Local artists draw the line at Comic Arts Fest

Dave Peabody is as upfront with his customers as possible — if “walking” is half the title of your long-running graphic novel, people can hardly expect glossy panels of musclebound superheros and nonstop action.

“Sometimes if the pictures are nice, you can say more with setting than explosions,” said Peabody, who has published 21 issues of his Walking Christendom graphic novel and will exhibit his work Sunday during the third annual Maine Comics Arts Festival at the Ocean Gateway.

Influenced by the European tradition favoring story and pacing over action and violence, Peabody grew up reading comics like Belgian artist Georges Rémi’s “The Adventures of Tintin”, but said he “forgot about those for a long time” with the inevitable onset on a teen’s taste for racier material.

A self-taught artist, Peabody first began sketching out comics in 1986. Referencing the work of comic art legends Roy Crane, Frank Miller (of "300" and "Sin City" fame) and writers like Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck), Peabody saw his work improve as his cribbed their techniques. “I would look at people who came before me and say ‘how did he figure this out?’,” he said.

But it was the work of “hand-in-pocket” adventure like Italian Hugo Pratt’s strip Corto Maltese that has had the biggest influence on Peabody’s work today. “It’s pretty low-key, but there is a lot of stuff going on,” he said.

That ambling spirit is reflected in Peabody’s latest comic endeavor Walking Christendom, which Peabody creates under the name Dave Naybor. “I use to take the long walks in the woods with my ex and I [thought], I would like to do a comic book about two people walking through the woods,” he said.

A “pub crawl buddy comedy”, or “[Japanese comic series] Dragon Ball Z meets My Dinner with Andre” according to Peabody, the series is envisioned as a long form story with a clear beginning, middle at at some point, an end. “I kind of know the big plot points and most of where everything is going, it’s mostly a matter of drawing the pages every day,” he said.

The publishing schedule of Walking Christendom has remained regular if incidental over the last six years — Peabody puts out a new issue “whenever I get 16 to 20 pages done,” he said.

“I’m managing about a three month schedule, though I may not make this one,” said Peabody, who works out of a home studio on Congress Street, inking pages before a curtainless window overlooking the busy Portland thoroughfare.

Peabody has released two bound volumes of his work, and distributes the individual issues to shops around town including Coast City Comics, Strange Maine and Casablanca Comics, where he works part-time.

Currently on page five of the latest issue of Walking Christendom, Peabody said he often falls into marathon session of creations where he’ll storyboard several pages, nail down the narrative and draft dialogue. “I’ll do three or four pages laid out like that than take a week or two to flush that all out and draw it,” he said.

Self-publishing his work and doing all his own distributions, Peabody said the graphic novel series is a cathartic and skill-building experience. “I’m not making a lot of money, but I have this story in my head and I have to get it out,” he said.

While it’s a long way off on Peabody’s artistic horizon, the recent glut of Hollywood movies based on comic books (even Tintin is getting a movie this year) gives the artist basis to believe that Walking Christendom could see a big screen adaptation one day. To that end, Peabody already has a production crew in mind.

“I want Robert Altman to come back from the grave and do my movies,” said Peabody who credits the Gosford Park director with having a big influence of his character dialogue. “The whole thing is an Altman script, people talking over each other, overly long speeches. It’s like a Thomas Pynchon novel adapted into a Altman script with a Kevin Smith rewrite,” he decided.

Working at Casablanca Comics gives Peabody the chance to meet his fans and foster an audience. “It’s been fun to watch. It’s very gratifying to see him working as a creator and working in store, interacting on daily basis with the people reading his stuff,” said Casablanca owner Rick Lowell.

“Creators hand-selling their work to the customers is the best way for them to build an audience,” Lowell said.

It’s the same spirit behind the third annual Maine Comics Arts Festival, said Lowell. “I think that once you’ve made that one-on-one connection with a creator you become invested in their work,” said Lowell, whose Comic Arts Festival aims to bring comic creators, not dealers, to Portland waterfront to foster and build the local comic arts community.

“It’s very exciting to have somebody do a sketch for you or talk with someone about how they’ve written a story,” said Lowell.

The festival’s creator focus makes it the first of its kind in the state, according to Lowell.

“It’s unusual for a show to just focus on the creators the way these shows do where traditional comic conventions all about the dealers selling books," he said.

“Here there will be no dealers, but all of the creators will have their own books with them, so you’re buying them directly from the people who are making them,” Lowell added.

The festival kicks off Saturday at the Portland Public Library’s main branch at Monument Square with educational events run by local comic artists.

At 11 a.m. Andy Runton, creator of comic book "Owly," teaches a workshop on drawing comics and visual storytelling. At 3 p.m. teacher and cartoonist Marek Bennett explores comics in world history and cultures.

The festival continues Sunday at the Ocean Gateway, as creators ply their wares and meet with fans. Scheduled activities include a hands-on storytelling workshop for kids, tips on self publishing, portfolio reviews and a live reading and performance.

“It’s unlike anything else that’s out there for comic fans right now. They’ll be opportunities to get sketches done, material there for anybody interested in comics and such a wide variety of people exhibiting, there is definitely something for everyone,” said Lowell.