Ask where American comics are made and the answer increasingly is: Portland. The metro area hosts Dark Horse Comics in Milwaukie (publisher of Hellboy and The Umbrella Academy), Oni Press (Scott Pilgrim), and generations of independent cartoonists who moved here for the rain, the coffee and each other.
The scene is gloriously public: shops like Floating World Comics and Cosmic Monkey anchor neighborhoods, indie festivals celebrate self-published zines, and library shelves groan with graphic novels. Portland cartoonists have reshaped the medium — from Raina Telgemeier’s kid-lit empire to award-winning literary graphic novels.
Why Portland? Cheap(ish) studios, deep weirdness and a culture that treats cartooning as fine art. Pick up a local comic at Powell’s and join the story.
