Periscope: Portland's storyboard and comics studio.

"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 imaginative storytelling."

Rick Remender has an essay on positivity up at Newsarama.

"What do you think makes somebody a good illustrator, as opposed to a good comics artist (and vice versa)?"

Dylan Meconis, Vera Brosgol, Kris Dresen and others discuss fine art, illustration, comics art and more at Dylan's LJ.

Labels: Dylan Meconis, Rick Remender

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

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.

Labels: Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin

"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 audience. The story reads like young-adult fiction with a teen-movie accent, and the art resembles something between manga (black and white, digest-sized, occasional use of the Eastern visual lexicon) and Western original graphic novels. "

Las Vegas Weekly reviews Jesse Hamm's Good as Lily (and Ron Chan's A Dummy's Guide to Danger, too)

Labels: Jesse Hamm, ron chan

"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 there and lo and behold this is now a crime scene. It’s a negative one hundred ten below zero with wind chill crime scene and you’ve got to keep the plane running because if it stops you’re never going to get it started again. And you’ve got only X amount of fuel. And the body’s frozen to the ice. Let’s just say it was an accidental death and call it a day. But look, he has eighty stab wounds. Oh, he accidentally stabbed himself eighty times, let’s go, I’m cold."

Greg Rucka and Dominic Sena talk to Comics2Film.com about WHITEOUT.

Labels: whiteout movie

"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 broken."

Pink Raygun checked out the latest issue of X-men First Class, and they like what they saw.
And since I found them on the desktop of this computer, here are a couple of panels from the story:

Labels: Colleen Coover, Jeff Parker

Ron Chan's been caricaturing MMA fighters:
Rampage Jackson


Randy Couture


More fighters forthcoming. The thread title is from a poster on this MMA board, where they've been going nuts for Ron's drawings.

Labels: caricature, ron chan

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. We'll still be accepting registrations after that, but we can't guarantee your choice of placement, or a listing in the official Fest Program, so please get your forms in asap! Table prices are still at a low $110 for a full table, and $70 for a half table, and the registration forms can be found here:

http://www.stumptowncomics.com/registration

Thanks, and I hope to see you all in September!

If you have a blog or participate on a message board, spread the word. It could make a BIG difference for this fine regional show.

Labels: Stumptown

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 teller. He really gets the whole writing for comics thing.")
http://mango-firefly.livejournal.com/13821.html


"...a fresh, entertaining and engaging tale of true friendship, love, and valuing one self as much as the people in your life do. Absolutely delightful and highly recommended."
http://dawnoftheread.livejournal.com/17012.html

"My advanced copy of this graphic novel says that I shouldn’t quote or review this without comparing it to the final version of the book…but I must say one thing. This Rocks! :)"
http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/49008

"DC's Minx line continues to come on strong with Derek Kirk Kim's Good As Lily... a fairly complex little story about the things people want in life, how they change, and all the little key points where a life can start unraveling… [grade] A"
http://mobile.avclub.com/content/node/64696


"If you are in the mood for a fun read that ends up being a little meatier than you might expect, GOOD AS LILY will be mighty good, indeed."
http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/1401213812.asp


"I absolutely loved this book. ... The momentum of the story carries it to a
conclusion that's satisfying without ever being pat or cloying. This fantastic done-in-one tale is easily one of the most heartwarming and enjoyable releases so far this year." And about Jesse's work specifically: "...[Hamm] turns out to be a very solid collaborator. ... Hamm's art does a stellar job using facial expressions and body language to communicate the subtle personality traits that Kim's script demands."
http://www.playbackstl.com/content/view/6484/167/


Also, KTVU (the TV channel Jesse relied on for cartoons as a youngster) ran a short interview with Derek Kirk Kim which can be viewed here. Toward the end is a nice flip-through of the pages of GOOD AS LILY.

Labels: Good as Lily, Jesse Hamm

Jeff Parker's tribute to Mike Wieringo, with great photos.

Labels: Jeff Parker

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 us!) but never about feeling tired or weak. Hell, we talked on the phone two days ago and it was just another chat with 'Ringo. I had no idea what was around the corner. Neither did Mike.

I had the honor of working with Mike as a writer and as an inker-- in fact, I probably inked more of his pages than any other penciler-- and he was a joy to work with, every panel, every time. His work was deceptively simple-- there was so much knowledge and thought in every single line he put on paper. His work had a subtlety and sophistication that I really wasn't aware of until I began inking him on a regular basis. Then I noticed things like a small waver in a line indicating a muscle just starting to tense, or a tiny nick next to an eye to show slight annoyance or the beginning of a smile. His characters moved and breathed. His storytelling was crystal-clear. The worlds he brought to life were breath-taking. And whenever I inked him I tried my damnedest to capture all of that; to not screw up anything he'd given me.

Mike was one of my biggest boosters. God love him, he thought I was the very best inker for his pencils. The first time I worked with 'Ringo was as a writer/inker on a one-shot called Spider-Boy, and we were always trying to think up other projects that I could write-and-ink for him. More recently, I'd been stretching my penciling muscles, and Mike was nothing but encouraging and supportive. As I've developed my own sense of storytelling and pacing, the fact is no one has influenced me more than Mike.

The last time I talked to Mike we agreed that both he and I drew "action" not "violence" and, unfortunately, that limited our commercial viability in today's market. Mike commented, a bit bewildered, that only a few years ago his style was "The Look" that all the editors wanted to give their characters, but somehow, suddenly, that had changed. I'd been thinking about that a lot, even before I got the news about Mike, and this is what I decided-- this is what I was going to tell Mike the next time we talked:

Mike's art was about hope, not hopelessness. He drew heroes, not martyrs. And if that was wrong, thank you Mike for never being right.

I have a lot of framed original art on my walls, almost none of it pieces I've worked on. It just seems out of place to me to hang something I've worked on next to a Caniff or Kirby. The one exception is the cover to Fantastic Four 517, penciled by Mike Wieringo. It's my all-time favorite comic-book series, from a run I am very proud to have been a small part of, penciled by an exceptional artist and dear friend.

And it's never coming off the wall.


Karl Kesel
August 13, 2007

Labels: Karl Kesel

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.

Congrats to Periscope pal Tom Fowler and his wife Monique on the birth of their son, Graham Joseph Duguay Fowler.
http://bigbugillustration.blogspot.com

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 supporting characters in the comic is Katrina from Sara's Eisner-nominated short story Me and Edith Head.



Go, read!

Labels: Dylan Meconis, freebies, Sara Ryan

" 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 Coover up at cIndycenter.

Photo of Colleen with Bully the Little Stuffed Bull stolen from
Bully's Con Report

Labels: Colleen Coover

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.

"'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.

"“I just want to say this is like the smartest audience ever!” enthused novelist Sara Ryan (The Rules for Hearts). Indeed, the “Comics Are Not Literature” panel at San Diego Comic-Con International on Sunday often sounded like an Ivy League debate society."

Newsarama's Zack Smith covers the SDCC Comics Are Not Literature panel

The script doesn’t dumb down for the audience. There is some decent explanation of life in the Antarctic without ever making the audience feel like they are getting a lesson or facing plot details on them. The characters are likable from the start especially Marshall Stetko who you know is rough and tough heroine who is going to get the job done.

How do they get these things? Latino Weeklyreviews a bootleg copy of the Whiteout movie script.

"Put as simply as possible, I absolutely loved this book. Kim never takes the easy way out with Grace's tale: she's neither the perfect girl leading a charmed life nor the nerdy kid picked on by the popular kids, but just a regular, ordinary high school girl dealing with problems both ordinary and extraordinary. The cast of characters is thoroughly likable, and Hamm's art does a stellar job using facial expressions and body language to communicate the subtle personality traits that Kim's script demands."

Playback St. Louis gives a rave review to Jesse Hamm's Good as Lily.

And hey, do you blog about comics? Send me a link to your blog and I'll mail out some of Sara Ryan's new mini comics, illustrated by studio members Ron Chan and Dylan Meconis!

Labels: Jesse Hamm, Sara Ryan, Steve Lieber, whiteout movie

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 artists. Some cartoonists offer free sketches, others ask for a nominal payment ($20 or so), but all seemed happy to chat with every nervous adolescent and pushy adult who dropped by their table. Seated next to his wife and sometimes collaborator, Sara Ryan, Steve Lieber (“Whiteout”) graciously scratched out an image at the bequest of an aggressive fan, never breaking stride or losing his smile."

And then there's this.

Wow. I'd forgotten just how much stammering I do before I actually start saying anything comprehensible in a sentence. It's like watching a Hanna-Barbera character run in place with the bongo sounds going before he actually zips off.

Labels: Steve Lieber, whiteout movie

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 theory that explains where each fits into the pantheon of art. This event includes a panel discussion on graphic novels, featuring Wolk, Whiteout artist Steve Lieber, and a late addition to the line-up: Agents of Atlas author Jeff Parker!

Karl Kesel sends along one of his con sketches:


And we asked Jonathan Case about his con experience and in his radio-trained voice, he replied:"It was a big opportunity for me to meet people on both the publishing and creative side of the business, folks like Jeff Smith and Brett Warnock. It was great to get such a positive response to my work!" He's only got a few of his excellent Seafreak preview booklets left, but if you blog about comics and would like one, email us your address at periscope.studio(at)gmail.com and we'll send one out.

Labels: Douglas Wolk, Jeff Parker, Jonathan Case, Steve Lieber