The Small Press Expo

mdt:

So glad to find Celine at SPX!  I was able to buy that beautiful print I’d seen online before the show! If you haven’t yet checked out her work - do - stunning!

blackblobyellowcone:

SPX! By far the best yet. I am so thankful that I got to register early and had a super sweet table right down the center of the convention floor. 

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported indie comics! And thank you to the people who came to my table and bought my work :) I was surprised by how many people had seen my work online before the convention. I sold out all of Over You Nanook, and I would have made a profit if it weren’t for everything going wrong at the last second with my printer (but thank god for Alpha Graphics in Baltimore, who are cheaper than Kinko’s and actually know what the hell they’re doing! Thanks Soltian for telling me about them!). All said and done, despite significant costs in overhead I made everything back <3

It was definitely a Michael Deforge-heavy weekend. He’s a huge inspiration to me, and I’m so glad to see his work on the beautifully printed exhibition flyers. I bought all three of his Lose books, and he very generously volunteered to trade 1-3 of Kid Mafia and Leather Space Man for the copy of Over You Nanook that I gave him. I was too shy to talk much to him, although Erik wanted me to ask him what kinds of drugs did the Adventure Time art crew take. 

I also got to see Francois Mouly talk about her career. Again, huge inspiration to me, and she gave me lots to think about in her talk. 

I nearly had a heart attack when I went to buy Glyn Dillon’s beautiful “The Nao of Brown” and he told me he recognized my work from online! I’ve never seen an artist pull out their watercolors to sign a book, but there it is and I lovelovelove it. Seriously buy this book people it is amazing. 

Nathan Fox, illustrator and chair of the MFA Visual Narrative at SVA, stopped by my table and we talked about MICA a bit. He left me his beautifully letter-pressed post card (lower right). 

I also stopped by the Top Shelf table and met Leigh Walton, who liked my comic and told me to send him more of my stuff <3

I finally got to meet Jess Fink in person, after co-curating a tumblr about hot guys with her for a few years now! There’s my copy of Chester 5000, she hugged me, it was great. She wore really pretty leggings on Sunday. 

Sadly, Negron was all sold out of Negron, but I got to paw my way through his binders full of originals and gush too much about how much I loved his work. Tone it down, Celine, tone it down. I bought his book online after the convention, and so should you. 

All in all, I managed to spend ONLY $50 total, but look at that amazing haul. I didn’t get to buy even a fraction of everything I wanted, but I had to be strict with myself. So many people took my postcard and gave me free copies of their zines, it was so magical.

Finally, I bought a pair of pink popsicle earrings from my table mate Emily Huff. Check out her stuff! Thank you to Dechanique for letting me in on the table deal, and thank you to Erik for driving me both days and feeding me, and for helping me with technical problems with my printer :) 

Thank you again to everyone who bought a print or a comic! And if you want a print/comic but couldn’t be at SPX, I will have an online shop up soon :D