Alternative Press Expo Recap

I wasn’t sure what to expect from my first Alternative Press Expo. Would it would be like a Marrakesh hash market, with stinky people pushing their photocopied, crookedly stapled comics to anyone who passed by? Would the air would be thick with pretension, as if the International Con were the prom and the Alternative Press Expo were all the kids who skipped prom and had a bonfire in the desert after standing outside the prom venue, heckling everyone wearing a poufy sleeved fuchsia dress and a tiara?

Thankfully, APE was neither of those things. It felt more like a do-it-yourself expo. I saw a lot of women knitting behind their exhibition tables, a lot of t-shirts, prints and other items that had been printed by hand. “Handmade” comics and webcomics were well represented.

Our mission at APE was to learn about artists, writers and other independent creators whose work is consistent with things we like, but who’s work may be harder to find since it isn’t in the mainstream. We know we like Firefly and David Lynch and comics by Warren Ellis. We wanted to know what else was out there.

We met a lot of people who are working on really cool projects. Here are some of the projects that burned a hole in my head: Cake Pony, which will make you look at My Little Pony in a completely different way. Moderate Revolt is a fledgling movement based on a comment by John Stewart, and when I thought my iPod was toast at the end of the first day, one of the members fixed it for me. Penny by Ruben Fernandez is one of the funniest comic strips you aren’t reading. Go, read it now! We also ran into our friends at Sweet 7000 BC and Bean Leaf Press, who we first interviewed back in January at the Phoenix Comicon.

My main complaints about APE were the minimal programming and the metal lanyards that came with our passes. John is allergic to nickel, which is in most metal, and is one of the ten most common causes of contact dermatitis. We tried leaving the pass sticking out of a shirt pocket, but were told that we had to wear them. In the future, the organizers really need to have a pin-on option or a different lanyard. After two days of wearing the APE pass, John’s neck is looking pretty rashy and gross.

As for the programming, it mostly consisted of “Spotlight On. . . ” types of presentations centered around a single creator, bookended with panels featuring Bay Area cartoonists and gay cartoonists, as well as discussions on the history and future of graphic novels and social relevance in comics.I’m an advocate for diversity and meaning in all media, but the panel content strikes me as a very 1990s view of “alternative”, when I thought we would have moved past that perspective by 2007. When we talk about alternative press, we also need to talk about alternative distribution, alternative marketing and alternative modes of production. I’m not suggesting that every comicker’s dream is to strike a Hollywood deal, but I am suggesting that if an exhibitor shows up to a convention, that person has some interest in getting their work in front of new eyes. Those people may be better served by at least one workshop.

Here are some workshop suggestions: binding handmade comics, silkscreen techniques, drawing for webcomics, getting your self-published comic into stores, forming an art collective. And that’s just off the top of my head. If the organizers re-think what it means to be part of the alternative press in the 21st century and plan accordingly, APE would be even better. As it stands, with the programming, out-dated web page and lack of an online exhibitor directory, the Alternative Press Expo felt like it was organized in 1994.

We have almost thirty interviews from APE that we will be posting over the next three weeks. Now, we get to start the long, long process of transcribing those interviews.

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