Steve Lieber Sure is Creating Some Content

If you’ve been to a convention in the Pacific Northwest some time in the past few decades, there's a fair chance you’ve met Comics’ supportive accidental dad, Steve Lieber.

From beginnings that, according to him, start with no skill at all, to creating the pages of titles like Whiteout, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superior Foes of Spider-Man and DC Comics’ current run of Justice Society of America, as well as providing portfolio critique to young artists free of charge, there’s no denying that Lieber is a much-needed force for good in the comic sphere of today.

Popverse was able to catch up with Lieber at Fan Expo Portland over President’s Day weekend to dig into the roots, humor, and drive behind such a plentiful and generous career.

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Popverse: You said that [Fan Expo Portland] is the first show that you've done since COVID. How's this going?

Steve Lieber: Oh, nightmarish. Really. I'm trying not to think about the possible consequences. [laughs] But it's helpful to scrape the barnacles off of my con table stuff. It’s funny, I have no sales pitches left anymore. I'm not trying to talk people into anything. If they want to come up and ask a question, I'm happy to answer it.

I used to be really outgoing and I'd pull people over to my table, "Hi, can I give you a free quick sketch? Let me tell you about this comic I'm working on." Now, I'm sitting back.

Sort of a 'Woah it's fine if you don't want to talk to me, possible plague-friend.'

It's appreciated even. Yeah. Between the stammer and the mumble thing I've got going, I've never been very good at making myself understood. You put a duckbill N95 on top of that and the [Portland] Unipiper playing Highland marches on top of that, and I just realize I’m not going to be making myself very audible.

You might have to recite all of this from memory because the recording will be so awful [laughs]

We’ll make it work, man. [laughs] So, okay, you’ve not been doing conventions since COVID, but you have been doing things like portfolio reviews at Books With Pictures here in Portland.

Absolutely. One of my favorite things in the world is to talk about the craft of making comics. I wasn't a natural at all when I started out – I had to learn. I wrote everything I know, which I think set me up to be a pretty good teacher. I think very systematically, so I can speak systematically about what people can do to fix problems in their work. When COVID happened, I missed doing that.

My studio, Helioscope, ran a mentorship program from 2005 until lockdown. Over that time, we cycled