Periscope: Portland's storyboard and comics studio.

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

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

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.com

Over 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. (Design by Space Ninja)

Labels: Rich Ellis, Sara Ryan, Steve Lieber

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

"'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

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

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