Aprendiz: Book One

Posted: Tuesday, September 2, 2003
By: Darren Schroeder

Creator: Adam Suete
Publisher: Self Published
Address: 335 Court ST #16, Brooklyn, New York 11231, USA
Price: $3.95 (US)

Adam is an illustration major who starts up an artist collective with some fellow students. Things go okay for a while but as usual in group situations some peoples' priorities change and Adam finds himself loosing interest in being to the driving force. So he starts looking for other projects. A tattooing apprenticeship seems appealing, so he starts making big changes....

The autobiographic tale unfolding in this issue is one of artistic development, as Adam looks to find a way to put his artistic talents to work for him. As such, it is a story that should have a head start in appealing to those small press readers who also produce their own comics. It is also of interest to anyone who wants to know a bit more about the tattooing trade, an area that seems ideal for illustrators to get involved in but doesn't get much coverage in the comic, cartooning or graphic design publications.

This comic has a split personality. The narrative dialogue is pretty much matter of fact descriptions of the events that befall Adam and his reactions to them. The topics are serious as Adam outlines decisions he made and the consequences of these. The artwork illustrates these events and internal monologues and throws in a lot of humour, with amusing details and symbolic depictions that rase laughs and make subtle comments on the events unfolding. The pages of artwork are done in a bold and clear style that is very appealing. It has a quality that reminds me of a 60's head comic, but in this case it all makes sense.

The high production values along with a mix of honesty and humour make this an easy comic to recommend.

In a Word: Honest.

Adam tells me that he will be at the SPXPO in Maryland this weekend with the hot off the press Aprendiz: Book two. I want any of you who are lucky enough to be there to be sure to visit him at table v25 and say hello.

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