Periscope sends its congratulations to the 2008 Oregon Book Award winner, Sara Ryan! Sara won for her second novel The Rules for Hearts. As a comics writer, Sara has worked with a number of Periscope members, Ron Chan on Flytrap, Cat Ellis on Einbahnstrasse Waltz, Jonathan Case on the comics adaptation of Tori Amos’s song “Take to the Sky” for the recent Comic Book Tattoo collection, and on a variety of stories with her husband Steve Lieber. You can visit her blog and congratulate her.!
Photo of Sara having a discussion with a future reader courtesy of Stewart Loving-Gibbard.

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Steven Grant at Comic Book Resources reviews two of Sara Ryan‘s mini comics: Flytrap #3, illustrated by Ron Chan, and Click, illustrated by Dylan Meconis.

All three creators will be guests this weekend at The Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, and they’ll be happy to discuss their work on these or many other comics, or even talk to you about Switzerland, MMA, 18th century theology, or any of their many other various obsessions. Other Emerald City guests include Kieron Dwyer, David Hahn, Karl Kesel, Colleen Coover & Paul Tobin, Susan Tardif, Ron Randall, Jesse Hamm, Rich Ellis & Cat Ellis, Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett, me (Steve Lieber) and Matthew Clark.

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Rick Remender will be there, ruling the room like some god-king, and he’ll be signing at both Dark Horse and Image. I’ll be there in artists’ alley, booth AA10, sketching God knows what, and I’m signing at Dark Horse Saturday at 11:30 for the big Escapist gang signing. Also at my table at various times: my wife and occasional collaborator Sara Ryan and our friend Jeff Preucher. Paul Guinan and Terri Nelson will be at the show too, umm… somewhere. I’m a big help.

I can’t speak for any of the others but if you stop by my table and mention you saw this, I’ll be happy to scribble out a free quickie sketch for you. You’ll be all like, “hey thanks!” and I’ll be all like “no problem” and you’ll be all like “no really,” and I’ll be all like “naw it’s cool.” So, yeah.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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)

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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!

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“‘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!

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Sara Ryan had three new minis and she got tired of waiting for her over-committed husband to draw them, so she came to Periscope:

CLICK illustrated by Dylan Meconis.
This one ties in with Sara’s new novel, The Rules for Hearts and guest stars Katrina from Me and Edith Head.

Einbahnstrasse Waltz illustrated by animatorCat Ellis, making her comics debut.


Flytrap: episiode 3, Over the Wall illustrated by Ron Chan.

I’ll have mail order info soon. In the meantime, all of these are available at the Periscope section of Artists Alley at Comicon: II-01 through II-06. That’s “II” as in “aye-aye” which really makes me wish we’d bothered to do up some kind of nautical-themed signage. Parker: I know you’re reading this! Can you do anything before you come in?

So who’ll be with us at Comicon anyhow? Lesse, Matthew Clark (Outsiders, Adventures of Superman), Ron Randall(Outsiders, Constantine,) Karl Kesel (Jack Kirby’s Galactic Bounty Hunters, Fantastic Four) Ron Chan (Dummy’s Guide to Danger, Flytrap), David Hahn (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Bite Club), Steve Lieber (Whiteout, Civil War: Frontline), Colleen Coover (X-men First Class, Banana Sunday), Jesse Hamm ( Good as Lily). Sara Ryan will be with us part of the time, too! Jeff Parker will be around a couple of days, and you can leave messages for him with us. We won’t forward them, because, well, fuck Parker, but you can leave them.

Colleen’s got her appearance schedule up at her LJ. I’ll be at Marvel Thursday from 11-12 pm and at the comic Art Museum’s table Friday from noon to one. Saturday, I’ll be on the Oni Press panel from 1:30 to 2:30.

I probably shouldn’t still do this, but what the hell. Track me down in artist’s alley, tell me you read this on the Periscope blog, and I’ll scribble out a free quick doodle. I suspect I’m the last guy at Comicon who’ll still draw anything for free. Sad, sad. Anyhow, see you there!

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