Comics and Community V
So I went to APE in San Francisco this weekend -- for the first time since the very first APE ever down in San Jose when Dave Sim and David Moodie (ex-Might) shared the same space, almost. I admit that I didn't really do APE well this year. I stayed up pretty late Friday night after hanging out at Zeitgeist, a wonderful bicycle courier bar, with Cory, Becca and Alex. So I was pretty tired and kept behind the Highwater Books table with Tom and TD for much of the day.



We had a great space. With four tables of Highwater display right next to Jordan Crane and a lot of other Los Angeles-area comics makers, including Souther Salazar, Saelee Oh, and Sammy Harkham, as well as others, we had a fun, lively, and motley crew. And while I perched behind the table, a lot of neat people came to me. It's been ages since I've seen Seth Friedman, formerly of Factsheet 5; Larry-Bob and Nick, of Holy Titclamps; Andy Hunter, formerly of Mommy and I Are One; and some of the folks behind Cardhouse.



I didn't spend a lot of time with them, but I also chatted briefly with Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, who recently self-published a Valentines-themed zine; Bill from Giant Robot; Chris and Brett from Top Shelf; and Jeff from Alternative Comics (he corrected me when I mistakenly said Alternative Press; ouch!); Leela Corman and Tom Hart; and select other fine folks.



When I finally got some caffeine in me and decided to brave the floor, I wish I'd left the comforting confines of our table earlier in the day. I ran into John Held, Jr., a long-time mail artist and small-press archivist; V. Vale of Re/Search; David Rees and Tom Hopkins, who were working the Soft Skull/AK Press half-table; Jon and Craig from Spoilsport and Go-Go Girl. I even bought the second anthology comic from Ben, the guy in Austin who does the wonderful daily autobio punk strip Snake Pit. Didn't say hi, though.

Because I'm that lame. It felt super weird heading back to Boston early Sunday having not been in town for the con, really; not having had much quality time with my friends who were there; knowing so many local and non-local comics and zine people at the con; and not having taken the opportunity to really explore APE, much less spend the second day.

So San Diego it is. And SPX. Andcetera. I need to get back into the swing of things.

(Oh, I also didn't pick up that many new minis and stuff to review here. Because I'm that lame. I picked up some neat new stuff -- like the new tabloid paper Arthur [Jordan and Sammy as comics editors, hooray!] -- and I'll eventually get to it all here. People should just send me everything. Really, they should.)