Periscope: Portland's storyboard and comics studio.

"The nervousness wore off. Now I feel sheer terror."
Mercury's own Matthew Clark talks to the Pulse


"The reputation of comics has improved so much in recent decades that Maryland is planning a program that would use the books in public schools to help engage reluctant readers."
The Washington Post on comics in the classroom. Bonus: the article cites Dignifying Science.

"When you realize that real life is more fun than art, that's when you've got to stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute."
Jaime Hernandez interviewed at Salon

"(Parker) vividly contrasts the desolate and bleak facility with the spirited yet clearly frustrated scientists within."
Comic Book Galaxy reviews FALLOUT published by G.T. Labs


"There's no longer an infrastructure to support more than a tiny number of up-and-coming cartoonists, which is unfortunate, because the talent base out there is enormous."
The Washington Post talks to Portland's Barry "Ampersand" Deutsch. (registration required) And here, at Barry's blog is the complete text of the interview. Via Kip

"I did some Olympic stuff for Nike (her stuff: the 2000 Australian Olympic team), and athletes are almost superheroes. Some of the athletes, their bodies are so crazily shaped, especially when you get into the weightlifters or the cyclists; you have to custom-fit and custom-design their stuff because they might have really gigantic thighs and then these teeny-tiny upper bodies."The Oregonian talks to local fashion experts about The Incredibles' Edna Mode.

Also of local interest, I illustrated the cover story for this week's Willamette Week.


One of my favorite genres is back! Ron Randall is working on a online comic for an romance publisher. Here's a sneak peek.


Finally, David Hahn has an Escapist story coming up in issue number five. It's written by his Bite Club collaborator, Howard Chaykin, and David's taking care of all the visuals: pencils, inks letters and colors.
Here's a before and after showing one of David's pencil layouts and the completed art:

Reason magazine has the story of Disney, Dan O'Neil and the Air Pirates

Max Collins interviewed about his Road to Perdition sequels for a Columbus-area newspaper.


"Holy stocking stuffer! These are perfect!" Via Kevin Melrose, the Boston Herald tells you what to buy. The list, credited to Mark A. Perigard, recommends vital works like The Complete Peanuts, cool stuff like the DC Archives, and, God bless him, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel.

And even if you don't buy any of the things the Boston Herald suggests, you really, really should pick up one of these.

"I'd probably spent four or five months doing nothing, because I didn't know what to do. And every month I waited, the book would get more props, and more and more people started talking about it." The Porland Mercury covers the soundtrack composed by Tracker for Craig Thompson's Blankets. Thompson and Tracker will be performing live together Friday, Dec 10 at Nocturnal on 1800 E Burnside, here in Portland.

The Mercury also notes that Wednesday, December 15, there'll be something at Powell's about The Superhero Book "an encyclopedic compendium that'll tell you everything you've ever wanted to know about comic book heroes." Powell's on Burnside, 1005 W. Burnside, 228-0540, 7:30 pm.

David Hahn has received a preview copy of The Batman Handbook. It's written by Scott Beatty and lavishly illustrated by David. Not sure when the book hits the stores, but here's the cover:


I did some Batman work myself, a little while ago. It seems like forever.

Steve Rude visited Mercury yesterday. Pictures and commentary are coming.

Gotta share this. Drew Johnson was recently celebrating his birthday with an animator friend and received the sketch linked below. (Click on the thumbnail.) It's kind of scary how easy it is to hear the voice...

Drew Johnson, fresh off his very first Spiderman story, is ebaying again. You can see his auctions Here, here,and here.

At Ninth Art, Paul O'Brien has an interesting essay on how the mainstream audience reacts to "real" writers - writers who come to comics from other media. I'd like to see a critic follow up on this. Maybe a look at their comics as part of a larger body of work, or something comparing the approaches of various "real" writers from the same medium.

I'm always glad to see experienced writers work in comics, and I say that as both a reader and a cartoonist. The three most well-reviewed and well-received stories I've worked on (Whiteout,Me and Edith Head, and Family Reunion.) were all written by novelists making their comics debut. That could be a coincidence, but I don't think it is.

Also at Ninth Art, Greg McElhatton has his Things to come article up looking at the new Previews. Dave at Yet Another Comics Blog has a lot to say about it, too.

We've been wanting to talk about this for a while, and finally, it's out: Pete Woods is the new artist on Catwoman Follow the link for an interview with new writer Will Pfeifer and some spectacular pencils from Pete.

Pete, alas, doesn't get much ink in the interview above. So, why not go to Pete's own blog and read a general-purpose interview he posted there.

And you know, Rebecca Woods has a blog, too. She's posted some gorgeous sketches.

Congratulations are due to former Portlander Aaron Lopresti for his new exclusive with Marvel comics. They're also due to current Portlander Craig Thompson for adding yet another well-deserved award to his already groaning shelf of trophies: Tom Spurgeon reports that "Craig Thompson's Blankets won the critics' grand prize given out by the L'association des journalistes et critiques de la bande dessinee (ACBD) in France. "

Also of local interest, Kevin Moore has updated his webcomic Sheldon, the Pig.

Finally, the good people at Whisperdog Productions -they're the ones who are producing a film-festival short adaptation of Me and Edith Head- sent me and Sara an audition tape of an actress up for the part of Katrina. Very cool- more news when we have it.