Intended not as a “con report” and more as a collection of thoughts and observations accumulated over the weekend of Sept 19-20. Trying not to use names unless necessary – like, I know who I went to dinner with or who I spoke to at the show and hopefully they know I enjoyed myself, so maybe it’s not useful to mention in this context.
I tabled with Warren Craghead, an eternal sweetheart whose pencil lines continue to sing with each new comic. Someone please publish a big collection of his work.
I bought as many comics as I could over the weekend, though as always there are a few things I didn’t manage to get. I also gave away many comics, more than I sold by quite some margin. It felt important and indeed somewhat urgent to do both of these things.
Publishers don’t get enough credit and appreciation! I mean, logistical/organizational work is just the worst (spoke about this with two anthology editors and a publisher over the weekend) and it’s very thankless. You’ll write your favorite cartoonist about their book, but will you write their publisher about how great it was packaged and shipped, or how they did a good job of promoting it? I had one great/depressing conversation about this, which touched on the theme of weak institutions, flimsily constructed around one or two people, within small press comics. It’s a conversation that’s easy to have because the problems are clear and the solutions are difficult if not impossible, incrementally achieved through slow work. This person mentioned an informal arrangement with their publisher where they, the artist, would help pay the cost of printing their book. I mentioned similarly turning down payments for small press comics stuff myself because I would prefer money go to someone doing this for a living. These are two things which would not be possible in a more stable institutional framework, perhaps. Though if things were stable maybe they also wouldn’t be necessary.
I mentioned the packaging thing specifically later in the weekend and was told that Sonatina Comics puts a particular degree of care and artistry into packing their comics. You could buy something from them and see for yourself.
Avid(?) manga reader Cathy G. Johnson is purposefully not looking at sports manga for her upcoming No Dogs Allowed, aiming to represent the awkwardness with which many children play sports.
On that note I had a couple different interesting conversations about manga over the weekend. I’m currently thinking about how to reintegrate manga influences into my work, whether I need to do that at all, and how manga might already be affecting the work I do today. It seems similar issues are on other people’s minds as well. Though I spoke to one cartoonist about my age who didn’t read any manga growing up – I mentioned shoujo and she didn’t know the term at all. So it’s nice and important to be reminded that manga, which I sometimes assume is a near universal experience among people my age who read comics growing up, isn’t that at all. Indeed I’m sometimes quite jealous of comics people who have less of a background in comics – L Nichols and Erin Curry are two who come quickly to mind. I wish I read fewer comics or more comics or fewer comics.
A couple people complemented me on being productive as a cartoonist. That was very nice and much appreciated, especially as I go through a period of personal transition which has left me feeling not so productive in the past few months. I think I’ve written before that I feel too productive and not productive enough; I know I’ve said it in person several times. I suppose I’ll keep saying it until I figure out exactly what, if anything, I mean by this and how to solve whatever problems I think I am trying to get at. I have my suspicions but they could prove wrong.
I wish there was an Ignatz or other small press award for best…avant-garde? Experimental? Non-narrative? comic. The Doug Wright Awards have one but I can’t think of others off hand. I like all the comics that won Ignatz Awards but Sex Fantasy is my favorite – and I should note that it isn’t a strictly narrative work! But I wish more weirdo stuff could be recognized too and it seems SPX could be a good venue for this.
I don’t like the term experimental comics, because it implies you’re agnostic about the success or failure of the ‘experiments’ in the work. In other words, scientists are fine with negative results (i.e. “failures”) and recognize them as useful data, but when I release a comic which might be called experimental, I have actively and intentionally pursued certain effects. I’m at least aiming for those elements to be successful, for those goals to be achieved. So I’m not sure ‘experiment’ is the right term. Though as I understand it, positive results are easier for scientists to get published than negative results. So maybe there’s a similarity in that sense. Talking too much about terms and definitions can divert mental energy and time away from actually thinking about the work. This is a risk for me personally at least.
It can be very difficult to incorporate large blocks of text into comics, given the way a reader’s (or at least my) mind works differently when consuming comics and consuming prose. I had two conversations about this. The first was about a comic by Cameron Nicholson that uses text quite well. The second was about comics journalism/non-fiction replete with talking heads and boring panels illustrating the text. I’m not a fan of most of that stuff, and I recalled Kevin Huizenga’s comment in an interview that maybe non-fiction comics need to be more willing to include text-only sections when appropriate. But this leads directly to the problem mentioned above…
I caught myself repeating canned aphorisms straight from my Twitter in conversation a few times this weekend. For instance I mentioned this idea to someone, almost word for word as I had written it online. Does writing about our ideas online help them to develop, or does it shove them into the daylight prematurely, causing them to congeal when not yet fully formed?
I briefly passed through the Tumblr meet-up on Sunday, just in search of free coffee. I was there near the beginning, and everybody clapped for Tumblr. (EDIT: it was pointed out to me that this is a bit misleading; it was just general applause at the beginning of the Tumblr event, not really “Three cheers for Tumblr! But the following still stands I think.) I understand the sentiments being expressed – applauding the community on that platform, the personal connections made there, etc. Those are good sentiments. But it was strange to have a room full of artists cheer for a corporation that makes money through all of us sharing Free Content! Though I suppose it’s also strange for small press cartoonists, many of whom have conflicted feelings about commerce and capitalism, to gather at these commerce-driven events. Convention tabling as performance art.
One final thing, which requires a bit of personal anecdote: Warren and I tabled relatively near someone with a very aggressive “hard-sell.” If you spoke to either of us over the weekend we may have made a joke or comment about this. Maybe we should not have done that and maybe you shouldn’t do it if you find yourself near someone like this in the future. The person was obviously passionate about their work and eager to get it into people’s hands. That’s great and I shouldn’t let the fact that the work wasn’t to my taste lead me to feel annoyed. But their pitch also made me feel weird and it clearly made some passers-by uncomfortable! For me as for many at these shows, walking around can be thrilling and quietly terrifying. It’s important to me that people who come to SPX have a nice time and I worry that this person could have affected that in some small way for someone. This particular person also said they did not make their living from comics; so shit, can you will yourself into a comics career with well-intentioned aggression? Would you want to?? So I guess it just makes me sad. I don’t know. Maybe I will delete this part later. I suppose it also solidifies my belief that I’m lucky not to be making a living from comics and therefore not stressing too much about any of this stuff.
I went home more or less right after the show on Sunday, which I mention as a reminder to myself and others that it’s important not to extend your energies at these things beyond what is feasible for you. It’s ok to only feel up to doing one or two shows per year. I had a nice time at SPX.