BoMB in Bookstores, Praise for Powell’s, and Sketches to Share

Updates May 28, 2025

May 28, 2025

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My sketch I did on site at the Japanese American Historical Plaza, held up in front of the scene depicted in the drawing.

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

I was on a work trip to Portland, Oregon this past week and stayed an extra day to enjoy the city and do a little comics business. I did this sketch standing at Portland’s Japanese American Historical Plaza memorial. Low relief sculpted murals wrap around the oxidized bronze columns depicting the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry in America as well as honoring their military service to America during World War II. The columns’ dark masses standing in the light stone plaza, with rough boulders—as if from ruins—carved with the names of the internment camps behind them, bear a solemn reminder of history so we might avoid repeating it.

In today’s newsletter, some updates, a rave, and a sketchbook share:

BoMB in Seattle and Portland Local Comic Shops

I’ve now stocked a few copies of Blood of My Blood in several Seattle local comic shops and one in Portland, too. Possibly one more store in Portland and Seattle pending. If you’re in the areas, stop in and pick up a copy!

The stores are:

Seattle:

Portland:

Cosmic Monkey Comics

Preparing to Launch My Next Comic Project

I can’t wait to start sharing my next comic project with you all—it’s going to be very different from my last two, and I think pretty unique in general.

But I’m not quite there yet. One thing is that developing the visual style of a comic project takes more time upfront, and then with that work done you don’t need to put as much time into it during the rest of the project. The other thing is that it’s turning out to take more thinking/research/writing than I’d first anticipated. But this part has actually also turned out to be more satisfying to dig into as a result.

Anyway, next time I’ll start sharing my work!

Praise for Powell’s (But My Pocketbook Begs to Differ)

My sketch I did on site at Powell’s, held up in front of the scene depicted in the drawing.

Have y’all been to Powell’s City of Books in Portland??

I thought I’d been before, but when I went on this trip, it didn’t really ring any bells AND I SPENT THREE HOURS AND THREE FIGURES IN ONE SITTING (STANDING, WALKING) THERE! Maybe the difference is that I now approach bookstores with used book offerings with strong intentions about things I want to find and buy.

There are so many books on offer across all genres and four floors, including many older books thanks to their offering used books for sale in addition to new. The placement of used books alongside new editions of the titles is key. It makes it easy for you to find a book and then choose to save yourself some money on the second-hand copy. The individual used books and their pricing also show up in Powell’s searchable catalog at terminals throughout the store.

My haul from Powell’s. Man, comic book covers are pretty.

I ended up finding used editions of a fair amount of the books I’d marked for my reference collection. And two (used) comics that I haven’t read yet. Those are:

Ms. Marvel volume 3: these days, I’m looking for new stories, and superheroes are very, ah, well explored territory. But I love the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel stories for light-hearted humor and serious attention to a third-culture child/child of immigrants story.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr: I hadn’t even heard of this one until I saw on the staff recommended shelf. “Best comic ever created” is a strong recommendation, backed up by an Eisner nomination, and with stunning illustrations and a metaphysical concept sold me on picking up not just a copy, but a (used) deluxe hard copy edition. Well, what sold the deluxe edition over the softcover edition was the creator commentary in the back—I love hearing about others’ creative processes/thinking.

Yes, I keep pointing out the used books. I feel better about my spending because everything I bought was used in pretty good to great condition, ha. I mean, don’t you?

Sketchbook Share

Ok, I already shared a couple recent sketches above. Well I guess it’s feast or famine for sketchbook sharing here at Zeno’s Arrow, and today we’re feasting.

Two sketches of a man with circular shades and a fedora.

I recently bought a couple Tombow Fudenosuke pens (one hard, one soft) to try for the first time and immediately liked its responsive but not too soft flex. This page of sketches was the first I did with the new pens and they particularly suit me and gives voice to my expression.

Actually, I also used one (the soft one) for the black linework in the sketches at the Japanese American Historical Plaza and Powell’s above to get a feel for how it handles in an urban sketching context, too.

That’s all for now. Till next time-

William