This was my first
Small Press Expo in Maryland and I gotta say I'm impressed. Smaller and maybe less as quirky as MoCCA, the show still felt like busy, friendly and really, I dunno, happening and hip and other encouraging h words.
Elsewhere on the Internet, you can find all the pictures of gorillas winning Ignatzs and a brief, busy party called the Nerdlinger Awards with a bathtub full of ice and drinks, but these are the images that stick in my head for SPX 2007.
Thursday
Flew out of Manchester, N.H. And into Baltimore with
Marek Bennett After a maze of buses and subways, got picked up in D.C. By his friend, Karen, who works over at a famous think tank. After the midnight tour of the city, we called it a night around 1 a.m. That would be the most sleep I get all weekend.
Friday
It was odd at first to be set up by 11 a.m. and then not have people start shuffling in for another three hours (the show, on the first day, began at 2 p.m.). Still, gave me time to say hello to a few people and eat an apple on the grass in the sun.
The Trees & Hills/ Mimi's Doughnuts table was near the front door, the first table in on one of the center aisles. Pretty great location, especially considering
I Know Joe Kimball, the collective of Center for Cartoon Studies students and graduates who debuted
the Dead Man's Hand western anthology (which I and several other Trees & Hills regulars are published in), were right next to us. The Center for Cartoon Studies was nearby too, along with the SUNDAYs collective, another group that has sprung from CCS.
We were debuting NEW STARS, our new mini-comic anthology with comics inspired by the Sputnik launch 50 years ago this month. Marek had a new copy of his Mimi's Doughnuts Zine, which also featured a story about Sputnik. We did a package deal of the two for $6 and that seemed to seal several sales.
Several times I had people come up to the table because they had heard about NEW STARS and sometime over the weekend
Matthew Reidsma sold out of all but one of his contributor copies because people just saw it at his table and wanted to buy it.
The book sold pretty well, I think, because of the hook of its theme (I'll forever have the pitch, which I probably repeated 1,000 times, stuck in my head) and because of the gorgeous cover image by
Gregory GiordanoTim Hulsizershowed up Friday afternoon with Meagan Frappiea, finally sealing the wonderful fact that I both had a hotel room there to sleep in and my own bed in that hotel room. Tim got me into a great party over in Sara Bauer's hotel room, who thankfully had a corkscrew for the two bottles of wine that I wanted to share with people.
One thing I noticed was the the attendees were mostly looking for square-bound collections of comics or graphic novels. We did well with out self-published mini-comic anthology, but even when I did my buying, it was more for the collected books of creators I know than new mini-comics, which I usually try to do at these events.
There just seemed to be so many cartoonists who last year had minis and this year had professional and beautiful collected books. Great for them and an interesting trend, I think, because I suddenly found myself spending money on say,
Julia Wertz's FartParty collection from Atomic Press, than buying an armload of $3 minis from a bunch of great new creators I never heard of.
Saturday
We did great on the second day. Within the first three hours I had surpassed the previous day's sales. I bumped into The Beat's
Heidi MacDonald and gave her a copy of NEW STARS. She told me she posted my press release a few days ago – it's right over here. I had no idea because I felt like I hadn't been on the Internet at that point since 1996.
I drank wine at the Ignatz Awards (Dead Man's Hand was nominated for the debut comic award!) and met comics writer
Matt Rhodesand his wife, Shannon, with whom I would later spend a good part of the evening with chatting about Alan Moore, Amsterdam, tattoos and the nature of the universe. Somehow I ended up in
Kevin Dixon's hotel room talking about Fats Domino and Alf.
Sunday
With a flight scheduled for the early evening, I only sat in on on the day's first panel on media and comics, which distributed vital info on things like sending your comic to a magazine to be reviewed or how long your press release should be. Already being in that biz, little was knew to me, but I did catch a glimpse of my Internet dream girl
Whitney Mattheson, the blogger behind USA Today's Pop Candy.
SPX felt more social and even communal than MoCCA, mostly because this show is much smaller and is held in a hotel, where most of the exhibitors are staying too. It's also a really energizing convention; Marek and I chatted on the way home Sunday about future plans, both for our comics and the Trees & Hills comics group.
I know I'm going to forget people, but shout-outs to
Dave Kender, the founder of The Boston Comics Roundtable and Bellen's
Box Brown, two people I was hoping to spend more time with.
Next year: camera, blogging during the conventions, more comics for sale and a vow that I will go to bed at a decent time one of the nights.
Labels: new stars, spx
Here, Colin & Megan deal with a big crowd around the display table...
And here, the chief architects of the Trees and Hills Sputnik Project reveal their handiwork to the press. The elegant basketball-sized device boasts a gleaming aluminum coating, and a core of unknown composition, possibly enriched candy.
Here, Colin & Megan deal with a big crowd around the display table...
And here, the chief architects of the Trees and Hills Sputnik Project reveal their handiwork to the press. The elegant basketball-sized device boasts a gleaming aluminum coating, and a core of unknown composition, possibly enriched candy.
