SPACE RECAP

I made my annual spring trip to Columbus Ohio a few weeks ago for the 13th iteration of the Great Midwestern SPACE Comics Fest.  I love Columbus, and I love SPACE.  I've never had a bad time coming out for this show, and after thirteen years it's taken on a kind of family reunion aspect for me, as it has I think for a lot of other longtime attendees.  Plus, in the last few years, folks from the coasts have begun making the trek and that's cool too.  (Last year saw my pals MariNaomi (SF) and Colin Upton (Vancouver) come out, and this year Joseph Remnant (LA), Eamon Espey (Baltimore) and Tom Hart and Leela Corman (Florida) made the trip.)  Excellent all around.  I had a great time.

Spit and a Half corner

Mark Rudolph, J.T. Dockery, Eamon Espey

Joseph Remnant, Tom Hart

I was delighted to see Tom Spurgeon in the hallway when I first walked in.  I am a big fan of his writing on the Comics Reporter, and I didn't expect him to be there.  Happily, I got to spend a good amount of time chatting with him.

Penina Gal, Tom Spurgeon, Carol Tyler

Saturday night after the show, everyone went out for Vietnamese food and then headed down to a coffeeshop on High Street to see Eamon Espey perform his story "Ishi's Brain," as a puppet show with his partner Lisa Krause.  It was a beautiful thing.  Later, Leela and Maddie played music and JT Dockery wowed 'em, but I was on 4 hours sleep, so had to turn in early.

Saturday night performance of "Ishi's Brain".

Sam Spina flyin' the flannel on Sunday morning.

Detroit's Finest: Parisel

Nate McDonough, Nils Balls, Dan McCloskey: Pittsurgh represent

J.T. Dockery, whose balls out rock n roll performance Saturday night I unfortunately missed.

Bryan Moss, Ed Piskor

Cleveland's Kevin Czapiewski

Marnie Galloway and husband Tom

Leela Corman and Tom Spurgeon

The great Larry Blake, who kept things lively with a boombox jamming The Ramones and Sweet all weekend.

Whoa, I got this great original marker drawing of the Ramones from Larry for only $10!

Comics as Memoir Panel moderated by John Steventon, with Tom Hart, Nate Powell, Chris Monday, Dara Naraghi, and yours truly.

Sunday evening everybody cleared out quick.  I had some more Vietnamese food for dinner, and then sleep, blissful sleep.

James Thurber House, 77 Jefferson Avenue

Monday morning I kicked it around Columbus.  I had a couple days off, so I spent them book buying and sightseeing.  First stop, the James Thurber House, a Columbus attraction I had somehow never visited in all my trips there over the years.  Enjoyable.

Then I made my usual stops: Used Kids Records, the Wexner Center Bookstore, Laughing Ogre (where I picked up some nice 70's Marvel horror comics), and a couple Half Price Books where I loaded up on cheep comix/GNs etc.

Tuesday I went back into town to visit Gib at the Ogre, and yes, buy more comics.  This time the Wally Wood bio "Wally's World" and a copy of "Pussey!"  Why not.  That evening, on the way back to my lodging, I went for a walk in the woods, where the Dutchman's Breeches, Toothwort, and Rue Anenome were all in bloom.  Then: Rain.

Dutchman's Breeches

(Dicentra cucullaria)

Wednesday Morning I was picking up Stephanie at the Columbus Airport and we were heading east to Pittsburgh together, for the Drawing Power Conference at the Carnegie Library.  More on that next time!

Columbus, O.

ROCK

Hey all,

I'll be out on the road again, starting this weekend (April 13-14) with the great SPACE show in Columbus Ohio, one of my favorite towns in America.  Come on out and see Eamon Espey and Lisa Krause's puppet show based on his brilliant new Secret Acres book Songs of the Abyss.

Then I'll be moseyin' my way over to Pittsburgh, one of my favorite towns in America, for a cool event on Saturday April 20, called DRAWING POWER: Comics, Zines, and Books in Pittsburgh and Beyond!

And THEN, it looks like I'll be spending Monday April 22nd at Oberlin College, doing some lecturing/workshopping (details TBA).

Once I'm back home I've got clear sailing right through August, so I'm hoping to get a lot of work done, including finishing up both King-Cat #74 and The Hospital Suite (D+Q, 2014).

Thanks,
See you 'round!
John P.

SPX PLUS Part Four

After leaving Pittsburgh Tuesday morning, we headed west on I-70, into Columbus, the Next Seattle®.

Just waitin' on a friend.

Sold some comics at Used Kids, then headed across the street to the Cartoon Research Library, where we met up with fellow SPX traveler J.T. Dockery, and Associate Curator Caitlin McGurk gave us a behind-the-scenes tour.

I'd been to the library many times -- in fact I think it was the place where I first met Dylan Williams, pouring over old White Boy comics with cotton gloves on -- but I'd never been behind the magic door where all the comics are actually archived.  It was a cartoonist's dream!

JP, NVS, and JTD view an original Jack Davis drawing.

(Photo courtesy Caitlin McGurk)

The back room was full of sliding shelves, flat files, photographic equipment, and books, lots of books.  We got to look at original Windsor McCays, Segars, Bushmillers, and much more.  Amazing.

Caitlin's cat, Zeek.

Just three dudes, hangin' out.

Our Founder.

Whut-zat?!?

Whudizzit?

It's a squirrel.

After selling comics to the good ol' Laughing Ogre, we made our way further west to Indianapolis, where I had a couple shops to drop off King-Cats at-- Comic Carnival and Luna Music.  Then back on the highway for the dreaded trip up to Chicago.

Dreaded because this stretch of interstate between Indy and Chicago is almost always snarled with terrible traffic-- giant trucks going 85 and pickup trucks going 40.  And delays, construction, and slowdowns.  We were cutting it close...  but we made it to Chicago with time enough to stop at Sultan's Market before the event at Quimby's.

Noah at Quimby's.

Is Quimby's the best weirdo bookstore in the country?  The world?

Quimby's not only has cool books, but cool staff too, notably the great Edie Fake and Neil Brideau.

Check out the tattoo!

JP and Felicia, lifelong (I hope-- for her sake!) King-Cat fan.

(Photo by Liz Mason.)

We drove back to Beloit that night, and the next morning I took Noah to the airport.  When I got back I commenced power-sleeping, because the next day I was heading up to Minneapolis, for the last leg of the trip.

NEXT:  THE PARIS OF THE MIDWEST

WEEKEND WARRIOR

Hey all,

I'll be in a different town each weekend for the next month, hustlin' comics, so if you're in Chicago, Columbus, Urbana, or Toronto, why not come on out and say hi?

April 15: C2E2, Chicago IL

Tabling with good ol' Joey Chips! (Booth 419, I'll be there Sunday only, 10 AM - 5 PM)

April 21-22: SPACE, Columbus OH

Two full tables of awesome Spit and a Half merchandise

April 28: Midwest Zine Fest, Urbana IL

Ditto

May 5-6: TCAF, Toronto ON

Tabling with Zak Sally and Noah Van Sciver

BE THERE OR BE... SQUARE

WINTER 2011 TOUR DIARY Part Two

I woke up early Monday morning and headed down to Columbus, where I have a couple good friends, and I always have a fine time.  It was raining, one of those not-heavy but steady rains that lingers for days.  After a brief wrong turn at Canton I found myself back in good old Columbus.

Columbus and I have a long history together, from attending SPACE there most every year, to the parties at the Laughing Ogre, to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library (where I first met Dylan Williams, paging through old White Boy newspaper pages wearing white cotton gloves), to Used Kids Records, and more.  Columbus is always one of my favorite destinations.

Monday I ran errands, dropping off copies of the new King-Cat at Used Kids, Wholly Craft, and Laughing Ogre, and visiting (as usual) the Wexner Center Bookstore, the best museum bookstore I've ever been in.  I picked up a nice artbook documenting the graffiti, posters, and artwork of the May '68 Paris uprising, plus a collection of the seminal Destroy All Monsters zine from the seventies.  And later I found a copy of Amy and Jordan at Half Price Books.  So a good book day.

Tuesday I had an appointment with Matt at the Wexner Center to show him some Spit and a Half stuff, which he happily picked up for the store.  It never is less than a total thrill to me to get good comics into someone's hands.

Ginger Vitus, my Columbus housemate.

Wednesday morning I was back out on the road, making the short, three-hour trip to Pittsburgh.  I was excited to have enough time to stop in Wheeling, WV on the way.  I've always been in too much of a hurry to do so before, or coming through late at night.  And Wheeling looks so run down and beautiful from the interstate.

County Courthouse in Zanesville, OH.

Before that, though, I impulsively got off the highway at Zanesville.  The only thing I remember about Zaneville is driving through it when I was on the road with my band Smile, in 1991.  And back then I was probably hungover.  So I thought I'd go check it out.

Zaneville was run down and beautiful, and home to the masterful "Y-Bridge":

Photo of Zaneville Y-Bridge by Maurice J. Fox, from Wikipedia.

(Click to enlarge)

I headed back on down the road and was in Wheeling in no time.  Wow, Wheeling was run down and beautiful, but mostly run down.  It was kind of sad.  I drove around for a bit, but didn't take any pictures.

Then I was in Pittsburgh, which is, apparently, my new home away from home. Having never been there before March of this year, this was my third visit since then.  I love Pittsburgh.  I travel around a lot and see a lot of nice places, but Pittsburgh is one of the few places I could actually see myself living in.

I headed over to Copacetic, one of the great American comic shops.  Bill (the owner) and I shot the breeze for a long time as I wandered around looking at stuff.  I picked up a copy of Onward Toward Our Noble Deaths, a manga I'd been eyeing for some time.  The cartoonist (and my PGH host) Jim Rugg showed up and we went out to dinner, then back to his place to chatter endlessly about comics, Cleveland, the Situationists (a looming trend), Kirby (the artist, and the cat), and so on.  Living in physical isolation from other cartoonists, it's so nice to be able to talk shop when out on the road.

Next morning we went to the Carnegie Art Museum and spent much of the day there.  Afterwards, we stopped in at Phantom of the Attic, another great PGH comics shop, then headed back to Copacetic to meet Bill for dinner.

After dinner, Jim and I wandered around PGH a bit more, ending up at the Big Idea, one of the nicest infoshops I've ever been in.  I dropped off a bunch of King-Cats and eyed their shelves.  I picked up a copy of the new Crimethinc book, Work, and Ken Knabb's Situationist International Anthology.  Then back home to blabber more about comics.

On the way back to Jim's, he took me on a detour up Mount Washington, to the best views of the city.  No kidding.  Pittsburgh shure is pretty.

From Mt. Washington, to the west.

Downtown Pittsburgh.

To the east.

And the next morning I was back on the road, heading to Brooklyn.

And when I got to Brooklyn, this is what I found:

NEXT: Brooklyn Part One