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By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune November 09. 2014 2:00AM Graphic tales lure Rogue Valley residents into a world of ink and intrigue PHOTO/ Illustration by Ariana Torrey Ask Susan Kirtley why she thinks comic books have endured as an art form, and she'll answer eagerly, like you've just asked her to do a sales pitch on their relevance in popular culture. "The medium works like no other form. The pairing of text and image. It's visceral, it's immediate," says Kirtley, former Medford resident and Portland State University English professor. "You as a reader often have to participate. You have to fill in the blanks what is happening. It's special, and it's different." Comics have exploded in popularity in recent years, spawning video games, television shows and blockbuster films such as "The Dark Knight Trilogy" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." The U.S. market for comic books and graphic novels topped $870 million last year, according to industry blog "Comichron." The Pacific Northwest has become a hot spot for those working in the medium as a career. Between the number of comic book artists and writers who live in Portland and Seattle, and Oregon-headquartered comic book publishers such as Dark Horse Comics and Oni Press, it's third in line only to New York and Los Angeles, Kirtley says. Even Southern Oregon has ties to the world of pages and panels, ink and intrigue. Comics drew Mike Royer of Medford into their embrace, allowing him to "tell stories and act on paper" alongside legendary creator Jack Kirby. Dan Buck, a Grants Pass resident, became part of the creative team responsible for Dutch Bros. Coffee's ongoing comic book series, "Rebellion." "We have a lot of talented people in the valley that know how to draw, know how to write stories," says Ted Paglia, who manages the comics section at Astral Games in Medford. Here are a few of their stories: Susan Kirtley: The Comics Scholar Rises When it comes to Susan Kirtley's accomplishments in the comics field, you could say they all started with a mean boy on the playground. Girls don't read comics, he sneered at Kirtley, then in fourth or fifth grade. But Kirtley did read comics. She liked them a lot, and his words kicked her interest into overdrive. "I decided I should read every comic I could get my hands on," Kirtley says. Her defiance is still paying dividends decades later. Kirtley, now a Portland State University professor, won an Eisner Award — think comic book Oscar — for a book she wrote about cartoonist Lynda Barry. She's also putting the finishing touches on a comic book studies course at PSU, which she hopes to kick off in January. "This is a great moment for comics, and this is a great place for comics, so why wouldn't we?" Kirtley says. As a child, Kirtley started with the Archie Comics in grocery store spinner racks. Later she upgraded to superheroes, with a particular interest in X-Men stories. The stories of outcasts living among a populace that misunderstands them resonated with her. "I think that they function both as entertainment, enjoyment, escape, but also as making sense of the world," she says. After Kirtley graduated from South Medford High School in 1991, her comics fascination continued. Her tastes grew to include more alternative writers and artists, such as R. Crumb and Lynda Barry. The latter ended up being a focus for Kirtley's book, "Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass," which examines the life and works of Barry, a playwright, artist and creator of the comic strip "Ernie Pook's Comeek." Kirtley received her Eisner Award in the Best Educational-Academic Work category for her book in 2013. With that momentum, Kirtley started working on a course featuring comic books. Her goal is to have students study comics from a critical, academic perspective — much like a traditional English class — with an emphasis on history and theory. Similar programs are popping up on college campuses across the country. Accomplishments aside, Kirtley is, at heart, still just a fan, one who proved a playground bully wrong. "There's just such a rich diverse world of stories in comics," Kirtley says. "And so I find myself coming back to them again and again." Mike Royer: Ink Master meets The King Mike Royer was sitting in his Los Angeles studio when The King called. Ruler of the realms of pages and panels, Jack Kirby was the co-creator of numerous Marvel characters, including Captain America, The Hulk, X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and of the iconic "Fourth World" stories at DC. Royer, now 73 and living in Medford, still remembers the first words of that 1969 phone call. "Mike Royer? This is Jack Kirby. (I hear) you're a pretty good inker." It was the start to a profound milestone in Royer's comic book career. He had been in L.A. working as an inker and artist the last four years. In his early 20s, he'd grown up in the Willamette Valley and was a voracious consumer of comic newspaper strips such as "Alley Oop" and "Flash Gordon." The stories and art entranced him. He wanted in on the action. "I just wanted to tell stories and act on paper," Royer says. "I just thought, if I'm going to work in comic books, I can't stay in the Willamette Valley." He moved to L.A. in 1965 and got his start at Gold Key Comics and worked under Russ Manning, the comic book adapter of numerous "Tarzan" stories. Royer also worked on the "Amazing Spider-Man" animated TV series. The call from The King was of a different caliber. Kirby was looking for someone to ink numerous pieces he had drawn for Marvel's merchandising company, Marvel Mania. Royer went to Kirby's home and looked at his first assignment: a self-portrait of Jack at a drawing board with numerous superheroes flying off it. Royer got going. Kirby watched. "I'm sitting at The King's drawing board, inking, for the very first time in my life, his pencils," Royer says. "When it was all over he was pleased with it." For the next decade, Kirby drew and wrote; Royer inked and lettered. It was a challenge to keep up with Kirby's output — sometimes as much as three pages a day — but Royer did, during Kirby's DC and Marvel stints. "Talk about intimidating," Royer says. The two became close. Royer still remembers sitting at Kirby's drawing board and going over pages. He recalls occasional glances out the window and seeing his children play in Kirby's pool. The two talked about films and attended art shows as judges. "Those are the things that I remember," Royer says. "Jack was such a warm person." Kirby died in 1994, about 15 years after Royer had gone to work for Disney. Royer still does occasional work in the comic book field, but says he has lost a lot of interest in the medium. He's spent a lifetime in comics, but those years with Jack Kirby stand out. "He always encouraged every aspiring artist not to copy him," Royer says. "To tell the stories and draw it the way they felt it should be." Dan Buck: The Comic Book Caffeinators The first comic book Dan Buck wrote has a star-studded supporting cast when it comes to the story's artist, inker and letterer. "Dutch Bros. Rebellion: The Further Adventures of Rebel Man" is drawn by "Walking Dead" artist Tony Moore, colored by John Rauch of Marvel Comics and lettered by Rus Wooton, who has lettered comics for Marvel, Image and Dark Horse publishers. "All of a sudden, we have this star-studded cast of industry pros doing this book," Buck says. It wasn't the first time that had happened. The first issue was penned by Nathan Edmonson, who is the current scribe on the "Punisher" and "Black Widow" titles for Marvel Comics. "Rebellion" isn't Dutch Bros.' first attempt at comic books. Several years ago, the company cranked out a more kid-centric series called "Freedom Fighters." "Rebellion" stories are a bit edgier. They tell of a renegade hero wandering through an apocalyptic wasteland as he picks fights with zombie hordes. Buck and other Dutch Bros. employees recently traveled to Rose City Comic Con in Portland to distribute the book for free. Buck says he and Dutch Bros. director of culture Brant Boersma hope to do more and make their mark in a storytelling medium that's meant so much to them both. "Comics, from the get-go, has been a way of delivering stories and messages for Dutch Bros. that we've really had a personal passion for," Buck says. And that storytelling medium finds itself in a renaissance, he adds. Between numerous comic cons and the popularity of comic book movie adaptations, the books are appealing to a wider audience, he says. "Comics, certainly where it's a niche thing, it has this way of working hand in hand and forming this symbiotic relationship with other media channels," Buck says. "What you're seeing is an elevation of the art form." Buck says the "Rebellion" stories will continue to be plugged into that world. More zombie stories are inbound, and he's pretty excited to share them. "We find ourselves on a trajectory with this pursuit," Buck says. "We like them because they're fun, and the people who like them are fun. It just works so well with how we approach business, anyway. I imagine that you'll be seeing Dutch Bros. comics and zombie rebellions for a long time." Reach reporter Ryan Pfeil at 541-776-4468 or [email protected] . 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