SPACE!

Had a great time at Bob Corby's SPACE show on Saturday. There was a real "generational" feel to the show -- lots of early minicomics pioneers like Tim Corrigan, Larry Blake, Jim Pack, Larry Nibert, et. al., rubbing shoulders with teenagers doing their very first zines. I scanned the room trying to spot any big "trends", but nothing really jumped out; styles and subject matters were all over the map. I saw more trade paperbacks, but there were still plenty of good ol' fashioned xerox zines in evidence too.

The show moved to a new venue this year, the Aladdin Shrine Complex, and I think it was a good move. It was much better having everyone together in one big room (instead of squirreled off in different corners of a hotel). The crowd kind of waxed and waned over the course of the day -- the morning was a bit slow, then it got really busy in the early afternoon, then petered out again towards the end of the show. I ended up doing ok in sales; I would've done better if I'd had a new issue out for the repeat customers from previous years.

Strangest encounter of the day: A guy comes by the table and flips through one of my books. He starts gushing over it: "Wow, this is really great!" He calls his buddy over: "Look at this, isn't it great?" They ooh and ahh over it for a few seconds... then put it down and walk away. WTF? Did the $2.00 price tag scare them off?

Mascot Wars: The young lady on rollerskates beat out the guy in the cat suit. I've no idea what either one was selling, though.

Since the show was only two hours away from me, I opted to just drive down for the day. Good for saving money on a hotel room, but bad because I missed the night-before party, and also I was getting pretty pooped by the end of the day. Apparently it showed; at one point, Rafer Roberts walked by and burst out laughing: "You should see the look on your face!"

My flagging energy aside, it was a good day of commisseration and commerce. Any con where Jim Pack, Larry Blake, Dan Taylor, and Sean Frost all volunteer to do something for your comic is a good con. ;-)

Here's a list of the books I picked up... reviews to follow later:

THE BEASTS OF BALL POINT
AS EAVESDROPPED #2
Suzanne Baumann

OVERTIME FOR BUSINESS CHIMP
SEX COMIC
Sean Bieri

PSYCHOZORT #13, 14, 15, 16 & 17
Larry Blake

THIEF GALLERY #1
Rene Blansette, Dan Nauenburg & Jesse Thomas

KEKIONGA BUG BOOK
Pam Bliss

ZOMBIE PRESCHOOL
Jim Coon

THE BEST OF FRED 'N' MARVIN
Tim Corrigan

THE AMAZING CYNICALMAN #13 & 14
Matt Feazell

JOHNNY PUBLIC #9 & 10
Sean Frost & Wendi Strang-Frost

FURRY WIDDLE BUNNY #1
Sean Frost & Nate Higley

ROADSONG #1
Allan Gross & Joanna Estep

KITTY LITTER #4 & 5
Ryan Holgersen & Nathan Brewer

BLINK: EXPERIENCING CREATIVE DIFFICULTIES
BLINK: SPACE TO BREATHE
Max Ink

ALL-COMICS APA #7 & 8
Larned Justin

CLASSIC CARDINAL #2
K.J. Kolka

THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS
A. David Lewis & MP MANN

SLOW WIND #2
Steve Peters

WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME IF I WET THE BED?
Liz Prince

TWELVE ANGRY LOVE POEMS
Nan Roberts

FIB #1
James Russo & various

OWLY: FLYING LESSONS
Andy Runton

THE ART OF UKO SMITH #1
NUDES: SKETCHES AND GESTURES #1
Uko Smith

SHORTOONZ #5
THE CLOUD...A FABLE
FEATURE FUNNIES #1
WEIRD MUSE #1 & 2
Dan Taylor

THE SPAZ
Aaron Trudgeon

THAT'S JUST SUPER
TEENY BIKINI
Rob Ullman

THE WANG: WHO'S YOUR DADDY?
Stan Yan