Local Artist's Super Stories Are Soaring

It's not easy being super but Thom Zahler makes it work.

Zahler -- a Timberlake native and graduate -- is the writer, artist and creator of Love and Capes, a comic book that mixes romance, comedy and superhero shenanigans.

It tells the story of Mark and Abby, a typical couple with one exception. Mark, an accountant by day, moonlights as the flying, super-strong, invulnerable Crusader whenever the world is in peril. (If you squint, Mark resembles a certain Kryptonian.)

However, Love and Capes doesn't focus on Mark's superheroic side as much as it does his relationship with Abby, his girlfriend who runs a local bookshop and is a tough cookie in her own right.

"It's based on a sitcom like Friends or Barney Miller where the characters have jobs but you don't see the jobs that much," Zahler said.

Zahler often uses sitcoms as a point of reference when he talks about Love and Capes. (He even bills it as a heroically super situation comedy.) So it's unsurprising that Zahler first envisioned it as a TV show.

Zahler created Love and Capes as an idea for Situation Comedy -- a Bravo show that was intended to be the Project Runway for sitcom creators.

While Zahler's idea didn't make the cut, he liked the concept. Even more than that, he enjoyed the style of writing.

"I really liked writing the banter and I was looking for a way to marry that with what I was already doing," he said.

The "what (he) was already doing" is cartooning and drawing. Zahler had spent almost a decade earning experience doing different jobs in the cartoon and comics industry when he first put pencil to page to create Love and Capes.

The road less comfortable

The first issue of Love and Capes was published in 2006 (which, by the way, you can read here.)

He could tell, just from seeing the orders for his first issue, that what he wrote and drew had resonated with readers.

"I knew I could do one issue and, if it didn't work, I could walk away," Zahler said. "But if I did two issues, then I'd have to do six and tell a whole story."

Well, Zahler is now on his 19th issue and third miniseries, Love and Capes: What To Expect.

Zahler has had some notable success tapping into a fanbase that often eludes the capes-and-tights crowd -- women. It helps that the women in his stories -- Abby, her sister Charlotte and Mark's super-ex Amazonia to name a few -- are not just accessories to the men.

"It's important for me that Abby have a goal that's not simply to get married," Zahler said. "It's very easy to write the Disney Princess story -- well, maybe not easy -- but it's a very comfortable path to take. I try to make sure the women in my stories have goals that have nothing to do with the men."

Zahler has accrued some high-profile cosigns for his work. Kurt Busiek (who wrote Avengers for four years,) Mark Waid (an award-winning Flash author,) Jerry Ordway (one of the most famous Superman scribes) and Gail Simone (a writer for Deadpool, Secret Six and the TV series Justice League Unlimited) have all shared their love for Love and Capes.

Busiek, Waid and Simone even wrote introductions to Love and Capes' trade paperbacks. (Busiek wrote his along with his wife, Ann, who is also a die-hard fan.)

"Zahler's a skilled author who writes about people first and capes second, and his insights into what makes a relationship work are genuine," Waid wrote in his introduction.

Meanwhile, Zahler's grateful for all his fans -- famous or otherwise.

"I'm very much writing a book I'd like to read and it's gratifying to know there are other people out there who enjoy it," he said.

Up, Up & Away

One must have a do-it-yourself ethos to succeed in the world of comics.

And Zahler -- whether we're talking about writing, drawing or promoting Love and Capes -- definitely does it himself.

Zahler does a lot of marketing at across the country. He just got back home after a month in California where he had a booth at San Diego Comic Con.

"I'm on the road a week out of every month," he said. "I'm coming up on a stretch when I'll have a convention every week. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

When asked if the jet lag ever gets him down, he replied, "I really like what I do. That helps."

Zahler's not sure about the future of Love and Capes. He said the What to Expect miniseries will end the tale he originally set out to tell. That doesn't mean he couldn't write more but he might want a break first.

"There's more stuff I want to write, more stuff I want to draw," he said.

Zahler also noted that he would love if things came full circle and Love and Capes inspired a television show.

He even knows what time slot he would want.

"I think it would fit perfectly between How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men," he said.

For more on Zahler and Love and Capes, visit his web site.