Date:    Thu, 14 Jul 1994 23:50:55 CDT
From:    Ronald Evry <[r--v--y] at [nyx.cs.du.edu]>
Subject: expo

The following is an article that was written for publication elsewhere but
didn't get in :(
Anyway, just so's it won't go to waste, I'm putting it up here and anybody who
wants it can put it up anywhere else & print it anywhere they like.

CHASING DREAMS AT THE DC SMALL PRESS EXPO
by Ron Evry

They were all dream chasers. This past June 10, the Washington D.C. area saw
its first Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md, and both the guests and the small
crowd attending had that in common.

Sixteen year old Anthony Cilio came down from Pennsylvania to try to sell
copies of his home made "ashcan" comic, "Universal Graphix Magazine." He and
his partner Jess Harvell have stories they want to tell, and they want to
utilize the comic book medium to express themselves. Sure, the drawings are
crude and the lettering is illegible, but there they were, sharing a table with
Dave Dorman and talking comix with the crowd like they were stars for a night.
Dave Dorman and his lovely mate, illustrator Lurene Haines, were showing off
their work -- Dave with his display of fantastic painted trading cards ("I got
to do them any way I wanted. I used every technique I could come up with and
had a great time!") and Lurene with her erotically charged masterpieces for
Caliber Press ("No, I didn't pose in the mirror for these!").

Joe Linsner strolled over from his table a few feet away and paid tribute to
Lurene's work, then handed her an inscribed copy of his beautifully painted
book, "Drama." Griffinesque, and stepping way beyond the parameters of "Cry for
Dawn," this and the other Sirius Press books on display here were
manifestations of dreams come to fruition.

Ted Slampyak had a number of copies of "Jazz Age Chronicles" spread out on his
table and an offer to throw in his Parody Press spoof book "Quantum Creep"
(which not only makes good work of the late "Quantum Leap" tv show, but
hilariously and viruelently goes after Marilyn Monroe, Clutch Cargo, tv
catchphrases, "Back to the Future" and Cab Calloway, among others) with any
purchase. His fanatical attention to historical detail in the "Jazz Age
Chronicles" has been responsible for many entertaining comics, and he plans to
keep coming out with them whenever possible.

John Mitchell and Jana Christy sat at their booth looking suave and
sophisticated, with just a hint of gonzo thrown in, very much like "Very
Vicky," their remarkable series for Caliber, now in its fourth issue. Imagine a
comic book with the stylistic flair of "Katy Keene," the plot mechanations of
the Hernandez Bros., and a visit from God tossed in to gum up the works, and
that's "Very Vicky." John and Jana love what they are doing, and could only see
themselves doing mainstream comics, "if they let us do them the way we want,
which we're not expecting to ever happen."

Dale Rawlings almost seemed hidden, with his table behind the shadow of a
support beam, and the stark, black and white copies of "The Disciplinarian"
further enhanced the effect. The comic is an hysterical account of a bored
porno shop employee who, while trying out leather gear and an inflatable "party
doll," encounters two drugged out thieves in the store. Dale also passed out
press releases describing how it was close to impossible to get "The
Disciplinarian" printed. Apparently, printers in the state of Maryland are
getting busted on pornography charges, and almost nobody will touch Rawlings'
stuff with a ten foot pole. Still, he persists. He dreams.

Michael Pederson and Craig Enslin are two guys from Richmond who have already
published three full color issues of "Raven." The comic book is standard
super-hero stuff. The art and story could easily have been in a Marvel comic.
It's that good (or bad, depending on one's point of view). The big difference
is that it is all theirs, and they are determined to make their reputations on
what they are doing for themselves, not others. Also, they are working with a
circulation of about a thousand copies, not three hundred thousand. They've
reached the break-even point financially, and hope to make a living from their
self-published comics eventually. But even if they don't, they want to keep at
it.

Jimmy Gownley has been quietly turning out little masterpieces of teen-age life
called "Shades of Gray Comics and Stories," from his Lady Luck Limited studio
in Girardville, Pennsylvania. He tried to explain why he devoted so much work
to putting out a well drawn comic with finely tuned characters that would never
have a very large core audience. The books spoke for him. They feature
wonderful stories that make comic books worth reading. Certainly, books like
that are worth creating, if the artist is capable of it. "Shades of Gray" is a
gem of a book that doesn't shout for attention like so many others, but it can
grip the reader for a lifetime.

Richard Pini has spent most of his adult lifetime in the independent comics
business. He was situated at a table in the front of the room, nattily dressed
in shirt and tie, greeting fans and displaying the latest "Elfquest" goodies.
There are CD's, posters, portfolios and comics; Pini has published lots of
comics. It almost seems odd that he chose to set up as far away from the other
"stars" of the expo as he could. But his reputation precedes him. There are
more than a few here who are both indebted to him for opening up the
independent market years ago, yet harbor resentment for, as Steve Bissette put
it to me, "exploiting talent."

Bissette was set up at the other end of the hall, adjacent to Rick Veitch
(publicizing the upcoming "Roarin' Rick's Rarebit Fiends") and the brilliant
Batton Lash (handing out copies of "Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre").
Bissette was doing sketches and handing out preview editions of his upcoming
"Tyrant" comic, chock full of dinosaurs, from cover to cover. His dream has
always been to do a dinosaur book, and he seems well-suited for it. When he
heard my name mentioned, he shouted out, "I want to talk with you," and we
engaged in a lively discussion of my review of his "Comic Book Rebels" book
that appeared in The Comics Journal a few months back.

He asked me just what I was looking for in his book that I did not find.
"I wanted to be entertained," I answered.

Bissette shrugged his shoulders at that. He took issue with my bringing up Neal
Adams as a hero of his supposed "revolution" in comic books. I had contended
that Adams had come close to causing the first ever industry wide creator's
strike back in the seventies over the issue of Siegel and Shuster's pension and
creator credits for Superman. Bissette told me that he wouldn't promote Adams
in his book because "Adams exploits talent at Continuity. That's why we didn't
include the Pinis either."

Of course, Steve misses the point here. It makes no difference what these guys
are doing now (although it could easily be argued that Adams and Pini are no
more exploitive than, say, Rob Liefield's Extreme Studios, which hires young,
cheap artists to work on Liefield's characters). Two days later, Frank Miller
gave an incredible speech to the 2000 retailers at Diamond Distributor's annual
convention, and he stirred up the crowd by saying the exact same thing I had
about Neal Adams.

The point I had made in my review, and still do, is that there is no sudden
revolution, but moreover, an evolution that has been going on for a long time.
If Marvel and DC ever decide to fight back -- I mean seriously fight back --
the independent small press will probably fade away as Marvel Marts and Warner
stores and contracted Blockbuster outlets supplant the current network of mom
and pop comic shops. Don't think they would not be up to it either. It was not
that long ago that Marvel and DC put the squeeze on Archie Comics for
publishing a book called "Super-Heroes." Apparently, in total defiance of
standard business practices since the Sherman Anti-Trust laws went into effect,
"Super-Heroes" was a combined trademark of Marvel _and_ DC Comics, (and still
may be), which is very much the same as if Minute Maid and Birds-Eye tried to
claim a combined trademark on the words "Orange Juice."

Anyway, if the big guys get pushed against the walls too hard, things will
change very, very quickly in the industry.

But for now, there is room for the big dreams and the little dreams. Dave Sim,
Colleen Doran, Don Simpson, Mark Wheatley, Evan Dorkin and David Mazuchelli
were all there at the convention, intimately sharing a good time with their
fans and friends. It was a unique event in the Washington area. It raised some
money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and it may be the harbinger of
such events in small cities around the nation.

But of the many lesser known talents displaying their works, Russell Ferry and
his "Pigeon-Man, the Birdbrain" comics demonstrated exactly why there should be
both a comic book small press and a small press expo. Russell and his wife
Elizabeth once owned a small comic book shop in Ohio. When Elizabeth became too
ill to work in the shop, the business failed and Russell took a $6 an hour day
job to make ends meet.

Using a tax refund to finance the printing of the "Pigeon-Man" comic, buttons
and other merchandise, the two of them travel far afield every weekend to comic
book shows to sell a few copies here, and a few copies there. They admit that
the artwork is not "professional" by any stretch of the imagination, but the
stories (dealing with a pigeon who is turned into a human being) are funny.
"I do this because I love comics," Russell said.

"I don't expect to make a lot of money, but how much do I have to make to top
my $6 an hour job? We've found out that we don't really need all that much
money to live. We get to travel to comic shows and meet people, and make a few
bucks here and there. Hopefully, I'll be able to quit my dead end job someday
and spend more time doing this."

The Ferrys may have the perfect attitude to be in independent comics. Try to
make enough to get by, and have fun doing it. And if the people making the
comic books are having fun, then some of that ought to rub off on the comic
book reader.