Capes-n-Babes

First off, let me say that I know I have been experimenting with the Blog titles. I mentioned a while back that I saw Danielle Corsetto do it with her strip (although she isn’t doing it any more) and I liked the idea but I have been indecisive about the formatting of the strip number and the title together. But lately, I have been catching up on the webcomic, Sub Culture and I really like how Kevin and Stan have the number in front of the title – so I think that’s how I’m going to do format it for the foreseeable future…

Now… on to Amber and her guest appearance…

UPDATE: Thanks to Amber’s Twitter feed, I just found out that is Laura Guzzo as Black Widow in the picture with Amber.
Amber is Invisible Girl in the picture above and here’s a little background on how I met her…

Amber is known for being a pretty popular super hero cosplayer around various comic book and other conventions. To find out more about her, you really should visit her site, Amber Unmasked – it’s roughly 95% safe for work – but really, that’s the best place to find out her custom super hero outfits, her writing and all the various conventions and comic book pros that she knows.

Since I’ve been doing the whole “con circuit” since 2008, I have probably seen Amber multiple times walking around the convention floor in various costumes. But it really wasn’t until last year at Baltimore Comic Con that I actually learned who she was. My good friend, Rob Anderson, knew her as they are both writers and – like artists – writers tend to find each other and hang out together. Only most writers I know don’t wear awesome, custom-made Rogue outfits like she was wearing that first day of the Baltimore show.

I didn’t get to talk to her much during that show but it was enough for me to introduce her to my little webcomic strip and for me to learn her name – and that was about it.

Now, I’ve mentioned several times in this blog and on the Lightbox podcast that one of the best things about going to cons is not the actual con itself but the hanging out at various restaurants and parties with your fellow convention table-mates… getting to know them and, basically, sharing war stories about other conventions or sharing experiences, tips, and other tricks of the trade to help improve your art or give someone else a little advice too. It’s a great networking atmosphere but it’s also a great time to make new friends or get to know them better.

That’s what happened Saturday night when Josh Lyman, Dan Nokes and I ended up at the New Dimension Comics’ 25 year celebration party. This was the party where, somehow, the three of us ended up drawing funny pictures on comic book backing boards all night long. But during that time, a certain UN-costumed lady came in and hung out with all of us and we just basically shot the poop all night long.

That lady was none other than Amber.

So, like most people I befriend at conventions, what do I do? I put her in today’s Capes & Babes strip. For those that know – and are fans of – Amber, I hope you enjoy today’s strip because she’s also appearing in Friday’s strip as well.

Amber and Terry, thanks for having a sense of humor and letting me have a little fun with both of you. I hope you enjoyed being turned into cartoon form as much as I enjoyed putting you in cartoon form. Looking forward to seeing both of you at Heroes Con in June.

-Chris