Tales from the Scratch Pad: A REVIEW of the Linework N.W.

Hey there sports fans, Al here with the latest:

Well I have perusing the work of the second day of the Linework N.W. show 2015. And I have a couple things about this show to say.

Its a cool show if you're into the real abstract art and more abstract storyline that accompanies it. It makes look at the work that I had been doing with Johnny Vega, Corrax the Seeker and Corpse Cop look like something that crawled out of Precambrian Epoch of comics.

I think that it wasn't just the fact that my artwork is all classically illustrated in the way the fifites style of art was being rendered and telling a story.

There were two people that I met that I thought had some really cool stuff at their table funny thing was that they occupied the same the place two different days
The first day of the show I met Laura Bifano. She was an artist working in what appeared to be water color and somewhat a cubic/pixlated design on mythological themes. It is unfortunate for me that I didn't have a lot of cash with me but I was able buy a postcard that I liked.

"Lady and the Unicorn" Copyrighted©Laura Bifano

I didn't want to bogart her time but from what I saw I think she had a strong artistic sense.
You can find more of her work her here.

The following day I came across the same table and found this gentleman named Brett Carville.

Brett had the brilliant idea of bringing a lamp for his table since Norse Hall wasn't as well lit for a lot of the vendors along the walls there. He also had a comic that grabbed my attention called "The Life of Craig"
As I began to talk to him I realized that this seemed to be his first shot at printing a comic book but the quality and size of this book as well as the design and layout told me volumes that he knew exactly what he was doing.

But again I didn't have the cash to buy this book like I wanted to but asked if had available on line. Soon was what I was told. Of this I look forward to buying it.
Besides that he was a nice guy.

You can find more of his work here.

But most of the books and products that were featured including the titles that I saw were nearly non linear in their telling when you picked up the book. In listening to the creators there I didn't hear the familiar story pitches that I have heard for so many years at other shows.

Kinda of refreshing in a way. Letting the work speak for itself.

Now non linear is not a bad thing for indies and I am not saying that because these are expressions of these other hard working artists. For me as a collector of comics some of them just didn't hit the mark for me.
Of course dealing with Feds with health insurance has been nothing but a massive attack on my sanity and me poor ol' 40+ brain felt like it was going to implode. So going into the show may have been tainted.

Now this wasn't true of everybody there but close so this next list is what I saw:

1). Lots of hardbound comics. So I guess as an investment for a book you feel like you get your moneys worth unlike what you get when you plunk down 5 bucks for a 34 page book these days.
Where the hell did you get the printing done at and how much for how many units?

2). Lots of retro looking material. A lot of the design that I was seeing had a feel of the mid fifties to mid sixties flat color design. And a very retro looking cartoon aesthetic to a lot of the work.

3). A lot of flat and lack of highly detailed inking. More like just outline with a lot of flat - almost pastel coloring.

4). Now some of the the other design work there felt like more someone who etches plates for printing(like you would see at a print makers studio) and silk screening processes. Those multi tri fold mini comics were cool.

So there were questions that I had that didn't make a lot of sense as I had understood that each day there would be other vendors for the following day so there would be a brand new batch of creators to see. This was not the case. Vendors such as a Dark Horse, Oni Press and Fanagraphics were there both days. This kinda bugged me but when you are the big money men on the block you know got something there that will appeal to most people (like me) for new projects to look at.

Temperature. This has always been a big issue for shows here in the Northwest. Because you don't really expect that April here would be running into the mid 70's AND with as many people walking around you had to step outside on a regular basis to cool off.

But that was really the only two things that I thought were a little problematic everything else about the show was great I just wish I could have had a part in it.

My girlfriend found a bunch of stuff that she wanted to buy but didn't know where to put it at when she got home.For me to get Black Box into the show I think a few different titles would have to be made to make into the juried show.

I have an idea for one the that might work and it still falls into the Corrax the Seeker redux book (a.k.a "Crow Pilot" OR a variation of

Weird Atomic Tales) I wanta do the other is getting Richard Parker completely done. One idea is to use the retro concept of the fifties robots as one main idea after Richard Parker is completed.

sites as well.
Etsy

Big Cartel

Storenvy

And of course I still have my comics that I have worked on here at Indyplanet.

And mind you there is website