After the sting of being labeled the least manly city, Portland has been declared the most patriotic city just in time for the Fourth of July. Men’s Health gave Portland, OR, this favorable ranking based on standards such as voter turnout and volunteerism. Things Portland is actually pretty good at.
Duffman raises a patriotic heroine at the Pedalpalooza Superhero Ride.
Dylan Meconis
Bill Mudron had a very clever print of the Arrested Development cast in Peanuts style.
Band Mates- adorable stuffed instruments. They also have a web comic. Don’t think I’d call the comic clever, but I’m into plush instruments.
Philip Barasch-Dancing Chapman Studio (Portland)
A short post!
Tony from LA and Wes from PDX. I approve of their web comic.
David Cheslea photographs me, or perhaps records me, while I photograph him. He did this casually, like it was perfectly normal.
I would like to reassert my loyalty to Kenan Rubenstein, and his bold, stark inking and poignant, self-deprecating stories. He’s from Brooklyn but he probably should live here.
More photos and notes from the Stumptown Comics Fest, 2010.
John Carter with the scribbling disease was giving everything away for free.
Sarah Burrini of Germany
Sarah Oleksyk (Portland)
Jason Leivian of Floating World Comics (Portland)
I took a lot of pictures at the Stumptown Comics Fest this weekend. I’m going to upload them in batches due to time constraints and to keep from intimidating anyone with a huge post.
Monica Gallagher with Boobage, a tale of a flat-chested consternation. She also has a comic on roller girls. Read her stuff at www.eatyourlipstick.com. The man next to her was Michael J. Dimotta from Portland, who made a really adorable short comic about Rupert, a goldfish determined to borrow a car.
Aaron Colter of Dark Horse Comics.
Tim Batiuk (Portland) with Boto, his comic about the pink Amazon River Dolphin.
Devon Devereaux (Portland)
Chris Bolton (Portland) and Kyle Bolton (Seattle)
Emi Lenox (Portland)
My friend, Douglas Wolk
Laura Hudson of Comic Foundry looking evil
Jacq Cohen of Dark Horse looking terrified
Sarah Olesksyk
Ron Chan
Derek Stubbs
Leight Walton of Top Shelf
Meredith Gran
Snow Leopard Comics
Kenan Rubenstein (right) did some of the most heartwrenchingly beautiful black and white artwork I saw at Stumptown. I definitely recommend checking out his website, Boy Blue Productions.
This Sunday I went to the Stumptown Comics Fest at the Lloyd Center Doubletree. It was overwhelming, I’m assuming, even for comic geeks. The festival completely filled up the large room, and the floorplan created a maze or narrow gauntlets where rows of comic book artists stood or sat being chatted up by fans or eagerly eying passersby. I was looking for a strip that fellow DTR writer Lauren had recommended (Skidmore Bluffs) and trying to spot local artists to chat with among the 134 booths.
I was feeling a lost and somewhat claustrophobic when I spotted some familiar images on a table off to my right.
I wrote about this series of Wire characters illustrated as Simpsons cartoons last year after spotting them on Periscope Studio’s website. The artist behind the cartoons is Steve Leiber, and he was sitting at the booth along with comic book writer and novelist Sara Ryan. While I was talking to them, a young man and his father came up to the booth, and I stepped aside knowing full well that fans are more fun than journalists.
The young man asked “You’re Steve Leiber aren’t you?” and handed Leiber his portfolio of drawings.
“How old are you?” asked Leiber.
“18,” answered the young man. Leiber was visibly impressed by the work, and told the kid that his art was excellent for an 18-year old. He then started a detailed explanation of what the kid could do to improve, which must have lasted a good 15 minutes. The kid ate it up. While they were talking I had the chance to pick up some of Sara Ryan’s comics, including Flytrap, an illustrated series of linked short stories about a circus troupe (at least in part), also illustrated by Leiber.
Another booth I stopped by was First Second Books’. They had preview copies available of The Eternal Smile, a gorgeous three-part graphic novel illustrated by Portland comic book author and artist Derek Kirk Kim and written by Gene Yang.
Derek Kirk Kim wasn’t at the booth when I stopped by, and neither was another artist whose work I checked out and really liked. Erika Moen writes Dar, a comic about a woman who “used to be a dyke until she met [her husband] and then he messed that all up.” She described the comic as “a super girly top secret comic diary”. It’s sort of like Cathy if Cathy was funny and tackled subjects like anal sex. Dar is posted on Darcomic.com.
I also stopped and talked to LA artist Tom Neely for a bit. Neely did the latest cover of the Mercury, which he had sitting on his table. When I spotted it, I walked over and asked him he if was local. “No, but I want to be,” he said. I really enjoy Neely’s dissonant-Disneyesque illustrations, which I first encountered in a roomate’s copy of Neely’s book The Blot. The Blot and other works are available on Neely’s site, www.iwilldestroyyou.com.
I ended up back at Leiber and Ryan’s table where I bought a few of the Wire-gone-Simpsons prints. I asked Leiber what he was working on currently and he said he was going to make an announcement about something called Underground soon. In the meantime, fans of graphic novels can read the entire first book of the Whiteout series on Leiber’s site.
http://www.stumptowncomics.com/
