Brad Parks

(September 27, 1960 –)

Bradford Scott Parks, a fanartist and fanzine fan active primarily in the 1970s, started out in fandom as a teenager in Windsor, CT, and ended up gafiated in Detroit.

He was not, in fact, a very good artist, but he was prolific, and fanzine lettercolumns were full of disagreements about just how bad Brad’s work actually was, like this exchange in Godless 11 (September 1974) between loccer Tim Kyger and faned Bruce Arthurs:

Kyger:

((on G#9)) I must castigate you on your art. The cover was...hidious. As was the Brad Parks illo, so-called, on the baccover. In fact, all of Parks’ illos in this ish are, in a word, bad....

((And on G#10...)) Do you have to run Brad Parks' art? At the risk of making a potential enemy out of a potential good friend, Brad Parks' artwork in a word -- sucks. At this time, anyway. He has potential but his art isn't going to be printable for several years, I'm afraid. He needs time to develop. So, until then, may I propose a Brad Parks' artwork moratorium? What you need to do is to encourage his fanwriting; that is good stuff/humor that he writes.

Arthurs:

I must castigate you on your complete lack of tact. Not only you, but all the others who have been dismissing Brad's art with one word, usually "crud", "bad", "ick" and others of that ilk. Frankly, I am sick and tired of seeing Brad Parks given such shit. Obviously if I felt his work was so poor as to be "unprintable", I wouldn't print it! I'm not ashamed of any of Brad's (or anyone else's) artwork that I've printed.

No, I don't consider Brad to be the best fanartist around. Some of the early work he sent me set my teeth on edge, and I therefore didn't use it. But he HAS improved, IMMENSELY, since those early efforts. Let me offer some specifics, something that you and the other "critics" of Brad's work have never bothered to do. Just some of the ways in which Brad's work has improved are:

1) Subject matter: All of Brad's early drawings were basically just the same drawing done over, a "Screaming Leaper" character. Since then, he's largely aban­doned such restrictions, and can now draw on a variety of subjects, including specially commissioned drawings.

2) Line width: All of Brad's early work was done with ballpoint pen, which gave the work  monotonous appearance, to say the least. Now, he uses pen, foun­tain pen, magic marker, ink brush, and other graphic materials to vary the ap­pearance of his work.

3) Texture & Shading: Again, Brad’s early work used no shading effects or dark areas. Take a look at his illo-loc on the right-hand page. In that piece of work, he uses linework, cross-hatching and other shading effects, and I think it's a very effective piece of work. 

4) Humor: You seem to have difficulty discerning the differences between an "artist" and a "cartoonist". The measure of a cartoonist's talent lies in the humor he injects into his work. Jay Kinney, for instance, is a fanartist whose work, considered as "art", is often very crude; but his work is also hilarious, and as a cartoonist, he's great. I consider Brad to be primarily a cartoonist right now, and I wish I had come up with some of the ideas he's had. Not perfect, no, but im­proving all the time. Take another look at his loc; the expressions on the characters show definite polish and a dawning sophistication at rendering cartoon ex­pressions....

Brad was notorious enough to be mentioned in the 1977 fannish play “Midwestside Story.”

Al Sirois wrote of him in a loc to Undulant Fever 3 (April 1979):
“Brad Parks is a normal human being! If you met him on the street you'd never realize that he was Brad Parks.”

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Heartworm [mid-1970s]
• Wart

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Person

1960—

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