From: [mat t m] at [mail.utexas.edu] (Matthew Madden)
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 12:22:24 -0600
Subject: APE III -- A brief report

- -Poster: [mat t m] at [mail.utexas.edu] (Matthew Madden)

I spent 5 days in the Bay Area last weekend, the main reason for the trip
being the third annual Alternative Press Exposition in San Jose on March
23. Overall, I thought the event turned out -- to quote my  friend, the
inveterate pessimist John Keen -- "fair."

First of all I should qualify my judgement by pointing out that I spent the
second half of the day and most of the evening with my head in and out of
various toilet bowls -- no, I'm afraid I don't have any juicy tales of
comix decadence to offer, just an undercooked plate of huevos con chorizo.

I think it might be better if the event ran for two days, since a complaint
I heard from many cartoonists was that there was not enough time to meet
people and wander around *and* watch your table and sell comix.  The crowds
seemed somewhat disappointing. It's my first APE, so I don't know about
other years, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of people there. I
don't want to make any sweeping statements because partly I just really
wasn't in the mood to deal with crowds that day, so let's forget the
griping  and get onto the stuff I liked:

I didn't really  discover any amazing new talents, but I did get to meet
and hang out with a bunch of cartoonists whose work I like. Jon Lewis and
Ed Brubaker both greeted me the same way, affecting a hurt expression and
complaining, "you stole our Tom (Hart)!!" Yes, it's true, but Tom Hart is a
slippery creature and on further discussion we all agreed that even when
you are in the same room with him he seems to be slipping through your
fingers like sand. In any case, let it here be stated that Seattle misses
Tom Hart. I met Sam Henderson, Joe Chiapetta, Dave Lasky (who built an
amazing 5 ft tall cardboard BoomBoom viewer arcade), the charming Katie
Sirk of Sirk Productions (see Lasky's plug of _Storeyville_ in the new CJ
- -- the bastard beat me to the punch), Gabby Gamboa , whose comix have
improved immensely -- keep an eye out for the _Top Shelf_ #2... Speaking of
which, editor/publisher of said anthology, Brett Warnock was there. Now,
that first issue has its flaws, and he is well aware of them, but I think
the vitriol of the review in the new CJ is quite unwarranted -- I think you
will all agree when you see the next issue -- it has a beautiful and
striking cover, a solid batch of comix, Gabby's being a highlight, and
quite notably, Warnock has decided to pull the "Gone Walkabout"story which
ma ny of us were complaining about. Lisa Maslowe is a new and promising
cartoonist -- her "Catbox Room" was reviewed in the last DAC. She has room
for improvement in her cartooning, particularly in  composition and
effective use of space, but she has a compelling anecdotal storytelling
style.

After wretching in the middle of beautiful plastic, sterile, downtown San
Jose (an event immortalized in Josue Menjivar's sketchbook), I slept in the
back seat of Josue's rental car while he, his brother Amos, Joe C, and Tom
Hart went off in search of burritos or something. Then we went to the
Hilton party where the drinks were decidedly *not* free, contrary to the
usual optimistic rumours. This is just as well as I would have been highly
envious if the party had been an amazing all night gratis bash and not the
lukewarm, expensive, overcrowded affair it seemed to be.  I found a couch
in the lobby to recline in and played on various passing cartoonists'
sympathies for an invalid, coaxing them to bide with me awhile as I groaned
and drifted in and out of sleep.

Talked comix and ate chicken noodle soup(recuperating but feeling much
better, thank you) with Katie Sirk on Sunday -- she did the color
separations on "Storeyville" and handles much of the business end of the
entity that is Sirk Productions. We went with my brother to see "Chungking
Express" by Wong Kar-Wai (sp.?), which, by the way,  I recommend along with
his earlier and more melancholy "The Days of Being Wild."

Monday had coffee and went for a relaxing and slightly unreal walk through
Golden Gate Park with Ed Brubaker, Lisa Maslowe, Sam Henderson and Josue.
Unreal partly because we visited various sites from Lisa's comix -- the
cafe the duck pond, ah, the duck pond -- and perhaps because Ed and I were
talking about PK Dick... pretty soon I started to feel I could almost peel
back the panel borders from the pauses in  our  conversations.

So I had a good time overall, even if I left my lunch in San Jose...

Matt Madden