As Graeme mentioned earlier today, the Alternative Press Expo is coming up this weekend in San Francisco. The show runs Saturday and Sunday at the Concourse on 8th Street. This year's special guests include Daniel Clowes, Lynda Barry, Renee French, Rich Koslowski and several more. In addition to an exhibitor's room packed with comics, they also have a full programming slate and even a "speed dating" event to help writers find artists (and vice versa).
Over the next couple days, I’ll be posting what various companies and creators have planned for the show; you can find a few of them below. If you’d like to be included, email me the details on where you’ll be, what you’ll be selling and all that good stuff.
AdHouse Books
AdHouse returns to APE after a several year hiatus, bringing copies of Duncan the Wonder Dog, among others:
We’ll be tabling with our good bud Scott Morse. So, look for us in the 33o area. Also, Adam Hines will be making his first APE appearance. Swing by and see why PWComicsWeek has said Duncan the Wonder Dog is their pick for book of the year.
We’ll have exactly ONE advance copy of the new Josh Cotter book Babs in the Sky with Neil Diamonds for people to peruse.
We’ll have just a few of the NoBrow editions with us. Our good bud’s at Last Gasp are also a distributor, so I’m sure they’ll have lots as well.
Top Shelf
Leigh Walton sends details on what Top Shelf Productions has planned for the show, which includes a new Dodgem Logic:
At Top Shelf, Brett Warnock and I will be hosting these fine folks:
--Renee French, guest of honor (we will have The Ticking and Micrographica)
--Rich Koslowski, guest of honor who drew the APE poster art! (we will have all his books including the buzzed-about new one BB Wolf & the 3 LPs and a new edition of his first Top Shelf book Three Fingers, plus copies of The King)
--JD Arnold, writer of BB Wolf & the 3 LPs with art by Rich. Also a Northern California comic retailer himself, at Comicopolis in Santa Cruz!
As well as all our great recent releases like Will Dinski's Fingerprints, the underground Japanese comics anthology Ax, and Alan Moore's Dodgem Logic magazine.
Mike Baehr and Janice Headley will be at the Fantagraphics table, where you can pick up Tony Millionaire's Little Maakies on the Prairie and Mome Vol. 20:
You can find us at tables 113-116 (a different location than the past couple of years, for you APE vets out there). Myself and our Ambassador of Awesomeness Janice Headley will be staffing the table. Our signing and panel schedule is as follows:
Saturday:
12:00 - 1:00PM Spotlight on Megan Kelso, moderated by Marc Weidenbaum
1:00 - 3:00PM Megan Kelso booth signing
3:00 - 5:00PM Tony Millionaire booth signing
5:00 - 6:00PM Spotlight on Tony Millionaire, moderated by Renée French
Sunday:
1:00 - 3:00PM Tony Millionaire booth signing
2:00 - 3:00PM Art of Storytelling panel with Megan Kelso
3:00 - 5:00PM Megan Kelso booth signing
We'll be debuting Tony's new Maakies collection Little Maakies on the Prairie, and we'll have pre-release copies of Adele Blanc-Sec Vol. 1 by Jacques Tardi, Dave Cooper's Bent, and Mome Vol. 20. We'll have plenty of Dan Clowes books you can buy and take over to the D&Q table to get signed, too. Hope to see you there!
This weekend in San Francisco, D+Q will exhibit at the Alternative Press Expo in SF, 10/16 & 10/17, at booth 222. Vanessa Davis, Dan Clowes and Lynda Barry will be signing! Lynda will be debuting her new book PICTURE THIS. Dan and Lynda have spotlight panels on Saturday and not Dan will NOT be at APE on Sunday.
New books include Lynda Barry's PICTURE THIS, Brecht Evens' WRONG PLACE, Tove Jansson's WHO WILL COMFORT TOFFLE, Doug Wright's NIPPER and Chris Ware's ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY #20.
Saturday
1:00-3:00 Vanessa Davis Signing
2:00-3:00 Spotlight on Dan Clowes, questions by Picture Box and Comics Comics' Dan Nadel
3:00-5:00 Dan Clowes Signing
4:00-5:00 Spotlight on Lynda Barry, with Picture This slide show!
5:00-7:00 Lynda Barry Signing
Sunday
1:00-3:00 Vanessa Davis Signing
2:00-3:00 Art of Storytelling panel with Lynda Barry & others
3:00-5:00 Lynda Barry signing
Writers Old Fashioned
Writers Old Fashioned, the comic book guild that includes Jason McNamara, Matt Silady, STORM and several others, will be on hand selling their wares, hosting two panels and providing Heroic Tarot readings:
Come visit us at Table#224 to check out our wares and get an award winning Heroic Tarot reading from STORM (Sat. 1-3/Sun. 3-6)! Join us for a Comics Demo at 6pm on Saturday and attend our first ever Writers Old Fashioned panel at 12pm on Sunday! Here's what the official APE solicit has to say:
12:00-1:00 Writer's Old Fashioned—The Writer's Old Fashioned group is the latest in a long line of illustrious San Francisco–based comics movements and is proving to be one of the most dynamic. Originally a small group of comics writers who began meeting in 2006 to exchange ideas, provide feedback, and imbibe a few drinks, WOF has expanded to include some cartoonists, comics illustrators, and even teetotalers. Moderator Justin Hall (Glamazonia) will grill Kirsten Baldock (Smoke and Guns), Stephenny Godfrey (Panorama), Jason McNamara (Martian Confederacy), Matt Silady (The Homeless Channel), Emily Stackhouse (Brazilia Noir), and Storm (Princess Witch Boy) about their creative endeavors and drinking habits.
Isotope Comics
James Sime and Isotope Comics will host their annual APE Aftermath party, featuring the 8th annual Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics ceremony. The party kicks off at 8 p.m. Saturday night:
It’s the party you’ve been waiting all year for! In celebration of the Alternative Press Expo it’s our biggest… our best… and our favorite event of the year with the return of DJ Bearzbub and also Top Shelf Productions publisher Brett Warnock’s for the Top Shelf Happy Hour. We’re sure to be packing the house to the rafters and beyond with cool comic lovin’ folks again!
Of course the highlight of the weekend can be none other than APE AFTERMATH’s 8th annual Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics ceremony at 10pm. Who will take home the most dangerous trophy in comics this year?!
