Friends! We are excited to announce the launch of our newest publication for 2010: Oregon History Comics.

Ten stories about Portland’s history. Ten Portland-based illustrators. Ten excellent history comics! Over the next year, Portland Mercury reporter Sarah Mirk and the Dill Pickle Club will publish Oregon History Comics: 10 short comic books telling little-known stories from our state and city’s history. The series will present illuminating, marginalized and quirky accounts of local history in an accessible medium, engaging history fans and the public at large in learning about the place in which we live.

Many Portlanders are transplants, and have never learned or long forgotten Portland’s recent past. Printing these stories as exciting, engaging comics will encourage people who would never pick up a dense Portland history book to learn about where and how the social, racial and physical structures of their city were built. By celebrating Portland’s underrepresented histories, Oregon History Comics aims to provide a more informed perspective to current politics and public opinion.

Right now we’re raising money for the comics via Kickstarter.com. Please go check out the project and donate!

On Kickstarter, you can also preview the first comic as a pdf. Check it out!

The ten artists for the ten comics include:
Faces of Lone Fir Cemetery—Sarah Mirk (http://mirkwork.wordpress.com/)
Life and Death of the X-Ray Cafe—John Isaacson (http://www.unlay.com/)
Vanport Flood—Nicole Georges (http://nicolejgeorges.com/)
The Fall of Logging—BT Livermore (http://www.bigtimeillustration.com/)
Portland’s Black Panthers—Khris Soden (http://www.khrissoden.org/)
Celilo Falls—Annie Murphy (http://ghostcatcomics.blogspot.com/)
Oregon Bike Building—Shawn Granton (http://urbanadventureleague.blogspot.com/)
Chinatown—Lisa Rosalie (http://lisarosalieeisenberg.com/)
Portland’s Bridges—Zack Davis (http://www.appendixspace.com/)
Dead Freeways—Don Barkhouse

The future thanks you!