One-time Portlander/former Comics Alliance editor Laura Hudson just landed a gig as entertainment editor at Wired.com—so don’t be surprised if you see a few familiar bylines cropping up over there in the future. Exhibit A: This piece by Aaron Colter (formerly of Dark Horse Comics), about how Portland-based artist Chad Essley became the “webmaster and […]
Comic Books
Posted inFood and Drink
Save Chocodiles, for Medusa’s Sake
Via As reported in Good Morning News, Hostess is going out of business, and everybody on the internet’s running around screaming like suddenly Twinkies have always been their favorite thing in the world but you know what? No. WHAT ABOUT CHOCODILES? Thankfully, one man has stepped up to the plate and is trying to save […]
Posted inMedia
Arthur Magazine Raised from the Dead, with Help from Floating World
The news spread quickly yesterday that late, lamented Arthur Magazine has been resurrected. Arthur was a free, bimonthly music and culture publication that also dabbled in incisive political commentary, and when it departed the physical plane—it ceased publication in 2008 and existed on the web for a few years, before publisher Jay Babcock officially pronounced […]
Posted inComic Books
Portland Cartoonist Matt Bors’ Life Begins at Incorporation
Local political cartoonist (and Mercury contributor/pal) Matt Bors is painfully close to his stretch goal of $30,000, to raise money for an upcoming collection of comics and essays Life Begins at Incorporation. If you’re a fan of Bors’ work, you can pre-order a copy of the book on Kickstarter for $25. And you should! I’m […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Locke & Key: Slated for a Film Trilogy
You should be reading Locke & Key! It’s an amazing horror comic from Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez that’s terrifying, suspenseful, and full of stunning visual clues to an epic mystery about a family’s ancestral mansion—Keyhouse in the fictional town of Lovecraft, Massachusetts—that’s full of power-bestowing keys and strange magic. The series is dangerous and […]
Posted inComic Books
One More Goddamn Election Post—But This One Has a Comic!
Nothing in this comic about the campaign is really that interesting—well, it’s interesting, I guess, but none of it’s new—but the way it’s laid out is fantastic. More web comics like this, please. Guardian US interactive team with Richard Adams and Erin McCann, via
Posted inTheater & Performance
Comics Night at the Opera: Don Giovanni
Matt Grigsby For the past few seasons, The Portland Opera Company has been inviting local cartoonists to sketch dress rehearsals. It’s an unconventional practice, the sort of thing people wag their neatly trimmed beards at and say “only in Portland.” I was skeptical myself, even though I hate it when people say that. That said, […]
Posted inComic Books
Disney Buys Lucasfilm and Plans to Make Star Wars: Episode VII. How Will This Affect Local Publisher Dark Horse Comics?
For a long time, the only thing holding Disney back from complete world domination was the fact that none of its properties—no matter how hard they tried—appealed to the weirdly all-important demographic of adolescent males. With their acquisition of Marvel a few years ago, Disney made a massive stride in getting around that obstacle (hello, […]
Posted inTV
Parks and Rec‘s Nick Offerman… AS AXE COP?!?
You know and love Axe Cop—the comic created and written by five-year-old Malachai Nicolle and his 30-year-old brother Ethan. So Fox is starting up a late-night Saturday block of high-def animation features from ADHD early next year, and what follows is preview teaser for Axe Cop… in which the title character is voiced by Parks […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Trailer for the New Shane Black Movie Iron Man 3
The news that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang writer/director Shane Black—who also wrote Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and, ah, Last Action Hero—would be directing Iron Man 3 was excellent, because… well, c’mon. You saw Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. You know. But this first trailer for Iron Man 3 is weird, […]
Posted inComic Books
Matt Bors Kickstarts Life Begins at Incorporation
If you read the comics page of the Mercury, you’re familiar with the trenchant work of Portland political cartoonist Matt Bors. Bors just launched a Kickstarter to raise raise $20,000 to fund a collection of his comics and essays, titled Life Begins at Incorporation, and he’s offering a smartly tiered set of rewards that include […]
Posted inComic Books
Deeper Into Other Worlds: An Interview With Sammy Harkham
from Poor Sailor The Projects kicks off tonight at Floating World Comics with a book release party for Sammy Harkham’s Everything Together and Jonny Negron’s collection Negron, both published by Picturebox. Negron is a Brooklyn based artist known for bizarre erotic work that is awesome and disturbing. Sammy Harkham is the creator and editor of […]