At the Frémok table a voice behind me asked, “This is weird, but can I take a picture of your longbox?”
I turn and see Joe McCulloch, cosplaying as a grown Harry Potter with a distinct interest in seinen manga. It was a pretty good costume. I chatted with Joe and Chris Mautner for just a second, but I had to attend to more important matters such as being too nervous to spell Derik Badman’s name to Dominique Goblet in French (I would not be surprised if Derik has the largest collection of Frémok books in North America – he asked me to get him the new releases from Goblet and Alex Barbier). In all seriousness, getting to speak to Goblet and Yvan Alagbé was a huge deal for me. I’m a recent fan of their work, but have drawn a great deal of inspiration from both of them. Goblet was selling the last copies of her Souvenir d’une journée parfaite and said reprinting might be a problem because the printer, who used an older machine particularly adept at reproducing pencil, was no longer in business. Alagbé said that he and Goblet had never (!!) been approached by an English-language publisher. It was a nice little conversation. I pretty much floated back to my table.
I later attended the Frémok panel, which I enjoyed but which might have benefited from a few tweaks. It featured both Goblet and Alagbé. Moderator and SPX programming coordinator Bill Kartalopolous chose a historical overview approach, tracing the development of Frémok from the mid-90s through the present. Bill clearly knew a lot about this subject and had done a good job of pulling together images from rare anthologies and early work. However, both cartoonists were most animated and engaging when talking about their most recent work, and frankly it was not especially interesting to hear them confirm or clarify specific points of the historical record. Of course it’s tough when you have to assume most of the audience hadn’t read work by either creator, but Bill did well in providing context when specific works did come up, and the slides were also helpful. I therefore would have preferred the panel stick to the new works by both creators and keep the discussion of the timeline (still important!) for something like a recorded interview. I also wonder whether a translator might have been helpful. Both panelists did very well in English, but there were a few points where they struggled to find a specific word or seemed forced to simplify a certain idea in translation. A full translation would of course make an hour long panel seem very short, but it probably wouldn’t have hurt to have someone on hand who could clarify any confusion.
I recorded the panel for my own use, by the way, and I’m happy to send it to anyone who would like to hear it. The quality isn’t perfect, but everything is clearly audible. This, by the way, is my one real criticism of SPX – all panels over the past few years at least have been recorded, but they’ve been very slow to appear online. Almost all of the panels from 2013 still aren’t available. I don’t know if there are issues with the service SPX uses to do the recordings or if this simply isn’t a high priority with everything else going on, but there are several panels from this year (and last year!) that I was sorry to miss. I hope they can be made available soon. Aside from this one point, the show was organizationally flawless from my perspective. [EDIT: I hadn’t check in a while, and it seems 2013 panels continue to be sporadically uploaded. But a fair number are still missing.]
I had both dinner and breakfast just with my co-table Warren Craghead, the godfather of poetry comics, who a nameless exhibitor apparently expected to be “older and scarier?” I can confirm that Warren is neither old nor scary. We plotted and schemed, making plans that might or might not come to fruition. I talked about how abstract/poetic work sometimes seems easier to make than narrative work, and Warren said, “It’s easy to be confusing but hard to be mysterious.” I know this is what he said because I made sure to write it down. I didn’t want to forget. I can’t thank Warren enough for sharing both his table and his hotel room with me.
I had too many lovely conversations to discuss in depth. I missed the Ignatz awards but I gave Cathy G. Johnson a hug and congratulated her on both her victory and her amazing acceptance speech. I remind very excited by the work of Jonathan Bell Wolfe, so it was great to chat with him. I feel like we share an interest in weird abstract work but also narrative, fine art but also cartooning, etc. We commiserated over how hard it is to scan pencils. Getting to know Erin Curry was a real pleasure, and I was absolutely blown away by seeing some of her originals, including her piece to be excerpted in Best American Comics 2014. Her work is amazingly inventive, and displays a real mastery of craft and diversity of approaches. She also showed me photos of an installation she’s working on. I asked her if she considered it comics, and she said yes right away. I agree. Erin bought a ton of Frémok books; I can only hope that all the work coming out of Gainesville might now lean slightly more French art comics. L Nichols was impressively awake and coherent for a new parent. I got to tell Annie Mok in person how well done her recent Shadow Manifesto Part 3 was. I spoke for two seconds with Frank Santoro, who has been doing a ridiculous amount of traveling, and he said he needed a dose of “Andrew White realism.” I did my best to provide it. Wait, I’m doing that thing where I start listing every interaction I had, and now it’s time for the sentence where I apologize for all the other (equally rewarding!) interactions that I failed to mention.
A few people said nice things to me about Comics Workbook Magazine, which was very flattering and encouraging. I never think about not doing comics, but to be honest I, uh, think about stopping or taking a break from Comics Workbook Mag pretty regularly. So those comments mean a great deal. As I said to many people in person over the weekend and have mentioned online before, it is so incredibly important to Zach Mason and me that the magazine maintain a diversity of voices and a high level of quality. There is a ton of room for us to improve, but I’m very proud that maybe 75% of both our contributors and the work we cover don’t have a presence in other comics criticism venues. We are always, always open to being approached by new potential contributors. The new Issue Five will be for sale online soon. We’re already working on Issue Six. If you bought any of the issues at the show, please feel free to get in touch with any criticism or feedback, however brief or in-depth.
I spoke with Bill Boichel about the magazine, among other things — we discussed digital editions, print compilations of multiple issues, and other options bring in more money for what right now is frankly struggling to be a break-even enterprise. I’ll be working hard to address that issue in the near future. Bill also does the thankless work of distributing the magazine for us and has also been a tireless supporter of my own work, both of which I appreciate a great deal.
I think that’s all. Thanks so much to everyone who came by to say hello, bought books, or said nice things about my work. Conventions are tough for me in the same way that they are for many cartoonists – I continue to be astounded by people who do more than a few of these things per year – but I really enjoyed this one.