Stumptown Comics Fest This Weekend

I was lucky enough to attend a portion of the Stumptown Comics Fest last year, and enjoyed my experience there very much. It's an exemplary small-press oriented regional comics show. I can't imagine too many people ever flying in for it, although many already do. Barring the show being taken over by the arts festival version of a comic book despot it's not like Stumptown need ever rely on exhibitors or attendees streaming over from Portland International: there are enough people in the area on both sides of the table to sustain such a show for years and years and years.

It's a good show just to attend and leave, which is something I appreciate more and more as I get older and time gets more precious and interests continue to diversify. If you're not from Portland nor all that familiar with it, it's a lovely city with a bunch of stuff to do on an almost neighborhood to neighborhood basis and the weather this weekend should be great. Here are some highlights of stuff I'd likely do at the show were I there.

* do anything Jeff Smith-related I could. Jeff's not only a really talented cartoonist, he's great at cons and has an easygoing rapport with his readers. I sometimes wonder how many more of these things Smith is going to do, so to get him at a smaller, regional show is a real treat.

* I would try my best to attend this double-fundraising effort tonight.

* I would submit my awesome mini-comic Shelton #5 to the Dark Horse myspace.com contest on Saturday and start my magnificent comics career with a bang.

* I would walk the entire show at least once, and look with great interest at any and everything that caught my eye. I would buy at least three things I hadn't heard of before.

* I would stop to talk to some of my favorite creators and comics folk that attend shows like this one: Craig Thompson, Hellen Jo, Scott Faulkner, Jen Ralston, Dave Lasky, Jim Blanchard, JR Williams, Eli Bishop, Jesse Reklaw, Dylan Williams, Elijah Brubaker, Brett Warnock and Tom Neely. I would ask Andrew Farago and Shaenon Garrity about that photo of them with Hayao Miyazaki. I would let Steve Lieber know what day I'd be leaving town so he could "forget" and offer to buy me lunch and show me the studio the day after that. I would pretend to laugh at Jeff Parker's jokes. I would make Matt Maxwell write me a five-minute story with the words "Judge," "Dredd" and "prom."

* I would accost local comics guru and gainfully employed proper newspaper man Steve Duin as he was roaming the aisles and when he least expected it.

* even though I might not spend all day, every day at the show, I would still try to attend as many of the parties as I could.

* I would consider for the 10,000th time moving to Portland, because that's actually a requirement, and then talk myself out of it.

Summer arrives with the MoCCA Festival in New York City, but Spring arrives tomorrow with Stumptown. Please everyone enjoy and avail yourselves.
 
posted 8:20 am PST | Permalink
 

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