Periscope: Portland's storyboard and comics studio.

"(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 ultimately, the holiday."

Variety reports on the sale of The Last Christmas, illustrated by Rick Remender.

"Meconis' illustrations give us a square-jawed man with a speech impediment who drinks, chain-smokes and works in his shirt sleeves. The image of him on the night he conceives of his famous experiment is marvelous. Working late on Christmas Eve, Harlow accidentally locks himself in the monkeys' cage. The animals crawl all over him, nestling against his shoulders, and the annoyed look on his face is priceless."

The L.A. Times reviews Jim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis' Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love. (They also say she's an OEL manga artist, but it's a great review otherwise, so what the hell.)

Labels: Dylan Meconis, Jim Ottaviani, Rick Remender

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 from reading old Shakespeare plays, bottled and tossed into the sea by an unknown party. He decides to follow the bottles' trail, hoping to find a kindred spirit at the other end, and to at last be free of his monstery ways... It's only when he finds the trail's end that he realizes how far he has to go.

Jonathan Case interviewed at the Comic Book Gazette.

Sara Ryan and Ron Chan's Flytrap, Sara and Dylan Meconis' Click and Short Notice by Susan Tardif, reviewed at The Wright Opinion. Also, Paul Guinan's Boilerplate got a shout-out in Publisher's Weekly's Stumptown coverage.

Labels: Dylan Meconis, Jonathan Case, Paul Guinan, ron chan, Sara Ryan, Susan Tardif

Carla Speed McNeil visited the studio today. She and Dylan Meconis were cackling like lunatics working together on some design sketches.

Labels: Carla Speed McNeil, Dylan Meconis

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 says the local comics scene takes its cue from Portland’s “homegrown” culture as a whole. “There’s an emphasis on independent comics and graphic arts coming out of the Pacific Northwest and West Coast, but ultimately everybody is welcome as long as they contribute to the cartooning community,” she says.

Labels: Dylan Meconis

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 potential of the short story. There's a lot to cover in this issue - it spans a period of weeks - but through judicious pacing and montage, Ryan fits it all in and makes it seem effortless. God, she's good. She has great taste in artists, as well. Dylan Meconis draws wonderfully expressive characters, and fills the panels with the sort of detail that fills out their world."

You can read the comic online for free at webcomicsnation.

Labels: Dylan Meconis, Sara Ryan

"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 Chan, and X-Men First Class #3, written by Jeff parker and featuring a backup illustrated by Colleen Coover.

Colleen's work is also under discussion at Millarworld, where they're talking about adult comics, and everyone agrees that she's one of the best out there. If you've got an opinion on the matter, join in!

And David Hahn's Bite Club just got a rave review over at It's Thursday, I'm in Love

So, no word from blogspot on getting rid of the blogjacking spammer yet. If anyone reading this knows anyone who works for blogger/blogspot, any contact there would be hugely appreciated.

Labels: David Hahn, Dylan Meconis, Jeff Parker, ron chan, Sara Ryan

"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

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

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' it up, Arsenio-style.


Gail Simone explains all.


Douglas, Colleen and Dylan


Big laffs all around.


Douglas takes another question. Colleen doesn't think he should.


Dylan got a page and a half of Family Man inked between questions.


Gail clarifies something. Scott's thoughtful. Jenn's looking at you out of the corner of her eye, so don't try sneaking up.



Douglas said something alarming, but I'll be damned if I can remember what it was.



Jamie Rich, like those around him, pausing to reflect on just what all of this really means.



At dinner, Shannon Wheeler calmly explains that single panel cartoons shouldn't be arbitrarily excluded from any definition of the medium...


...but Scott is having too good a time to revisit that one.


Jen and Vera go straight to the index of Douglas' new book.


Douglas Wolk is talking about your comic.

Labels: Colleen Coover, Douglas Wolk, Dylan Meconis, Gail Simone, Jenn Manley Lee, library, Sara Ryan, Scott McCloud

Appreciating Comics: A Panel Discussion

art by Jenn Manley Lee

Wednesday, June 27, 6–7:30 p.m.

• Central Library, U.S. Bank Room
• 801 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 anywhere else.

• Panelists:
• Colleen Coover, artist of Banana Sunday
• Dylan Meconis, creator of Family Man
• Jenn Manley Lee, creator of Dicebox
• Gail Simone, author of Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds

Douglas Wolk, author of Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, moderates the discussion.

Appreciating Comics is made possible by The Library Foundation and presented in conjunction with the Graphic Novel Intensive at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Space at programs is limited. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Labels: Colleen Coover, Dylan Meconis, library

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. Forunately, the reception looks to be positive. Hell, not just positive; wildly enthusiastic.

The fans are also liking David Hahn's work on Spider-man Loves Mary Jane:Comixtreme|Scans Daily One can only assume this is because David rules.

And hey, this is nice:

"She was always spot-on with the story, and spot-on with the mood. I was extremely pleased when she said yes to the project, and I’m extremely pleased with the finished work."

That was Jim Ottaviani at Newsarama, discussing Dylan Meconis' work on the book.

I'm blogging this from Ohio, which is a big switch from Montreal, as you might imagine. I did manage another celebrity encounter, though. Sara and I were grabbing breakfast at the Portland airport before our flight, when a familiar looking guy sat down next to us. My immediate thought; "Geez, he looks like Ed Begley." Later, when he told the person he was talking to that "I wasn't this busy when I was doing St. Elsewhere" we took that as confirmation. Of course we eavesdropped, and it kind of made me want to go watch Living With Ed.

-Steve Lieber

Labels: Colleen Coover, David Hahn, Dylan Meconis, Jim Ottaviani

"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," rather than the "he" the review cites. Please alter your expectations accordingly.

In other news, I'm writing this from an airport in Chicago, waiting for a flight to Montreal, where I'm going to be visiting the Whiteout set. To say I'm excited about this is kind of like saying "Orson put on a few pounds." But I'm going to do my damnedest to present myself as a thoughtful and dignified professional, and not let my nerves turn me into some sputtering Jerry Lewis spaz-dork. I'll let you know how it goes.

-posted by Lieber

Labels: Dylan Meconis, nerdism, Steve Lieber, whiteout movie

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 fromIvy

Dylan Meconis' Family Man just hit the one year mark with its 53rd episode. Happy anniversary!

Labels: Anne Timmons, Colleen Coover, Dylan Meconis, Linda Medley, Portland, Sara Ryan, Sarah Oleksyk

Dylan Meconis reports that her "Battlestar Galactisimpsons" drawings made #1 on Sci Fi Magazine's "Watch List.

Labels: battlestar galactica, Dylan Meconis

Doritos and Feet
So, 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 ellipse templates. We all bought them at different times, from different retailers, but they *all* have the same cheesey mildew smell, even the set that someone just bought this week.

It's finally sunk in that we might be able to do something about this. Before we risk ruining an expensive set of templates by washing them in a bleach solution, we were hoping you'd have a suggestion. Is there a recommended way to clean them (and the clear plastic envelopes they came in) that would get rid of that unpleasant smell?

Steve Lieber
Mercury Studio
http://mercurystudio.blogspot.com

And no, this wasn't a prank. The templates are great. They're lightweight, strong, and well-marked, but they smell like a bowl of doritos and feet. So anyway, the reply came today.

We know this is not a prank question.

See?

Unfortunately this is a line of product that we have this issue with.

We do not recommend a bleach solution. They can be washed with a mild soap to clean them, but that may not do anything for the smell. The only remedy for the smell is time. Eventually the smell should subside.

(name withheld)
Customer Service Manager
Alvin & Co.
www.alvinco.com

So that's that. The only solution is time.

Whiteout Movie
Some nice news in Variety today:

Sena to direct 'Whiteout'
Action-thriller is first Dark Castle film
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

Dominic Sena will direct Kate Beckinsale in action-thriller "Whiteout," the first movie to go into production under Joel Silver's new Dark Castle Entertainment genre label.

Warner Bros. will distribute the pic, based on Greg Rucka's 1999 comicbook miniseries of the same name. Scribes Jon and Erich Hoeber are adapting for the bigscreen.

Dark Castle Prods., a unit launched last fall within Warners-based Silver Pictures, is backed by more than $240 million from 15 different investment firms. Coin will be used to finance 15 pics over the next six years, with Warners distribbing the entire slate.

Silver has sole greenlight authority under the terms of the deal. He also has full creative control. Film budgets are expected to be in the $15 million-$40 million range.

"Whiteout" is set to begin lensing March 5 in Montreal.

I'd like to say I'm starting to believe this might actually happen, but my brain doesn't work that way. Truth is, I won't fully believe any of this is real until I see the DVDs on the blowout rack at Blockbuster.

Jeff Parker continues to bask in the admiration of people who think the comics medium can delever "entertainment."

Rack Raids | The ISB | Lone Star Comics | Jonny Bacardi | Don MacPeherson's Eye on Comics.

Meeting David Hahn
Just found this. It's a bloggers con storystory of how he met the artist of Bite Club and Private Beach.

Family Man

Dylan Meconis has posted page 49 of her ongoing serial Family Man, which means, she notes, that "the comic has officially covered 24 hours in the life of the unusual and imperfect Levy family. Phew." Go Dylan!

-posted by Steve Lieber

Labels: art supplies, David Hahn, Dylan Meconis, Jeff Parker, Steve Lieber, whiteout movie