BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL 2009

There was a new comic show in New York this weekend, so Sam and I headed down to Brooklyn to check it out!

Set up by Desert Island comic shop and PictureBox, the first Brooklyn Comics and Graphic Festival was held in the basement of a church in Williamsburg on Saturday only. I've always heard about comic shows back in the day being held in church basements, so I was glad I finally got to experience one. Generally, between my group of friends, we've all been looking forward to a new alternative comics show located in NYC to give MoCCA a run for its money. Don't get me wrong, MoCCA's been a highlight each year for me, but two shows are better than one, and any natural competition scared up by the presence of a second show should only provide increased entertainment for the show-goers. Besides, it's fucking New York City - there's room.

The weather wasn't the best this weekend. When it wasn't raining, it was slushing or snowing. But that didn't keep the crowd away from the FREEEEE admission and the small room - which the church quaintly decorated with orange and gold foil streamers and dangling accouterments which reminded us all we were still in a church basement - was constantly packed to, "Whoops, excuse me" capacity. Check out the pictures Sam snapped around 3 in the afternoon:

(The above is the view from the front facing the special signing stage set up in the back. To the left of the stage was an Asian hotdog stand)

(The view of the always-crowded far left aisle. We all love the PictureBox short-boxes and Frank Santoro's contagious excitement - you shoulda seen him pitch two kids on Shang Chi issues!)

We knocked the show out in about an hour because we'd seen a lot of the exhibitors at previous shows this year like SPX and MoCCA, but there was still PLENTY of stuff to find and buy that we'd never seen before. And the smallness of the show wasn't a problem at all. It kept table prices low so a lot of great people could afford to come out and it made the whole experience feel a lot more intimate than your average show. Here's what I picked up:

FIRST PICTURE:

• NEW MINI DASH SHAW MADE - Packed with drawings of people partying to the max, this new mini was free from Shaw, who I said hello to for the first time since I spoke to him back when I worked at Wizard.
• ESCHEW #1 - Secret Acres was selling this razor sharp mini from Robert Sergel for cheap! And it was the story inside titled "Thirteen Bad Experiences Involving Water that clinched the sale.
• SNAKE OIL #5: wOLF - Chuck McBuck's fifth issue was at the show! Great cover and I can't wait to read the insides.
• TALES FROM GREENFUZZ #2 - I got issue #3 at SPX this year and I'm still dizzy from the hilariously creative designs and colors inside. Want to see a 2-page spread where French Fry people and a hotdog seize a town of food people? Of course you do. Buy this book.
• FREE SHIT #16 - Charles Burns tossed me this little mini of random portraits.
• LOSE #1 - It's got a glossy cover and pages, it looks like it'll be ongoing, it's by a guy I don't think I've ever heard of and it's filled with cute little designs that remind me of vinyl toys. Check out creator Michael DeForge here RIGHT AWAY.

SECOND PICTURE:

• SMOKE SIGNAL #3 - A free comics paper Desert Island puts together. Garbielle Bell! Anders Nilsen! Chester Brown! And loads of others at the low price of nada.
• EPOXY #1 - I love John Pham (the cover to Sublife #1 is my desktop at work and it should be yours, too) and had no idea this book existed until I read Jog write about having picked it up at a PictureBox table at some show in the past year. Luckily for me, PictureBox had another copy at their table during THIS show, and I finally got it. Now I need to get issue #2...
• PROGRAM GUIDE - Sporting a big image from Charles Burns that I'm certain I saw somewhere else before, the program guide was just a single newspaper print with elements on the front and back. The back had the map of the floor and a list of exhibitors. I passed on purchasing the gigantic poster featuring the Burns art, which you can see here.
• WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS... - I'd never heard of Domitille Collardey, but her ink and brush style has this fierce sort of delicateness I couldn't pass up. The 4-page color section is the real winner here as her watercolor skills are on full, warming display. She also puts the book in an envelope when you buy it, which was fun.

And that's all I picked up other than my new sketches, which I'll post in the next day. All in all, the show was a lot of fun and I was glad to get to see Dave, Sean, Rachel and John while we were out. Hopefully enough people bought new stuff to keep the show going every year - or to at least promote other new shows to give it a go.

Watchmen and Ninja Sketchbooks: SPX 2009

SPX came and went, and you know what that means: WATCHMEN SKETCHES! Along with a few new (tanfastic!) additions to the book, I also nabbed a couple fresh sketches for my tiny ninja sketchbook. I didn't grab tooo many just cause there were so damn many new, cool books to grab, so I spent most of my time shopping. Plus, at least 2 people declined to do a sketch, so that slowed me down a bit. In hindsight, I wish I'd gotten more, but HEY: that just leaves more to get in the future.

You can check out previous Watchmen sketches here, here and here and previous ninja sketches here. I really need to get a flickr account for these things like Sean has for his Bowie book, David has for his Calvin and Hobbes book, Sam has for her monster book and Matt has for his Saturday Morning Cartoons book. Maybe later. Here goes:

Lisa Hanawalt was signing at the Buenaventura table in support of her new book I Want You. When I asked her if she was doing sketches, she smirked and said, "Sure." Then i told her I had a Watchmen sketchbook and felt like the biggest dork in the world when she said, "Oh, man. I hate Watchmen." I told her in a rushed apology that she didn't have to do one and that she could maybe draw something in my ninja sketchbook if she'd prefer, but she already had my book in her hands and said, with a smile, "No no, I love drawing things I don't like." Right away, she turned to the final, apocalyptic scene of the book and asked if anybody had drawn the octopus monster. I told her no and was happy to get the following perfect sketch from her. Her art is mesmerizing:

ABOVE:LISA HANAWALT

One of the main reasons I went to SPX was to meet up with Jeffrey Brown and grab a commission I bought from him. He was kind enough to bring it with him on his trip to the show, and since he's been at the top of my "Get List" since I started this book, I went ahead and asked him for a Watchmen sketch. He totally knocked this BEAUTIFUL strip out for me while waiting for the show doors to open on Sunday morning. I was so smitten that I forgot to ask if he wanted any dough for it, and when I went back to ask, he said no (HOW RAD IS HE?!). This is also the first time anyone's incorporated me into the art, which I think is fitting considering Jeffrey's line of books. Lastly please pay close attention to where the sound effect is coming from in panel 2 and the Frank-Quitely-in-Batman-and Robin sound effect/scene incorporation in that same panel.
If I were still in 6th grade and this sketch was the girl in front of me in English class, I'd totally pass it an "I love you" note and save the best X-Men Valentine in the box for it this February:

ABOVE: JEFFREY BROWN

Next! Well, uh... I FINALLY got a sketch from the mad-talented Dustin Harbin, and like the Tom Neely sketch I got at San Diego this year, I just can't post it for fear of ticking off the wrong people. Needless to say, it fulfilled all the dreams I had of getting a Watchmen sketch from Dustin and he was a totally awesome homeboy, so next time you see me with my book, remind me to show you. XOXO, Dustin. All night long.

NINJA TIME!

So, I haven't appropriately displayed my Ninja Sketchbook up to this point, so expect a more full-fledged posting at a later date. In the meantime, here's what I got at the show.

I've wanted to get as many CCS grads as possible in this book, so I broke into that goal with this introspective sketch from James Hindle:

ABOVE: JAMES HINDLE

And you all know I have a crush on JP Coovert's art. Luckily, James passed my book on to JP after he finished and JP knocked out this cartoony beauty:

ABOVE: JP COOVERT

Life is good.