And another opportunity for aspiring creators to spotlight today at BF. Details of the mentoring initiative from Helioscope below.
Helioscope Announces New Mentorship Program
The interdisciplinary program pairs the next generation of comics talent with experienced industry veterans
Helioscope, one of the largest collectives of independent comics professionals in the United States, is pleased to announce our revived mentorship program for emerging creators. The program lasts four months, during which two mentees will learn skills specific to their discipline and receive tailored instruction on editorial and production work, social media strategies, convention logistics, and financial best practices. Members will have full access to the studio’s professional resources, knowledge base, and an opportunity to connect with a diverse selection of visiting industry professionals.
Helioscope soft-launched its new mentorship program in 2025 and will begin accepting applications for the next generation of studio mentees in the fall of 2026.
The studio’s first new pair of mentees, Claire Scott and Emilie Kelly, have been working at the studio since fall 2025 and are already pitching graphic novel proposals to major publishers. Scott, 23, originally from Juno, Alaska, and a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), says the program offers a huge opportunity compared to what’s available elsewhere: “When I was a kid I taught myself comics through YouTube. Alaska is very isolated and doesn’t have as many opportunities as the lower 48.” Scott is already working on a graphic novel pitch, and has been getting structured feedback from studio members. “It’s been really great to be in a studio full of working professionals,” they say.
Kelly, 24, a native of Pellham, NY and recent graduate of Reed College in Portland, OR, says that a flexible, interdisciplinary approach is a unique and exciting opportunity to hone their craft. “There’s a lot of diversity among Helioscope’s artists in terms of what people are working on and what their backgrounds are,” they say, “How do you talk to an agent? How do you put together a pitch deck? And people are talking from experience, that’s really valuable insight that you can’t get everywhere.”
The first mentorship program ran from 2004 to 2020, during which time the studio provided guidance and instruction to 76 aspiring artists in total. Alumni of the first mentorship program have gone on to work for Marvel, DC, and major independent comics publishers, as well as producing storyboards and concept art for video games, TV, and film. The mentorship program was suspended in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Helioscope was founded in 2002 by 10 area cartoonists, with shared offices in downtown Portland. There are currently 26 active members, as well as dozens of industry friends and associates who make regular visits. Studio members write and draw comics, provide commercial art for corporations and ad agencies, paint murals and stage sets, create scientific illustrations, illustrate books and magazines, and more. Helioscope creators have drawn for most of the major comics publishers in the English-speaking world, and their internationally distributed work has been translated into dozens of languages.
