Unintelligent design (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} drtboi) wrote,@ 2006-04-11 11:31:00 |
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APE 2006
APE was a lot of fun this year. The SLG booth was less packed with creators, which meant a lot of people I'd have liked to see were not there, but it also meant more room for everyone, so a less stressful time for all. Double-edged blade, cuts both ways, ouch, dammit, put that thing away, and all that. I experimented with an all-whiskey convention, and was quite pleased with the results, except that I ended up maybe a little more tired at the end of the day.
Some trends I noticed at this year's APE:
Last year's (and maybe the year before's?) merch-before-comics trend threatens to utterly consume the Press aspect of the Alternative Press Expo. I foresee a future APE (2008?) that is comprised entirely of cute handbags, fuzzy toys, and the occasional screen printed artwork, eventually turning into handbags and fuzzy toys ONLY. I somewhat understand how the tiny exhibitors came to the Fuck Comics conclusion - Jen and I discovered at our second or third convention, way back in the 20th century, that merch is the only way a self publisher will ever make back booth money. Think about it - a booth that costs $150 will be paid for by the proceeds from 50 $3 comics or 10 $15 t-shirts. Make two or three cute t-shirt designs, and you'll be gold plating your teeth before you've finished unpacking (seeing as Jen and I still haven't entirely unpacked from Comic-con 2002, those more neat freaky may find that to be not entirely true). Three t-shirt designs will take, what, less than a week of drawing to come up with. One comic, on the other hand, takes about three months if you don't have a job (and what self publisher doesn't have an outside job? Other than the two or three you can think of off the top of your head). So, if comics aren't going to make you any money, why bother with them? The answer is that you draw comics because that's what you want to do, not to make money, but that answer isn't sufficient for, I guess, a growing number of APE exhibitors. Yeah, so APE cost me less money this year. I didn't have to buy much at all.
Mall goths are almost entirely a thing of the past. Maybe it's the lack of certain mall-goth magnets (no fault of theirs), who haven't attended APE in a while. Jen and I have zero "Is Jxxxx going to be here?" to report. Jen, however, did get one "is Emo Boy going to be here?" Which brings us to the next trend - "Emo" kids. There were a lot of them. Exhibitors and attendees. I hate to report I had a hard time looking at the comics of the more I-Weep-As-I-Lay-Dying-At-Your-Feet looking exhibitors.
If tension continues to escalate in the Feinberg/Nakamura situation, we may have a cage match to the death by Comic-Con this summer.
Not a trend, but I found one comic by a guy who lives on a street in Berkeley that I ride down on my way to work (when it isn't raining, that is). He lives on the section of that road I call "Cat Boulevard", because there are five or six cats that live off and loll about on that street, including one I've nicknamed Dead Cat, due to his way of lying in a dead-looking ball of fur just in front of or behind a car's rear tire.
APE was a lot of fun this year. The SLG booth was less packed with creators, which meant a lot of people I'd have liked to see were not there, but it also meant more room for everyone, so a less stressful time for all. Double-edged blade, cuts both ways, ouch, dammit, put that thing away, and all that. I experimented with an all-whiskey convention, and was quite pleased with the results, except that I ended up maybe a little more tired at the end of the day.
Some trends I noticed at this year's APE:
