Earlier this month ROBOT 6 noted that Portland, Oregon-based artist Steve Lieber appeared in a Travel Portland ad piece to promote tax-free shopping in the city. Seeing the piece made me want to know more about how Lieber became involved and what was the experience was like. Fortunately, Lieber, who's now working on The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, was able to answer my questions in a brief interview.

Tim O'Shea: How did you get tapped to do the commercial? Did you have to submit art samples before getting cast?

Steve Lieber: The agency was familiar with my work before contacting me. It was simultaneously flattering and surprising.

Did the director ask you to draw certain scenes based on storyboards of the commercial?

They had some nice, clear prose descriptions of various scenarios and asked me to illustrate them.

What was the most challenging part of the commercial for you?

I don't spend a lot of time in front of the camera, so it took me a few takes to stop feeling self-conscious and just do things naturally.

Are you interested in doing more commercials or was this a one-shot deal for you?

I'd love to! It was great spending a day in the midst of the kind of skilled, focused professionals that you meet on a shoot.

Are you afraid that after seeing how quickly you draw in the commercial that editors will start setting unrealistic deadlines for you?

I suspect that some comics editors would worry that three fully-rendered ink drawings in 30 seconds wouldn't be quite fast enough to meet the production schedules they've been handed.