Jeffrey Brown and I had plans to do a panel at Stumptown, where we discuss comics we grew up reading. The three of got to talking over the weekend, and decided it would be fun to have Brandon Graham join us for a pretty fun geek out over comics with ninjas.
Day 3 – I started out the weekend at Stumptown going to a panel by Patrick Rosenkranz. Patrick is a bit of my go to guy for advice when I was putting the inkstuds book together. His three books from Fantagraphics are all excellent and well worth reading. The Canadian in me has a special appreciation for his Rand Holmes book. Patrick’s panel was really great. There was even some stuff in there that I didn’t know.
My time on the floor was a bit of a rush of trying to check out as much stuff as possible since I would be all booked up in panels the next day. Chris Cilla had this awesome display for his minis.
I am always happy to see these boys. Zack Soto, Kaz Strzepek and Ben Catmull.
Seattle cartooning crew of Kelly Froh, Max Clotfelter and Eroyn Franklin were also in attendance. Jason T Miles was there as well, but seemed to be running around all busy like most of the time. For being in such close proximity to Vancouver, I have had very little contact with them, which is too bad, since they are pretty fantastic. Check out Profanity Hill for more Seattle goodies.
Mare Odomo was making good use of the outlets and getting caught up on his video games. A true master never rests at his trade.
That night, I got to go for dinner with some pretty spectacular folks. This photo almost feels like Jeffrey Brown’s last supper. Featured in the photo are Craig Thompson, Joe Sacco, Jeffrey Brown, Sierra Hahn, Sarah Glidden and Thi Bui. Craig is a regular listener of the show, and even called me out for talking about how much I like Piranha 3D on the show. Thi gave me a preview of the book she is working on about her families experience immigrating to the States from Vietnam. I really liked what I read so far.
After dinner, it was off to comic art battle at the Jupiter Hotel. The Jeffrey Brown from Be a Man made an appearance on stage and owned it!
After some undocumented revelry, we got down to business in the hotel room, where Joe Keatinge displayed his manly prowess on little Brandon Graham.
I think that was enough fun for one day.
Day 4 – Oh look, it’s Patrick Rosenkranz again, this time with Fantagraphics marketing man, Mike Baehr.
I don’t have a lot of photo’s from the convention this day, because of my panel duties. My first panel was with Jeffrey Brown. Brandon Graham joined us as a last minute addition. we had some intense nerding out. Pictured below is Jeffrey’s X-Men issue 192 themed sketchbook. it is a thing of wonder. Also notice Brandon’s messy table at the convention. I would go back every couple of hours and clean it up. Messy.
I really enjoyed my panel with Sarah Glidden. I was a little nervous about how much we would have to talk about, since Sarah was just on the show not too long ago, but we had plenty to talk about and it was awesome.
Photo taken by Jen Vaughn and stolen from her post on the Comics Beat!
My last panel was with Molly Crabapple, where we discussed different facets to her work.
I will be posting the audio from all of the panels over the next couple of days.
After the convention, a large group of us stumbled our way to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. The food was great though.
After dinner, we made our way down to the Pony Club. Here is a nice shot of Farel Dalrymple and Milo George. Milo is a smart guy and I had a great time talkin’ shop.
Is this the best that Portland has to offer?
Here’s some random Pony Club shots.
Day 5 – The return home involved a quick run through Portland so sweet Brandon could have lunch with spicy Craig.
Truer words never spoken.
Corey Lewis joined us on the train ride back. He Brandon were up to something.
I think it was this.
Up next, TCAF. Thanks for reading!
Scott Hampton was in Vancouver to give a talk at a local art school, and I took advantage of his proximity and set up an interview. It’s a pretty interesting conversation about comics vs media property that I wasn’t expecting to get in to. I was joined by Brandon, who mentioned the interview here.
Day 1 – I traveled down to Portland for the Stumptown Comics Fest with good friends Emily Carroll, Claire Gibson and Brandon Graham. We started at a frightfully early time of 5:30 am. I will spare you photo’s of us at the train station. None of us felt particularly photogenic. But this shot captures the general feeling.
The rest of the crew got up to some furious drawing battles while I dozed off to the dulcet train tones.
Sarah Glidden joined us in Seattle, which seemed to bring a renewed energy to our voyage. Sarah and I had a great talk about the panel we were preparing for at Stumptown. It was interesting hanging out with her and the rest of the crew. She comes to comics from a completely different direction from the rest of the crew, not being seeped in geek culture. I like how comics have really changed over the years and discussed on so many different levels.
I stayed at the Jupiter Hotel. It was a good room, but a little loud at night, with the bar basically outside the room. Someone marked my door.
Claire and I went downtown to hunt down good times and donuts. Claire wasn’t too into the idea of super sugary donuts, so I suggested getting one of the more basic donuts. This is what she choose.
I wanted to buy this for James Stokoe, but Voodoo Donuts was closed on Monday when we were coming back.
We met back up with Brandon at Floating World. Jason Levian runs a great shop. I launched the Inkstuds book there back in October, because of how much I feel a kindred interest with what Jason is doing. Brandon was staying with Joe Keatinge, the supreme executive commander and leader of the Popgun anthology from Image. Joe and I like to argue.
Floating World was playing host for Benjamin Marra. He gave me some fierce Blue Steel. Are you reading his books?You really should be.
It was a pretty long day, so we went for some grub, where Claire met a charming dog.
I finally found the source of Brandon’s supreme cartooning powers.
Day 2 – Friday morning, after some delightful breakfast at the hotel, we met up with Brandon and Joe at the convention center. They were joined by patron of friends, Richard Starkings. Richard and I had a good chat about how awesome Shaky Kane is. Joe was keeping it classy as always.
I ditched out on everyone to go hang out with one of my favorite people, Jen Vaughn. Jen was an amazing hostess for me when I traveled to New England last year, and is forever endeared to me.
We went on an epic journey to the Dark Horse offices. We had a bit of a snafu on the way, and Jen captured the delight in my eyes. The rain that day was something fierce.
At Dark Horse, I met Philip Simon. He told me about some amazing projects that he is working on, including a collection of Bernie Wrightson Creepy stories. That stuff is gold, I tell’s ya.
Someone had this hanging in their office.
Jen has amazing taste in books.
This was above the till at an antique store by the Dark Horse offices. They also had some sweet milkshakes. Jen sat on the same seat that JFK sat on at one point.
That night, I ended up at the Comic Reading hosted by the very fine, Guapo comics. Tom Neely was there with some nice cards promoting his Wolf book. Tom’s work really excites me.
Tom introduced me to his fellow Igloo Tornado member, Levon Jihanian. I really enjoyed his reading.
Andy Johnson, owner of Cosmic Monkey comics, snuck off to meet up with some more great folks. Here is Andy and my favorite guy in Portland.
I was stocked to see Ben Catmull there.
I caught up Brandon and Joe, who were chatting with Jeffrey Brown. I think they were in the midst of planning the future of comics.
To be continued!!!!!
I discovered Tessa Brunton’s work through a tweet by one of my favorite comics folks, MK Reed. I don’t usually click on such links, and if I do, I don’t usually remember to visit the site again. In Brunton’s case I was charmed and after looking through the archives, I decided to order her available comics. I got a package in the mail shortly and loved the look of In the tall grass’s paper bag covers with bright color images.
My terrible pic shouldn’t stop you from ordering these.
In the tall grass 2-4 are great 20s, urban, slice-of-life comics that err on the sunny side. As the issues progress you see Brunton more from mostly three-panel jokey strips to longer stories. Though strips don’t generally give me enough room to get immersed in a story, in the issues these autobio stories build on one another to give us a picture of Brunton and her Bay Area-worldling. My favorite thing about her work is her use of fine patterns to deepen the environments in her comics. It’s this attention to visual details that make her comics repeat-readers—you’ll always find some tiny new delight in each panel.
If you’ve been following the work on her site, you know that Brunton has recently been diagnosed with Epstein Barr and is more actively dealing with the repercussions of abuse. These themes of healing and change are darker than the misadventures of maturing, but they are also inextricably linked with that earlier subject matter. By working out her struggles on the page, she bravely gives her readers the chance to reflect on the parts of our own lives that are difficult and painful.
Brecht Evens is by far, one of the most exciting young cartoonists. His debut book from Drawn and Quarterly, The Wrong Place was one of the my favorite releases of 2010, garnering much praise on our year end show. Top Shelf recently released an earlier work by Brecht, Night Animals, another whimsical gem. Brecht is another person that I am very excited about meeting at TCAF.
Inkstuds favorite’s, Joe Ollmann and Pascal Girard will be in Vancouver on Friday to promote their new books from the fine folks at Drawn and Quarterly. These are cartoonists to not miss out on meeting. I love their comics and so should you. Joe is even in the Inkstuds book. That’s how much I like him!
Where – Lucky’s Comics 3972 Main st.
When – 7pm until 9pm
Drew Weing‘s comics are among some of my favorites. Along with his wife, Eleanor Davis, they craft some amazing objects. Drew’s first book, Set to Sea is a beautifully drawn little book, garnering some well deserved praise. He also has a story in the new issue of Papercutter #15, a must have anthology.
Hi there folks,
Thought I would give you a little update from Casa Studs. Later this week I will be heading off to Portland for Stumptown. While there, I will be hosting 3 panels.
They should all be pretty interesting conversations. If you want to find me at Stumptown and don’t make it to the panels, I’ll be at table B-15 with my home boys, Brandon Graham and Nate Simpson.
I have started up a little art-selling project for some friends. Check out McConnell Art. So far, there are tons of pages by James Stokoe and Brandon Graham. More to come!
Lorenzo Mattotti has been doing comics for a little over 30 years. Only a handful of work is available in English, but it’s a handful of excellence. His work first gained notice to North American audiences, thanks to a couple of appearances in RAW and his books, Murmur and Fires. Mattotti’s work is that of a creative giant. He breathes a life into comics that utilizes an unparalleled skill set, resulting in stunning works of art. Fantagraphics has recently released Stigmata to a new generation of readers. Mattotti is truly a cartooning master. This interview was conducted over two sessions and makes up to be my longest interview yet, at over 3 hours after I mixed the music in.
Many thanks to Lorenzo for being so generous with his time. For a man whose English is his 3rd language, he was a fantastic talker. Also, thanks to Kim Thompson for playing the connector.
Lorenzo Mattotti will be appearing at the Toronto Comics Art Festival in May. A very rare appearance that should not be missed. His collaborative work with Lou Reed, The Raven will be debuting at TCAF.
