I was excited this am to see in the Periscope Blog that Publishers Weekly did an article on Periscope Comics Studio, right here in Portland (disclosure: I'm friends with one of the Periscopers, Steve Lieber).

Portland's Periscope Is Up
By Douglas Wolk -- Publishers Weekly, 8/7/2007

The largest comics studio in the U.S. isn't in New York or L.A.—it's in Portland, Ore.. The members of Periscope Studio—which recently changed its name from Mercury Studio after years of being confused with a local alt-weekly—produce an enormous range and quantity of material, from mainstream and indie comics to theatrical design to commercial, promotional and educational work. ...

"There's a lot of good-sized cities out there where you couldn't name 20 cartoonists, much less get 'em all into the same room," Lieber notes. "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."

... Even when they're not officially working on projects together, the Periscope artists always seem to be beckoning each other over to their drawing boards to share tips and critiques. They've got a reputation for meeting their deadlines, too. "An attitude that everyone who's come in picks up quickly is that when you're drawing professionally, you're no longer depending upon being in the mood to create," Lieber said. "If you're not feeling inspired, you've got however many years of technical skill to stand in for inspiration, and it's really hard to not produce when everybody else is producing around you. It's a constant energy source that way. And once you're in the room, you really don't want to leave, because you're afraid you're going to miss something cool. That's been my experience. "