May 16, 2012
by Dre
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When you stop by everyone in Philadelphia’s favorite anarchist book stop, The Wooden Shoe, you can find my zines and comics. The Wooden Show is at 704 South Street, Philadelphia PA. This infoshop is really chill and run by caring volunteers. Here you can find radical non-fiction, novels, comics, zines, records, t-shirts, patches, and free Internet with computer access.
May 13, 2012
by Dre
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I love Asbury Park. I always thought and Comic Con would be cool there at Asbury Park Lanes. When I heard that was actually going to happen, I wasn’t surprised. The show was five dollars to get in, which was reasonable. The vibe was cool and chill. The PA system played enjoyable music the whole time including tracks by Fugazi, the Pixies, and the Police to name a few. The room was cool in temperature as well, which was great because it was actually a pretty hot day. Inside there were zines, indie comics, back issues of mainstream comics, prints, and posters. Outside the venue was a retro Batmobile, a Joker impersonator, along with retro Batman memorabilia. All of the vendors I spoke to after show did really well, I kinda regret not getting a table, but I had a blast anyway.
May 9, 2012
by Dre
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I decided to leave for Toronto on Thursday morning. I hardly made it to the Mega Bus, I got there with no time to spare. Riding the bus along with me were Ed Choy and Cyn Why. The bus stopped in Syracuse and Buffalo. We glided past the border and within hour or two we approached Toronto. The city was covered in a blanket of mist, haze, and fog.
On Friday I lingered around in this coffee shop near where I was staying called the Red Rocket Coffee. The whole time I was there, they played Radiohead, which I found to be really relaxing. The people who worked there were nice, and I ate something there that I never ate before. A hard boiled egg baked into a jalapeno corn muffin. It was really good, I really like spicy things!
On Friday evening I was volunteering for the show. I thought I would be an easy way to meet new people and get more in touch with the show. All the volunteers got marvelous bright salmon TCAF T Shirts that were from American Apparel. There I met Miles Baker, the Assistant Festival Director.
Volunteering was the opposite of glamorous. We did a lot of heavy lifting. These boxes filled with books the exhibitors mailed in were really dusty.
At some point I unwrapped packaging tape off these canvases that had a paper collage full of comic art pasted on it. It looked pretty interesting.
Later I went out for Japanese/Korean cuisine with Stephanie Mannheim and Daryl Seitchik! I had avocado, cucumber, and sweet potato rolls.
There was a Friday night party for the festival at nearby bar called the Pilot. This was a place where they held about 1/4 of the panels. Drinks weren’t too expensive, which of course, is cool with me.
Volunteers were everywhere outside of the festival drawing people in. This is Rizie.
The space for the show was pretty magnificent! Very big, open with two floors of exhibitors. The Toronto Public Library was the place the festival is held, and it reminded me of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Besides the downstairs exhibitor space, there was an upstairs exhibitor space as well. Even a kid friendly section which I didn’t think of taking a photo of. There was a strong emphasis on the fact that kids also like comics. They also had panels for kids all day on Saturday and Sunday. The two comic book shops that are associated with the festival are The Beguiling, an adult-oriented comic shop and its sister store Little Island Comics, the first North American comic shop aimed exclusively at children.
I had a chance to meet Derf Beckderf. I love his comics. I got his book My Friend Dalmer at the show. I already had Punk Rock and Trailer Parks. I love it and I’d highly recommend that book.
TCAF showed a lot of queer comics pride and support throughout the festival. I caught the panel New, Exciting, and Queer panel featuring Moderator Jose Villarrubia, and Maurice Vellekoop, Raighne Hogan, Ed Choy, Lucy Knisley, and Emily Carroll, (not sure if this list is corresponding to the order of the photo.) The message I took from this panel was to always be yourself.
Toronto based illustrator and cartoonist Michael Cho presented a panel called The Realities of Being a Comics Professional. Overall, the message I took away from this was “Be yourself”.
That Saturday night there was a Super Moon. It confused everyone in Toronto.
The party on Saturday night was pretty packed. On one floor artists were hanging out inside, while drinking and drawing. The party also extended to the roof deck, where there was another bar.
Hic and Hoc publisher Matt Moses is amazed by the Super Moon at the party on the roof deck.
This panel was called Pitching Your Comic to a Publisher with Scholastic Creative Director David Saylorand and moderator Cassandra Pelham. Davs Saylorand mentioned that in long cover letters in this industry are not appreciated.
The Kate Beaton Spotlight was in one of the last panels of the festival. Chip Zdarsky was Moderator. She spoke about her webcomic ‘Hark! A Vagrant’, what it is like to submit illustrations to the New Yorker, and dealing with rejection.
Box, me, Tom Neely, and Pat Aulisio at the last party on Sunday night. Drinks were even cheaper at this party!
I’m happy I decided to check TCAF out this year. I plan on returning. The lessons I took home was don’t write really long cover letters, don’t let rejection get to you and most importantly always be yourself.
Check out all of these amazing photos!
March 31, 2012
by Dre
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While I was at Columbia University for the comics symposium, my friends invited me to come visit the Barnard Zine Library. I’m glad I went it was awesome checking out the zines there.
March 30, 2012
by Dre
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It was a beautiful Spring day at Columbia University which was the location of Comic New York: A Symposium. The campus was amazing and being there felt like a trip back in time to ancient Greece. A mighty statue of Athena the Goddess of wisdom greeted guests on the steps of the Low Library.
Columbia University’s graphic novel librarian Karen Green does the introduction for Comic New York: A Symposium.
Ariel Schrag, Molly Crabapple, John Romita Jr, John Romita Sr, and Kent Worcester during the panel “New York, Real and Imagined”. The theme of this panel was centered around New York’s architecture. Here is an image that Kent Worchester brought to portray an outsider’s view of New York City. He said that New York’s grid system and skyscrapers’ box shapes look like panels in a comic. John Romita Sr spoke about the time he was working on the Spiderman story “The Death of Gwen Stacey,” and he drew the bridge that the action was going down at as the Brooklyn Bridge, but it was later edited as the George Washington Bridge. Since he drew Peter Parker’s neighborhood by drawing what he saw of his own neighborhood in Queens, when John Romita Jr was nine he was convinced that Peter Parker was a neighbor. John Romita Sr’s advice for other artists who are drawing urban backgrounds is to “avoid drawing bricks and windows as much as possible. Draw a lot of smoke and characters in silhouette.” Molly Crabapple later said “Smoking sewers in New York are an artist’s friend.” She also this that New Yorkers are deep sea fish that if you bring it out of its natural environment to a lab, they will explode because they are built to live under pressure. The panel went on to Ariel Schrag’s work who is an alumni of Columbia University. She shared her comic “Gay Prom” based on one of her experiences at the school, which was hilarious.
Peter Kuper, John Carey, Sabrina Jones, and Denis Kitchen. Their theme seemed to describe what it was like to be a cartoonist in New York in the past like the seventies and eighties. It was interesting to see how times changed. Peter Kuper shared a “Greetings from New York” post card covered in graffiti, sharing the abundance and influence of graffiti that was in new york in the seventies. Sabrina Jones spoke of her transition from being a painter to becoming a cartoonist. John Carey showed some of his recent political cartoons. Denis Kitchen spoke of Mad magazine.
Alternative New York Panel, from left to right, moderator Gene Kannenberg Jr with Julia Wertz, Robert Sikoryak, Bill Griffith, Charles Brownstein. Seasoned cartoonists of “Zippy the Pinhead,” Bill Griffith described how in the past decades alternative comics were heavily looked down upon, and the only places you could find them were head shops. Shop owners and clerks could and were arrested for carrying alternative comics. Isn’t that just crazy? They also talked about the alternative comics scene in San Francisco, and about how Robert Crumb was one of the biggest names in alternative comics in the past (and currently). Robert Sikoryak of “Masterpiece Comics,” noted that what is alternative one day may be mainstream the next. Julia Wertz showed photos of her studio. Charles Brownstein spoke about legal issues, fitting because he is the executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Longtime Marvel editor Louise Simonson and award winning writer and novelist Chris Claremont. Chris Claremont is best known for his 17 years of writing Uncanny X-Men. He was honored for donating his manuscripts to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. He is known for writing many of the best stories in comics, and is given credit for being the first writer to portray the female characters in X-Men as multidimensional and powerful. He wrote the best X-men stories including The Dark Phoenix Saga. He also co-created some of the most well-liked X-Men characters. The list includes Shadow Cat, Gambit, Rogue, Mystique, Jubilee, Emma Frost, Sabertooth, and built up the personalities of many different characters like Wolverine and Jean Grey. Seeing and listening to Chris Claremont speak was really interesting.
I wish I could have went to the second day, but I couldn’t. Check out my photos from the first day. More info at the official site here.
March 22, 2012
by Dre
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Here is a shot of the zine fest that I am in by Natty Koper of Bangarang Photography.
This event was really great, and went beyond my expectations. This was my first exhibition of 2012, and it was a pleasure. I’m feeling hopeful for the rest of 2012. I met a lot of nice feminists, zine librarians, and had meaningful conversations with like minded people. I met Natty Koper of Bangarang Photography who took all of the beautiful photos featured in this post. I also met Elvis Bakaitis and Kate Angell the Feminist Zine Fest organizers who were very helpful, kind, giving, and of course well organized. They made hot pink Feminist Zine Fest NYC 2012 buttons and gave them out to everyone and gave a bunch out to each person who had a table to give out to their visitors. They even announced that they will be giving out a scholarship to two random different people who tabled at this fest, with the leftover kickstarter donations. My table neighbor was Sarah Rose of Once Upon A Distro and a Philly Zine Fest organizer. I got to spend time with her and get to know her better. Some of the people who had tables traveled from places that are even further away from NYC than Philadephia, like Katie Omburg who came up from DC. Think some people came from Canada! At the fest they played music from a PA system by bands fronted by women all day, including many songs by one of my favorite bands the Breeders. Librarians representing the zine libraries at Duke University, and Barnard College’s zine library at Columbia University went around the room collecting zines from the tables. They picked up my books, which made me super happy. This event really opened my eyes in many ways, and I will participate in this event next year, and any similar events.
Zine librarians share knowledge and read out loud why zines are important. These ladies represent the zine libraries at Duke University, Barnard College’s Wollman Library at Columbia University, and possibly another library. The lady on the right is Jenna Freedman of Barnard’s zine library.
A lot of really good listeners during the readings.
A second round of people read from their zines, including Sarah Rose of Once Upon A Distro and Philly Zine Fest organizer. Sarah read two poems that were very touching.
Katie Omburg from DC. Check out her blog fancy-graphics.blogspot.com.
Elvis, Ryan, Sarah and me.
Feminist Zine Fest NYC 2012 Organizers Kate and Elvis.
All Photos © Natty Koper of Bangarang Photography
