Tuesday, October 17, 2006
SPX
The Small Press Expo is a comic book convention focused on independent titles and their creators. Independents provide an alternative for comic book fans who desire to read about something other than superheroes. Over the years, the independent market has grown, and so has SPX. It was held in the new Bethesda North Marriott Conference Center, which is very nice and large, but unfortunately is a victim of Marriott’s current hideous design scheme. At least, being a brand new facility it doesn’t look as bad as the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn which had day-glo carpeting and paint schemes shoehorned into the pre-existing and formerly tasteful architecture.
The day didn’t start off that well, although my wife did decide to accompany me. “Honey, you do realize that despite its focus, it is still a comic book convention, right?” She has just started working from home and was looking for any excuse to get out of the house, so with the promise of a nice lunch out we drove down to Bethesda. Unfortunately, I’m not real familiar with that area, the conference center is too new to mapquest, and the directions on SPX’s web site were crap. After going an hour out of our way, we finally found it.
The show is a real hotspot for the publishers and creators. It’s one of the main times of the year when they get to meet and hang out. It must be an incredible experience, but for the regular attendee, it’s all about the dealer’s room. It’s worse than a regular convention, because not only are the people behind each table making a sales pitch, what they’re selling is the art they’ve poured their heart and soul into. I was in a particularly black mood when I walked in, though, and if the dealers were not picking up on that I was in a better temperament to ignore them outright.
A note on independent comic books. For the most part, they’re exactly that. They’re completely self-published from start to finish, so the only person you have to please is yourself. Since there are usually no editors involved looking at a bottom line to sell thousands of issues to turn a profit, the standards on the artwork and production values are very low. This means that almost all of the artwork involved is alternative, or to put it another way, freakishly bad. With the advent of modern technology, there are only a very small number of the offerings that look like they were printed on a Xerox machine and hand-stapled together, so it is safe to say that there is something there for everyone.
One problem I’ve been having recently is that since the independents are constrained by individual budgets and time constraints, there is a very low production frequency. Ergo, even a few of the creators that were there that I’m a genuine fan of, such as Alex Robinson and Carla Speed McNeil, had no new material to offer me. There were lots of other creators there – the new space was an absolute necessity – but it’s tough to find a gem among all the “alternatives”. My wife did find a few items that interested her at the Slave Labor Graphics and Drawn and Quarterly tables; no big surprise, they are both publishers of independent graphic novels, which is fine if you feel like dropping twenty dollars and up at a crack. She also picked up a baby jumper for some friends from a company called Squidfire that was selling baby clothes with Cthulhu-style prints.
After an exhaustive search, I did actually find the two items I was looking for at the show. “Ultimate Peanuts”, a mini-comic I had heard about, detailing a day in the life of some grown-up comic strip characters. It wasn’t actually for sale due to copyright issues, but was free if you bought something else from the table, so I picked up “Ronthology” another mini-comic the creators had put together to make fun of a friend who had ostracized them. A fine concept for a comic book, I feel, although the art in both was very “alternative”. I also found a copy of Papercutter #2, an anthology that included a story by Colleen Coover, an artist whose work I admire and look for wherever possible. I also picked up a copy of Class of '99 by Josh Eiserike. It has a cute end interesting story about a prom night, and has a very interesting twist ending. The art is alright, but I think I picked it up because the creator was friendly enough to penetrate my grumpy veneer. He did wind up winning the convention’s Outstanding Debut Award for it. That goes back to what I was saying about production frequency. The convention actually has a separate award category for anyone who actually manages to produce a comic book that year.
After the show, we headed for the promised lunch. SPX had provided a restaurant locater handout, which was well put together and we found very handy. I was in the mood for someplace good, and was leaning towards PF Chang’s, but there was an Italian place that was highly recommended on the handout. I was a little worried that it was the only $$$ restaurant on the list, but since they gave Starbuck’s two $$, I didn’t think it would be too bad. Timpano is a very nice restaurant in Bethesda. It’s upscale but not daunting, built around a Frank Sinatra theme. While it was pricey, it was not beyond what I would want to pay for a nice meal. I was a little put out that the waiter’s recommendation for a glass of wine happened to be the most expensive one on the menu (I don’t like the idea of a glass of wine being more than ¾ the price of my entrée) but it was truly excellent. We both had a “box lunch”, a pris fixe order I think they have on the menu to impress a lunch crowd that’s looking to impress. It included salad, sandwich/entrée, soup, and dessert; she ordered the Hepburn and I got the Sinatra. The waiter was polite and informative throughout, and I may hit the place next year when I inevitably return to SPX.
The day didn’t start off that well, although my wife did decide to accompany me. “Honey, you do realize that despite its focus, it is still a comic book convention, right?” She has just started working from home and was looking for any excuse to get out of the house, so with the promise of a nice lunch out we drove down to Bethesda. Unfortunately, I’m not real familiar with that area, the conference center is too new to mapquest, and the directions on SPX’s web site were crap. After going an hour out of our way, we finally found it.
The show is a real hotspot for the publishers and creators. It’s one of the main times of the year when they get to meet and hang out. It must be an incredible experience, but for the regular attendee, it’s all about the dealer’s room. It’s worse than a regular convention, because not only are the people behind each table making a sales pitch, what they’re selling is the art they’ve poured their heart and soul into. I was in a particularly black mood when I walked in, though, and if the dealers were not picking up on that I was in a better temperament to ignore them outright.
A note on independent comic books. For the most part, they’re exactly that. They’re completely self-published from start to finish, so the only person you have to please is yourself. Since there are usually no editors involved looking at a bottom line to sell thousands of issues to turn a profit, the standards on the artwork and production values are very low. This means that almost all of the artwork involved is alternative, or to put it another way, freakishly bad. With the advent of modern technology, there are only a very small number of the offerings that look like they were printed on a Xerox machine and hand-stapled together, so it is safe to say that there is something there for everyone.
One problem I’ve been having recently is that since the independents are constrained by individual budgets and time constraints, there is a very low production frequency. Ergo, even a few of the creators that were there that I’m a genuine fan of, such as Alex Robinson and Carla Speed McNeil, had no new material to offer me. There were lots of other creators there – the new space was an absolute necessity – but it’s tough to find a gem among all the “alternatives”. My wife did find a few items that interested her at the Slave Labor Graphics and Drawn and Quarterly tables; no big surprise, they are both publishers of independent graphic novels, which is fine if you feel like dropping twenty dollars and up at a crack. She also picked up a baby jumper for some friends from a company called Squidfire that was selling baby clothes with Cthulhu-style prints.
After an exhaustive search, I did actually find the two items I was looking for at the show. “Ultimate Peanuts”, a mini-comic I had heard about, detailing a day in the life of some grown-up comic strip characters. It wasn’t actually for sale due to copyright issues, but was free if you bought something else from the table, so I picked up “Ronthology” another mini-comic the creators had put together to make fun of a friend who had ostracized them. A fine concept for a comic book, I feel, although the art in both was very “alternative”. I also found a copy of Papercutter #2, an anthology that included a story by Colleen Coover, an artist whose work I admire and look for wherever possible. I also picked up a copy of Class of '99 by Josh Eiserike. It has a cute end interesting story about a prom night, and has a very interesting twist ending. The art is alright, but I think I picked it up because the creator was friendly enough to penetrate my grumpy veneer. He did wind up winning the convention’s Outstanding Debut Award for it. That goes back to what I was saying about production frequency. The convention actually has a separate award category for anyone who actually manages to produce a comic book that year.
After the show, we headed for the promised lunch. SPX had provided a restaurant locater handout, which was well put together and we found very handy. I was in the mood for someplace good, and was leaning towards PF Chang’s, but there was an Italian place that was highly recommended on the handout. I was a little worried that it was the only $$$ restaurant on the list, but since they gave Starbuck’s two $$, I didn’t think it would be too bad. Timpano is a very nice restaurant in Bethesda. It’s upscale but not daunting, built around a Frank Sinatra theme. While it was pricey, it was not beyond what I would want to pay for a nice meal. I was a little put out that the waiter’s recommendation for a glass of wine happened to be the most expensive one on the menu (I don’t like the idea of a glass of wine being more than ¾ the price of my entrée) but it was truly excellent. We both had a “box lunch”, a pris fixe order I think they have on the menu to impress a lunch crowd that’s looking to impress. It included salad, sandwich/entrée, soup, and dessert; she ordered the Hepburn and I got the Sinatra. The waiter was polite and informative throughout, and I may hit the place next year when I inevitably return to SPX.
# posted by Renfield @ 12:06 PM 
