Highlights From SF's Alternative Press Expo
Last weekend, hundreds of comic creators, cartoonists, graphic designers, zinesters (is that a word?), and other indie art types flocked to San Francisco for the annual Alternative Press Expo (or APE), easily filling up the 125,000 square feet Concourse Exhibition Center.
Much like NYC's MoCCA Art Festival, APE is a Comic Con for both connoisseurs of the indie arts as well as mainstream comic fans who yearn to take a break from DC's latest crisis and expand their mind with some handprinted minicomics.
I fall squarely into the latter camp, and I was especially interested in checking out some of the books with LGBT characters and themes, which somehow tend to be easier to find at these small press fairs than at major cons.
Cool scans and weird nudity, after the jump!
The coolest book I picked up at APE was one in a series of minicomics in which artist Sarah Becan records and illustrates a real-life Ouija Board session. Those commanding the board interview whatever spirits might be floating around at the time, and the results are both charming and macabre. The volume I picked up contained an interview with Chip, a gay ghost who died in a car accident, and is happy to report that God exists and has no problem with being gay. I knew it. You can pick up a copy at Becan's website.
Artist Yasmin Golan had lots of cool looking stuff at her table, but what grabbed my attention wasn't a comic at all, but a pamphlet she had written days after Michael Jackson's death. She offers the readers a Socratic series of questions, urging them to consider how Jackson diverted from mainstream America's ideas of masculinity and gender, and how this refusal to adhere to heterosexual norms contributed to his being branded as a pervert and a freak.
Finally, nothing says alternative independent press like full frontal nudity!
They're unisex, so you can either let em know what you're working with or confound expectations. And no, I don't know if they're available online...there are a lot of Julie Walkers on the internet, and none of them appear to be selling penis underpants.
Anyone else out there attend APE and pick up anything good? Let me know in the comments!
AHR
Posted to on 22 October 2009
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