Hey, this is pretty cool! At newsarama, they have an
interview with Howard Porter , and he discusses how he went to Paier Art School in CT. What he doesn't say is that this is in Hamden, CT, my home town, and is actually right down the street from me! No kidding, I can see it from my front porch and used to play street hockey in the parking lot there when I was a kid.
Some excerpts:
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HP: I went to art school at Paier College of Art in Connecticut in '87-'91. I majored in illustration. I didn't draw comics in college. I drew in my sketchbooks, comics stuff, but I didn't actually work on comic book pages until I was out of college. My instructors said, "Don't waste your time with that." Which is good, I guess, because it forced me to learn traditional art, which I probably wouldn't have been interested in.
NRAMA: So how did you get your start in the comic book business?
HP: During my last year of college, I had hung up some drawings around the school -- some goofy cartoons. Some of the teachers saw it. And Frank McLaughlin, who did Justice League with Dick Dillon, was teaching a cartooning class at the school, and he saw the drawings. He got in touch with me, and I started to work with him inking his backgrounds. I worked with him, Mike DeCarlo, Steve Montano and Bob Smith. I was doing backgrounds for them for four or five years.
NRAMA: Did you want to do more than just backgrounds?
HP: I never really wanted to be a background inker. It was a good learning experience, but I did it long enough.
And then, I met Ron [Garney], who had just broken into the business. He helped me with my samples and getting into the business.
NRAMA: Ah ... so that's when your buddy Ron came into the picture. How did you meet Ron?
HP: At the time, all the comics artists in my area were hanging out and having dinner together or drinks.
NRAMA: In Connecticut? Was there a hotbed of comic book artists in Connecticut in the '90s?
HP: Yeah, now that you mention it, there was, I guess. There was a pretty big group. There was Dennis Janke, Jerry Ordway, and the other guys I mentioned -- I forget who else. So I got to meet all of them through the people I was working with.
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"Hotbed of artists in CT"? Specifically, in Hamden, CT in MY neighborhood?! I was probably hitting their cars with street hockey pucks while they were knocking back beers at art school!
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