Go on. Go and get you that sexy Rom.
My nude life study of ROM:http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifSpaceknight is up for auction on eBay. ANd so are dozens of other wonderful pieces, including Jonathan Case's awesome framed watercolor. And all the money goes to benefit Bill Mantlo. Go bid!
Another great Christmas tradition.
Looking for holiday cheer? A sincere reaffirmation of the values we all share? A picture of Luke Cage giving Iron Fist a noogie? Head over to Chris's Invincible Super-Blog, and read his recap of Jeff Parker's heartwarming holiday classic "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santron."
Diesel Sweeties in Antarctica.
Looking for an something I'd read online, I found this. Rich Stevens, I am jealous.
Francophone Hamm
Editions Husky has published a French-language edition of Jesse Hamm's Tales to Bore and Confuse You. They're publishing it under the title Bate & Fonte.
We love a man in a uniform.
You know one day, you look out the window and there's guys in hazmat suits doing god knows what.The next day, you look out and it's Santarchy.
Hamm, Parker nominated for YALSA Great Graphic Novels
The American Library Association has the complete list of nominees for the Young Adult Library Services Association's list of Great Graphic Novels. Special congrats to Periscope's own Jesse Hamm for the Good As Lily nomination and Jeff Parker for Agents of Atlas.
Parker's Adventures
Jeff Parker interviewed at Newsarama about his work on Marvel's All-Ages books."Usually I write out pitches for the stories, but the Ego (as the universe's biggest playah) one was so clear to me that I called Nate Cosby and just told it to him, describing things like seeing the Moon by itself in space while Ego assumed Earth was a single mother with a shortie - and he's cool with that. My
Because I am elsewhere, I missed this
Pie and donut party for James Ratcliffe. Shoot. I didn't get to sing "For he's a jolly good fellow," either. You guys did sing that, right?
Interview at The Comics Journal
Andrew Farago interviewed Greg Rucka in the latest issue of The Comics Journal- #287, and included a side interview with me. There are excerpts of both at the Tcj site.
More art from Matthew and Ron
Matthew Clark has put up some more of his art from the third issue of The Crime BibleAnd Ron Chan has put up a ton of new art over at ronchan.net, including one piece that might be the most important drawing of this, the 21st century.
More from the ersatz 19th century illustrator.
Here's my faux-engraving drawn for the second issue of DC Comics' Crime Bible.
Ohio's greatest export.
While Sara and I are in the undisclosed location here in Ohio, she's been poking around in the closets and basements. Today she found some old scrapbooks that her father had kept. This one is from 1947.Along with various local stories clipped from the paper, and meticulously kept baseball statistics worked out in ballpoint, there was this page of Walt Ditzen's sports themed comic strip "Three
Gore and more.
Paul Guinan just contributed this paintographied portrait of Gore Vidal and friends to Steven Gettis' legendary collection of sketches of literary figures.
First Class Snafu.
Jeff parker reports that several early copies of X-Men First Class #6 that have pages seriously out of order. Like, the Colleen Coover cartoon falls in the middle of the book now, out of order. I assume Marvel will tell shops to hold on to these books while they make the printer fix things, but just in case watch out this Thursday. This is especially irksome because I was excited about the new
Poster Mystery.
We've moved this post from blogspot to our site at periscopestudio.com. Click here for it.
Mid-Ohio Con today.
And here I am in the middle of Ohio, Columbus to be exact. As noted below, Sara and I will be in artists alley. Among other business there, I'll be delivering this commission:After I drew that "trois-crayon" Wonder Woman for the WWday auction, I had a request for a Green Lantern drawing done in the same manner. Much fun to work this way, and I think I'm going to start incorporating it into my
Party Mountain Mountain Party
Portland animator/cartoonist Carolyn Main became a year older and celebrated the occasion at her home on Mount Tabor. Paul Guinan, Periscope's own Jimmy Olsen,took snaps and posted them on his site. He shot Colleen's wedding, now a birthday. I'm sure there's a bar mitzvah coming soon.Sara Ryan and I are going to be guests at the Mid-Ohio Con this coming weekend, November 24-25th. This was the
Professor Parker
"You can almost always tell an artist what really needs to happen in a scene, and she will have opinions on how that should all go down. And she’ll be taking composition into consideration, and balancing lots of visual elements. Can you do that? It’s not really necessary with a good artist, she’ll do it anyway. But if that isn’t a strength of yours, then don’t impose such notes on our artist.
Rom Paul and Jamie
Here's Paul Guinan's ROM:Spaceknight for the Bill Mantlo benefit and tribute.And why am I not hearing much noise about this in the blogosphere? This is a good cause, people. You don't have to draw ROM to participate. You can donate, too:In other news, our friend Jamie Rich has a reading tonight at Powell's. He'll be reading from his new novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?
That other Beowulf.
So while you're wondering whether to go see that Beowulf movie, why not go pick up Ron Randall's Beowulf adaptation for Lerner books:And for those of you who'd like to contribute to the Bill Mantlo benefit,you can click on the button below:
Matthew Clark's Crime Bible
Matthew Clark is illustrating the third issue of The Crime Bible. It stars Batwoman:and The Question:
More Roms for the Mantlo family.
Colleen Coover's Rom:Jeff Parker's Rom:And we've got more Roms by Jonathan Case and Steve Lieber. Find out why so many top cartoonists are drawing Rom:Spaceknight.
Colleen gets bookish
Colleen Coover is the latest contributor to Steven Gettis' awesome collection of sketches of literary figures.
New Rom antics
It sucks to follow Jonathan Case's awesome watercolor below, but here's my shot at a piece for the ROM art show to benefit Bill Mantlo. It helped a lot when, of all people, ROM himself showed up for one of our lifedrawing sessions. Everyone was impressed that he could hold a tough pose like that for so long.
My Pal Peter Parker
David Hahn, here. I get to dip my toes into Spidey's pool one more time in Spider-Man Family #6, due out Dec 12. The ten page story was written by Tom Beland (True Story, Swear to God), and penciled, inked, and colored by me. And Spidey does appear right-side up on some of the pages.
Space-cake, Retro Style
After 2+ years of working in black and white, it feels fab to get back to some color.This is one of the pieces that will represent Periscope at Floating World's benefit for Bill Mantlo, writer for Marvel's old ROM Space Knight series. The show opens December 6th... Mark those calendars. It's a worthy cause, and I hear there will be prints available from many comics artists, local and otherwise,
Lieber and Wolk in Baton Rouge.
I'll be at the Louisiana Book Festival this weekend talking with Douglas Wolk, author of Reading Comics. Here's Douglas reviewing the first issue of Crime Bible (published by DC Comics, written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Tom Mandrake) at the Savage Critics review site. This comic gets an extra plug here because it's written by my bud and frequent collaborator Greg, who is very proud of the
Lieber in Seattle, many others at Wonder Woman day.
I'll be a guest at theSeattle Comicard Convention. Seattle, WA. October 28, 2007. 10 AM to 5 PM. in the Rainier Room at Seattle Center. Guests include Ben Hansen, Brandon Jerwa, Chad Du Lac, Chris Anderson, Paul Gulacy, Quenton Shaw, Randy Emberlin, Ryan Miskiman, and Tom Peyer. And, uh, me. Stop by, say hey and if I've got time, I'll doodle out a free quick sketch for you.But if you're not in
FAREL DALRYMPLE & KAZIMIR STRZEPEK @ Floating World
Our friends at Floating World Comics write to say:FLOATING WORLD COMICS PRESENTS: "DAY OF THE DEAD ART OPENING"with FAREL DALRYMPLE & KAZIMIR STRZEPEKJoin us this 1st Thursday, Nov. 1st for a special Dayof the Dead art celebration with local artist FarelDalrymple and Seattle artist Kazimir Strzepek.Farel made a big splash in the indy comics scene withhis debut 'Pop Gun War' and his acclaimed
Paul puts the scope in Periscope.
As Paul works on his coffee table tome Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel, he maintains an elusive political stance. Is Boilerplate right-wing military history, or left-wing social history? Getting clues from his personal life can be equally confusing. He was involved with peace movements before America went into Iraq, but a few weeks ago it looked like he was training for a contractor
Mike, Mike and Bruce.
Q. You each work in slightly different, though certainly overlapping, sectors of fandom. What have you learned from each other?BRUCE CAMPBELL: Well, I've learned that you've got to do comics and merchandising and everything else with your movies. It's a better deal.The nice thing about working with Dark Horse is they not only make movies, they can handle publishing, they can handle comics, they
So that's where that Ditko hair came from.
Milton Caniff:Steve Ditko:Ditko panel from the Ditko Looked Up site.
I think I'd rather have this than a legit one.
(hat tip to Monty Kane of Planet Saturday for pointing us towards the photo from engrish.com.)
First Whiteout bookstore display.
This was a pleasant surprise. I was wandering through a Borders bookstore near the studio and saw this graphic novel display: I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've seen anything of mine on display in a bookstore. I've no idea if the person responsible heard about the movie or just liked the new cover or what, but it's way, way flattering to be propped up next to Amano and Watchmen.John
Anachronistic passions.
"Talisman is McNeil's sonnet to the love of a great book. "It's about being a book nerd, loving a story," McNeil once said, and it envisions a future when that identity and such passion are anachronisms."Blogging for the Oregonian, Steve Duin writes about Carla Speed McNeil's Talisman, the 4th volume of her graphic novel series Finder.
New nerd zenith reached.
I just need to note for the record that at 3:58 on a Friday there's a bunch of us singing along with Julie Andrews on the Sound of Music soundtrack.
Getting published in a lit magazine is usually more difficult.
I was at the Alberta food co-op last night with Sara, browsing the magazine rack when I spotted what looked like a new literary magazine:A Public Space. Something in the design makes me think of Tin House, which I always enjoy. Quick flip to the table of contents, and, hey, William Vollmann and a section of writing about Antarctica? I'm sold. I toss it in the basket with the apples and oatmeal
Farel Dalrymple at Bridge City Comics
Bridge City Comics is proud to announce a special release party for Omega: The Unknown #1 tonight, Thursday, October 11, starting at 6 p.m.!Portland comic book artist (and creator/artist/writer of critically-acclaimed Pop Gun War) Farel Dalrymple will be on hand at the event to talk about Omega: The Unknown, comics, art and more. Purchase a copy of Omega: The Unknown #1 at Bridge City Comics and
The Spline Doctors
So I've been reading a blog written by Pixar animators who also, at least when they started the blog, were teaching animation at night at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. A lot of the stuff that they talk about for animation is really very applicable to drawing a comic or a storyboard.Like this, from a post about how to improve your characters' "acting," from Dr. Stephen G:"Here is an
Rick's movie. Dylan's book.
"(Hollywood Gang Productions)has optioned rights to graphic novel The Last Christmas from Image Comics.Written by Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan, the novel revolves around Santa Claus, who turns his back on Christmas and goes into seclusion after nuclear war has destroyed the world. When the North Pole gets attacked, Santa must battle zombies and renegades to save the remaining survivors, and
My first comic book.
My mother threw out most of my comics when I went off to college, but a few years ago when my dad died, I found a brown paper bag in his basement containing a few comics I'd left at his place at some point in my early teens. Among them was this, this first comic I ever owned.5 year old me seems to have carefully outlined most of the Namor figures throughout the comic in ballpoint, which would
David Hahn's Spider-man Loves Mary Jane, collected.
"Team MJ welcomes new series artist David Hahn! In the aftermath of recent shocking revelations, what's the story between Mary Jane and Peter? Between Peter and Gwen? Between Liz and - Oh, who CARES?! Is that Firestar?! What's the second most awesome redhead in the world got planned for Spidey this time? Well, we're sure not gonna tell you here! Collecting SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #16-20."
Nice Stumptown Comics Fest endorsement
Designer Toast writes:"Now, I did have some reservations about coming to this show. I've been a mainstream comics collector and reader, and really thought of a lot of indie stuff as being a bunch of disgruntled political burnouts. Not true at all and I've spent more money at this show than I would at a mainstream comic convention. Being exposed to indie press and creators has been a refreshing
Post Stumptown coverage, plus a Jonathan case interview
CBG: For those not in the know, please explain the basic concept of Sea Freak.JC: Sea Freak is the story of an atomic sea mutant in the 1960's whose poet soul is at odds with his need to eat teeny boppers. And that's not his only worry. He also has a chorus of three little crabs living on his body, and they want nothing to do with a change of diet. Still, he's adopted a human sense of justice
Carla and Dylan at the red table.
Carla Speed McNeil visited the studio today. She and Dylan Meconis were cackling like lunatics working together on some design sketches.
Sweet and Perverse
Last Gasp has just announced the final artist list for the imminent anthology Best Erotic Comics 2008, the first of a projected annual series compiled and edited by Greta Christina. This volume includes a short story from the first volume of Colleen Coover's Small Favors, and a contribution by friend of the studio Erika Moen. For ADULTS ONLY, duh."A literary and artistic exploration of human
Stumptown Comics Fest
Stumptown Comics Fest is this weekend! I just looked at their website and checked out where we will be. Here is a handy color-coded map, posted for your convenience. Come on by and say hello!Additionally, I was playing with the Cintiq the other day. This resulted:
Cover roughs for Rick Remender and Kieron Dwyer's Crawlspace
And Kieron's color work-up on the final inked version. Eventual colors by Tony Moore.More at the Crawl Space blog.
Dylan Meconis in the Willamette Week
Several cartoonists are profiled in this week's Willamette Week, as part of their Stumptown Comics Fest coverage. Among them is Periscope's own Dylan Meconis:Meconis, who started her first Web comic (Bite Me! , a vampire epic set during the French Revolution) at 17, now splits her time between Periscope Studios and the Portland design firm XPLANE. An organizer of the Stumptown Comics Fest, she
Cat Ellis says : "Crispy Banana!"
1-1/2 cups HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS Cereal, crushed1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon2 Tbsp. honey4 small ripe bananas, cut crosswise in half1/4 cup whipped cream. PREHEAT oven to 375ºF. Line 15x10x1-inch baking pan with foil; set aside. Mix crushed cereal and the cinnamon on large plate. Pour honey onto second plate.ROLL each banana piece in honey, then in cereal mixture until evenly coated. Place in
Planet Saturday interview
Over at Talkaboutcomics, Shaenon Garrity talks to Planet Saturday's Monty Kane. Kane's a real talent to watch.
Zinesters talking: Erika Moen and Sarah Oleksyk
Live in Portland? Like making comics? ">Go here:Tuesday, September 25, 6:30–7:45 p.m.North Portland Library 512 N. Killingsworth St. Cost: Free (space is limited, so first-come, first-served)Explore the world of mini-comic zines with artist-authors Erika Moen and Sarah Oleksyk.
Friday afternoon fun.
So Parker found this webcam watching the construction near our studio. And our assistant James needed to run an errand, so we sent him with a sign to see if we could spot him. The sign was too small to read, but James was able to make himself clearly visible.
Advice From Bud Fisher
I'm mirroring this from my own blog, since I expect folks here will find it interestng.Bud Fisher, creator of Mutt & Jeff, is the current entry on our roster of cartooning bigwigs of the '20s who replied to Clare Briggs' questionnaire. Fisher's answers are brief, so I'll transcribe 'em below (in tandem with Briggs' questions, in blue), and follow them up with a page about Fisher's colorful life,
Hamm says: "Not so!"
Over at Publisher's Weekly Heidi posted something that sugeested that Minx titles haven't been getting much attention from female reviewers. Jesse Hamm, artist of Good As Lily, writes in to draw attention to a few that Heidi might have missed: The Philadelphia Inquirer's Katie Haegele says that GOOD AS LILY's "modern, imaginative story is a good choice for readers, male or female, who are
Hahn: "No C material allowed."
“In the morning people come in and the insults start to fly, you can’t bring your C material. But it calms down after lunch and the headphones go on and people get to work,”The Portland Tribune's Joseph Gallivan profiles Periscope Studio (Tribune photo of Kieron Dwyer by Jim Clark.)
About.com and the X-Axis
The comics section of About.com just launched a set of Periscope Studio pages.Paul O'Brien has a great review of Click by Sara Ryan and Dylan Meconis. O'Brien says:"Ryan really does excel in this format - she takes a simple, emotional event, she makes her point simply and elegantly, and then she stops. In an era where everyone wants to make graphic novels, it's good to be reminded of the real
Weiner Dogs and Tanks
Some of us young Periscopians visited the Oktoberfest at Mount Angel on Saturday, and a lesson was learned for the amusement of all:If ever you thought that a Dachshund didn't look small enough... put it next to a tank.
Strange visitor from another planet.
One night recently, several of us were pulling a late shift at the studio. It was hot, so we had the window open. One of these flew in:I'm not an insect aficionado. My instinctual response to bugs is usually "Enemy! Enemy! Unstoppable enemy seeking to drive me from the top of the food chain!" But it's hard not to be entranced by something as gorgeous as this guy (gal?). Wish I knew what I was
Small satisfactions.
Terri Nelson realized that the spammers who hijacked our old blog were still using our old template header which includes an image in our webspace. That made its possible for us to make the spam-blog's header say this:We can't stop them from saying "periscope" up top, but it's something. Maybe we'll mess with the image some more.In other news, this one came out of nowhere: Whiteout was
The End League
THE END LEAGUE #1 RICK REMENDER (W), MAT BROOME (P), SEAN PARSONS (I), and WENDY BROOME (C) On sale Dec 26FC, 32 pages$2.99Ongoing A thematic merging of The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen, The End League follows a cast of the last remaining supermen and women as they embark on a desperate and perilous journey through a world dominated by evil, in hopes of locating the one remaining artifact
Fear Agent
Fear Agent #3 written and inked by Rick Remender with pencils by Tony Moore ships this week. Go buy it. Or don't. Whatever. I'm not the boss of you, I get it.
I'm going to bring you guys CULTCHA
even if it kills me.First up: Check out Judith Schaechter. She's a stained glass artist. REALLY stained-up glass."I... once decided to design a piece to be executed by some one else posthumously. It would be all the people I've drawn on stage taking a bow. Like, 'Thank you. Show's over.'" --jshttp://www.missioncreep.com/schaechter/
Tuesday is Jesse Hamm day.
"All noble goals; all lousy advice. Lousy because it substitutes destinations for directions. Might as well direct someone to the Fortress of Solitude by telling her to go to Superman’s hideout. The shortest route to better comics is, instead, concrete advice that any creator can put to use right now.That said, here are 8 things I’d like to see more of in comics. These are suggestions that I
It's Ron Chan day here at Periscope.
"The artwork of Ron Chan is crisp and fits really well with the story being told. Ron did a great job of presenting the reader with the range of emotions each character( well, except Mr.Bloomberg of course) was experiencing."G.Rodrigue reviews Ron Chan's A Dummy's Guide to Danger at Comicnews.info.Ron's been doing a lot of storyboards for big clients recently, and developing his caricature
Some good news.
"This happens to the story's main character, and I don't know how Ryan could have done it any better. We get a remarkably vivid sense of the frustration and confusion she feels, and artist Dylan Meconis is up to the task, enhancing and adding nuance. "Johnny Bacardi reviews Sara Ryan and Dylan Meconis' CLICK.(Read the whole comic online for free.) He also reviews Flytrap #3, illustrated by Ron
So I guess you're new here.
I've sent out several dozen copies of this email today:When our studio changed its name from Mercury to Periscope, I thought we were sort of stuck with our old blog URL. Today though, I was happy to stumble upon a button in the blogspot dashboard that enables you to move your content to a new blogspot URL, and I used it. Bang! All of our content was now available at http://
Rich does Fables.
A collector recently commissioned Rich Ellis to do a Fables piece. Here's what he got:If you're interested in commissioning an Ellis piece for yourself, write Rich at fendygit4(at)gmail.comOver at the Pulse, Sara Ryan and I were interviewed by Chris Beckett about Sara's and my first comics story together "Me and Edith Head." Sara's also got a seriously snazzy new web-design up at her site. (
Eddie on the zip
Eddie Campbell is blogging about screen tones. I've had a love/hate relationship with the stuff for years. While the traditional Wally Wood approach to zip never seemed a good match for my line, I've always adored what Eddie has done with those little dots. Guy Davis's "Baker Street" and Doug Wildey's work were inspirational too. When I started Whiteout, screen tones enabled me to get, as Eddie
Rick Remender is positive; Dylan Meconis is unsure.
"This is no lecture, no set of rules. They say we teach best what we most need to learn, and in my case this is proof positive. I feel the need to stop being judgmental and hypercritical. To set aside rivalry and competition and focus on the great stuff going on in comics right now. To be more supportive of people and focus more on what made me want to be in comics in the first place: fun and
Definitive new Whiteout:Melt cover
Oni's released the final design for the definitive edition of Whiteout:Melt. Get it from your local comic shop or independent bookstore. (ISBN10: 1932664718) Or if that won't work, you can order it from Amazon or Powells
Coover-Tobin wedding!
Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin got married on Saturday in a cermony in Laurelhurst park in Portland. Paul Guinan and James Ratcliffe have put up photo-sets. I'm not sure whether to be proud or sad that several comics news sites scooped us on this story.
"I’m not, nor have I ever been, a teenage girl."
"DC’s new Minx imprint has been a source of intense industry conversation since it was announced as the company’s new, concerted effort to get girls to read comics (well, comics published by DC, rather than manga). It’s hard to evaluate how well the line does in meeting its goal as I’m not, nor have I ever been, a teenage girl.But it certainly seems like (Good as Lily) should hit the target
"The body’s frozen to the ice."
"The mere act of discovering that there was a crime is life threatening. It’s not simply, someone found a dead body and you call 911. It’s somebody says, I think I saw something out in the middle of nowhere and someone else says that’s a five hour flight from here and we don’t know what the weather’s like. You want me to fly out and check? Well, yeah, you’re kinda obligated to. Then you get out
"We may just have to start buying them more regularly"
"Jeff Parker and Colleen Coover have a four page back-up story in today’s X-Men: First Class #3 from Marvel Comics. In it, Marvel Girl and the Scarlet Witch team up to bond over shopping, and stop an attempted robbery.I’ve been reading comics for about 30 years now, and I loved the fact that the characters are actually, you know, IN CHARACTER. They’re not angsty and filled with rage, or crazy, or
"His ears look too much like ears."
Ron Chan's been caricaturing MMA fighters:Rampage JacksonRandy CoutureMore fighters forthcoming. The thread title is from a poster on this MMA board, where they've been going nuts for Ron's drawings.
Important Stumptown Comics Fest News
We just received this from the Stumptown Comics Fest Organizers:Hey, all:Seems a lot of people were still operating under the belief that the Fest was going to be in October again this year, and didn't realize that it had been moved up a whole month to the end of September. So, to make sure everyone has a chance of getting their forms in, we've extended the registration deadline to August 31st.
Good as Lily is out.
Jesse Hamm's graphic novel for the MINX line GOOD AS LILY arrives in stores today. The reviews have been terrific!"Thematically it touches on life and death, seeing what’s really in front of you, and how choices shape your life. ... a graphic a novel with as much thought and story as a standard novel. Bravo!" (In the comments section, she adds: "It made me cry. Derek Kirk Kim is an amazing story
Remembering 'Ringo
When the phone rings before 7 AM, a small pit forms in your stomach as you scramble for the phone thinking "this can't be good news." Of course, nine times out of ten it's a wrong number or empty air.Today was that one other time.I can't really believe Mike Wieringo is gone. It isn't real to me yet. He was in great shape. He exercised regularly. He complained about working long hours (like all of
Sheldon the Pig
Kevin Moore has made his all-ages silent webcomic Sheldon the Pig entirely free. Go give it a read. It's beautiful, funny, and weird.
It's A Fowler!
Congrats to Periscope pal Tom Fowler and his wife Monique on the birth of their son, Graham Joseph Duguay Fowler.http://bigbugillustration.blogspot.com
Dylan Meconis and Sara Ryan's CLICK
Over at her LJ, Dylan Meconis writes:Since I was off being a tremendous dork at music camp this past week, you guys get a nice substitute treat over at the comic - namely, another comic! A finished one! Fourteen pages!Dylan has teamed with author Sara Ryan to produce CLICK, a prequel to Sara's new book The Rules For Hearts. Both the comic and the novel star Battle Hall Davies, and one of the
Colleen Coover podcast
" Everybody loves Colleen Coover... the Illustrator, and comic creator. Listen to Colleen talk about Banana Sunday, X-men, and Small Favors. Listen to the interview with Colleen Coover. Listen to her talk about her working style, secrets that she doesn't want to share with Editors, and hear her grill me about why I didn't go to SDCC."~Christopher Shields has a podcast interview with Colleen
Don Heck's Horrific Heads.
Thank you Colleen Coover for steering me towards these awesome horror covers by Don Heck. Now, now at last I grasp the glory of the scary head motif.
Hello PW subscribers!
"'It's possible here because we're in Portland, which is the most cartoonist-rich environment anywhere in the English-speaking world. It's the last affordable city on the West Coast, it's an incredibly literate city, it's got crappy weather that keeps people inside and great coffee to keep them motivated—people come to a place like Portland and they do stuff.' "Publishers Weekly visits Periscope.
New York Times! PWTV!
Several friends called and emailed to tell me about this in the New York Times."These kinds of intimate, face-to-face, sometimes face-to-Darth Vader-mask moments seem crucial to the Comic-Con experience, part of the close bonds that comic books encourage between creators and readers. In the area called Artists’ Alley fans lined up with sketchbooks in which they collect drawings from favorite
Wolk, Parker and Lieber at Powell's tonight!
Sorry, I don't have part two of the con report yet. From the calendar at Powell's Books:The first serious, readable, provocative, canon-smashing book of comics criticism by the leading critic in the field, Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics (Da Capo Press) illuminates the most dazzling creators of modern comics — from Alan Moore and Alison Bechdel to Dave Sim and Chris Ware — and introduces a critical
San Diego Comic Con Report, part one of whatever.
I'd missed Comic-con last year, when things really exploded, and to tell the truth, it felt great to relax and take the time for myself. I won't get to do that this year, so I have resolved to take it easy and not work myself into a nervous frenzy before the show. I don't print a bunch of posters or spend any time sorting through original art the day before the show. In fact I don't even think
Comicon!
Sara Ryan had three new minis and she got tired of waiting for her over-committed husband to draw them, so she came to Periscope:CLICK illustrated by Dylan Meconis. This one ties in with Sara's new novel, The Rules for Hearts and guest stars Katrina from Me and Edith Head.Einbahnstrasse Waltz illustrated by animatorCat Ellis, making her comics debut.Flytrap: episiode 3, Over the Wall illustrated
The year's first big San Diego WTF.
I was looking at the Artist's Alley map, trying to figure out how many sherpas we'd need to get all our gear onsite, when I saw this:"Toy Growers Cultyard." I can't even parse that. Anyone?Either way, Jesse Hamm has a brilliant San Diego advice guide that'll come in handy everywhere throughout the con, including the Cultyard.Colleen has reprinted Star of the East, the great mini-comic the Douglas
party and the glove
We had our housewarming for the new digs on Sunday. Here's a flickr photoset. And these are some photos Paul Guinan shot. Viva Zapander!And here's an interview with Periscope's own Aaron McConnell.
From Parker
From Parker's blog:Some of you are pretty proactive about the Marvel Adventures books, so if you’re looking for somewhere to talk about the Avengers one, may I suggest popping in to Avengers Forever.org, or Comic Book Resources or ComicBoards? Every week I find people who simply didn’t know the book existed who liked it once they knew it did. And now would be a REALLY GOOD TIME to remind everyone
A little peek at the Whiteout movie.
Extra TV made a visit to the Whiteout set and shot this interview with Kate Beckinsale. Turn down the sound on your computer so you don't have to hear the creepy-ass voice-over guy. This was actually filmed one of the days I was there. And hey, as long as Warner Bros is showing a bit of the look of the film, I guess I might as well put up a few of my sketchbook doodles from the set:Kate
Matthew Clark art exhibit at Sequential gallery
The Date: July 5thThe Time: 6pm to 10pmThe Place:Sequential Art Gallery & Studio328 NW Broadway #113Portland OR 97209Matthew will be showing art from after his heart attack, so that means there'll be pages from his work on Superman/Batman, The Outsiders and some DC covers. Also on display is an enormous collaboration piece with Aimee Dieterle:See you there!
Appreciating Comics panel at the library.
The Appreciating Comics panel was a huge success. Big crowd. Great questions. Fun. Informative. All that. The moderator was Douglas Wolk, and the panelists were Colleen Coover, Dylan Meconis, Scott McCloud, Jenn Manley Lee, and Gail Simone. Big scramble for seats. It was standing room only, and they wound up turning a lot of people away.Sara Ryan reads the winning door prize number.Scott mixin'
Remender speaks!
Periscope's own Rick Remender interviewed at The Word Balloonhttp://media.libsyn.com/media/wordballoon/WBrickremender0607.mp3And here's Tuesday's and Wednesday's excerpts of Derek Kirk Kim's and Jesse Hamm's Good as Lilyhttp://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/06/comics_lily_2.htmlhttp://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/06/comics_lily_3.htmlI'll leave it to you folks to guess what the URL for
APPRECIATING COMICS at Central Library.
Appreciating Comics: A Panel Discussionart by Jenn Manley Lee Wednesday, June 27, 6–7:30 p.m. Central Library, U.S. Bank Room801 S.W. 10th Ave.503.988.5234 Join Scott McCloud, author of Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels, and a panel of Oregon cartoonists for a lively, wide-ranging conversation focused on what can be done in comics that can't be done
Good as Lily preview!
This just in from New York magazine:All week on the Comics Page, we're excerpting Good As Lily, a charming English-language manga written by Derek Kirk Kim and drawn by Jesse Hamm, coming in August from Minx.Read the first of five installments.Also, some great reviews of Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo's Spider-man/Fantastic Four miniseries. Kleefeld | Zodarzone | Every Day is like Wednesday |
Father's day.
Art Buchwald had a Thanksgiving column that he used to rerun every year. I think I'm going to approach Father's Day the same way. This was originally published in Portland Monthly magazine. (click to enlarge)$209 Round Trip.
This week, the town is ours.
I love that photo. Anyhow, Periscope has the feature illustrations in both of this week's free papers. Colleen Coover's done all the art for the Portland Mercury's Pride Week supplement. and Rich Ellis has the cover and nearly a dozen illustrations in the latest Willamette Week.The Mercury also announced that they're changing their name to the Portland Periscope.
For Immediate Release.
NATION'S LARGEST COMICS STUDIO EXPANDS, GETS NEW NAMEPORTLAND, OREGON. June 14, 2007Mercury Studio, the largest studio of freelance comic book creators in North America, announced today that it has a new name: Periscope. This follows a move to a new space overlooking downtown Portland, long known as a major hub of the comics industry. "We often invited creators from all ends of the field to come
Keep that eye interested.
The Portland Tribune picked up on our show at Floating World and has some art. And that show, by the way is at 20 N.W. Fifth Ave. #101, Call 503-241-0227 for more info. (Special thanks to VJ for reminding us that information like the address of an event can come in handy.)This is the sort of thing that Jesse blogs about better than I do, but I followed a Journalista link to Austin Kleon's post
First Thursday, last Mercury post.
Lightly edited from Floating World's myspace blog:Portland’s best kept secret: we are a comics town. The list of local comics creators and publishers gets larger every year. I think it should be a point of pride that Portland is the West Coast comics capital of the nation.For example, PERISCOPE (formerly MERCURY STUDIO) located in downtown Portland is the largest in the comic book industry. Home
Sad. sad.
Overheard in the Kroger's parking lot, near the undisclosed location in Ohio:Mom and son, loading groceries in their car. He's maybe fourteen, in the middle of his growth spurt.Mom: Did you finish your Spider-man book?Son: Nah, there's too many big words.
Getting squirrely.
Steve here. I'm still in Ohio. There was a bit of excitement today when I sprinted across a lawn to put myself between a reckless toddler and a hot barbeque. As a reward for my heroism, an albino squirrel was revealed unto me.I'm in Ohio. I'll take what I can get.Speaking of squirrels, I just made my very first post to Scans Daily, and it's, well, sort of squirrel-centric. My god, two
How did THAT happen?
That X-men First Class Special continues to get more notice. They've interviewed Colleen Coover about it over at The Pulse. And reviewers and message boards continue to talk about it:Pop Culture Shock|Fanboy Planet|Toonzone|The other Silver Bullet. We're all really glad to see this. Editor Mark Paniccia took a risk letting an unabashedly funny cartoonist like Colleen work her magic on the X-men.
Parker and Coover break the internet, save Marvel.
For the past couple months, we've been pacing impatiently around the studio waiting for Jeff Parker's X-Men First Class Special to come out. Of course everyone was thrilled to see the Kevin Nowlan pages as they came in, and the Nick Dragoda/ Mike Allred story was a hoot, but what really had us shaking was this: "Will the Colleen Coover pages make the internet's collective head explode?" How can I
It gets cold up there, too.
The set visit went great and I'm not going to share any information, but I'm VERY, VERY happy with everything I saw. The weather in Montreal was foul, but that aside, I spent the visit wearing expressions that alternated between a big goofy grin and awestruck wonder at how cool it all was.Steve
More good press for Wire Mothers
"This nonfiction graphic novel retelling psychologist Harry Harlow's famous experiments is as disturbing as it is excellent."Jim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis' Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love has landed another great review. This one's at Publisher's Weekly.And hey, Comics Worth Reading likes it, too.Also, re:the Bookslut review linked below, I'm told that Dylan Meconis is a "she
The artwork is realistic and compelling -- it’s hard to look at the young monkeys without feeling more than a heavy dose of compassion and pity. Artist Dylan Meconis has hit just the right mark here, and adds to the story while still making it about the real people he depicts and not his interpretation of who they were.Bookslut reviews Jim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis' Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow
Correcting Brad Meltzer and Colleen Long at the A.P.
In this Associated Press article, Colleen Long credits Brad Meltzer's Book of Fate as being the first novel to also include a comic- a section of a Justice League story he'd written."Meltzer and his publishers also put excerpts of "Justice League" into the paperback edition of "Book of Fate," the first time a comic book has appeared in a novel, he says."It's horribly, appallingly nerdy of me to
Portlanders say the darndest things.
Overheard at MLK and Broadway:"So they had the cabernet and the merlot. I didn't try the cabernet because, you know, life's too short."Missed this, somehow: a great review of Colleen Coover's Banana Sunday. Just to my right, Ron Randall is sighing, unhappy because I reminded him of the song "Hooked on a Feeling." He's leaning over towards his itunes and I suspect he's going to put on some Bob
The comics aren't free anymore.
None of us remembered to bring a camera to FCBD. Fortunately, Aaron Albert of About.com has put up a cool gallery of photos of the day. Here's one:Two Reviews of the FCBD edition of WHITEOUT. Douglas Wolk surveyed the entire slate of titles for Salon. And this one is easily my most favoritest review ever, EVER: Blogger Laura Hudson's momAnd don't miss this interview with Parker, or more
Tender principles.
He took the stuff he was comfortable with, the scientific process, and turned it like a firehose onto the subject of love. The results are fittingly powerful and contradictory -- a set of horrendously chilling experiments which incontrovertibly demonstrated one of the most tender principles of human life.Tom Spurgeon talks with Jim Ottaviani, Dylan Meconis and Janine Johnston.Free Comic Book Day
Free Comic Book Day at Cosmic Monkey
Free Comic Book Day: Cosmic MonkeyIf you’re around the Portland, Oregon area, visit us at the new Cosmic Monkey Comics on Sandy Blvd. in East Hollywood from 12 to 3, today!Matt Wagner - Grendel, Mage, Batman & The Monster MenDavid Hahn - Private Beach, Bite Club, Spider-man Loves Mary JaneJeff Parker - The Interman, Agents of Atlas, X-Men First ClassSteve Lieber - Civil War:Frontline, Gotham
Loving the living planet.
Scans Daily looks in at the Grendel miniseries I did many years ago. They also had an epic thread appreciating the latest issue of Jeff Parker and Juan Santacruz's Marvel Adventures Avengers #12. (Though they do manage to get through sixty-some posts without ever mentioning Juan or Jeff. Hey Scans people, these stories don't just happen. If you like the stuff enough to scan and upload it, why not
Interesting exhibit of a local webcartoonist's work
Ben Bittner is showing brass plate etchings(!) of his webcomic cooking with Anne at one of my favorite coffeshops, Tiny's on MLK. I missed the opening, but was glad to see the plates, which are lovely, fragile-looking objects. The comic itself can be read here. I haven't read too far in the strip, but what I've seen looks interesting. Rough linework anchored by solid composition in service of a
Spider-merc
Two Mercury Spider-books came out on Wednesday: David Hahn's second issue of Spider-man Loves Mary Jane and The first issue of Jeff Parker's Spider-man/ Fantastic Four. Hahn's book is getting nice coverage at Comixtreme and Dean Trippe's journal. And they're going ape over Parker and Wieringo at All this and Earth 2 , Comics should be good , Hasn't Happened Yet , Unnatural Devotions ,
What, exactly, does big imply?
I went to something-Orchid, a hair salon in Portland's inadequate Chinatown that Colleen Coover recommended. The owner stopped right in the middle of someone else's style-job, leaving her sitting in the chair with strange things in her hair while I got my quick buzzcut. She made conversation, as all barbers will, and asked me if Sara and I had any kids. I said no. She seemed a little put off,
Emerald City Comicon
Many Mercury members will be heading up to Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon this weekend: Jeff Parker, Colleen Coover, David Hahn, Ron Randall, Ron Chan, Steve Lieber and Paul Guinan. Karl and Matthew won't be able to make it, unfortunately. Here's the complete guest list.If you're there, stop by and introduce yourself!SL
Wednesday's linking
"So what was good? First rule: look for Jeff Parker’s name."Johanna Draper Carlson talks about new superhero comicsHere's the first part of an interview with Too Much Coffee Man auteur Shannon Wheeler"it’s a homecoming film of sorts for one of the city’s most talented creative duos, the brothers Jacob and Arnold Pander. They describe “Selfless" as a “sexy psychological thriller about the
Hahnday
Call this a David Hahn kind of day: First, a couple of great reviews of his first issue of Spider-man Loves Mary Jane at Comixtreme and Living Between Wednesdays.And then, from somewhere in Manitoba, a Whiteout filming update that focuses entirely on airplanes.
More Whiteout movie news.
"Gabriel Macht will star opposite Kate Beckinsale in action-thriller "Whiteout," the first pic from Joel Silver's Warners-based Dark Castle Entertainment banner. Tom Skerritt and Columbus Short also will star."Read the rest at Variety.
Let's learning together.
Zevon is a six-year-old Welsh corgi named after the singer Warren Zevon because he is so energetic he's truly an "excitable boy". He loves nothing more than to run-- something that, unfortunately, started to cause him great pain and often left him lame for days after even a small amount of play. Zevon was operated on in late January 2007 and the surgery went quite well. So well, in fact, that
Portland cartoonists all over the web.
Anne Timmons has a new book coming out.Linda Medley gave a talk at Wondercon.Sara Ryan has released the latest icon from her sticker campaign with Colleen Coover.Sarah Oleksyk just put up new pages fromIvyDylan Meconis' Family Man just hit the one year mark with its 53rd episode. Happy anniversary!
Boilerplate in Japan
As Paul Guinan works at full steam finishing the Boilerplate coffee-table book, his robot continues its blog tour of the world wide web. The latest review of the Boilerplate site comes from this Japanese blog. The latest images produced for the book can be seen on the Boilerplate News page which is updated every couple weeks. The book is being published by Collectors Press, and is due for a fall
Steve's off to Wondercon.
I'll be at the con all three days, sitting in artist's alley, table AA78. Stop by and mention you saw this on the Mercury Studio blog and time permitting, I'll doodle out a free quick sketch.Hm. I guess I might as well start my con diary. I haven't done one in a while, so let's see if I still have anything to say.Thursday,March 1st. Sara and I got home late Wednesday night after an evening at the
Hahn interviewed.
I had the seed of a story about two people whose budding friendship is interrupted by catastrophe scribbled in the margins of my sketchbook for about a year. It was then that Shelly Bond at DC/Vertigo asked me to pitch something for the Minx line back in February ‘06. At that time everything about Minx was top secret, so naturally I had never heard of the imprint.Read more: David Hahn interview
Gimme five
Over on another message board, there's a discussion of stories that hit hard again and again. Here's my list of five that have never lost their impact for me.Lee and Ditko's Spider-man #33 The opening of the last chapter of the "Master Planner" storyline, with the big machine-lifting opening sequence.Chester Brown's Yummy Fur #4 Forgiven. An powerful nightmare of a story, presented simply,
Third Whiteout series.
In 1998, novelist Greg Rucka debuted on the comics scene with the four issue mini-series “Whiteout” from Oni Press. With artist Steve Lieber handling the visuals, the series which followed U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko investigating a murder at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, was an instant hit, garnering four Eisner Nominations. Not content to rest on their laurels, the duo revisited the life
Read it all, free!
The second episode of FLYTRAP is now online. This one's called "Deep, too." It's illustrated by our own Ron Chan, who recently completed "A Dummy's Guide to Danger" from Viper.You can also read (or re-read) the entire first episode of Flytrap, here.
Second icon from Colleen.
Sara Ryan has released the second of the seven icons designed by Colleen Coover to illustrate Sara's new novel The Rules for Hearts. Sara's website has instructions for how to get a free set of vinyl stickers of all seven icons.
Strange Whiteout filming update from IMDB
The word comes down from Manitoba:"Everyone in town here is getting flyers in the mail that ask for extras. They're looking for 'people who look like scientists that have been working in harsh, cold weather for a long period of time'. Which means I can't be one, since I stay inside most of the time and don't have the wind burnt face. Plus they ask for flexible hours between March 5th-18th, and I
Dwayne's World.
Jeff Parker and I were taking yesterday about good advice we've been given, and after a few minutes, both of us came to the conclusion that the best we ever heard came from Dwayne McDuffie. Here it is.Dwayne's advice to Parker:Not long after The Interman came out I was at the excellent Earth 2 Comics in Sherman Oaks, which is very close to the Warner Animation offices where Dwayne worked. Jud and
What about a panda?
So I took a look at the latest development in the latest funnybook pissing match, wondering if there's one party that's obviously in the wrong. "It all seems so pointless," I thought, "but nothing's black and white."Then I remembered this, from an interview with David Mamet:INTERVIEWERIs there a moment in one of your plays that you really didn’t know was there?MAMETYes. I wrote this play called
The Rules for the Sara/Colleen sticker giveaway.
Novelist/comics writer Sara Ryan has a new book coming out. On her blog, she writes:Courtesy of the lovely and talented Colleen Coover, here's the first of seven icons based on different elements of The Rules for Hearts. I'll release one a week, each with a quote from the book, until the beginning of April. Feel free to use them wherever you'd like! And if you put them somewhere on your blog,
"Cympsons"
Dylan Meconis reports that her "Battlestar Galactisimpsons" drawings made #1 on Sci Fi Magazine's "Watch List.
Today, I'll play "bury the lede."
Doritos and FeetSo, we've had this vexing question that's annoyed and puzzled us for years. Yesterday, we decided to take action and see if there's an answer. We wrote a letter to the customer service manager of Alvin & Company.Hi. First, I should note that I realize this might sound like a prank question, but honestly, it isn't.I'm part of a studio of comic book artists and we all use Alvin
Arnim Zola
Evil Swiss biochemist Arnim Zola, courtesy of Colleen Coover:Colleen's going to be at the Beasts signing Friday the 2nd at 7:00 pm at the Grass Hut on Burnside.Also, at a garage sale last weekend, we found further proof of Jesse Hamm's Durden the Menace theory:
Not much. Yourself?
Looks like the news about the Whiteout movie has gone public:In the unsure world of moving comics to the screen, Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber’s Whiteout appears to have taken a large and definitive one, as Production Weekly has confirmed rumors that Kate Beckinsale will play US Marshal Carrie Stetko in the film version of the story, with Dominic (Gone in 60 Seconds) Sena directing.Filming is
The New Edition
Nostalgia for vanished integrity time! Oni's just announced that there'll be a new edition of WHITEOUT. This might be the new cover.Speaking of vanished, looks like Speedball's gone forever. Paul Jenkins responds to intense fan reaction here.Equally intense but less beligerent: more response to Parker's all-Modok issue of Marvel Adventures- The Avengers:Comix Experience | Comic Book ResourcesAnd
Just another Modoc Monday.
"evolution isn't always a move towards sophistication and complexity."Tim O'Shea interviews Jeff Parker for Silver Bullet.And speaking of Parker, it looks like most of the comics blogosphere is doing just that:The Fake Life | Samarcand | Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin | Random Happenstance | Powet.tv | Trusty Plinko Stick | Comics Worth Reading | Bully! | The ISB | Wally Whateley | Every Day
Get well, Cecil!
Ouch! Cecil Castellucci is great at everything she tries, and that's a lot: She's a novelist, musician, film-maker and now, with the MINX line, a comics writer. She's game to try anything, including ice hockey:The rest of the story is at her blogColleen Coover reports that there'll be a Portland signing for the Fantagraphics Beasts! book. Bwana Spoons will be hosting the event at the Grass Hut
Name three Robins
Today's quote: "First I was asked to establish more credentials, and it wasn’t even innocently phrased anymore. One guy said, word for word, 'If you really like Batman, name three Robins.'” From the blog "Adventures in Lame," a woman tells the story of being challenged to prove her geek cred and explains why she's not dating a nerd."Someone at scans_daily did a hilarious job of vandalizing my
Preach, Eddie.
"...the trick of writing a comic book is to describe a picture. having described it, describe the next one. That is the absolutely essential technique that the writer needs to learn. Some do thumbnails, which is a way of keeping the mind on the fact that a picture must be the end result of the writing."-Eddie Campbell, in the comments to this blog post.
Change your brain function.
Attention Rich! Here's your thought for the day: "The odd thing about the claim that eating sugar makes people hyperactive or even violent is that eating any carbohydrate will reliably do just the opposite. Carbohydrates raise the level of the amino acid tryptophan in the bloodstream, which the brain uses to synthesize serotonin, a neurotransmitter associated with sleep, analgesia, calm, and even
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
