SPX 2005 Wrap-Up Thread!

I will say, though, that the ABSOLUTE BEST thing there was K. Thor Jensen's wordless minicomic adaptation of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet, pts. 1-5," starring Batman. Um... wow.

Also very very impressed by Killoffer's "Six Hundred and Seventy-Six Apparitions of Killoffer." In an entirely different way, of course. And Matt Madden's "99 Ways of Telling a Story."

Bummer of the weekend: the promised copies of "True Porn" #2 never made it there from the printer.

The new issue of FINDER that Carla Speed McNeil had on hand will be the final comics-format issue. She's going to start serializing new stories a few pages a week at lightspeedpress.com, and will still be doing an annual trade paperback collection. The TPBs make money; the comics don't.

The vibe at SPX is indeed always fun and relaxed. Today was supposedly picnic day, although I didn't get to stay around for it.

(SPX = Small Press Expo, to save everyone else the Google)

Also, Bueneventura Press is a name to watch. They're 1/3 distribution service, 1/3 fine art printmakers and 1/3 publishers. They're putting out a regular comic by Dan Zettwoch (Redbird), who is really really good in the Kevin Huizenga vein.

In the context of post-SPX that you're talking about... Dan Clowes, Dame Darcy, Richard Sala, Jason, T. Ott, Ho Che Anderson, Roberta Gregory, that Kreider bloke Groth loves, Geo. Herriman, Charles Schulz, Hank Ketcham, Bob Fingerman, Dave Cooper, Michael Kupperman, Kim Deitch, Francesca Ghermandi, Max Andersson, Tony Millionaire (has done minicomics, but only on the side from newspaper & Fanta and Dark Horse work), Robert Crumb (one, maybe two issues in the '60s), Peter Bagge (3? 1? issues of a co-pubbed anthology c. 1981), Los Bros (one photocopied issue with no distro c. 1981), Ivan Brunetti (three issues of an anthology and a newspaper strip collection that sold so badly he had to destroy hundreds of copies, in the late '80s, and after the newspaper strip), Jordan Crane (published an anthology - I'll give you this one maybe, but his own work was never the focus), BWS (published prints, not comics, and only in the 1970s and only after success at Marvel), Jim Woodring (did a few mini-comics in the '80s), Chris Ware (has just left Fanta to self-publish, and only did his Ragtime Ephemeralist zine after a decade or more of work in newspapers and RAW and on Eclipse and Fanta)

versus!

Johnny Ryan, Jessica Abel and...?

Jordan Crane = definitely successful on his own terms and "Col Dee" is one of the centerpieces of Non #5 (his story in #4 is better)

Jessica Abel, Johnny Ryan definitely. Also Roger Langridge, Steven Weissman, Anders Nilsen and Paul Hornschmeier (both have upcoming books).

And....um....Kit, you're totally right. I didn't even consider the key figures of the Fantagraphics stable or all of the great Newspaper strip reprints or the key role the company has played in drawing attention to European creators. Thanks for the swift kick in the ass.

Ivan had a biggest-ever coverage in TCI was a medium-sized interview about six months ago, and he'd been on Fanta for ten years before that (and hasn't published much outside of them in that decade).

A LOT of Biff Bang Pow! is weak-to-terrible, but Brunetti's own fumetti in one issue makes whatever you pay worthwhile (even if you read it in Cerebus, it's much better printed here). Misery Loves Comedy is fascinating at least in that it's almost impossible to believe that someone whose drawing skill was so non-existent, and whose cartooning so crude, could become the beautiful stylist responsible for the Highwater/Schizo #4 strips.

Yeah, Crane I gave you tentatively, let's say he counts (though The Clouds Above may prove to be a one-off as far as Fanta goes. Hedge hedge hedge!).

Roger Langridge had only done a handful of minicomics in New Zealand before getting picked up by Fanta! I don't think he was even in Fox or anything. First minis in 1988, first Fanta issue of Art D'Ecco must have been 1990 or so? Zoot started around 1992, so they'd had to have gone through the whole run of Art and the Knuckles one-shot by then...

Weissman was on Alternative Comics before Fanta (vague idea: issues on Alternative, then Kid Firechief strips in Measles leading to FBI reprints of the Alternative series? but I've not seen his Fanta books so I don't know really.)

Nilsen's work I don't know either, that's a bye.

but Hornschemeier was published by both Absence Of Ink Press and Dark Horse before getting into one issue to date of a Fanta anthology!! No way does he count, even if Mome becomes successful and this book you mention does happen in the future.

and should that be "fumetto"?

The Brunetti fumetti in Biff Bang Pow is great, agreed. The series of "Art Police" (or whatever it was called) strips have a lot of fun visual puns. Jessica Abel's early work is similarly instructive.

Hornschemeier did an entire series (Sequential) before Forlorn Funnies came out on Absence of Ink. He totally counts.

David Heatley is another person I forgot, since Deadpan is now coming out on Fantagraphics.

That's kind of cool, actually. Maddie and I have only bought the trades (no issues), and it'll be fun to read them online and still get the nice collected versions.

I will say, though, that the ABSOLUTE BEST thing there was K. Thor Jensen's wordless minicomic adaptation of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet, pts. 1-5," starring Batman. Um... wow.

My soul can never be at peace until I read this.

back to beating Ivan like a dead horse: doing an illustration for a client who is also your publisher /= having an issue of client's magazine dedicated to you before they became your publisher!

going selfpublished series -> small press series -> major book from large press -> appearing in anthology from medium press totally doesn't count as being picked up from the self-published work, c'mon.

and I got curious and googled Nilsen, he's had a book on D&Q before his prospective book from FBI! Denied!

and Heatley I'm willing to bet has been spotted from Kramer's #5 (though that's because I'd never heard of him before...)

(I feel like I'm back in middle school again)