No respect.

Just received this in my inbox:

COLD CUT FEATURE: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel

New from Alpha Books, part of the "Complete Idiots Guide" series comes an all-new How-To Book by Nat Gertler and Steve Lieber! From story concept to artwork, from promotion to distribution, this 300+ page guide will tell you everything you need to know to create your very own graphic novel

Hello Librarians.

It looks like about 95% of my hits today are coming from Jessamyn's place, which means I should probably take a moment to introduce myself.

I'm Steve Lieber, a comic book artist in Portland, Oregon. I'm part of Mercury Studios, which is a big room in a downtown office building that houses a bunch of other comic book artists and illustrators. They're all listed over on the left, except for our

The closest I can get to Chicago/ Wizard World 2004 news.

I passed on Chicago this year, as did the rest of Mercury Studios, so I don't have much, or anything really, in the way of incidents or anecdotes to report. But here are a bunch of direct links to some swanky contributions to the Dave Cockrum benefit auction. Have fun browsing: Neal Adams | Sergio Aragones | Terry Austin | Mark Bagley | John Bogdanove | Steve Buccelleto | John Cassaday |

No clever title today

The big Dave Cockrum benefit auction takes place this weekend at Wizard World. They're taking online bids before things start in person, and you can track some of the preliminary action here and here. I don't know if they're all being auctioned for Dave, but the ones that feature his characters definitely are. This one is my contribution. And some good news: Dave is back at the drawing board.

The elevens are breeding.

Trash Heap
Broken Kode
Spatula Forum
Jenn Manley Lee
Kip Manley Kip also has a fine idea for an anthology.
Lea Hernandez

And, as mentioned in the comments section below, Tangognat has begun compiling the lists into a master list.

Another half-dozen elevens.

The list-of-eleven thingie seems to be spreading. Here are six more:

Comicgate (in German, but the titles are obvious.)
Mae Mai
Sean Collins
Bill Sherman
Rich Watson
Jim Ottaviani's list

In his posting, Bill notes that "...if someone compiled and collected all the lists on display today, we'd have a kick-ass set of comic art shelves that'd do any American public library proud." Bill, I think,

These go to eleven.

Looks like the list of eleven idea is getting around, and I'm glad to see the interesting picks that people are bringing up. Keep 'em coming, folks.
Milo George
Tangonat
Laura Gjovaag
Peiratikos
Rick Geerling

Paul's Pause pics

Mercury member Paul Guinan has put up a page of photos of the Pause Gallery reception for Matthew Clark and Drew Johnson. Portland's art scene turned out in droves, packing the place well beyong legal capacity to inspect the duo's spectacular orginal art from Wonder Woman and Adventures of Superman. The show will be up at Pause for the next month.

Lieber's Eleven

I was cruising for reactions to the children's comics controversy, and noticed that over at the Byrne forum, someone has asked for a list of library recommendations.

The list below is what I posted. Call it Lieber's Eleven. I'd like to challenge other bloggers to come up with their own list of eleven titles that libraries should shelve. No rules, but participants are encouraged to cite a variety

This and that.

As a reminder, that big gorgeous con report is still awaiting your perusal. Here are a couple of photos that didn't make it in. (If I did this right they'll open in new windows):


Congratulations to Howard Cruise on his Marriage to Eddie Sedarbaum. (And let's hear it for the great state of Massachusets, too!) Link via Kevin Moore.

Congratulations to Mercury Blog reader John Aegard for his

The import thing is that he beat us by two hours

Kip Manley has posted his San Diego report. It's on his blog. I highly recommend it as a glimpse into the experience of those who cast their eye upon the medium's gleaming future, rather than wallow in the caseous discharge and filthy detritus of its past.

The balloon's gone up, boys

The report has gone live. See what really happened in the trenches of artists alley.

Unwritten, no more.

Over in the con report, Parker and I have decided to follow up last years advice for people visiting artists alley with a list of the unwritten rules for the exhibitors therein. Now that these rules are no longer unwritten, you lame bastards no longer have any excuse. Shape up, already. This list, we realize, is a work in progress, and we'd like to hear what you have to say on the subject. Use