The biggest crowds at this year's Alternative Press Expo were for Image's Flight, Volume Two, a second full-color anthology of cartoonists assembled by editor Kazu Kibuishi, many of whom have published more work online than on paper. Kibuishi and some contributors were present to sign and sketch, and they sold several hundred copies of the $25 paperback over the course of the conference.
This year's expo, held in San Francisco last month, generated much discussion on the economics of small press publishing and on the popularity of anthologies for breaking out new artists. APE often signals which cartoonists will have big literary graphic novel hits over the next few years, and this year's expo was so popular that there was much chatter on the floor about whether the event will have to expand to three days.
Another notable debut at the show was the Buenaventura Press art-comics imprint, with its first two books: Vanessa Davis's collection of autobiographical vignettes, Spaniel Rage, and a children's book by Souther Salazar, Destined for Dizziness.
The presses with the closest ties to the mainstream book market had big premieres, among them the third volume of Fantagraphics Complete Peanuts series. But mostly presses previewed books that will be released later this year. Fantagraphics previewed its Granta-style comics anthology, Mome, and announced its complete reprint of Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace series. Drawn & Quarterly hosted signings by Seth (whose Wimbledon Green will be published this fall), Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve) and Kevin Huizenga (Glenn Ganges) and previewed Guy Delisle's Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Yoshihiro Tatsumi's Tomine-edited The Push Man.
Adhouse Books had planned to debut James Jean's heavily anticipated art book Process Recess, but its shippers failed to come through, and the book was unavailable. Top Shelf featured Dan James's Mosquito and Max Estes's Hello, Again, as well as Jeffrey Brown's Miniature Sulk. Slave Labor, besides selling a mountain of Jhonen Vasquez titles, did well with James Turner's Nil. Corey Lewis's manga-inspired Sharknife, from Oni Press, was flying out the door. A handful of tiny presses had exciting books as well, especially John Porcellino's Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man (La Mano); Rick Spears and Rob G's Teenagers from Mars series (Gigantic); and Rob Sato's self-published Xeric Award— winner, Burying Sandwiches.
There was also much talk about the future of graphic novels, including a panel moderated by Fantagraphics's Eric Reynolds discussing the peculiar economics of small press publishing that make serials difficult for publishers and original graphic novels difficult for cartoonists.
Anthologies are becoming the way to go for up-and-coming comics artists, and Gingko Press was selling one of the most important recent ones, the new Kramers Ergot, and announced that it will be taking over publishing The Ganzfeld as well.
And everyone seemed excited about the Center for Cartoon Studies, a new school for art cartoonists, run by James Sturm, that will be opening this fall in Vermont.
