Max Ink and a Lady Named Blink

By John Wilson

 

As thin as the proverbial rail, tall as a tree, dressed in layers to facilitate any situation, with hair short enough to elevate the need for fuss, an ever present burst of facial hair and simple wire rimmed glasses, Max Ink gives the appearance of the every man, the common Joe, he doesn’t stand out, he blends…until you look in his eyes. His eyes hold his secrets well but betray themselves in that you can see that there is a tsunami of ideas behind them. His eyes both focus and search at the same time. They are in the moment and hours ahead of you as his brain rages within. In his eyes, his greatest secret is betrayed…that he is so much smarter than the rest of us…not that he would ever admit it. Luckily his work and his characters do that for him.

 

Blink is the story of three characters: the blond haired cartoonist who lends the piece her name. She is the hopeful one, the thoughtful one and in many ways the one that is most like her creator. Sam is the acerbic one, quick to grumble, in disbelief of the world around her, a definite Johnny Raincloud who hides an incredibly sweet heart and Hank, the would be musician who claims to have never heard the blues. I had the good fortune of re-meeting Max (having met him once over 10 years ago) at Mid Ohio and picked up three of the mini comic adventures of the trio. Within them, I was pleased to find a collection of slices of life and moments in time, stories that were interesting not for their complex action but for their thoughtful simplicity.  “Let It Be as it is” follows the trio around a record store as Hank is given a lesson in hero worship from Sam. “Barefoot in America, Breakfast in the Park” finds a discussion of the silliness of “team building” in the corporate world and gives us a glimpse of the first meeting between Sam and Hank, where she again schools the young man in the ways of music and “The Blink Strips”: hilarious single page strips that give us funny snapshots of the day to day happenings of our heroes. There are more stories that can be found on www.onwardstudio.com but it is the ability to hold them in your hand, the tactility of it that makes them worth looking for.

 

What makes them truly special is the incredible line work that Max puts into every panel. The pages come alive and jump off the small pages. Each one holds a textural quality that pushes it beyond simple pen work. The other thing that draws the reader in is that the stories all take place in real areas in the Columbus area. Max details each location at the end of each book and tells of their significance to the story. The locations don’t intrude or overshadow the story but add to the over all texture. Blink is well worth searching for, be it at a convention or through Max’s website. Max Ink is a cool guy, a smart guy and a talented guy. And best of all, he is a guy who knows how to tell a great story.

 

 

 

John Wilson - John Wilson is a life long comic book fan and recent comics professional. In addition to his Graphic Content column of Comic and How-to book reviews on Comic Related, he writes content for Sketch Magazine.net, is a digital colorist for Unleashed Press, a moderator on the Art Unleashed forum for Blue Line Pro and Sketch Magazine and writes his own comic stories. John is also an Art educator, Multi-media artist and graphic designer. In the other five minutes of his day, he spends time with his wife, Kim and their two dogs and reads more magazines than should be humanly possible.