115860576317731400The long awaited TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN opera opens tonight, and The Portland Tribune has a preview:

They sing another ode to coffee, and that’s it.

“In the comic there were three locales, but I cut them down to one so we could do this cheaply,â€? Wheeler says cheerfully, as he lurks at the edge of the action.

Wheeler embraced the chance to work collaboratively — cartooning is an intensely lonely job, as local successes Joe Sacco and Craig Thompson have admitted. Tonight, however, Wheeler is on the margins. He sports a bemused smile, as though surprised at how much better things have turned out than he expected.