Erik and I co-wrote a big article about the new comics festival Linework NW in the paper this week—it's a one-day arts and comics show tomorrow at the Norse Hall, it's free, it's bringing in some awesome people including Michael DeForge and Jim Woodring, and we're excited about it.

One of Linework's co-founders, Zack Soto, runs a site called Study Group Comics, which publishes a great assortment of comics on the web and in occasional print editions. (Full disclosure: Soto was also a guest on the last installment of Comics Underground, the performance series Erik and I run.)

I'm pretty in love with one of their newest serialized comics, The Short Con, by Aleks Sennwald and Pete Toms, which started last week and updates every Friday. There's not much to it yet, but what we've seen so far is a snappy look at a kid-staffed police force that operates out of an orphanage. Noir banter! But with children! But in a way that doesn't feel cloying or overly derivative of Veronica Mars! It's great. Check it out.

And of course, Linework NW is tomorrow (Saturday) at the Norse Hall, 111 NE 11th, 2-9 pm. And it's free! Because the organizers of Linework think that asking attendees to pay for the privilege of buying things—which about sums up the admission policy at a lot of comics shows—is a crappy model. Also, there's an onsite bar. See you there!