Local Print Festivals Deliver Off-Beat Art
If you’re looking for some entertainment, why not print?
During the last weekend of April, there were some interesting festivals going on. Stumptown Comics Fest at the Portland Convention Center and Wayzgoose at Tacoma’s own King’s Books. I found some interesting items at these festivals, and almost all of it is available for readers to check out online.
STUMPTOWN
“Powr Mastrs”: One interesting booth had a sun-bleached copy of “Powr Mastrs Vol. 1” on display. I was attracted to the book after I had read about it in “Vice” magazine, and got a chance to borrow a physical copy. If you like your stories and plots completely bonkers and your art simplistic yet surreal, order this from their publisher PictureBox online.
“Wuvable Oaf”: I had seen this Wuvable Oaf on Tumblr and in the pages of “Glamazonia: The Uncanny Super-Tranny” and was not disappoint with these single-issues. The situations are pretty hilarious; they remind me of classic short funny animal comics, except the funny animal here is a big awesome punk gay bear.
“The Adventures of Jodelle”: I’ve been waiting for this new archival release from Fantagraphics for a while. Curse my monolinguism! Jodelle is an awesome sexy French comic masterpiece, with graphics inspired by pinball machines.
Floating World Comics: Some of the more interesting artifacts of the alt-comix world are produced by these guys. They have a shop in Portland that’s only two and a half hours away from UWT. I picked up an issue of “Diamond Comics,” “Adapt” #1 by Johnny Negron, an “Incal” tribute comic called “As Above So Below,” and an issue of ”The Caterer.” I highly encourage googling these things and following them on those huge networking websites that are cataloguing all of our interests in the hopes of profit.
“Devastator”: Ah! A magazine that offers some light reading about pop culture! Based out of L.A., these guys offer a great little mag with themes like arcade, indie, spy, and fantasy. They even have contributions from cool alt-comix guys like Tony Millionaire and James Kochalka!
Intruder Comics: Seattle boys Max Clotfelter and James the Stanton made the trip way down south for the event. You can find their zine at fine establishments in Seattle, but I hadn’t seen the new issue until I saw them at Stumptown. I always love it when the title logo starts attacking the characters of a comic.
“As You Were”: I got to meet Liz Prince, whose comics you can get at lizprincepower.com. She had copies of a punk anthology that was an interesting read from a large variety of artists. Prince’s story was rather fun, a spook-tacular take on the house party experience.
Alas, I left feeling like I had only scratched the surface. I didn’t attend panels and forgot to check out the free swag table. Is there any way to visit Portland and leave satisfied?
WAYZGOOSE
The next day in Tacoma we had our own indie printmaking fest at King’s Books. Owner sweet pea said he always has a good time making steamroller prints at the huge event that draws a big crowd every year with a free public activity at every booth. Here’s a look at just a few of the talented vendors at the show.
Beautiful Angle: You might have seen their guerilla letterpress workings around town already. Their prints are available at King’s Books.
Chandler O’Leary: A local artist you might have heard the name of one or three times. I picked up a sweet Thea Foss postcard by O’Leary and Jessica Spring from this booth.
Keegan & Meegan: I got some cool skull coasters from these guys, but I loathe the thought of actually setting a drink on one of them. They have other cool prints and such on their website: http://www.keeganmeeganco.com/
CLAW: More skulls! The Cartoonist’s League of Absurd Washingtonians’ free printmaking activity creates a cool zombie skull. Who doesn’t love that? One of the talons of the CLAW, artist Mark Brill, had his wares spread out. You can find his anti-bullying comic at Pac Ave boutique Poison Apple.
For more on local art like the stuff I talked about here, check out the events going on in this month’s Tacoma’s Third Thursday Art Walk on May 16.
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