Small Press Expo

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 05 September 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The Small Press Expo (SPX) is taking place September 10 - 11, 2011 at the Marriott North Bethesda Hotel and Conference Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

SPX is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons.

SPX is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit that brings together more than 300 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers and distributors each year.

The Ignatz Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comics and Cartooning is the first Festival Prize in the US comic book industry. This year‛s winners of the Outstanding Artist awards are:

• Michael DeForge, Lose #3 (Koyama Press)
• Edie Fake, Gaylord Phoenix (Secret Acres)
• Renee French, H-Day (Picturebox)
• Joseph Lambert, I Will Bite You (Secret Acres)
• Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know, Vol 2: Collateral Damage (Fantagraphics)

Audiences at this year’s festival have the opportunity to enjoy spotlight presentations and question-and-answer sessions with many of SPX’s headline guests, including

• Chester Brown
• Roz Chast
• Anders Nilsen
• Diane Noomin
• Johnny Ryan
• Alex Robinson
• Ann Telnaes
• Craig Thompson
• Jim Woodring

Other artists attending include:

• BOOM! Town 
• Roger Langridge
• cartoonist studio Pizza Island, composed of Kate Beaton, Sarah Glidden, Lisa Hanawalt, Domitille Collardey, Julia Wertz and Meredith Gran
• Marc Bell
• Tom Neely
• Matthew Thurber

Every year many artists debut their new published work at SPX. This year‛s new works include:

• 1-800 MICE by Matthew Thurber – an anthropological study of the imaginary city of Volcano Park with a soap-opera-styled fractured narrative and a cast of thousands.
• Back to the Grind by Jamie Noguchi – the first collected print edition of Yellow Peril by Noguchi, an Asian American office romance comedy strip published online at http://ypcomic.com. The strip follows the exploits of Kane and Bodie, two frustrated graphic designers trying to find meaning working for the soulless corporate every-workplace, Pedanticorp.
• Curls: MASER by Carolyn Belefski – the dreaming mind of a girl with mitten hands named Curls, an investigative turtle named Turtle Neck, and the mysterious appearance of a dark creature in the woods.
• Freedom No.1 by Seamus Heffernan – The what-if story is set in 1779 but in an alternative reality: America‛s founding never happened. The debut issue follows Adam Farr, a strong-willed teenager living in the post-revolutionary British Colony of Massachusetts. Apprenticed to a Tory merchant in Boston, he quickly finds himself at odds with his older brother, the British Army and the Sons of Liberty.
• The Rise & Fall of Studly Pete: Chapter 0 by Renee Lott – a new fantasy/ adventure webcomic about Peter Shade and his quest to end his unusual curse of super-studliness.
• Trinadot 3 by Melody Often – A plane crash brings three people together on Trinadot, an island inhabited by a mostly peaceful, post-industrial culture.

This year’s programming also includes panel discussions such as:

• Inside The New Yorker – Roz Chast in conversation with Kate Beaton
• Narrative Logic: Surreal and Obscure – with Marc Bell, Matthew Thurber, Jim Woodring
• The Secret History of Women in Comics – moderated by Heidi MacDonald, with Jessica Abel, Diane Noomin, Robyn Chapman, Alexa Dickman
• Comics in the Library – a round-table discussion with Sara Duke from the Library of Congress, Charles Brownstein, and representatives of two local library systems
• Navigating the Contemporary Publishing Landscape – with Mike Dawson, Meredith Gran, Julia Wertz
• Images of the Body – with Robyn Chapman, Jennifer Hayden, Gabby Schulz, Jen Vaughn
• Excruciating Detail: Drawing the Grotesque – Sean T. Collins speaks with Lisa Hanawalt, Benjamin Marra, Tom Neely, Johnny Ryan

Other special presentations include:

• You Don’t Know Jacques: The Work of Jacques Tardi – a slideshow presentation by Kim Thompson about the works of French comics giant Jacques Tardi
• a hands-on cartooning workshop by comics educators Robyn Chapman and Alec Longstreth and Tom Hart

SPX Programming Coordinator Bill Kartalopoulos teaches classes about comics at Parsons The New School for Design. He also co-organizes the Brooklyn Comics Graphics Festival, reviews comics for Publishers Weekly, and has curated several comics-related exhibits including "Cartoon Polymaths" at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center. He recently assisted Art Spiegelman on the production of MetaMaus, a book and DVD about the making of Maus.

Profits from the SPX go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), protecting the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals.

For more information, go to spxpo.com.

Small Press Expo
September 10 - 11, 2011

Marriott North Bethesda Hotel & Conference Center
5701 Marinelli Road
North Bethesda, MD 20852
301-822-9200