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by Brady Russell
S.P.A.C.E. is the Midwest’s answer to the Small Press Expo, founded twelve years ago by Bob Corby, as a show that comics creators without a huge following could afford to go to. I’ve known about it for a long time and always wanted to go. After attending SPX myself for the first time in 1999, I came home and started Googling creators I had met, and I think it was searching for Suzanne Baumann that I found out about S.P.A.C.E. for the first time. The photos made the show look much smaller, much simpler than SPX, which even ten years ago, at the original location, was a pretty crowded scene.
S.P.A.C.E has been around almost as long as SPX, though, and while comparisons are inevitable, some of the comparisons are pretty favorable, too. First of all, S.P.A.C.E. has grown nicely since those first photos I found. In fact, when Bob Corby, the show’s founder and manager, released the floor map this year I thought: that looks like it’s about the same size as my first SPX.
The nice thing about SPX over the years is that it has been a great way to watch the underground comics world grow up. As the Beat put it after the Small Press Expo moved to the new location:
The buzz on the floor was all book deal after book deal, and new lines of graphic novels both from comics publishers and New York Houses. Whereas in past years, people would have been talking about launching their own series, everyone is now working on a graphic novel, a painstaking, lengthy process that can see you out of commission for years.
However, I saw that show a little differently, because I’d been out of the alternative comics loop for several years before SPX 2006. So the 2006 show was my first show back from my alt-comics desert and the first thing I thought when I got in the room was: where are the mini-comics?
If you miss the mini-comics, you’ll still find them at S.P.A.C.E. Everything about this event reminded me of my initial brush with punk comic book glory in 1999.
You’ll find the hand stapled xeroxed shorts and you’ll watch creators collating their own books on the spot, you just won’t find nearly so many fans (at least not this year). Corby estimates that about 650 people were at the show, between comps, guests of exhibitors and regular attendees, though reckoning just how many of them were pure attendees is hard to say. From my spot on the show floor, it seemed like about 60% of the people I talked to were either exhibitors or there with an exhibitor. And there were a lot of exhibitors.
Friday Night
There’s a lot of reasons to come to a show like SPACE. For me, this would be my first go at exhibiting my work. For years I’ve been spottily sending out three page photocopies off to friends and family and the odd creator I’ve met, but it was only last year that I got serious about committing to a comics project. In February, I launched my web-comic about a living TV that pals around with a famous folk singer and a famous economist. I
Mike Dawson’s award winning Troop 142
webcomic/mini-comic has found a paper home — Secret Acres will publish the collected edition next fall, just in time for SPX. Following a fateful scout camping trip in the mid=90s, it’s a sharply observed story of men and boys and what makes them men and boys. Dawson has been working on the story for over a year, with both a web version and a printed mini comics version.
PR below:
Secret Acres is proud to announce it will be publishing Troop 142, the second graphic novel from Mike Dawson, author of Freddie & Me (Bloomsbury USA/Jonathan Cape). Advance copies of the four-time Ignatz Award nominated, and winner of the 2010 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Online Comic, Troop 142 will be available at the 2011 Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland.
Says The Comics Journal’s Rob Clough:
“Mike Dawson has two chief virtues as a writer: writing dialogue with an almost painful level of verisimilitude, and an understanding of the dynamics of teenagers that manages to emphasize the Darwinian nature of their relationships along with the naïveté of youth… Visually, the key to this comic’s success is his ability to convey body language, gesture and character interaction, especially since subtext is such an important part of what’s occurring in the narrative.
The comic raises interesting questions regarding the idealism of Scout law and the realities of being a teenager in 1995 (the setting of the story). Joining the Scouts implies a certain kind of adherence to ideals, but what Dawson raises is that sometimes this may be more the ideals of the parent rather than the boy. And even among the parents, the Scout ideals fall by the wayside when it comes time to wield authority.”
Troop 142 follows a group of campers and counselors at a week-long scout retreat in the woods of New Jersey. It is a story as much about adults as it is adolescents, the blurred line between childhood and manhood, and the consequences of authoritative posturing. Dispensing with idyllic notions, Dawson describes the hilarious and brutal truths about boys and men, the hypocrisy of institutional morality and the resilience of Spam and the human spirit.
TROOP 142 by MIKE DAWSON
ADVANCE COPIES: Small Press Expo, September, 2011
IN STORES SEPTEMBER 2011
SOFTCOVER, 240 PGS, ISBN 978-0-9799609-9-4, 6×9in, $20.00
As SPX’10 thoughts still swirl in the indie community, Frank Santoro looks back and swirls about why mini-comics no longer feel fresh to him:
Driving down to DC I was composing my rant for a panel with Tim. I felt like I wanted to rail against mini-comics and small press cuz I feel like, at this point, I’ve read every mini-comic. They all start to look alike to me after twenty-some years of collecting. It’s like a twenty-year black and white explosion. Lots of great shit, but man, you really gotta sift through the junk pile to find said shit. And I love doing just that, sifting through the bins, tables, whatever and maintaining a collection of great mini-comics. The thing is, that less and less cartoonists are investing in this form and really developing it the way, say, Kevin Huizenga did/does. Kevin perfected the mini-comic and carried that into his “mainstream” work. And it’s that level of craft is something I don’t see much of and, hey, that’s okay but it doesn’t make me excited about looking for new stuff – and it makes me wonder about the “concerns” of the small press in this world of web comics.
The response in the comments is equally rambling and covers many topics, some economic some artistic. Jesus, there is not one person who didn’t think this year’s SPX was the most awesome comics show they’d been to in years, but it has sure inspired a lot of soul searching! I’m not going to delve into the comments because it’s too all over the place for me to really get a read on, but a few thoughts. This one guy Jason, who no one seems to think much of, writes:
It’s amazing to see so little craft involved and to be around tons of folks who feel like they’re special and deserve (or demand (barf)in lots of cases) attention but who don’t have much talent or ambition. Maybe this has always been the case – for every Kevin H, Dan Zettwoch, John Hankiewicz, Gabrielle Bell, Vanessa Davis there has been loads of crap.
“Maybe”? How old are you, 11? I was cleaning up recently and I find these time capsule shoe boxes where I put all the minis from this year or that, including probably the first SPX I went to in 97 or so. Trust me, there are always also-rans and flashes in the pan. Anytime I even look something up on this blog from four years ago I’m like, “Say, whatever DID happen to that guy?”
That said, as in most things, each generation gets the mini-comics school it deserves. Minis were once known as mail art because you could literally mail them to people. Now they are pretty much made to sell at shows like SPX.
Rob Clough has a more pragmatic view of the kids these days:
There’s less hacked-out, scribbled-out, cheapie xeroxed stuff that I see and get nowadays. That said, I agree that I also see fewer “holy shit!” moments of stunningly good and cleverly-crafted minis ala Kevin H. (The best minis I’ve seen in recent years have come from Will Dinski [king of interesting design], Leslie Stein [insane detail in her drawing] and Annie Murphy [impressive content]). I attribute both trends to the large number of cartoonists at SPX who are now going to comix art school and the webcomix people who do obligatory minicomics for shows so they have something to sell. (Obviously, sometimes those two groups overlap.)
Exactly. People go to art school just to make mini comics these days. I’m wondering, though if Frank’s comments aren’t somehow tied to the whole economic fretting going on here and elsewhere — what is the career path fo
Vancouver-based mini-comic/undergounr cartoonist Colin Upton is taking to the web on his LJ page. Here he grapples with This Modern life.
The Space Prize is presented each year to the best in comics collected at the previous year’s SPACE festival in Columbus, OH in the categories Minicomic, Short Story and Webcomic and a Grand Prize. This year’s SPACE will be held on April 24 and 25, 2010 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel & Conference Center in Columbus. More info here. And the winners are:
General Category:
1st Place:
The Dreamer #1-5
Lora Innes-Artist, writer
Tom Waltz- Editor
2nd Place:
Tiny Life 1)a
Nick Jones and Nicolas Colacitti
3rd Place:
The Second Part of the Secret History of the Ineffables
Craig Bogart
Minicomic / Short Story Category:
1st Place:
Aliens Poop on Your Children
Chris Garrett
2nd Place:
Veggie Dog Saturn #3: Jason’s Quest
Jason Young
3rd Place:
Reflection
Eric Adams
Joanna Estep
Webcomic Category:
1st Place:
Introspective Comics
Ryan Dow
2nd Place:
The Book of Biff
Chris Hallbeck
3rd Place:
Freak Central
Brian Maze
Pranks, Tricks & Challenges to Amuse & Annoy Your Friendswritten and drawn by master tricksterSam BartlettWorkman 2008While I recognize that April is National Poetry Month it also happens to be the month that begins with one of my favorite non-holiday holidays: April Fool's Day. Is there anything more delicious than planning and pulling off that perfect prank, that preposterous practical joke?
James Sime, owner of Isotope, the comic book lounge, tells us that there are only seven days left to submit mini-comics for the 2008 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics.
“You have just one week left to draw, fold, and hand-staple your way to mini-comic glory!” Sime said.
While the minis continue to pour in there is still time to enter your own into the competition. “We’ve got a big stack of mini-comics genius already,” Sime said, “But I know there’s still some last-minute types out there sitting on some hand-crafted gold. It’s time to let your work get the attention it deserves. Get your submissions in and follow in the footsteps of past winners Danica Novgorodoff, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, Joshua Cotter, Max Riffner, and Rob Osborne!”
To enter this competition, send five copies of your mini-comic to Isotope’s address (326 Fell St. San Francisco, CA 94102) before the October 24th deadline. As always, the Isotope will be taking submissions up until midnight on the deadline. From 11am until 7pm the Isotope will be open and available for anyone making those last-minute drop-offs, and from there the staff will continue taking submissions until midnight at The Orbit Room on Market and Laguna Streets in San Francisco.
Dan Barlow sends word of a spring tour for this New England cartoon collective–frankly we didn’t know there were two conventions in New Hampshire alone!
The Trees & Hills comics group will celebrate the end of a long winter this year by hitting the road for a spring tour.
The 2008 SPRING THAW TOUR features the debut of several new comics by members of Trees & Hills - a social cartooning group for creators in Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts - and a chance to meet with local comic fans and other creators.
Trees & Hills members will appear at two conventions in New Hampshire in May before trekking out to New York City for the MoCCA festival in June.
First up is the Granite State Comicon in Manchester, N.H. on May 18. Trees & Hills co-founders Dan Barlow and Colin Tedford will be on hand for the event while Mimi’s Doughnuts creator Marek Bennett leads the crowd in a massive comics jam
That convention also features the debut of $ELL OUTS #1 written by Barlow and Keith Moriarty, with interior art by Tim Hulsizer and a cover by Greg Giordano, the Burlington, Vt. artist who turned heads with last year’s Trees & Hills’ NEW STARS anthology cover. Tedford will also unveil his new comic, FOUR DAYS.
Up next is Broke: An Affordable Arts Fair in Peterborough, N.H. on May 31. In addition to scores of comics by local creators, Trees & Hills will also be giving away copies of the first two installments of TWIG, a new monthly comics flyer that debuted in April.
Finally, Trees & Hills will return to the MoCCA Arts Festival for a second year in a row. The group will debut its latest anthology – SWINGIN’ HITS – a new book that features comics about music by creators from across the three states. The comic will also come with a free CD of songs by local creators!
Also debuting at that show will be MIMI’S DOUGHNUTS #15 by Bennett, BOOTY #21 by Anne Thalheimer and SQUARE DANCE #3 by Tedford.
The premiere social cartooning group for Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts, Trees & Hills comics formed in late 2005 after several regional creators met at a 24-Hour Comic event in Brattleboro, Vt. The group is open to all creators of any age or talent.
Since then, the group organized dozens of cartooning parties, published three anthologies of new cartoons and comics and helped give a voice to scores of talented creators from across New England. Major projects this year include launching a free monthly comics flyer and two new comics anthologies.
For more information, please visit www.treesandhills.org
I've got that lovely about-to-start-a-new-story feeling today. The story and characters have been mulling around for ages - part of it for years - and I can feel now that as soon as I'm confident that I've got the characters' names right, I can start writing. Probably not today, but with a bit of luck their names will be well enough settled that I can start next week; today I can keep the story in that beautiful shining glow that surrounds a new project before the concrete words have started pinning it into place.
I've got a couple of other projects going on too, but they concern other people as well so I'll wait a bit longer to talk about them. I'll just say I've got some fingers crossed...
And this afternoon I'm going back to Rye Primary School to visit the kids in the library enhancement group who've been running the What if Everyone in Rye read the Same book (Nim's Island) project. I've heard that it's going well, but I'll be very interested to hear exactly what they've been doing.
[…]
That’s not actually Eric Adams in that photo. Yeah I know, he is wearing a hat too, but that’s not him. lol
That is Matt Feazell!
That’s me, all right. That was a great jam room. we ought to do it every year.
It’s true. I am not Matt Feazell. I recommend you Photoshop him out of that image and add me in immediately.
Nice write-up, Brady!
There were way more jams this year than I remember last year. In fact, I don’t remember being offered any on the expo floor last year, but I had to turn one down this year because so many were going around!
As for the Pittsburgh thing, it’s a relatively easy drive and we’re super hungry for affordable indie comics shows in our region!!! Plus, our indie comics scene is especially active right now.
There are comix creators in Pittsburgh ? Someday I’m going to have to open my front door and peer out…
Brady, fantastic write up! I’m glad that SPACE is getting some press, as coverage of it usually falls between the cracks of the better know indy cons, like SPX and APE. Bob Corby puts a herculean amount of effort planning and organizing this show, and it’s always been a source of frustration for me that not enough people attend it. It’s centrally located to Ohio and surrounding states, food and lodging costs in Columbus are very favorable, and there’s an amazing array of talent on display (I believe over 200 exhibitors this year). Of course, I’m spoiled, since I live only 10 minutes away from the current venue.
At my table, Saturday sales went in spurts, but overall it was a good day, comparable to last year. Sunday, though, was pretty dead. I mean, Sundays have always been slow at SPACE, the day where the exhibitors tend to go around and buy from or trade books with the other exhibitors. But this year it seemed even more glacial. It did give me a chance to go around and sample other books, though.
Fun fact: that’s me behind the table in the first picture under your Sunday write-up! The tall wire-rack on my table is holding the 17 volumes of the PANEL anthology I write and produce with the other Columbus-based creators in the PANEL collective, which you can check out here.
Thanks for the SPACE reportage; after the C2E2 entries, it’s nice to read about that ‘other’
Comics Convention for area fans not into the usual Super-Hero diet…
(Wish I could’ve attended— if just to ask Matt Feazell a question I’ve had for over 20 years: Are you ever gonna team up with Dennis Worden and have a Cynicalman and Stickboy team-up?? ;) )
It’s refreshing to see coverage that isn’t about C2E2. Didn’t know this was going on. I’ll have to keep an eye out for next year.
Hey guys! Really glad you liked the post! So sorry to have mis-identified Eric when it was really Matt. Ooph! Otherwise, the event was a lot of fun and it was a lot of fun to do this piece, too. Thanks for Heidi for giving me the opportunity and thanks a ton to the folks who liked it on Facebook and Twitter!