From: "John Weeks" <[platypus 26] at [hotmail.com]> Subject: Down Underneath San Diego Comic-Con: Wednesday. Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 21:56:27 PDT Hello all. Here's the promised San Diego trip journal from the vantage point of the small-press tables. Nothing terribly earth-shattering but I think a few connections were made. This will also be posted to the Australian 'zines list later; apologies for any duplication. I won't be going to SPX but I will be selling comics through sympathetic folks. It's a money-based decision. Probably be there next year though, and there's Alternative Press Expo in April. Damn it's hot today. Eighty-one degrees at nine-thirty p.m. ************************************************************* Wednesday: I sneak out early from work. I pick up three hundred dollars worth of photocopies. Not surprisingly, Kinko's copies wants me to open a corporate account. While many Australian folks have sent stuff, I've also been photocopying some selected mini-comics to cut down on mail costs. I can't copy everything though. I've made copies of stuff by Kirrily Schell, Kieran Mangan, and some Dunedin folks. I've also made more copies of the _Nice_ anthology and my own efforts. Most of the stuff I've gotten has come by mail. I've gotten stuff from the Pox Girls (http://www23.pair.com/ozcomics/unsafe.html), Ben Ridder (http://www23.pair.com/ozcomics/tidal.html), Mandy Ord (http://www.fcorp.com.au/sickpuppy/contents5/dick.htm), Shags (http://www.loud.net.au/noise/display_stories/1-90000/601-900/display_stories_629.html), and Michael Fikaris. I check my mail. A last minute box of goodies from Tim Danko!(http://www23.pair.com/ozcomics/deadxerox/html) I'm sure there's other stuff that will arrive a day or two late, Angelo Madrid has told me about a few things that are on the way. (When I return I find packages from Greg Mackay, Dillon Naylor (http://www.hydraatelier.com/popculturemain.htm), Bruce Mutard (http://www.inJapan.net/members/Kelvin/intro-brmut4.html) and another from Tim Danko. Don't worry guys, there's more that can be done.) I return home and grab my suitcase. I head out down the 405, it's a two hour drive to San Diego. I'm rolling tape for an audio letter for absent friends. This is my fourth time at San Diego and my first time running my own booth. Nearing San Diego I pass a sign that has a running family silhouetted. Danger! Families on the road! The highway is a favored crossing point for illegal immigrants; to me the sign says it's not a social issue, it's a traffic condition. It's kind of hot and muggy. Once I'm downtown I manage to figure out where I am and find my hotel. I've got a reservation at La Pacifica based on a) list recommendations and b) the fact that I haven't had time to do any further searching. I unload my bags and grab my invoices to double-check pricing for tomorrow. A bug crawls over the bedspread. I swat it away. Another bug walks over an invoice. I swat it away. Another bug crawls up my leg. I catch on. There's a heap of bugs in my bed, not roaches but some other kind. Ick. They're crawling out from behind the bedboard. It's about 10 pm the day before the con. I'm not about to look for another hotel but I do get transferred to another room. The desk clerk is pretty surly too. I start to think a call to the Better Business Bureau might be in order. I set my alarm early and go to sleep. I've been up late pasting and photocopying every night for the last week and sure could use some sleep. John Weeks [platypus 26] at [hotmail.com] P.O. Box 13172 Torrance, CA 90503 USA http://www.comicuniverse.com/JWEEKS.html ______________________________________________________ From: "John Weeks" <[platypus 26] at [hotmail.com]> Subject: San Diego Down Underneath: Thursday Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 19:09:58 PDT Thursday Up _way_ too early to load in my stuff. Down at the loading dock, one of the workers waves me in. It's about an hour before the show. "Pull in over there, and needless to say, you're going to have to bust ass." I unload my boxes onto a pallet. Damn, I've forgotten a crate back at the hotel. My pallet gets taken in by forklift and I bail back to the hotel, park my car, grab my stuff, then taxi back down to the convention center. I haven't recieved my exhibitor's badge in the mail previously, so I lug the crate over to the other side of the convention center and get my paperwork taken care of. I'm given a nifty Chris Ware badge. As I'm waiting in line, I spot Perth artist Ashley Wood, small world. It's almost time for the doors to open. I manage to navigate over to my booth. The con floor is huge, I've forgotten how big. Hey, I'm directly across from the Alternative Press booth. Cool, they can get some of my spillover traffic. http://www.indyworld.com I'm billed as "Sticky Comics", the stateside subdivision of the Canberra comics publisher that does such gems as _Bump and Snore_, _Wilnot_ (Mandy Ord, plugged in _Hate_), and Wide Arsed Mole_ (Kirrily Schell). They're not a proper publisher (and neither am I) so it's appropriate. Maybe next convention I'll go as Dead Xerox or International Trash. I put little pricing stickers on stuff and generally sort things out for the rest of the morning. I'm not expecting to sell lots of material, but I hope to sell books to stores, give out care packages to reviewers and favorite creators, and just generally let people know about the scene down under. I'd been a graduate student in Australia for two years, and this is my opportunity to evangelize the Oz small press comics world as only an American can do. (You can see a lot of the stuff I was selling at http://www.grafted.net/8D/ and the "links" section at http://www23.pair.com/ozcomics/index.html) I've even got a press kit, which I'm bummed out to see has been copied single-sided to double-sided, not double-sided to double-sided. Half the stuff is gone, but it'll have to do. Most of the essential information seems to be okay. I'm bracketed by some dopey role playing game publisher and "Fish Head Consortium". I make a deal with the Fish Heads to spot me for short breaks, and immediately take advantage of the deal to get my first food of the day. Con food is expen$ive. Next con I'm at that has a sizeable small press presence I should see about setting up a sandwich bar - more money for comics. _Ben is Dead_ zine is an empty space next to me, but they're nowhere to be seen, and their space is invaded by the role playing gamers. Yeah, sure your games sound cool. Dang, I would have liked to have met the Dead folks. I spot Jim Steranko. Does he look like a "made man" or what? Shaded glasses, turtleneck and a 70s hairdo. A girl in a sequined fez pops up. It's Che Gilson, from Velvet Artichoke Press, just around the corner. She's recently had a surreal story published in Action Girl comics, "Shopping with Hootch and Lovecraft", about the travails of finding the right clothes for a giant millipede. She's published an anthology of work by her and her friends. She's enthused by my comics selection and wants to see more. Jesse Reklaw, dream cartoonist, creator of _Slow Wave/Concave Up_ comes by. (http://www.nonDairy.com) He and I have been corresponding for ages, but this is the first time we've met in person. I've contributed a dream for his dream comic series, and he's done a tune for my QuickDraw soundtrack. It's good to see him and catch up. At previous cons he's had a booth but this time around he's hoping to be a squatter, if he can find an empty table. He's got his convention layout in hand and is looking for unclaimed space. I let him set up a little stand with his comics at my table. Jesse was recently given the flick by Diamond Distribution for missing one (1) deadline. (Diamond holds a monopoly as the largest comics distributor in the States, managing over 90% of the market) Since federal anti-trust regulations are pretty much a joke, he's thinking of winding down his comic _Concave Up, though his syndicated strip _Slow Wave_ is doing quite well. Originally he'd expected the book to be successful and the strip to lose money. Across the way at the Alternative Press booth, James Kochalka breaks into song for someone with a video camera. This is an occasional and enjoyable occurrence throughout the con. He concludes to cheers and laughter from the peanut gallery. About this time Garrett Izumi (_Big Bang_) shows up with his charming and understated comic. I make room for him at my table as well. I like his little vignettes and the cadence of their pacing and language. The Fish Heads spot me for a minute as I give a big comics care package to Chris Ware. I'm finally feeling things are a little more under control. A heap of east coasters come by. Heath Row (Zine World reviewer), Brian Ralph (one of the Fort Thunder boys, does _Fireball_) and Jordan Crane (_Non_). I've actually written Heath and just got his reply forwarded the long way from Oz only two days ago. I happily load them down with more material. I particularly like what I've heard about Fort Thunder little comics collective and I'm curious to see more of their material. I also like Jordan's anthology. Heath is like, "So the Melbourne thing kinda sounds like the Fort Thunder thing!" Maybe...I'll be happy to agree with whatever he says so long as it gets us some reviews and writeups. Darby and crew from _Ben is Dead_ show up, and immediately move to a bigger table. Too bad, they would have been fun to hang with. http://www.benisdead.com/ I get the Fish Heads to spot me again and I give some comics to Julie Doucet. She's cool and friendly, and as it turns out, she's already gotten some of the comics like _Wilnot_. Back at the booth, I sell a few comics. I'm starting to glaze over. Too little sleep, too much stimulation. I take a look at the Highwater Books table and say hello to Tom Devlin and crew. Tom and his pals run an excellent shop (Million Year Picnic) that has a good small press presence and is branching out into publishing. (http://www.highwaterbooks.com) I'm pleased to see _Tiny Bubbles_ (Kochalka) and _Queen of the Black Black_ (Kelso) for the first time. "Buy my book!" Megan Kelso enthuses. I promise I will, but I'm not gonna splurge on the first day. I give an interview I have with Melbourne filmmaker Morgan Evans to the boys at _Giant Robot Magazine_. (http://www.giantrobot.com/) Evans starred in his own martial arts short (_Deep Shit_) which led to him getting casted in a commercial with Jackie Chan. Back at the booth I spend some time hawking my wares and getting things further organized. Jesse's also been stopping in and helping out throughout the day. The con closes. I go straight to the hotel and crash hard. John Weeks [platypus 26] at [hotmail.com] P.O. Box 13172 Torrance, CA 90503 USA http://www.comicuniverse.com/JWEEKS.html ______________________________________________________ From: "John Weeks" <[platypus 26] at [hotmail.com]> Subject: Down Underneath San Diego Con: Friday Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 21:21:25 PDT Friday No time for seminars or chatting in the Green Room, I've got to cover my booth. I get there on time and do a bit more organizing and pricing. I also start making a few more Oz comics care packages. I've brought along some prestamped postcards to stick in selected minicomics - one way of almost guaranteeing return comments. Across the way Alternative Press sees a steady stream of comics creators. It's good to put the names to the faces. I bully David Lasky (Boom Boom, Urban Hipster) into buying me a coke and I give him some comics by way of thanks. (Actually I'd _give_ him stuff for free but people seem to prefer some sort of token exchange.) I give him some comics by the Pox girls, since both parties enjoy messing with genre. Michael Fikaris (_Froth_) has sent me a "Special Stateside Edition" of his minicomic. It has a blank word balloon on the cover so I get Sam Henderson to scribble a few words in exchange for a free issue. Sample: "Purchase of this magazine is indicative of the buyers' latent homosexuality, or as we say, poofters." Brian Ralph (Fireball) comes by to spot me for an hour at the booth, in trade for some comics. He's brought by some Fort Thunder stuff with cool silkscreened covers. "Monster" is a group anthology which comes out monthly, and "Fireball" is his own book, drawn in a fairly polished style. (Recommended.) He claims the whole group has a "cruddy" aesthetic, that they don't want things to be too refined. I interview him for my audio letter. While distributing a few Slugdog t-shirts I spot Eddie Campbell signing at the Kitchen Sink booth. I slap together a care package and give it to him. He's happy to see so many Australian goodies and wants to be in the loop. We had to meet up in the States to have this conversation, of course. He tells me to check in with the folks at his booth - "You can't miss it, it's got a bloody big Bacchus statue." I manage to find it and say hello to Michael Evans, who does many of the Dee Vee covers. Chris Staros (The Staros Report) is also there. Michael is keen to see more good Australian stuff and I tell him I'll keep him informed. He kindly gives me some back issues of Dee Vee. I give the _Ben is Dead_ folks some comics and try to interest them in an interview I've transcribed with Melbourne cartoonist Q-Ray. I did about twelve interviews - bands, cartoonists, filmmakers - before I returned to the States and now I've got to find homes for them all. Over at Highwater Books, I find Tom Devlin may be up for buying some of my comics before I leave. Cool. Megan Kelso asks if I'm going to buy her book. I tell her I will, really. Back to the booth. I go over my pricing and comp lists, tryhing to figure out how many books I can sell and how much should be given away. A dude wearing a homemade transformer outfit comes by and I flag him down so I can get a picture of him holding some comics. A net pal brings by a copy of a book he's found in Mexico, _Fantomas contra los Vampirios Multinacionales_. I'm stoked. It's a surrealist comic/novella starring the Mexican adventure character written by Julio Cortazar, whom I'm a big fan of. I tag along with some of the Alternative Press folks for dinner. The publisher, Jeff Mason is a legal student and he draws up some contracts to amuse us, while some sketching ensues. I resolve to get a sketchbook exclusively for non-cartoonists, I think that would be a fun idea. Moving to some bar, I bit of jam strip action happens. Most of my down under compatriots would be stoked to be hanging with some of the people I've seen today. (Heck, they were impressed to hear I puked in Gary Groth's toilet once.) I wonder if I'm blase (accent mark on the e), then I realize that I'm just tired. I head out on the early side. I see some homeless folks in sleeping bags next to the Bank of America building on the way back. The only wildlife I see besides birds in San Diego are the cockroaches scuttling across the pavement. I read myself to sleep trying to decipher the Cortazar book. The fact that it's hard to understand makes it seem all the more curious and exotic. John Weeks [platypus 26] at [hotmail.com] P.O. Box 13172 Torrance, CA 90503 USA http://www.comicuniverse.com/JWEEKS.html ______________________________________________________ From: "John Weeks" <[platypus 26] at [hotmail.com]> Subject: Underneath San Dee Satdee Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 22:37:01 PDT Saturday A good night of sleep for once. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this. Today will be the busiest day but I can't help but wonder if it will really mean all that much more action in the small press pavilion. I make some quick photocopies of the Cortazar book at a drugstore. I've got some Spanish speaking friends who will get a kick out of it. I meet Che (accent mark on the e - damn dodgy Hotmail!) from Velvet Artichoke on the convention bus. She offers to cover my booth in exchange for some comics and I gratefully accept. As I'm setting up the booth Kelly Freas (an old _Mad Magazine_ dude) comes by and looks at my stuff. I give him an issue of _Pox_, which has a _Mad_ parody. He's gratified to see it and I'm even more gratified he came by. Cool! There are some books I have, old science fiction potboilers, that I refuse to throw away because they have a Freas cover. The Pox Girls will be gratified, and for me it's made the convention. With Che looking after the booth, I go and give Evan Dorkin a New Zealand knockoff of "Kyle and Evan, Critics at Large". Fortunately the creators of this strip have even more eventful lives than Kyle and Evan, so it's good fun. I wonder what he'll think of it. I hear - from an undisclosed source - unsubstantiated gossip about Adrian Tomine. Apparently one of the boys from a pop culture magazine wanted a Tomine sketch, so he sent his girlfriend to get it, then after Adrian had knocked himself out doing a detailed piece, he rocks up: "Cool sketch. That's my sketchbook, can you sign it to me too?" Back at his booth he starts coloring it. Back at my booth I find that Comic Relief has come by and wants to buy some of my leftover comics Sunday. Then Jesse Reklaw comes by and tells me he sold 40 _Concave Up_ issues to "That's Fumetti", an Italian comic store. Way cool. Man, forget selling to the crowd - cons are a great place to do direct-to-retailer distribution! A woman who's starting up a Mexican small-press venture says hello. I have no idea what kind of project she's doing, but I'm curious to find out more. I have her say a few words in Spanish for my audio letter, for a friend who also speaks Spanish. Then I show her the Cortazar book and she's like "Oh, yeah...I read that as a child. " I've got an interview with Dylan Horrocks that I want to give to the Journal, and I finally spot the guy I want to give it to. I'm like, "Lasky! Watch my booth while I dog-tackle that editor and I'll give you a comic!" Mission accomplished, I bump into Scott Gilbert (True Artist Tales), whom it's a pleasure to finally meet. I'm gratified to have made the connection so I give David a videotape of _Comic Book Virus_, a three hour long public access documentary series on the Victorian comics scene. I've dubbed off about twenty copies for the con - as a means of getting out the most information in a compact, cheap format, it's really quite effective. I'm not really keen on my own appearance - but to promote the scene, no sacrifice, even my dignity, is too great. There are two anthologies I've been selling. One has been Radioactive Paranoid, an anthology of Dunedin (South Island, New Zealand) cartoonists - Glenn Ross, Morris Brown, and Tony Renouf among other luminaries. The other has been _Nice_ comics, which is mostly Melbourne folks. I'm pleased to recieve a visit and some samples, then, from Nice Comics, a stateside anthology. It's not exactly the same aesthetic I'm going for, but a few of the artists have decent styles. I'm starting to space out again. Fortunately my friend Scott has been working another booth and he spots me while I get some food and take a breather. Two booths down there's a girl in a bright pink outfit with antennae. I get her to pose with the bright purple _Wide Arsed Mole_ #2, (http://www.loud.net.au/noise/display_stories/1-90000/1201-1500/display_stories_1231.html) and she gives me some of her comics in exchange. Ayu Tomiyama is her name, she's originally from Japan and the comic is called _Paranoiac Gum_, of which three issues have come out. Her English isn't perfect but that doesn't stop her, it's really quite fun. My favorite story of hers would be "Time is Frosty Yellowtail's Meat", about breaking up with her band. Megan Kelso gives me a flyer for a beach bash this evening and it sounds good until I visualize driving drunk people home at four in the morning. Maybe I'll just go to the Fantagraphics party instead, I've still got to run my booth Sunday. "Eerie pauses in conversation!" the nifty Robert Williams invite advertises. Hey, truth in marketing. The con floor closes and I go to the hotel and take a nap. Fantagraphics party. (http://www.fantagraphics.com) I've never seen so many guys with glasses and ponytails in a while. There's a live body painting demo. Che doesn't think this is decadent enough. "Where's the nearest fetish bar?" she demands. Actually, now that I think about it, statistically most fetishes are acquired by men. Like Crumb's fascination with boots, they often arise from childhood origins. Comics have a disporportionately male audience, perhaps they, um...never mind. I get a further chance to chat with Michael Evans (Dee Vee) and he's not at all perturbed when I spill some beer on him. Turns out he'll be visiting Melbourne so there should be a chance for him to hook up with a few of the contingent down there. I'm not the wild man I used to be so I head out not too late. Besides, I've got a booth to run and I'm not acclimating well to the lower standards of American beer. Those bike cabs downtown are a nifty idea, I muse as I walk back to the hotel. John Weeks [platypus 26] at [hotmail.com] P.O. Box 13172 Torrance, CA 90503 USA http://www.comicuniverse.com/JWEEKS.html ______________________________________________________ From: "John Weeks" <[platypus 26] at [hotmail.com]> Subject: Sunday: Down Below San Diego Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 22:40:51 PDT Sunday Stretching out by the hotel pool, I...waitaminnit, wrong convention writeup. I catch a convention shuttle bus and I make it to my booth just as the doors are opening. Jesse Reklaw comes by. He's seen the first two episodes of _Comic Book Virus_ and he's diggin' it. His Australian accent needs a bit of work though. Jesses's comics are sold so I suggest he take any remaining samples to agents. I suggest the same thing to Che a minute later. Hey, it's a convention. Sell sell sell. I squeeze off a snapshot of a guy in a t-shirt that says "chicks hate me". I may be spending most of my time boothbound but the show goes on around me. The con is winding up and it's time to finish things off. I put together some more care packages, especially those for reviewers. The role playing gamers next to me experience a little static. One of their contributors shows up and proceeds to chew them out about real or percieved mistakes in their latest product. I surreptitiously tape the encounter for my audio letter - a little local color. I get a moment to chat with Darby from _Ben is Dead_. She's fiddling with her laptop and what looks like a nifty wireless modem. I can instinctively sense she's got an extremely low bullshit tolerance. I chat with Scott Gilbert (True Artist Tales) briefly. He's cool and mellow, based on his work I was expecting a roughneck from Firewater, TEXAS. (http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~gilbert/portrait.html) I'm told that one of the Comics Journal's minicomics features is no more. Damn. Hope those comics get put to good use somehow. The role-playing gamers next door call it a day and leave early. So do the Fish Heads. Immediately the squatters move in: Keith Knight (_The K Chronicles_) and two girls from San Francisco who've done their first anthology. Keith is relaxed with the polished cool that can only come from some experience with childhood geekdom. "Buy my book, it's called _Dances with Sheep_, it'll make you laugh." He's got a plastic sheep as to reinforce the book's title. A crew with a video camera shows up. It's K. Thor Jensen (_Posthumous Warnings_, http://www.word.com/newstaff/tclark/two/thorint1.html) in a suit and tie, who interviews Keith Knight and the Alternative Press folks. I'd wondered what he was up to. Jesse departs - he's got a plane to catch - after trading one of his t-shirts for one of mine. At 5 pm the circus comes to a close. I hurriedly sort out what I've got left and take it over to Comic Relief's booth. While everybody else is in a frenzy taking down their exhibits, the Comic Relief folks take the time to carefully go over my stuff. Watching them riffle through things, I notice something interesting - they stop and look more closely at comics with lots of black. Hmm. They pay me up front for the comics. Conventions - a great place to connect with retailers! Oh yeah and the public too. CR took about ten of each comic. I trundle the rest to Highwater Books. (http://www.world.std.com/~myp/index.html) Tom Devlin makes me an offer up front for the whole lot. I'm stoked. I decide to spend some of these earnings on Kochalka's _Tiny Bubbles_ and Megan Kelso's _Queen of the Black Black_. "See," I tell her, "I told you I'd buy your book." Tom gives me some stuff for free, what a cool guy. Now, how do I get my boxes out of the convention hall? I fill out a bill of lading and get my stuff delivered to the loading dock. From there it's just a matter of loading out into my car's trunk. I'm driving back to the hotel and I see a group of about twenty homeless folks playing cards in a vacant lot a few blocks from where the Fantagraphics party was yesterday. There's the artistic kind of outsider and then there's the homeless kind of outsider. I check out from La Pacifica hotel and then it's route 5 north. I manage to snap a photo of the "running families" sign but it's pretty dark (I later find I'd gotten a great shot of my dashboard). I'm looking forward to reading all the goodies I've acquired, but mainly I'm looking forward to getting some sleep. John Weeks [platypus 26] at [hotmail.com] P.O. Box 13172 Torrance, CA 90503 USA http://www.comicuniverse.com/JWEEKS.html