The final stop on the 2008 comics convention circuit, the Alternative Press Expo was held at the Concourse in San Francisco on November 1 and 2—a big change for a show that's usually taken place in April. APE is always a laid-back sort of show, with spacious corridors and, thanks to its Bay Area location, connections to the old school of underground comix. (First-wave veteran Spain Rodriguez even came by the Last Gasp booth to sign copies of Che: A Graphic Biography.) Still, even though attendance on Saturday seemed slightly dented by torrential rain that leaked into a booth or two, most of the show's indie publishers reported decent-to-very-good sales, and many of the self-publishing artists who make up the bulk of APE's exhibitors were doing well with art objects, mini-comics and other things that can be hard to find even at the Bay Area's well-stocked comics stores. With the holidays approaching, attendees were opening their wallets wide; Joe Keatinge, PR and marketing coordinator for Image Comics, which was exhibiting at APE for the first time, noted that they were seeing healthy sales on a cross-section of their backlist, not just new titles.
APE doesn't have an awards ceremony attached to it (aside from the Isotope Award for minicomics, presented at an afterhours party to Jonah Maddis-Connor's Ochre Ellipse). But this year's show had one clear star: Kramers Ergot 7, a hand-bound 16-by-21-inch hardcover anthology with a $125 pricetag. Buenaventura Press's booth often had a line of people waiting to look at a sample copy, and especially after the Sunday afternoon panel devoted to the book, they were selling through their impressive pile the book; it didn't hurt that editor Sammy Harkham and many of its contributors were on hand to sign it, including Chris Ware and Dan Clowes, both making very rare convention appearances.
Ware was a major draw at the show—Drawn & Quarterly sold out of the new 19th volume of Acme Novelty Library (and sold a few oversized $300 copies of the Acme #18.5 portfolio), and Last Gasp quickly exhausted their supply of the Penguin edition of Voltaire's Candide with a Ware-drawn cover. Comic Relief noted that they were selling lots of books by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden (both APE guests), as well as Alison Bechdel's Essential Dykes to Watch Out For. And, although Megan Kelso's Artichoke Tales isn't due for another year yet, she was signing copies of The Squirrel Mother and gave a very funny lecture about creating her serial "Watergate Sue" for the New York Times.
As usual, individual publishers brought in artists to promote their new books. Fantagraphics drew lines for signings of John Pham's Sublife vol. 1, Jaime Hernandez's The Education of Hopey Glass, and the new expanded hardcover edition of Dan Clowes' Ghost World. AiT/PlanetLar had Omaha Perez on hand to sign his new book Holmes. Oni Press reported strong sales on Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy's Labor Days (both creators were signing), and were showing off a preview copy of Chris Schweizer's long-in-the-works graphic novel Crogan's Vengeance.
SLG's booth featured signings by Chumble Spuzz's Ethan Nicolle, another official APE guest; S. Eddy Bell was present to sign the first copies of his San Francisco-themed sex-worker comedy Lulu and Mitzy. Their booth also debuted "The City" cartoonist Derf's original graphic novel Punk Rock & Trailer Parks, and handed out flyers for Faith Erin Hicks' forthcoming The War at Ellsmere. Top Shelf debuted Bill Keltner and Wayne Schellaberger's Vice Presidential history Veeps (with a signing) and James Kochalka's American Elf vol. 3, and previewed the forthcoming AX "alternative manga" anthology.
One notable trend at this year's APE was artwork—comics and otherwise—by animators. There was always a cluster of people around the OOP Press book, where contributors to Out Of Picture 2 and Totoro Forest Project were signing; 100 copies of the latter volume, a collection of images inspired by Hayao Miyazaki, sold out by midday Sunday. Nearby, at Allen Spiegel Fine Arts' booth, artists' artist Barron Storey was surrounded by his admirers and signing copies of his art book Life After Black.
There's always buzz around a few up-and-coming artists at APE, and this year, one name that kept coming up was Hellen Jo, who was signing copies of Jin & Jan #1, published by Sparkplug. (Other "have you seen...?" comments often mentioned Corinne Mucha, David King and Jamaica Dyer.) Other cartoonists at the show are just starting to move toward being bohemian-household names: Nate Powell was signing copies of his Top Shelf-published hardcover Swallow Me Whole, but also had a brand-new photocopied mini-comic on hand, and Jason Shiga followed up the well-received Sparkplug edition of Bookhunter with the self-published, electrical-tape-spined Empire Park. But the joy of APE is that it's a show where attendees are as eager to buy $2 mini-comics as $50 art books, and the boundaries between high-end and low-end publishing are pretty permeable.
