Is synesthesiac even a word?

Over at Fanboy Rampage I posted a long weird message that eventually touched on the criteria by which one should judge a comic book illustrator. In response to one of my exhortations, "Look at the rhythms of panel progression. Are they appropriate for the tone of a scene?" James Smith asked:

"How does this work? I mean, how do you figure out how to break this down?"

I posted this answer:

I

Johnny Bacardi: A winner is you!

I just conducted my "stick everyone who linked to Mercury Studios' weblog in a hat and pick out one name to see who wins" contest, and the winner is Johnny Bacardi!

Johnny has a choice of prizes, as I outlined when I initially plugged the contest:

The first option is the safe one: a 3 by 5 inch postcard with a original sketch of any character I've worked on. The sketch will be executed in pen

Paul Guinan's Dad.

Paul Guinan recently returned from Chicago where he was celebrating his father's 70th birthday. Paul's father is Robert Guinan, a famous painter with clients ranging from Johnny Depp to Francois Mitterand. Dozens of international gallery shows, articles, giant coffee-table art books, etc., have been devoted to his works. Here's the text of a newspaper interview & overview of his career. And

Berganza on Clark. Knight on tour.

We at the studio have had the pleasure of watching page after astounding Superman page come rolling off of Matthew Clark's drawing board, and we've been waiting for the rest of the world to see it, too. Here's a start. This Eddie Berganza interview at Comic Book Resources mentions Matt and notes just one of the many reasons why his Superman work is so terrific.

There are bigger names on the

Quick update

I'd like to think that it was some property of physics that sent two cartoonists to replace me in Portland while I was out in L.A., but really it was just Portland Arts and Lectures. Lynda Barry and Matt Groening. Johnathan Nicholas at the Oregonian gives his opinion of how it went here. Jeff Baker spoke to Groening for the O last week. And to honor their arrival in town, the Willamette Week

Skull, dead

As I mentioned earlier, I'll be signing at the booth. Here's the schedule: 7-8 pm on Friday, 10-11 AM Saturday and Sunday. I'm told we'll be sitting in the shadow of an enormous skull, courtesy of the Punisher film.

As I write this, the rest of Mercury is in Portland, getting ready to make a pilgrimage to see Day of the Dead. We've been talking zombies all week. Ron Randal we learned, is new

Off, off to L.A.

I've got a lot of stuff to get done before I'm off, so this'll have to do until I get back on Monday. Here's hoping this doesn't kill the great momentum we've been enjoying.Paul Guinan has some updates on the growing fame of his Boilerplate site. If you haven't heard of Boilerplate before, start here to learn more. Paul has done us all a great service with his thorough and extensive research into

Prose novelists meet panel fiction

The New York Times has an article about prose novelists writing comics, with quotes from Michael Chabon, Brad Meltzer and Greg Rucka. Nothing new there for the people likely to be reading this, but the article does mention no less than four comics containing work by Mercury members, and it's nice to get the ink. I'd love to see a more in-depth article on the subject of crossing media from prose

Like being paid to go to art school.

I'm working on the third On the Road to Perdition novella right now. I pencilled and inked the second one last year. On this one I'm just inking, and I'm having the time of my life, because the pencils are by one of the best artists in the business: Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.

For those that are curious about such things, the thumbnails below link to a pair of pages in both pencils and inks.

Sandstorm

The update page at Sandman.tv is crawling with scans of new convention sketches by Mercury members. Looks like they've got stuff from Pete, Rebecca, David, Ron, me, me, Pete and me.

There are also great sketches from artists like Alex Maleev, Phil Noto, Dave Johnson and Jason Pearson, and a handsome pair of paintings from my old Kubert school classmate Felipe Echevaria. It's an

"...I’ll give my superiors a better report on him"

Here's an odd interview with David Hahn, from a site called In too Far. David is doing top notch work on Bite Club, the first issue of which ships real soon now.

I begged and you came through

I've had a number of responses to my pathetic give-away for links to this site. http://bpwerks.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_bpwerks_archive.html#107938082379829558">Use Once and Destroy , Gus Dahlberg , Safe as Milk , Charlie Chu , and the Reverend Dan Evans were all kind enough to oblige, as was my wife which isn't all that impressive, but if a comic book guy can't be a completist, who can?

Actual content.

We've posted some black and white art from Lieber's story in the first issue of The Escapist. Readers have been snatching up copies for weeks, and the book has been a big success. Click this link and you'll see that Lieber had nothing to do with it.

Recent Reviews

Pete Woods draws Batman monthly in Detective Comics. The latest issue is #792, and Silver Bullet has a review up.

Steve Lieber's all over the place this week, thanks to his story in the first issue of Michael Chabon Presents...The Amazing Adventures of The Escapist. Read all about it: Newsweek | MediaSharx | Breakdowns | Fourth Rail | The Trades | Silver Bullet. Fourth Rail also

An apology. An appearance.

Many, perhaps even most of the first few posts here will be about Steve Lieber. This is unfortunate, but there's a good reason. Steve's doing this on his own initiative and hasn't even mentioned this blog's existence to his studio mates.

We at Mercury know how soul-crushingly awful an excess of Lieber can be. Why not tell Steve how disappointed you are in person? He'll be a guest at Wizard