Many Americans— myself included— have come to know Asian comics and cartoons like this: characters have round, oversized eyes and angular hairdos, cute and cuddly pseudo-animals have dumpy, superpower-infused bodies, and candy-hued colors are splashed around generously. Though last night at Floating World Comics as I was previewing Underground Comix— an exhibit of Chinese comic art compiled from the indie-comic collection, Special Comics— I saw an unexpected sampling of fresh Asian illustration styles, all on display to an American audience for the first time.

China's Lěnglěng is an artist with an exemplary, stereotype-breaking style (reading as a not-so-distant relative of our own small press, zine-format comix). In Lěnglěng's illustrations— on display at Floating World in enlarged, poster form— a girl with a thermometer-shaped nose and plus-symbol eyes travels through a series of bizarre landscapes. In one illustration, the girl is being sucked into a hole in the sky from a pool of water which floats in front of a mountain range (kinda weird), while armless monsters with lightening bolts for tongues prance around the peaks. (Again, kinda weird.) While the strange arrangement of landscapes is interesting, it's really the anatomy of the girl which breaks the anime stereotype I've come to expect of Asian comics.

ErDong, another Chinese artist on display at Floating World, also breaks the anime stereotype, combining realistic anatomical representations with otherworldly creative twists. In ErDong's series of illustrations, a colony of eyes is trapped within a man's body, tearing holes through his skin and exiting in vaporous, soul-like wisps. ErDong's illustrations— along with the other eight artists in the show— have been reproduced in zine and poster form and will available for purchase tonight at the show's opening from 6 to 10 pm.

But that's not all!

Underground Comix is part of a larger, multi-location exhibit, Contemporary China @ The New Creative Corridor, curated by John Jay of Wieden + Kennedy (and held in conjunction with the Portland Art Museum's new exhibition, China Design Now). Not only does this macro-exhibit highlight China's massive creative capital— offering music, fashion, design, and more— but also highlights something Jay calls "Portland's new Creative Corridor," which includes portions of the Pearl, Old Town, China Town, and Alphabet Districts.

Here's a map of participating "Creative Corridor" locations:

Next door to Floating World (20 NW 5th Ave), the Goldsmith Gallery is hosting Jelly Generation, another exhibit under the Contemporary China umbrella which displays paintings, photos, and illustrations from 30 Chinese artists (also opening tonight).

Alright, get your China on, y'all.