. I really enjoy writing those kinds of moments and wanted to create a project where I could write more of them."

And, wah-lah, like two great tastes that go great together, this all catalyzed to eventually lead Thom Zahler to create Love and Capes… The heroically super situation comedy which has been grabbing the attention of more and more comic fans with each subsequent issue. Does Thom have some kind of weird and sneaky Dominator plan to take over the world by entrancing them with his funny books? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, comic fans of all varieties should take a gander at both Raider and Love and Capes – they're well worth your time and money.

Author's Note: I'll be posting a more complete transcript of my chat with Thom on my personal website next week.

*While I am told that I'm a cool person, I am just as rife with insecurities and foibles as each and every one of you.

**Please imagine that said in my very best River Song "Pretty boy, you're with me" voice, okay?

***Trivia: Thom Zahler also realized a lifelong dream by winning a pot of money on a game show. The first person to tweet the name of that show to me @AdorkableGrrl wins a signed copy of Love and Capes: Ever After #4!

Pages from Love and Capes #4 and Raider #3 courtesy of Thom Zahler Art Studios

Kate Kotler is the founding editor of Geek Girl on the Street .com, the editor-in-chief of FilmCatcher .com, a blogger for ChicagoNow, a freelance writer/editor/marketing hack and full time geek girl. She loves Doctor Who, Frank Miller, Wonder Woman, knitting, puppetry and she used to be a professional fire eater. See her full resume on katekotler .com.