El MacFearsome Comic Squares: News and Products

  A few weeks after the Alternative Media Expo, Karen and I were off to Columbus, Ohio for the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (or S.P.A.C.E. for short). SPACE was the first convention I ever exhibited at, back in 2002 when I was a fledgling part-time self-publisher. I had one copy of my first ever comic book (full-size, professionally printed) and an oversized, horrible, rushed copy of #2 that I printed at Kinko's. Trying to cover 8 feet of table with 2 lonely little comic books is an interesting task and despite having made only a handful of sales, I had a great time. I made friendships with people that have lasted to this day like Bob Corby (SPACE founder & organizer), Margaret Liss (my first customer at my first convention, check out what she's doing at www.cerebusfangirl.com ), Ray Tomczack (funny guy and awesome cartoonist of Wasted Potential ), and Sean McKeever (who at the time was the writer of The Waiting Place for Slave Labor Graphics but has since gone on to write for Marvel, DC, and even won an Eisner Award!). I enjoyed that little show in 2002 so much that I've tried to make it back every year since (except 2005 and 2008 when it just wasn't possible).

   Fast forward to 2009 for this year's show. It was great to see familiar faces ("Wassup!" to Margaret, L nny, Larry, Jeff Tundis, and Jeff Seiler, and thanks for buying my books too! Hi Ashley, I hope you gave Katelyn a hard time for me.) and meet some new ones as well (I met Lora Innes and she signed my copy of The Dreamer #1 'cuz I'm still a fanboy when I meet someone whose work I like). The day before Day 1 of the show (it's a 2-day event) Karen and I went out with my buddy Sean to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant that was awesome. Afterwards we went to Sean's favorite watering hole and had a beerific good time. The next morning we dragged ourselves up and headed off to the show. We did quite well, selling a bunch of comics and posters. We also picked up some cool stuff as well, among my favorites were Super Maxipad Girl, Cerebus Readers In Crisis #4, Zombie Trouble, and the SPACE Survival Guide. After the show we were so exhausted that we just went and had dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant in front of our hotel, went up to our room, and fell asleep almost immediately.

   The next morning we woke up, packed our nags and headed off to the convention for a few hours. Our flight home was for 5:00 so we left SPACE around 3-3:30. Even while we were packing up we still had people coming up and buying our stuff. We completely sold out of posters and Rise Of The Wombat softcovers! Oh and special thanks to Tundis for helping us pack up and get our stuff out front! Check out what he's doing with Dave Sim over at www.cerebustheaardvark.com and www.judenhass.com ). So yeah, I had a great time again this year and hopefully we'll make it out again to SPACE '10! Below are some pictures from the show:

Karen at our table. When I had the flash on the camera it kept causing a massive glare on our banner behind her so I turned it off (hence the bad, fuzzy quality)

Me signing a book. Photo by Margaret Liss.

Some of the comics we picked up from S.P.A.C.E.