The Song is from “Pirates of Penzance”

Next Time: Sawin’ Logs

Thanks for sticking with us as we continue to repair and rebuild the site. Good news is we have a bunch of fun new content ready and all sorts of silly bonus filler material waiting for for after the old stuff comes back up.

Next Time: Piracy

Next Time: Earache

A synopsis image for the whole show

Earlier this week, the folks at Portland Opera invited a bunch of cartoonists and bloggers to attend dress rehearsal for their newest production, with complimentary drinks and food beforehand. I’ve had the pleasure doing this twice before* and each time it’s been great fun. Due to some bad planning on my part and a few mishaps at the hands of Tri-Met, I completely missed the eating and drinking portion of the evening and snuck into the backstage tour at the last minute. I was beginning to feel a lot like Candide myself.

I scribbled like crazy during the rehearsal and returned home with about 9 pages of wildly incoherent pages. On the train ride I came up with a sort of synopsis image of the entire show and added this to my sketchbook. The next day a combed through my favorite doodles, traced them and added a bit of color. I probably would have done more if I had the time. I posted my favorite drawings to my flickr page.

The Portland Opera’s production makes for lively fast-paced entertainment. Anyone who is familiar with Voltaire’s Story and Bernstein’s music will not be disappointed. A bit of background to the story  may be necessary if you don’t  know it. It’s very fast and wickedly funny. Since the action takes place in many locations around the world, the scenery directors have employed some ingenious techniques with projected images, and a stage made of surface like Lego ™ .

Portland Opera have a page which collects all the artists’ work. There were many talented people involved and they have produced some really beautiful work. I’m told a lot of it will be on display in the lobby during the show. Writers / bloggers in attendance posted some delightful and hilarious tweets; you can read them on twitter, tagged  #pdxcandide

*Since 2010 I have attended comic artists’ nights for Hansel and Gretel and Turandot. In addition, I’ve colored some drawings made by my pal S.W. “Conch” Conser who attended an event which I missed.

Some people might say the gig is up.

Next Time: Freak Out

Next Time: Big Mouth Strikes Again

Great to see so many old friends, and making some new friends at Portland’s Stumptown Comics Fest 2012.

With the appearance of Nathan’s Shoulder Devil, I’d like to encourage Jumbo deLuxe readers to balance things out with Becky Hawkins’ Shoulder Angel, a recurring character along with Becky herself in French Toast Comix. This isn’t your typical autobio strip: for one thing, Becky’s day job is playing saxophone on a cruise ship, and –as I mentioned before– she’s got a shoulder angel. Becky regularly documents her globe-trotting adventures in vivid watercolor paintings as a sort of unfolding travelogue among witty, gently self-deprecating comic strip narratives.

Next Time: Back to School

Next Time: Temptation

3D Emily by Laura Laine

This remarkable 3-D clay sculpture of Emily was made by my good friend Laura Laine 10 or more years ago. She’s using a monochromatic and taller character design based on Emily’s appearances in a student newspaper comic strip that pre-dated the full color webcomics we all know today.

Jumbo deLuxe Tea Party by Neal Skorpen

Neal Skorpen is a webcomics veteran, mentor and longtime pal. He’s probably best known for his comic strips Introvert Manifesto, Muddlemarch, and graphic novels Island of the Moths, and his latest project, Æthernaut. Here he’s drawn the usual suspects having tea and getting all ladylike.

Yogurt Cultures drawn by S.W. Conser, Color by Adrian J Wallace

Another longtime pal S.W. “Conch” Conser apparently likes the Yogurt Cultures. I haven’t got the heart to tell him that I have no plans to use them in any future comic strips. You can hear S.W. “Conch” Conser on KBOO radio where he interviews the hell out of the world’s finest cartoonists and animators.
 
In an earlier post, I shared this lovely fan art made by Ken Koral.

Next Time: Protonski’s Secret