The past four
years I’ve attended or booked a table at the Baltimore Comic Convention. For
this year’s BCC, I planned on debuting a new comic book but alas, it didn’t
happen due to missed deadlines by the artist. (If only I kept up with my
drawing instead of fronting a punk band for 7 years...but I digress.)
So I decided to
attend the Small Press Expo (or SPX) in Bethedsa, Maryland which caters to
purely independent comics. The main reason I went to SPX was to find a
replacement artist but it became clear to me that everyone there is doing their
own thing. And that’s awesome! It’s great to see creators working their dreams
instead of worn down artists pushing out content when they have no proverbial
“horse in that race.”
That first day I
wandered, navigating up and down long aisles checking out art styles to see who
would fit my project. The optimism and pride in everyone’s eyes as they
described their books was infectious. I picked up quite a few of them. Here’s
some quickie reviews:
First off, I made
a beeline for Th3rd World’s table to get volume four of “The Stuff of Legend”
which I highly recommend. A great story about a boy kidnapped by the boogeyman
and his toys come to his rescue.
My favorite book
last year was the blaxploitation parody “Afrodisiac” from ADHouse which blew me
away so it was a great surprise to meet one of the creators, Jim Rugg, and pick
up another of his books, “Street Angel.” We had a fun chat about his stuff as
well as diverse topics such as Power Man/Iron Fist and Black Dynamite which we
both were fans of.
“The Humans” is a
cool book about what appears to be a Pierre Boule planet where apes rule and
features an ape bike gang who rumbles with a rival outfit. Nice art and storytelling. I’ll pick up more when it comes out through Image.
Crime books are my thing so I had to pick up “Rebel Gun” by Josh Hixson. Phenomenal art! A low budget film with a real life serial killer is the plot of “The Auteur,” a wacked out book that would make a great animated film if Ralph Bakshi got a hold of it. “Bunny Girl” is an adorable book about the creator’s one year old.
Every time I see writer Amy Chu, I always pick up what ever book she has. Never disappoints and “VIP Room” is no exception. Keep your eye on her.
On the second day, I had two goals in mind. One was to meet up
a rep from ComiXology. They had sent a group email to participants of their
Submit program which I was (MOSES MILITIA available now!) asking if they were
attending. If they were to approach them and say hello. Easier said than done because
ComiXology did not have a table nor did I know what they looked like. Well, I
had asked a SPX staff member and they told me it was probably Chip Mosher. When
I asked what he looked like, he said and I quote, “He’s a tall guy with a
beard.” ???? Have you been to a Comic Con full of millennial hipsters? They’re all tall
guys with beards!!!
My second goal was to grab a coffee and find a couch in the
catacombs of the hotel where I can write on my laptop for the next “Moses
Militia” arc. The creative energy of the con was a battery I decided to plug
into while it was peaking. As I got a few pages in, people starting filling up
the area. On my left I noticed there was a whole breakfast set-up of coffee,
juice, bagels and pastries. And yep, they were free! Tumblr had sponsored a
networking meet-up for con attendees. Not only did they bring munchies but there
was a box of free trades they were giving away. (Grabbed me a trade of “Powers”
by Bendis and Oeming!)
So I placed my script on pause, had some eats and mingled.
Met a lot of (again) cool people and managed to meet a few promising artists.
Now here I must mention two incidents with comics
professionals – one negative one positive. Since I don’t believe in posting
negative comments about pros, the negative story will be about a “nameless
anonymous guy/gal.” So I approached NAG to ask a simple question about
submitting my book, “The Moses Militia,” for review to this person’s site. The
query was “should I wait until it is gathered into a trade before I send it in?”
NAG immediately went into some diatribe about genres that had nothing to do
with what I had asked. When it was clear that NAG wanted to let off steam about…whatever,
I decided to cut it short and gave this person a postcard with the cover of my
book so this person would be familiar with it when I sent it in. Well, for some
reason NAG rolled his/her eyes at the site of the card and said with a
sarcastic tone, “Oh great. Moses Militia” before walking off. I have no idea
what that was about. I knew this person was anti-superhero (which was part of
NAG’s rant) but MM is not that. Maybe because the image is professional looking
and features heroic poses (gee, sorry it looks good!) that’s the impression NAG
got? Who knows. I like the next story better…
 |
| Moses Militia available at ComiXology: http://cmxl.gy/1hXKCcV |
So I made another sweep of the Con to talk to a few more potential
artists when I was sure I found the right person. Her portfolio which was open
on her table was very impressive. I decided to make my pitch and dazzle her
with a money offer. Now where I made my mistake was failing to look at her name
tag or the 7 foot tall standing banner behind her or the many trades on the
table with her name plainly in sight. Hell, why bother with details? I’m gonna
hire her! After a brief discussion she politely turned me down. That’s when I
looked around and found out that I tried to hire Carla Speed McNeil for a
pittance of her regular page rate. And believe me, what I offered her was a
fraction of what she gets. Admittedly I was unfamiliar with her work but I did
know her name. So I quickly apologized which she replied there was no need.
Nope, I embarrassed myself and insisted that I felt an apology was in order. I
should mention she liked what I was pitching, which centered around a female
character (a point she admired) and thought the rate I was offering was great
for newcomers to the field. Very gracious. Very professional. Looking forward
to meeting up with her again.
Later in the day I attended a Q&A panel by Jules Feiffer
who discussed many legendary cartoonists including Milton Caniff and Will
Eisner. Soon after I managed to meet up with him and picked up a personalized
copy of his graphic novel “Kill My Mother.”
As I turned to exit the con, a tall bearded man passed by.
Could it be the elusive Chip Mosher of ComiXology? I tapped him on the shoulder
and indeed discovered it was him. When I told him the description I was going
on, we both laughed. Another really nice guy.
So I am now a fan of SPX and will most likely attend it next year if not book a table myself. Now I’ve got a lot of reading to do….
So I am now a fan of SPX and will most likely attend it next year if not book a table myself. Now I’ve got a lot of reading to do….
Cheers!
- jb
- jb
