Thank you to everyone who came by our booth this past weekend at APE: the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, CA! Look at how happy you made our Marketing Director, Mike Baehr! We hope we were able to make you guys happy, too, with all our amazing debuts and wonderful guests.
Our good pal Daniel Clowes made an unofficial appearance, and braved the crowds for a visit with The Hernandez Bros! I think that lady to the right just realized who cut in front of her in line…
Jim Woodring delighted fans with sketches of his iconic characters, and he somehow did it with just a cheapie ballpoint pen! (His usual drawing pen decided to give up the ghost right before signings began.)
The great Mark Kalesniko was all-smiles as he signed copies of his books for fans! Mark also brought both an electronic slideshow and some originals, which was a wonderful lesson in cartooning for everyone who stopped by.
photo credit: Ted Abenheim from Prism Comics!
It's the unstoppable Justin Hall, moderating the Queer Cartoonists Panel before his No Straight Lines signing with us! That man is a trooper, I'm tellin' ya.
And we were lucky to steal the always-busy Shannon Wheeler away from his own booth for a couple of signings of Oil & Water!
Our all-star line-up kept us hoppin', but I did manage to sneak away a few times for some shoppin' and some photos of our Fantagraphics friends!
It's an annual tradition to sit side-by-side with our good buddies (and fellow Northwesterners) Jim Blanchard & J.R. Williams!
Wake up, Gabrielle!!! Oh, well, I'll let her rest up for her signing with Tom Kaczynski (and Charles Burns, not at APE) this coming Saturday, October 20th at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery…
Here's Mome-veteran Jon Vermilyea, with his incredible prints and zines. He told us he was planning to hit the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, so make sure to visit his table, New Yorkers!
Here's fellow Mome-vet Malachi Ward in a rare quiet moment at his booth — we were excited to get the latest volume of Expansions from him!
We had a quick visit with No Straight Lines-contributor Ed Luce, merchandising mad genius!
We didn't manage to snap a pic of the elusive Tim Hensley, but he was at APE, debuting his Ticket Stub collection with Rina Ayuyang's Yam Books! And, good lord, can I tell you people, it is a thing of freakin' beauty. Get one, seriously.
Speaking of elusive, the rumors were true: Zak Sally did make an unexpected secret appearance at the show! He snuck away before I could take a photo, though!
While I visited with Fanta-friends Tom Neely and Emily Nilsson of Sparkplug Comics, Mike had to contend with that line you see in the upper-righthand corner of this pic for the Love and Rockets signing! Yikes, sorry, Mike!
A quick run back to our own booth, and I was able to catch the adorable Brett Warnock of Top Shelf kanoodling with Rich Koslowski across the aisle!!!
Going through our photos, I was surprised that neither Mike nor I snapped any pictures of my birthday-buddy Tom Devlin of Drawn & Quarterly. (We both turned a year older on Saturday of the show.) But his v-neck sweater really did look great with the collared-shirt. Happy birthday, dear Tom!
Yay, that was fun! Let's do it again next year, San Francisco!