Welcome to SPX 2007 Friday, which is held in a single ball room at the Marriot of North Bathesda, Maryland. Considering the physical limitations to the convention, the turn out was excellent this year. While the crowd was thin at the 2:00 pm door open, all six hall ways were packed for the rest of the day.

The space was organized more or less the same as last year. Tables are organized along the walls and grouped into long rectangular islands, which float between six isles of foot traffic. An additional wide isle cuts the room in half. The flow was pretty good, and I could move around pretty well with a backpack full of comics (and a camera, laptop, and sketch book) even at the most crowded times.

Also, It looked like all of the tables were being used by the exhibitors, though a few informed me that they were not attending the following day. Still, there was plenty to see, and if you spend your time right, you can easily go most of the day without getting tired of it.

I strongly recommend starting at one end of the hall and slowly walking up one and down each isle one side at a time. Stop and talk to each artist (even if their work isn't what you are interested in) because almost all of them have something interesting to say, and business cards, free comics, posters and schwag to give away.
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Take note of what you like and would like to buy along the way but do not buy anything right away. You may also want to make a note of where the books are / who has them, or you could end up like me and spend 30 minutes trying to find the last book on your shopping list.

I suggest this because walking a quick lap around the ball room floor means you will most likely miss some gems. Also, by saving your purchases for last, you won't run out of cash before you know what you want to buy AND you get to end your day with satisfying, well explored purchases! Otherwise, you may find the relatively small room 'get old' too quickly and get little interesting time for your 8-15 dollars.

You may also want to meet someone there. I ran into Shawn Murphy at the door, which added width to conversations with exhibitors (as we have different, but over lapping interests) but didn't bog us down, because we were happy to casually walk onward if the other wanted to stay longer and talk.

Last year, I ended up burning through the show in about two hours, and ended up planted in front of Joe and Maris' table, no doubt blocking the way for a few potential customers. This year I was only half way through the isles three hours into the show when Lizzy tapped me on the shoulder -- and while I only managed to drag myself along for another hour, the experience was much more satisfying.

So what was at the show?

Lots of indi comics and slightly fewer web comics, the artists the draw them and the writers that write them, two indi comic publishing houses, some plush + bobble heads, and the Baltimore County public library. The latter now carries a good selection of indi comics, which is awesome if you live in Baltimore City or County.
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This year also had much more schwag. While free comics were plentiful, post cards were king this year (I collected around 30 of them). Honorable mentions go to GB Tran for the best double sided design, Markburrier.com for best indi color and style, and Lamar Abrams for loudest / most eye catching card design. Lamar also gets special notice for his kooky art style, which reminds me roughly of mega man + speed racer on crack cocaine.

Many artists also had business cards on hand, which in any other business would not be schwag. Sugarboukas.com gets an honorable mention for making all of their uniquely attractive, double sided cards by hand.

On the comics themselves, gay comic corner (man on man action!) was interesting, as was the table dedicated to the Tiny Bikini mini comic (nice warner bros. DC universe style boobies!). More interesting was the amount of books featuring color interiors. Also, many more exhibitors accepted credit cards. (a big deal when some books cost 30+ us dollars)


I bought several comics, but I want to give a special shout out to the best here:



Giovanni Potatoeby Mark & Chris Schweizer
www.curiousoldlibrary.com

This lovingly crafted piece features four 2 x 4 inch soft cover booklets, which are packaged in a four color slip case. The slip case has an half circle cut into it's open end, which provides easy access to the four books within.

The artist claims this 316 page black and white comic takes about an hour to put together and -- I believe him! The production quality isn't unheard over in the indi scene (there are no hand-cut pop up pieces, or multi-dimensional folding systems here), but it is very nice ll the same. Even if his art style (which is simple, clear and expressive, but not very 'sexy' or sophisticated) isn't your thing, you should check his work out anyway. Super Honorable Mention

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Miss Moti and Cotton Candy and Miss Moti and the Big Apple by Kripa Joshi
kripakreations.com

Kripa brings us two full color books, which have a style that is similar to Jimmy Coorigan: the smartest kid on earth, but are much more organic, and frankly feminine. The protagonist is a physically unattractive woman who is internally attractive for her imagination and grace. The storytelling is wordless but very clear, and follows the protagonist's 'adventures', which are interrupted by her imagination.

This is a very sincere presentation of an everyday woman by the artist, without political or social (feminist) distractions. I think it is very successful, and while the format & physical shape of the books are standard (at least to French BD's) instead of wild and outright indi, the non mainstream focus of the story and Kripa's care in presenting it make it my pick for Best in Show.

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Breathers by Justin at Just Mad Book's
www.justmadbooks.stsy.com

Justin had what I can only describe as the complete lord of the rings special super extended awesome high def dvd box edition approach to selling his work at the show. Specifically, you could buy everything he has illustrated in one box for 30 dollars... a little less than half their combined individual prices. Of course that wouldn't matter if his work wasn't good. Thankfully, his work is quite good -- especially his color work, which he sprinkles as chapter breaks and covers for his graphic novels.

I wish he'd thrown in some of his prints (framed or not), because his color is really good, and while his style is not ground breaking, his attention to detail is above average. Honorable mention for best deal in show.


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I spent the last half hour of the show talking with Maris and Joe (and typing notes on my laptop next to their table). I'm not sure how well they are doing at the show, because they are in the back corner -- they are actually around the back corner, at the only table which seems removed from the rest of the ball room's space. Also, because Joe is doing work for DC and they have recently moved back to Boston, I didn't see as many new comics as usual. As always, they do have awesome plush, which I encourage everyone to check out (all of it hand made by Maris).

I went to school with Maris and Joe (and Tim Fin, who I didn't realize was there until after the show) and it was nice to see them again. We had dinner at 'the first' italian place Tim Fin could find, which because he is a vegan immediately served him meat-filled pasta. We were the only group at the restaurant, which was slightly off putting.

conversation was light. Tim felt the artists were a bit too pushy this year -- that when he walked by, if he made eye contact, they would utter silly and 'demand' that he feel free too look at anything on the table. Pity & Pressure sales aside, I feel the artists were taking the initiative, and really trying to get people to look at their stuff for once. last year was totally the opposite, and i felt that too many artists didn't put in the effort, and i didn't feel like i wanted to se their stuff.

Still, Tim's point is valid. I didn't have to make eye contact with anyone to prompt them to call for my attention and commence a spiel. in fact, I was occasionally handed a free comic when i wasn't even facing the artist's table.

after dinner, the New Englanders were generally wrecked from hours on the show floor. topping off their 3:00 am arrival time (and 9:00 am wake up call). They also had a show Saturday morning and all day till 7:00 pm. So i let them drive home (perhaps finding ice cream on the way) and headed back to the factory for some sleep of my own...