Portland festival shows off one of the 'top comic scenes in the country'
Posted by The Oregonian September 29, 2007 22:15PM
Categories: Breaking News
From the comments made by comics and graphic novel creators at Saturday's Stumptown Comics Fest, you'd think that every other resident of Portland was involved in the comics biz.
"You can't swing a cat without hitting someone in comics," said Shannon Wheeler, a Portland-based syndicated cartoonist best known for his strip, "Too Much Coffee Man."
Wheeler moved here 10 years ago from Austin, Texas. Since then, the number of creators who live in Portland has grown steadily. But now, he said, "It's like the boiling point."
Matt Bors, whose "Idiot Box" strip has just been syndicated, moved to Portland 10 months ago from Canton, Ohio.
"I definitely wanted to move to a bigger city," Bors said. "Something on the West Coast, affordable, with things going on culturally."
Portland sounded perfect. "And I was living in Canton, Ohio," Bors added, so anything seemed to him like an improvement.
Even if Portland's population isn't exclusively comic artists, it's fitting that this creator-rich city should host its own comics festival. Since starting in 2004 with 16 exhibitor tables, the Stumptown Comics Fest has grown, just as the number of comic artists who moved to Portland has.
This year's two-day event, which started Saturday at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel, fills an exhibit hall with more than 100 tables. Among Portland publishers with works on hand are such established players as Dark Horse, Oni Press and Top Shelf Productions.
Others include writers, illustrators, cartoonists, concept designers and storyboard artists from Periscope, the Portland collective formerly known as Mercury Studios.
But there are also do-it-yourselfers selling self-published mini-comics, Web cartoonists, political cartoonists and Portland comics shops.
The Independent Publishing Resource Center, which gives Portlanders access to tools for making their own artworks, has a table with a sign that reads: "A Safe Space for Nerds."
A table down the way features a blown-up panel of a frustrated-looking, yellow-headed fellow wondering, "Am I in the mood for evil .¤.¤. or pie?"
Most of the exhibitors are from the Northwest, such as Seattle's Fantagraphics Books, which helped popularize the work of independent comics veteran Peter Bagge, a guest at this year's Stumptown fest.
Other guests include the nationally known comics couple, Mike and Laura Allred; and Ted Rall, the cartoonist, writer and commentator whose writing and cartoons on such topics as the Bush administration, Sept. 11, 2001, and the Iraq war have stirred considerable controversy during the past several years.
Rall led a panel Saturday on "Cartoonists with Attitude," whose work takes on issues and politics. Among the panelists was Stephanie McMillan, who made news when her online strip, "Minimum Security," printed the phone numbers of a South Dakota state senator who is a staunch opponent of abortion.
The senator, Bill Napoli, received a torrent of calls and e-mails, which Napoli called "a huge amount of filth, intolerable filth." McMillan banners Napoli's quote at the top of her Web site,
http://minimumsecurity.net.
After the panel -- which also included Portlanders Shannon Wheeler and Matt Bors -- Rall said Portland's rep as comics heaven is well-deserved.
"Everyone who follows comics knows about Portland," said Rall, adding that he visits often because his in-laws live here. "It's definitely in the top three or four comic scenes in the country."
The reason is simple, Rall said. "Quality of life, and the cost of living. Cartooning doesn't pay well. Portland is still affordable. But if there's runaway gentrification, you'll see all the cartoonists leave. Cheap real estate is the key to bohemian culture."
-- Kristi Turnquist;
kristiturnquist@news.oregonian.com
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingn...onvention.html
The Stumptown Comics Fest continues from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Doubletree Hotel at Lloyd Center.
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