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Photo by Deborah Curtis Lipski

by Matthew Southworth

[Special to the Beat: we challenged frequent Beat commenter and artist Matthew Southworth to give us a Stumptown report and this is the delightful result! Thanks so much, Matthew!]

It’s 5:40 Saturday morning and I haven’t really slept. I never sleep when I have an early appointment, and now I’m up and showering and readying myself for the trip to Portland’s Stumptown Comics Fest. Goodbye kiss Machelle, double-triple-check that everything’s in the car and cellphone iPod Coke Zero and check the oil and fill the tank get the junk food hit the highway.

It’s 7:10 and we’re all assembled–me, Dalton Rose of the gorgeous comic SACRIFICE (http://samhumphries.com/sacrifice-comic-book/ and www.daltonjamesrose.com) and Brian Beardsley of StudioB Media (www.studiobmedia.com). It’s roughly 3 hours from my little picturesque town of Mukilteo—lighthouse, saltwater, ferry boats and driftwood—to Portland, and this morning there are tons of police cars stopping motorists. Must be quota day.

It’s 10:15 and we’ve crossed the Columbia River into Oregon. Now we’re at the Red Lion in Portland but it’s too early to check in. I’ve just realized that despite all my preparations last night, in my effort not to wake Machelle this morning, I’ve forgotten my suitcase. There go the t-shirt sales, but I can get more Stumptown books directly from Oni.

Perhaps this is a good place to tell you who I am and what I do. I’m Matthew Southworth, and I draw a book written by Greg Rucka called STUMPTOWN. It’s published by Oni Press. Sometimes I draw for Marvel and DC and Dark Horse, and I’m writing and drawing my own project called DAY FOR NIGHT. You can investigate me a little further by going to http://matthewsouthworth.tumblr.com/ .

Though it’s called “Stumptown”, there is no actual connection to the Stumptown Comics Fest. There’s no actual connection to Stumptown Trade Review, either, though later in the day I’m doing a live podcast with them. “Stumptown” is a nickname for Portland itself; it refers to the remainders of the thousands of trees that were cut out of the dense Oregon forest when Portland was founded.

It’s 10:30 and the show is hopping. Dalton and I are set up at our table right beside good friend to me and good friend to comics, Steve Lieber. Steve was kind to me when I first met him at a con years ago, and he’s been an excellent and gener