If I Were At SPX, I’d Do These Things



1. I would attend the Jules Feiffer programming. Jules Feiffer is one of the great living cartoonists, and every appearance of his should be treasured. He's an all-time great comics talker, too.

2. I would buy a piece of Tony Millionaire original art, and any other art I could afford. I could do this from home, but seeing the art in person I would be grasped by Mad Buying Fever, and spend the next half hour wondering how the hell I would get the thing home without damaging it.

3. I would take a slow walk around the room, looking at all the booths, taking as much time as I can, with one rule: I can't buy anything.

4. I would buy things on a second pass around the room, concentrating on mini-comics with high-end production values, but only from people who weren't annoying pieces of shit the first time around. I would also buy anything offered by Bodega Distribution (new Brian Ralph!) or Sparkplug.

5. I would buy Abraxas and the Earthman -- I would take a photo of Rick Veitch and every other cartoonist there from the 1980s generation, because their being at SPX is pretty awesome. They can move to a different facility if they want, but it's still Camp McCloud, and Scott is the Camp Director.

6. I would go to the Brian Chippendale panel. The North American comics readership has caught up to every Fort Thunder cartoonist except Brian Chippendale, who makes comics that seems like they crawled to the surface of another planet, were scooped up by a robot, and then brought here and printed.

7. If there is a Diamond address on Sunday, I would go to that. I would glare at people who wanted to ask endless variations of "Why won't you carry my book?" until they stopped raising their hands. I would ask something obnoxious, like about Diamond's rumored inability to get material to market as quickly as other book distributors. If they made a sour face, I would change it to a question about Donald Duck.

8. I would try to break bread with some old friends and with some new friends. And if the food's good, with an enemy -- I'm not proud.

9. I would take as many photos as possible to add to my morgue. I need to start doing more shows. With a working camera.

10. I would buy a copy of the first Moomin book. And whether you dig Moomin or not, please don't worry about getting the "book of the show." People want that joy of discovery and I-was-there status that comes with designating something the book of the show, but really what used to be a book of the show is now the book that few talked about before the weekend that took a couple of talky people by surprise so they designated it the book of the show. You're better off buying for your bookshelf three weeks from now than for the breakfast conversation this weekend.

11. I would take someone with me, and buy them a CBLDF membership, not because I was forcing them to engage in comics issues, but because it's a good way to give money to the Fund and their entreaties are professional and unobtrusive, so I know my friend wouldn't be bothered.

12. I would sit in the back of the Ignatzes and make jokes. I would remember the time Sam Henderson presented the mini-comic award by saying archelogists had discovered the first mini-comic, which he was allowed to bring to the show tonight, and then whipping out a copy of "Oog Hate Life" -- the only funny joke every made by a presenter at a comics award program.

13. Being in the mid-Atlantic region for the first time in a while, I would try to find a place for breakfast that served scrapple.

14. It would be cool to meet Matthias Lehmann.

15. I would choose an outdoor Sunday activity over an indoor Sunday activity.
 
posted 10:08 pm PST | Permalink
 

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