Long John at APE 2017 Recap

Sep26
by on 26 September 2017

Going to APE was a big deal for me and Long John.

When I first went to APE, back in 2010 with my previous comic, it made such an impression on me that its memory eclipses the larger cons I attended since as an exhibitor. APE was a convention known to have a very specific atmosphere, a “vibe”, one that was casual and copacetic to independent-minded creatives who were given a weekend to be treated like they were the only ones making entertainment on this planet. Such were the sentiments I walked away with after my first attendance as an APE exhibitor and were solidified in the subsequent shows I attended.

So, once I started Long John, there was a far-off dream of returning to APE. In that interim, a lot of changes happened to APE that many maligned. Undeterred, I stuck with the goal so that, this year, I applied and was accepted to be an exhibitor. After much anticipation, and after walking in, it was a very different first impression than my previous experiences with the show.

A Hellrider Jackie sketch to kick off APE 2017.

Firstly, it had moved from hip-nexus of San Francisco and its Concourse Exhibition Center (RIP) to San Jose and its Convention Center’s South Hall, which is a large, permanent tent with a rigid skeleton to keep it aloft. However, once I walked through the majority of this huge, empty hanger to the exhibitor registration table and into the show floor proper, I felt immediately at home.

Secondly, it was much smaller than my last attendance, five years prior. The vendors present, however, were much in-line with what I saw at APEs previous––independent, bootstraps-pulling creators doing their best to make the best products they can (of whom I count myself among). Though it was smaller with lighter attendance, it still felt––at its core––like APE, and that was enough to keep me inspired and loyal to the show.

If anything, the show reminded me of why I love Crocker Con or this year’s inaugural Sacramento Indie Expo––it feels like getting in on the ground floor of something special. To some, it feels less like the starting point of something new and more like a death knell to a once-great show, but I prefer to focus on the former because it could be as great as it ever was with the right marketing and support from not only the organizers of the show, but of the exhibitors.

Though it was a lightly attended show (especially Sunday––woof), most people who turned up were ready to spend money to support independent creators, resulting in the most profitable show I’ve ever done. With that in mind, I have no grounds on which to complain, but I see the valid points the detractors are making and I think the steps to make it a bigger and more visible event are probably pretty easy. With hope, the organizers listen and rally next year to help the rest of the creative community see APE like it looks to me: a place for independent creatives to thrive, share, and succeed.

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Long John at APE 2017

Sep20
by on 20 September 2017

I am absolutely thrilled to be an exhibitor at this weekend’s Alternative Press Expo (colloquially known simply as “APE”), a show I’m eager to attend because it has a profound place in my memory.

APE was one of the first “big conventions” I attended as an exhibitor with my previous comic, Eben07, and we went for a few years in a row because it quickly became a favorite show to be a part of. It was well-managed like a larger convention but this show’s specific focus is on creators rather than large publishers. And it filled––when I last went––a majority San Francisco’s Concourse Exhibition Center, from the front doors to what amounted to the back walls, with nothing but indie artists and vendors. It was probably the most comfortable I had ever felt at a convention (to that point). One year, our booth was set up next to the booth of the indie video game developer, Double Fine. For two days, I was sitting and chatting with people who made art on games I played and loved and I even got to meet and quickly chat with the founder of the company, Tim Schafer, an inspirational creative guru of mine.

Photographic proof I once stood next to Tim Schafer at APE 2011.

It was incredible to walk down the aisles and see so much original artwork and creator-owned books that it kind of felt like what the internet became for a lot of illustrators: an insulated conglomerate of independent-minded people doing their best and wanting to share it with others.

It’s been awhile since I last attended, and some have said that the show has changed a lot (the least of which is it’s move to San Jose, CA, where the show originated), but that won’t sway me or my excitement for the show. I hope it has changed because I know I’m a different comicker now than I was then and I hope the show meets the needs for what independent comics are today. Change or not, I’m glad to be getting out there to more shows and APE is no exception.

Alternative Press Expo

San Jose Convention Center
September 23-24, 2017
Hours: Saturday – 11-7pm, Sunday – 11-5pm
Two-Day Ticket: $15
One-Day Ticket: $10

D. Bethel/Long John Booth #405 in the South Hall

 

 

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Long John at Crocker Con 2017

Sep12
by on 12 September 2017

My favorite show of the year, Crocker Con––the celebration of local art and creativity held at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum––is happening this Thursday (September 14) and I can’t wait for it.

As the video above mentions, what I love most about the show is its hybrid or melting pot nature of attendees and exhibitors. On the exhibitor side, we have people who love superhero comics and make their own as a declaration of their creativity and fandom mixed with fine artists whose work will, one day, be featured in a museum like the Crocker. Together we get to mingle and chat and talk about making stuff no matter the medium. For attendees, we get cosplayers and comic book fans along with museum members who attend talks on Impressionists and the like that the Crocker holds regularly.

I would argue that I fall directly in the middle of these demographics. When I started my academic journey after high school, I was an art major. As part of the major I had to take not only the studio classes but the “appreciation” classes, meaning Art History. To be honest, I loved those classes. I loved them to the point that I started investigating into whether I could move from being a general Art major to, instead, focusing on Art History because I love seeing how eras connect, to see how every generation––as defined and finished and unique as they seem––end up being the loose sketch for the next generation to refine, change, and make their own. I like the fact that as boring as young people think Monet and Seurat are, those artists were the hell-raising rebels of their day, eschewing neoclassical standards of not only technique but business (painting for yourself?! The horror!) and changing––like a rock through a window––how the art world is viewed. Now their art is sewn onto pillows and sold as demonstration prints for cheap frames at Target. It’s fascinating.

At Crocker Con, I probably try more than other shows to engage with the people who stop at my table, to act as an ambassador between these two disparate worlds of artistic appreciation and show the erudite art museum members that these popular mediums have kernels of cultural worth in them and to show the pop culture fans that there is more to appreciate in art than mere aesthetic value and irony––that art can mean something even it that means working a little bit on the viewer’s end to find it (or make it).

This type of environment is why I do what I do as a comicker and, perhaps, as a teacher. I like trying to bridge chasms of appreciation, aesthetics, and even taste because there is so much talk between different groups about “them” and “those”, speaking as if the gulf is a border that none shall cross.

But I do. Regularly.

With practice, it becomes an easy hop. What’s more, it’s a fun jump to make and allows me to reap the rewards of more than just one or two avenues of this thing we call “Art.” It’s all art, what separates them is willingness to approach. And while people come up with excuses to avoid eye contact, in truth, that’s the easiest part.

Crocker Con will be on Thursday, 14 September 2017 at the Crocker Art Museum from 6-9:30pm.

Sadly, I will not be debuting volume 3 of Long John there as I had planned and hoped. Trying to tackled a 36 page book over a summer was a bigger task than I had hoped and while I have made incredible headway on it, I couldn’t bring it home in time without sacrificing something. With school now in session, production has to slow down, but I hope to have it done by the end of the calendar year. Apologies for getting hopes up, mostly my own.

I’ll be posting more information on volume 3 soon, including a title, a cover and some other information associated with it as it develops. Since the book won’t be done for awhile, I plan to post pages before the book gets released so as to keep the dry spell of comics on this site shorter rather than longer.

Stay tuned!

 

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