Periscope: Portland's storyboard and comics studio.

"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 think any creator can try out immediately; adjustments that don’t require new skills to implement. They aren’t all about quality; some are just intended to foster variety. But in every case I think they would add extra oomph to today’s comics — both alternative and mainstream."

Jesse Hamm writing a guest column for Comics Should be good.

"I arrive at Periscope Studio, in downtown Portland, where there are usually eight or ten artists working on their various freelance projects. If I have an illustration assignment of my own, I work on that; otherwise, I do assistant work for other artists in the studio — penciling and inking backgrounds, storyboarding, miscellaneous design/illustration work, etc. We listen to music, and there's a lot of joking around; we've also got a large reference library and a Cintiq and other fun toys. (And by "toys," I mean action figures.) We're often snapping digital photos of each other for reference, usually while brandishing weapons, and we brew a lot of tea and treat each other to hummus and pita bread from a restaurant down the street. It's a great environment, like a sitcom with less attractive people."

Jesse Hamm interviewed at Sequential Tart.

"As for the art, it is black and white, but is so nearly flawless that you won’t notice. Also, I was happy to see that Hamm can draw Korean people most excellently and so this book probably has the most Asian looking Asian people that I have seen since Scott Pigrim by Brian Lee ’O Malley."

Mike's Bitchin Comics Pickswrites about Jesse Hamm's Good As Lily. (No direct link available- go to the 8/21 entry.)

Labels: Jesse Hamm