Spiegelman, Mouly Highlight APE 2007
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on April 24, 2007 Sign up now!
by Ian Brill, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 4/24/2007
While conventions like the San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon attract a heavy contingent of film and TV projects, there is still a convention that focuses on the joy of ink on paper. The Alternative Press Expo, held at the Concourse in San Francisco, April 21–22, brought new artists like Bryan Lee O'Malley and Kevin Huizenga together with veterans of the alternative comics field such as Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly.
According to David Glanzer, director of marketing and public relations for Comic Con International, which manages APE, last year's attendance was 4,800. Attendance has not yet been released for this year, but it might have taken a hit due to conflicts with Earth Day celebrations and the Giants-Angels baseball game. Nevertheless, traffic on the floor looked fairly robust on both days of the con.
Major independent publishers such as Fantagraphics and Oni Press were on hand, their booths toward the middle of the floor, with smaller indies and self-publishing artists located along the floor's sidelines. Among the books being offered by established alternative publishers were the debut of Fantagraphics' art comics anthology, Mome Spring 2007, featuring new works by Al Columbia and Tom Kaczynski, who was there to sign copies. Top Shelf had the second volume of James Kolchaka's American Elf as well as the first volume in Jeff Lemire's Essex County trilogy Tales from the Farm. AdHouse was pushing its latest anthology, Project: Romantic featuring contributions from Rian Hughes, Junko Mizuno and Hope Larson, who was APE 2007 Special Guest artist. AdHouse also had previews of the delayed but much anticipated Paul Pope art book, PulpHope. IDW had Doomed Presents Ashley Wood, a collection of the Australian cartoonist's work from the horror anthology magazine.
Among the special guests this year included RAW cofounders Art Spiegelman and his wife, Françoise Mouly, art editor of the New Yorker. They discussed the creation of RAW, the seminal anthology of experimental comix, which introduced the work of many of today's most accomplished creators. Spiegelman discussed the creation of his Pulitzer Prize–winning Holocaust memoir, Maus, as well as the rerelease of his almost legendary first book from 1977, Breakdowns, next year (including an new introduction he called "Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!"). It will feature the original strips from Spiegelman's earliest experimental comix work as well as new material. Mouly discussed her work as art editor for the New Yorker, attracting such artists as Ware and Robert Crumb to create covers for the magazine. She also plans to launch a line of self-published children's comics aimed at kids eight years and younger. The proposed line of kids' comics will feature work from children's book artists such as Geoffrey Hayes and Harry Bliss.
Spiegelman and Mouly also examined the current public status of comics and graphic novels. Noting the dramatic change in the public acceptance, even admiration, of comics, Spiegelman said, "It's a landscape that I'm almost scared by. It's like this Philip K. Dick idea where one's own inner fantasy world becomes real." Critical to a fault, he's dubious of the sudden popularity of book format comics. "I'm not sure graphic novels are a good idea. Comics at their best are about condensation. It doesn't seem obvious that the best way to do comics is 800 pages long."
Other guests artists and panelists at the con included Kevin Huizenga (Or Else; Ganges) and Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim; Lost at Sea). Huizenga discussed his own approach to making comics, while O'Malley's panel was far less contemplative. During a freewheeling and funny session, he revealed the influence video games like Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda had on his Scott Pilgrim series. He also recommended Brandon Graham's new book, King City (Tokyopop), which O'Malley said was very close to the spirit of the Scott Pilgrim books.
APE Special Guest Karl Christian Krumpholz emphasized the importance of the net to small publishers. He has had his book Byron: Mad, Bad and Dangerous published by Slave Labor Graphics through EyeMelt.com, SLG's digital downloads imprint. Slave Labor's president, Dan Vado, recalled a section of past APEs full of print zine and DIY publishers that have since gone digital. "The DIY guys are now online," Vado said.
Internet social networking is also becoming a major help to small publishers. Two members of the collective Playground Ghosts, Chris Yates and David Malki, discussed how the Web allows them to cut costs, maintain an online marketing presence and meet like-minded artists. "One of the strengths of this show is that people aren't just expecting comics," Yates said.
Indeed, APE has grown along with independent comic publishing to offer art prints, prose books and toys, in addition to launching indie comics careers. Two APE success stories were encamped at the AiT/Planet Lar booth. Last year Matt Silday had a booth for his minicomic The Homeless Channel. And Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, a comics creator and new media artist, was on hand to advertise his Web site E-merl.com, a site featuring his print comics, experimental hypercomics and Web comics. Now The Homeless Channel is a full-length graphic novel, and Goodbrey's stories are collected in The Last Sane Cowboy & Other Stories, both published by AiT.
Even though Silday has a publisher now, he said, "I'm always hustling." But he was happy to have a house like AiT. "[The book will] sell to people who like the AiT brand," he said, joking that AiT is "the HBO of comics, but a bit pulpier."
