SPX 2006: “The Best, Da-Da-Da…”

SPX 2006 is done and over with. And man, what a show…

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the show really exceeded everyone’s expectations. Many people went in with a certain degree of trepidation, given the change in location and the less than stellar communication from the show’s organizers (though it was particularly bad this time around). And I myself was also going in rather bummed that quite a few friends would be missing in action, but in the end, the whole thing was top to bottom unbelievably awesome.

So time to go into details, along with some of the 250 pictures I took this weekend (primarily because I knew folks wouldn’t be there, so I wanted to capture as much as possible, but also since my camera’s so shitty, I knew only 35% of them would actually come out, so for the billionth time, please excuse the blur)…

56K WARNING: There’s a tons of pics in this post, so please be patient!

- The trip began on Thursday night when MK & I picked me up in Hoboken (just like she did two years prior, which is when we first met, and started dating shortly afterwards, plus this weekend was sorta our two year anniversary, hence why the show had extra special meaning). The drive was rather scary since MK was running super low on gas, and at a certain point the car started to fail a bit, but we luckily made it to a Wawa without having to push the car, and as expected, the chicken sandwich was delicious. We drove down to Delaware where MK’s friends Andy and Morgan lived, to help cut the drive to the show the next day.

The first thing we did when we hit the road the very next morning was stop by the liquor store to pick up the Nerdlingers, which was the awards that MK and Liz had come up with for all our friends. The Nerdlinger they both decided would be “functional”, hence the decision to go with beer (Yuengling, of course, since it kind sounded like Nerdlinger, plus it was dirt cheap). When we arrived at the store around 10:15 in the morning, we were afraid of being seen as the degenerates aching for booze before eleven in the morning, so imagine our shock when we found the store totally packed with alcoholics. It?s totally true what they say: there ain’t shit to do in Delaware but drink. Anyway, here’s a shot of the massive selection of single brews, which people can use to assemble their own six packs (rather genius idea actually)….

- While on the road, we stopped by a rest stop, which had a Bob’s Big Boy, and I of course I had to pose for an exceedingly unoriginal picture…

- I also spotted a truck hauling a small trailer that totally blew my mind. First its not for a motorbike as it might look at first, but one of those motorized tricycle, which I believe only really old or fat people ride.. You can’t really see it, but on the back was a airbrushed scene of a lake at sunset, with a photo of the motortrike to the upper left-hand corner, all awkward like….

To the side is a bigger version of the picture, but also poorly framed, with the words Rod and Anita around it…

At first I thought that was the name of the trike, and then I thought to myself gee, that’s a strange name for a bike, till I saw the front of the trailer, when I realized….

…. that it must be named after the dude’s dead parents, whose picture is also on the trailer, up front.

- Anyway, we arrived at the hotel right on time (and both Robin and Katie showed up not too long after), which again is a new location, the Marriot in North Bethesda (or Rockville, depending on who you talk to) and instantly our hopes rose. The place was/is nice! For some reason, I was expecting some rundown shitshack (the Holiday Inn that was the previous location wasn’t something ultra special when you get down to it, but we had all grown to love it). But it took like 15 seconds to see the appeal of the new location.

Here’s what the show floor looked like in the middle of day one on Friday…

The biggest, and by far the best change was that the entire show was now in one room. Previously things were set in three different rooms: one large one, and two smaller ones. If you were in the large room, you were golden, but if you were in the two smaller spaces, there was a very good chance you were screwed (especially if you were unfortunately enough to be placed behind one of the columns). Almost every single person was ecstatic about the change, though I did hear a few complaints that it was better before… and curiously enough it was from bigger name artists; the small rooms weren’t bad for everyone since certain publishers took a huge chunk of each room. In a way, putting everything in one huge room equalized everyone, which in my opinion was a very good thing.

- Here’s a blurry pic of MK and I….

And check out our tiny half table bursting with awesomeness…

Highlights include Robin’s new book Controller, which is all about his video game addiction (the package is ultra tight; the cover looks like a NES cart and it comes in a slipcase, similar to what NES games came with… it would also end up being our best seller, not surprisingly), Disco Max, Katie’s new book which is all about her exploits as a DJ up in Syracuse (which also had a totally hawt cover design, consisting of an mylar overlay with various colors and patterns), Sourpuss, Katie’s other new book which has a wonderful felt cover that’s hand stitched, MK’s preview mini for Cross Country, featuring some of the best art ever from her, plus the latest AdHouse book, Project: Romantic, which features perhaps my favorite story every from MK. There was so much stuff that there literally wasn’t enough room, hence why I didn’t feel too bad for not having a new book this time around.

Across from us were Liz and her husband Zane, which was just very nice (plus Pat was just around the corner). Though when MK & I first arrived, we were given a different table than originally told, away from Liz and Zane and Pat, and that was a total bummer. Though even worse was how we were all of sudden sharing a table with the surly pirate once again, which we had managed to avoid last year. But after Robin and I asked what the deal was, we discovered that they confused MK (Reed) with Mikhaela Reid. It should also be noted that a lot of people’s badges were misspelled. I was Matthew Hamkins, which I tried to fix myself, but MK made me feel stupid for doing so when she pointed out how funny it was (as did Dennis Pacheco, who called me Hamkins the rest of the weekend).

- Not all friends were absent. For some reason, I was afraid Farel would also be missing at this year’s SPX, but Mr. Dalrymple was definitely in the house….

It’s always a pleasure to shoot the shit with Farel, and MK found our interaction and over-all chemistry “cute”. Robin and Katie on the other hand found it “gay” since we constantly talked about put each other’s wieners in our mouths. But that’s just the kind of friends we are.

Though one of the big surprises came about when I asked Farel if he had seen Nate Powell’s latest book and was told that he had gotten two. And when I expressed surprise to discover that there was a second (I only knew about Sounds of Your Name, which MK & I had picked up at the Philly zine fest a few weeks back), he mentioned that Nate was in attendance and I could pick it up from him personally….

I know I say this a lot about lots folks, but it especially applies to Nate Powell; he’s seriously not just one of the best cartoonists on this God’s green earth, but also one of kindest, most gentle souls you’ll ever meet. Needless to say, it was very nice to see the guy again (it’s been at least two years).

- Here’s Katie and myself, soaking in some fresh air. We may look fairly happy and content, but in reality we’re both morbidly depressed, due to the fact that we couldn’t find any secret stash of lemonade at the new location…

- Another big annoyance was our neighbors. As glad as I was to not be next to the pirate, some of the folks next to us ended up giving us all a major headache throughout the show. And its not as if they were assholes or anything, but they simply committed one of the biggest no-no’s one can do at a show. But they had this friend that simply loitered around at their table the entire, who I’m guessing found the show boring as hell and stupid because he complained non-stop. And granted, I don’t like annoying hipsters, but seriously, that’s like going to a church and complaining about religious people. He kept going on an on about “Look at that stupid emo looking dude!” non-stop. Though the worst part was how he kept doing this while standing right in front of our table almost the entire time of the show. Now that’s just fucking obnoxious and rude. I really didn’t say anything because I wasn’t at the table that much, plus I never personally saw his antics cost a sale, but if I had….

Though the biggest real problem with the new location: the lack of any good food. As far as cuisine goes, the entire immediate are is a complete (cultural) wasteland. The previous location had the awesome (and surly) Tasty Diner, and a top-notch burrito place, to name a few, all in walking distance, whereas the new place had absolutely nothing. The show’s organizers supplied everyone with a list of places to eat, but it would later be revealed that the list was largely inaccurate. For dinner we stopped by a Asian vegetarian place, since we all assumed that it be sorta healthy, plus how badly can anyone fuck up vegetables, right? Apparently, a lot. When we ordered, Pat was originally going to order five orders of vegetable dumplings since we was so damn hungry, but I managed to talk him down to just three, which he was thankful for since they ended up sucking ass (way too much spinach, and you’re talking to a dude that loves the stuff). Meanwhile, MK’s tomato and spinach soup was nothing more than chunks of tomato slices and spinach leaves in salty water. Plus that shit was uber expensive.

- After we ate, it was time for the Nerdlingers! Once again, the Nerdlingers were basically our award ceremony, to celebrate folks whom we thought were awesome and deserved some sorta of recognition. It was not meant to be a diss on the Ignatz, which is the official awards given out at SPX, we just wanted to have some fun (and most people didn’t seem to take any offense, though I did get the sense that at least a few were somewhat miffed by what we were doing, and to that, they just need to lighten up, since the bottom line is that all awards are simply popularity contests).

Anyway, once it was time to finally get on with the show, which took place in the hotel room that myself, MK, Robin, Katie, and Pat were all sharing. We all sorta wondered if anyone thought we serious and if people would actually show up, but soon a few folks did and the show went on. Liz and MK gave out the awards, while Robin played the theme music for each winner.

Here’s Pat with fingers crossed, hoping that he nabs the prize for which he was nominated…

And here he is with his celebratory brew. He won the Hey Ladies – Not You Award (aka “the Golden Quip”)…

Here’s Alec admiring his prize, for Most Generally Enthused About the Comics Medium…

And here’s Katie with her Best Girly Comics Award…

Zane won Most Understanding Non-Cartoonist Significant Other of a Cartoonist, but instead of a beer, since he doesn’t drink, Zane got some Arizona Ice Tea. Anyway, check out his awesome Thing belt-buckle…

Because Colleen arrived late, she presented as a “I’m sorry” offering an Choose Your Own Adventure book, this one involving ninjas. Here’s an SPX fun-fact: I met Colleen for the first time at the previous show, in which I wowed her with my ability to draw the titular character from the cover of Supercomputer straight from my mind with about 95% accuracy.

Anyway, she wow the prize of Best Moustache in Indie Comics…

Here we have Hilary Florido and Joe Flood with their awards. I forgot what Hilary got, but Joe’s was pretty obvious: “Best Formal Dancer in Indie Comics…

And here’s Joe Sayers with the Most Deserving of Beating the PBF in Another Awards Thing honor…

Robyn Chapman received the Awesome Alaskan Award (aka “the Triple A”), while Dennis got Best Semi Foreign Language Comics Not Actually About Cupcakes, Despite the Title….

As for the rest of the winners:

Liz got Most Enthusiasm for Comics Per Square Inch (which MK chose for her).
MK got First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
Robin got Best Semi Autobio Comics on the Topic of Video Games.
Toby nabbed Hardest Working Unemployed Cartoonist of the Year, which will have to be mailed to him since he couldn’t come (but instead of a beer, we’re just sending the label, so he can put it only brew that he chooses).
Aaron Renier got Best Drawer of Cute Anthropomorphic Elephants (since Aaron couldn’t make it, Liz Prince accepted the award).
Greg Beans, aka ?Clutch McBastard?, got Town Bicycle of Indie Comics.
And someone who’s name I forget got the prize for Best Comic To Include Swimming In Poop.

I myself got Most Planned Autobio Comics Involving Run-ins with Crackheads (aka “the Cracky”)

- After the prizes were served, it was time to party!

Here’s Liz, Greg, and Alec, checking out a sketchbook, which is a popular activity at any SPX-related function…

Soon a bunch of folks whom most of us didn’t know began to pile in, some of which with cases of beer, and next you know our room became a real party room. And you know its a happening scene when random Meathaus-ers show up out of the blue…

It wasn’t long till I was really drunk (off like a beer and a half… hey, I’m Asian!) and challenged Kate to an arm wrestling match…

Liz was the ref btw. Despite the fact that I won in the end, the long fight towards victory was pretty embarrassing. Afterwards I beat Liz, and then Liz beat Katie…

Here’s Robin, looking all stoic and shit…

.

Don’t ask me why almost every girl that day was wearing green….

And here’s Pat & I, as semi-shit buddies….

One last look at everyone from the room’s awards, after the ceremony…

- Once things started to die out in our room, Pat, Colleen, and myself went out searching for happenings elsewhere. I only stayed at one other party in another room for small bit since it was super crowded and there was no beer, so I went back to my room right afterwards. Everyone except for myself and Katie were tired, so we turned on the TV. Meanwhile Pat had gone downstairs (in SPX’s past, the main lobby was a popular hanging ground and the scene of action) and came back to say that some dude tried to stuff a bunch of cherry tomatoes in his face (Pat claimed he could do five). Also, there was apparently some girl who was organizing a sketch drawing session with a live model, with the hopes that it might be some sultry vixen, in the nude, and in a hotel room, albeit with a bunch of dudes drawing her. But then it was discovered that the nude model was some fat dude, hence why he decided to retire as well. But then Pat immediately began to criticize me for being all excited over the Golden Girls, yet had the gall to ask which I would have sex with if I had the choose one, simply because he had a choice. After flipping around for a bit, we settled on Full House, which segued to a conversation about our childhood celebrity crushes, with mine being Jo from Facts of Life. So yea, typical late-night hotel room at a con conversation.

- The next day was pretty much as expected: busier than the first, especially it being Saturday and all. I finally took the time to carefully walk around and grab stuff. As expected there were quite a few good books to be found this time around, including….

… the latest issue of Phase 7.
… the latest issue of Clutch.
… a bunch of stuff from Joe Sayers, including Your New Religion, books 1 & 2.
… Mum and The True Heart by Hilary.
… Chix, an adults only mini by Dave Kiersh.
… SideScrollers by Matt Loux.
… Potato Autopsy by Matthew Bernier.
… The Flying Bear, which as the title emplies, is about a bear that flies, and also bites people’s head’s off, by Daniel Strange and Evan Larson.
… A Late Freeze, which has a robot and a bear in love, and fighting the system, alongside their friend a toad, by Danica Novgorodoff.
… Break-Up Bots by Robert James Aleio, which is basically drawings of a bunch of robots passing along cliched break-up lines.
… a comic by Dongery, an art collective from Norway, who’s stuff is very Paper Rad-ish. Anyway, it involves Gyro Gearloose hijacking a plane.
… a pair of dream related comics by Kelli Nelson, who also had a neat video game related painting on hand…

Though my absolute fave book from the entire show might be KSOFM (King Shit of Fuck Mountain) from K Thor. I knew I totally had to have a copy when I first saw the following image over at the Insert Credit boards….

I showed it to MK and Katie, which took them 3 seconds to go “OMG, I GOTTA HAVE IT!” K Thor described it as a Shadow of the Colossus parody, and I’m not sure if it was a line he was just feeing to gamer dorks, but its a perfectly apt description in my book.

I was also very much to pick up a mini, as well as see Joey Belden, a buddy of Farel’s whom I also first met two years ago. Among other things, the guy has awesome taste in music, and we seem to find the same crazy shit funny…

… Stephen Gilpin was also with Farel, and it too was great seeing him again (unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the guy, stoopid me). Plus it warmed my heart to know that Krista, his wife (and Farel’s sister) still thinks and asks about me.

Plus, as crazy as it sounds, after all this time, I’ve never picked up a book by Liz, so I bought the whole run of her My Brain Hurts. Though I really wanted to buy them from her personally, but since he she was back in her room taking a nap at the time, I simply purchased them from her husband and had some evidence taken for her to enjoy the moment afterwards…

- Here’s Robin and MK striking a pose…

And myself and MK, doing our impression of any random scene from a Bergman flick…

Pat has a pretty strong ethic when it comes to selling books at a show. Aside from sporting a sport jacket to look “professional” he insists on always standing up, and the thing, is it really works….

Time for another SPX fun-fact: Robin, Katie, MK & myself all remember how at SPX last year, Pat got so drunk that he rambled on and on about the X-Men, primarily about Magneto, and he doesn’t remember a single moment of it. So at the show I found out that he’s a hardcore Magneto fan, so I asked what he thought about the post 9/11 comic that Marvel did in which Magneto was so saddened by the devastation that he was depicted with a tear running down his cheek, but Pat later corrected me when he asked around for more info. It was apparently Doctor Doom not Magneto. I also was a bit disappointed that he didn’t share my love for Iron Man, whom I figured he’d be all into since the best part about him is that he’s a boozer.

- For lunch, since there was absolutely nothing to eat, Katie and I had McDonald’s, which ended up being the best meal I would have at the convention, as sad as it sounds. We ate outside, under some trees by the side of the road. While finishing up lunch (the plan was to then head to Toys R Us; I wanted to look for any possible rare finds since toy/game stores out in the middle of nowhere are usually good for them), a truck passed by that said “Quality You Can Count On” but with one missing letter, and it was so awesome I had to take a picture. So I ran down the road, and thankfully the light was red, so I was able to get this…

… And since I was able to capture the moment, I felt like King Shit of Fuck Mountain, so I jumped up and down and screaming and singing, even though I knew 10% of the chorus (I don’t even know the name of the same to be honest). It was pretty awesome… you sorta had to be there.

- The end of the show provided by far the biggest scariest and tensest moment at a con, for not only myself but especially MK. As things were winding down and she was packing up the table, MK noticed that her sketchbook was missing. Lots of folks love to pass around sketchbooks at comic conventions to have friends and folks they admire draw something in them, and MK is no different. They’re almost like high school year books to a certain degree, and MK had been passing around hers for literally four years, so there were quite a few awesome pictures, as well as precious memories tied to the book. So when it went missing, MK because very distraught and sad, so we all went nuts trying to find the thing, by searching all over the floor, behind tables and boxes, asking our neighbors if they had seen it and to kindly open up their luggage to make sure they accidentally pack it away, though everyone was super sympathetic and more than happy to oblige (the fact that it was small and not labeled didn’t help, but then again, I hardly recall anyone every personalizing the front of their sketchbook… the one I have is all plain-Jane black). Also not helping is how impossible it would have been for it to just disappear, plus who would ever want to steal a bunch of drawings (albeit some very awesome ones) that mostly have “to MK” on them. I also passed along all the necessary info along to the PSX organizers to help in search, but as we were all rushing to go back to our rooms to tear apart our stuff to make sure we hadn’t accidentally packed it away, Dennis show up with it. Apparently MK had forgotten that she had given it to Jon Lewis, who then passed it along to his wife Karen, who then passed in along to Robyn, who then passed it along to Dennis (and in MK’s defense, she was feeling pretty sick throughout the entire show, so it was a very simply mistake). But yeah, a bullet was dodged. Once it was back I flipped through the sketchbook and came across an old drawing I did of a robot in a tub of gravy I had drawn two years ago when we first met and which I totally forgot about. Ah, memories….

- But the real good news by the end of the show is that we had done great business. Sales-wise, it was by far our best yet. I guess it was a combination of being in a kick-ass location (again, the new layout of the show was very much welcome) and having a kick-ass selection. I obviously haven’t been hanging with MK & Robin at shows for a very long time, but they were both elated by how “together” and “serious” everything finally felt. Once again, the biggest seller was Robin’s new book, which I’m glad since its a very nice book, an ultra spiffy looking one to boot (I have a very strong feeling that at MoCCA, which has a higher contingency of gamer nerds, its going to do monster business). I myself didn’t do that well, which was a bummer, but as MK pointed out, I didn’t have anything new, so that didn’t help. Though also helping was how I cost myself a sale on day one when I did too good a job of describing the bitten off nipple story in #2; Katie was there when she saw the face of the guy when he first read the blurb, and also witnesses as provided details which caused his face to fill with horror. Also, apparently Heidi was going to buy the same issue, since she’s good friends with K Thor, but once she found out about the specifics of the story, she apparently started to gag right there on the spot. Which I found pretty damn awesome.

Here’s a shot of the entire gang, in our hotel room, high off the buzz of a super successful show (Liz and Pat also did very well from what I understand) as we made our ways downstairs to check out the Ignatzes….

- Instead of clearing out the sales floor which was where it took place previously, the award were given out in a separate room which felt like a United Nation, which led to numerous UN-related gags from all of us, and everyone else…

To my right were Pat, Liz, and Zane…

And to my left were Dennis, Robin (both not pictured, obviously), MK, and Katie…

We each had where we sat a pad of paper and a pen, so naturally, us being cartoonists and all, we decided to seize the opportunity. I myself decided to draw the bots from MST3K and Katie depicted one of her televised dream men, Joel (with the other being Bowser from the Super Mario Super Show)…

BTW…

Here’s a cute drawing a cat driving a racecar…

Originally it was a rocket, but MK sent “Copyright infringement!!!” Guess Pat was totally unaware of my RocketCatBat. He also drew a very unflattering caricature of myself, looking all fat, unshaved, and creepy (not saying that I’m not… I just don’t like it being point out to me…. what can I say, other than I’m sorta sensitive about my weight) which everyone found a total riot. Like I said, I didn’t find it very funny, for about 20 seconds, but I played up being upset since it made Pat sorta feel bad, and I thought that was funny.

- As for the awards themselves, Heidi was the host and she asked me to take pictures, but it was a total nerve-racking experience since her camera, believe it or not, is actually worse than mine, so I wasn’t able to capture any of the good action, like Tony Millionaire fucking a pizza, due to its ultra slow response time (plus the lighting was beyond bad).

Also, Paulette Poullet didn’t win Best Minicomic, nor did Joe Sayers get Outstanding Online Comic, though at least Andy got Outstanding Series.

Afterwards I was able to give Heidi shit for not picking up my book, and she started to convulse right there on the spot when I simply mentioned what the story was about, which was totally rad.

- Once the awards were over, everyone crowded into the lobby to mingle and dine on finger food. Plus they had cake! Two different varieties: chocolate and coconut. Here’s Colleen enjoying her slice. A lot…

Check out Joe Flood, Matt Loux, Liz, and Dennis, who appears to be giving himself those pointy finger things (I just realized that I don’t know the term for them, if such a thing exists)…

Another shot of Liz and Zane. This time her hubby is re-creating the Thing’s pose from his belt-buckle….

Here’s Jamie Tanner and myself…

And here’s me and the other, other Matt, Matthew Bernier, whom I had never really hung out with till the show, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the guy’s a real blast…

- So for whatever reason (maybe cuz I was slightly drunk), I decided to best Pat’s record of five cherry tomatoes in the mouth at once myself. In the end, I managed to pack eight in; if I had maybe bitten down and squashed a few, I could have maybe gotten more…

Meanwhile, this dude, whose name I didn’t catch (but I really dug the shirt) got I believe ten or eleven in his….

I then decided to go move onto baby carrots. Among the folks watching on were Robin and Katie, who both have the look of shock and awe (MK would later advise her to not cover her eyes because she might be missing the best part of me acting like a dumbass)….

And here I am near the end; I managed to get 19 in my mouth…

It was pretty crazy; a bunch of folks were looking on, and some were even cheering! And when I decided to pit them all out, everyone went “EWWWW!!!

… I’m really surprised no one tapped me on the shoulder and told me to get the fuck out of there.

- Afterwards it was finally time for Katieoke! I initially thought it was just going to be just our core group, but along myself, MK, Robin, Katie, Liz, and Zane, Colleen came along, as well as her friend Marianne, Joe Flood, Hilary, Matt Bernier, and a whole bunch of other folks who I didn’t know. Many of them piled into a very non-descipt looking white van which I dubbed the rape van, which then became one of the running jokes of the rest of the evening (and even the next day). I would later find out that a few of them are from Boston and they do a zine called We Must Become Out Heroes. Anyway, they all had a great sense of humor and were totally great guys.

Anyway, Katieoke was simply kick ass. All twenty two of us piled into a room that was designed for eight, and even though we all took turns with the mike, either one at a time or two for duets, everyone pretty much sang in unison with every single song. It was amazing. Plus you’d be shocked how many people were able to hold the long notes for Take On Me.

Other highlight include Zane doing a killer Ozzie for Crazy Train, Katie doing a spot on Madonna with Like a Virgin, and the guy who stuffed eleven cherry tomatoes in his mouth from before doing Avril Lavigne’s About a Boi, but entirely in the voice of Borat, which was pretty hilarious…

Plus one of the dudes from We Must Become Out Heroes did an awesome jig for almost an entire minute while waiting for the lyrics to Lust For Life to actually begin. Liz and I also did a New Kids on the Block song, but instead of The Right Stuff, they only had Hangin’ Tough, which neither of us knew all that well; what really screwed us up was how both songs have different “Ooooo ohhhh ohhhhh oooo ohhhh” in them.

And here’s a shot of Liz and MK doing the Rolling Stone’s Paint It Black….

The selection of the music was not that hot; 90% were Korean pop songs, but we worked with what we had. Another highlight was the bizarro video that was playing throughout each song, regardless of the content (which was mostly travelogue footage of European villages, plus hula dancers, and horses running around). Here’s a shot of Joe, doing what I believe is Brown Sugar, right before he totally rocked out (once again, the guy can fucking dance)….

Oh, and here’s Matthew Bernier doing some interruptive dancing during Crazy Train…

But yeah, it was fucking incredible, and far and away the best karaoke experience I’ve ever had (as well as the most fun I’ve ever had on a SPX Saturday night, that’s for sure).

And it really encapsulated why I love SPX, and… not to sound like a broken record…. but why its so much more fun than MoCCA. First off, the idea of a “hometown” show is nice and all, but there’s also quite a deal of pressure involved; I guess if something takes place in your backyard, there’s this need to “prove” something, or something. But mostly because MoCCA is such a “scene”, and I just don’t like it. It?s less about comics and more about arts and crafts, which isn’t totally bad, but its all very arty-farty (even for indie comics) and somewhat pretentious, which is rather annoying. All I can say is that there’s nothing more frustrating than having a bunch of people at your table, looking at your comics and ready to buy, then when they hear someone go “Hey, I think I see Michel Gondry!” everyone drops your stuff like a hot potato. Meanwhile, the folks who actually take the time and effort to come out to the middle of nowhere to buy and trade comics truly want to be there. It just feels so much more honest and sincere. Another negative is that after MoCCA, everyone runs off into different directions and there’s not much a chance to really mingle with folks, different ones who are outside of your circle. Whereas there’s nothing much to do in Maryland, so you’re sorta stuck with each other, and sometimes awesome things can happen. Though it also helps to leave the confines of the hotel to find stuff to do together; there’s nothing inherently wrong with hanging out at a hotel all night long, but if you spent the whole days with cartoonists talking about cartoonists, wouldn’t anyone want to do something a little different in the evening?

- Anyway, once we got back to the hotel, all of us were beat tired, yet totally abuzzed, plus I was hungry (I was so busy stuffing my face earlier in the evening that I hadn’t taken the time to actually eat anything) so we all went to the 7-11 to pick up some food (which was sorta exciting since we all felt like we were in high school again). Though we mostly just sat around and talked… mostly con related gossip, you know…. with the highlight being Pat’s tale of how he came across the copy of his book that he had given to Tony Millionaire just laying there on a table near the elevator, which was a pretty dick move to do (we’ve all gotten stuff that we don’t want at shows from people, but the most respectful thing is to simply take it with you, and simply discard it in the privacy of one’s home, even hotel room). But right next to it was Tony’s Ignatz! You can read out it, plus check out the pics (along with a hilarious one of Pat with Tony) here.

Afterwards, Robin, Katie, MK, and myself just sat in bed, swapping nightmare stories about people we’ve dated (naturally, I pulled out tales regarding my psycho ex), till about 4 in the morning. Which made getting up real early the next Sunday morning to check out and play soccer a real joy.

- By noon we had assembled in the front lobby to wait for any other interested parties to play a game; some of us were just too damn tired or hung over to play, but since word had gotten around, primarily through Heidi’s blog, we sorta had to commit to make it happen.

And while hanging in the lobby, I was able to catch-up with a few folks as they were heading out, including Matt Loux and Abby Denson….

Along with Miss…

And Kevin Colden….

And Andy whom we finally got a chance to congratulation on his Ignatz win…

Zane was totally dead tired….

Whereas Liz, as usual, was a ball of energy….

Unfortunately, not many folks showed up (with the exception of Dennis and Robyn), given that we didn’t have a place picked out to help advertise, it wasn’t much of a downer, so we all just kicked the ball around in the parking lot…

- Eventually it was time to head out. MK & I were originally going to stay an extra night since I have an old high school buddy who lives in DC whom I hadn’t seen in a while (ever since the Lesbian Island episode) but MK wasn’t feeling too hot, plus we sorta figured that on a Sunday night the area would be completely dead, so drive back. But along the way we swung by Atomic Books in Maryland to drop off some of our newer books, plus check out what they had was new. And while heading out, Farel and his crew walked into the store, which was a pleasant surprise, especially for the chance to talk a bit more with Joey, who once again is like super cool. We got into a twenty minute long conversation about shit which even made our present company both grossed out and bored.

After being generously provided with the latest copy of Meathaus, we all went our separate ways, and later on MK & I got stuck in some crazy traffic, which forced a detour into some college town. We ate at some Australian themed restaurant called Matilda’s Pub which was surprisingly good, plus the waitress was the cute, spunky type, yet totally knew her shit and was fucking fast, which was VERY much appreciated. In the end, it wasn’t such a bad anniversary dinner after-all. Once we were stuffed, the traffice jam has subsided, so we were able to make MK’s beach house by midnight, and we shortly crashed afterwards. The next day, yesterday morning, we drove around Red Bank and I stopped by a few stores. Got the first Jackass movie, which we both knew I simply had to have (I forgot to mention how during one evening while in bed, I started laughing like a maniac when I simply thought about certain scenes from part 2, which both Robin and Katie thought was pretty crazy), as well as Mega Man ZX, but I ended up forgetting that in MK’s car when I arrived in Hoboken. But at least the copy of Donky Kong 94 that I had snagged off eBay right before heading out to SPX was already waiting for me in the mail. Plus, I also have a shit load of comics to still read….

- Yeah, so I guess there’s nothing really else to say other than BEST SPX EVER!!!!

BTW, if you want to check out what others had to say, here’s MK’s and Liz’s (plus once again Pat‘s… I must admit that I am both relieved and a bit dissapointed that he didn’t put up a scan of that horrible drawing he did of me) SPX reports.

EDIT: Oh, and here’s another SPX write-up, from the newest member of my “fan club” Marianne, aka “Knife Fight”!