Floating World's Jason Leivain just cryptically tweeted:
This October, imagine a comics festival with no tables. Official announcements coming soon... http://theprojectspdx.tumblr.com/
That site is fairly well fleshed out already, and the gist is that in October, the IPRC (in conjunction with Floating World, Sparkplug, and a bunch of other folks) is going to host an experimental comics festival:
THE PROJECTS is a festival of experimental comics and narrative arts, happening in Portland on October 19-21, 2012.3 days of workshops, exhibitions, panels, performances, projections and collaborative projects. Introducing experimental artists from comics, animation, and other narrative arts.
The festival is a free event, oriented toward creative process, idiosyncratic expression, and inspiration, leaving behind the flat model of comics as commerce.
Sounds like the festival will take place at the IPRC, with shows at galleries and shops around town. I'm intrigued; the comic book show floor model kinda sucks, really, unless you're wired to enjoy wandering around a giant convention hall while desperate/awkward artists stare hopefully at you from their booths. A more accessible comic book show is a worthy experiment—that said, experimental comics art might be considered even less widely accessible than the stuff you typically see at Stumptown, so I'll be curious to see how it balances out.
