{"id":574,"date":"2009-10-01T21:11:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T02:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/2009\/10\/spxreport2\/"},"modified":"2009-10-01T21:11:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-02T02:11:00","slug":"spxreport2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=574","title":{"rendered":"SPXreport2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_D8lGkTzFWrk\/SsVoOK4rMcI\/AAAAAAAABaU\/crN0bXnlewM\/s1600-h\/SPXZZ809.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 215px; height: 320px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_D8lGkTzFWrk\/SsVoOK4rMcI\/AAAAAAAABaU\/crN0bXnlewM\/s320\/SPXZZ809.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387827121868190146\" \/><\/a>We were in the back this year. Unusual, but not bad. A flowing artery within the event. The big seller was the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pictureboxinc.com\/product\/id\/498\/\">Simpsons&#8217; Treehouse of Horror<\/a>. The question on everybody&#8217;s lips was, &#8220;How did Ben do it?&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pictureboxinc.com\/product\/id\/306\/\">Monster Men<\/a> sold well. That thing sells at shows. New<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pictureboxinc.com\/product\/id\/497\/\"> Anya Davidson<\/a> wowed the kids early. New <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pictureboxinc.com\/product\/id\/496\/\">1-800-MICE<\/a> awed them later. New <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Cold Heat<\/span> platters moved at an even clip. Dan wasn&#8217;t grumpy. All was well.<\/p>\n<p>It was a quiet year in a good way. We didn&#8217;t have a big new book out. It was a little different than it&#8217;s been in the past. Like maybe we just enjoyed being there instead of feeling the &#8220;we need to do well at this show&#8221; kind of pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Right at the outset of the show, the con&#8217;s lasting image was burned in my brain: Kim Thompson and Gary Groth carrying a wooden palette piled high with empty boxes to the exit door by our table. They weren&#8217;t fucking around. No interns, no &#8220;assistants.&#8221; Now that&#8217;s what I call, &#8220;Keeping it Real&#8221; (Dave Chapelle voice).  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pictureboxinc.com\/product\/id\/68\/\">Jon Vermilyea<\/a> had his new silkscreen comic and a bunch of prints for sale. Jon&#8217;s like a rock star now. <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">The Simpsons<\/span> comic has sealed his reputation! (Mr. Burns voice)  <\/p>\n<p>And next to Jon V was John P! The man himself, John Porcellino. I have actually never met my Midwestern pen-pal of 16 years. So I hugged him. Always a charge to meet one&#8217;s heroes.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Dan Zettwoch and Kevin Huizenga laffed at me while I set up one of my back issue boxes. I thought I&#8217;d make a killing off my stash of old Zettwoch zines. But he had reprinted the ones I was selling! Foiled! Still, I sold an original mini-comic edition of <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Glorianna<\/span> (<span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Super-Monster<\/span> #14). According to <a href=\"http:\/\/home.earthlink.net\/~copaceticcomicsco\/SuperMonster.html\">Bill Boichel<\/a>, it&#8217;s the &#8220;greatest mini-comic of all time.&#8221; I think Kevin sold like a thousand of those things a few years back.<\/p>\n<p>Does Mr. Oliveros really know how hard Jessica and Allison work during this con? They move a lot of books. It&#8217;s like a science. A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drawnandquarterly.com\/blog\/index.php\">warship<\/a>. They sail in and take no prisoners.<\/p>\n<p>Back at the stealth submarine that is PictureBox, I was pleasantly surprised to see my &#8220;back issues&#8221; were being perused by the usual disaffected con attendee. &#8220;I have this&#8221; was the oft repeated exclamation. Sold a bunch of Brendan McCarthy and Kevin Nowlan.   Still surprised how many folks ain&#8217;t hep to Mazzucchelli&#8217;s &#8220;Angel story&#8221; in <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Marvel Fanfare<\/span>. Seeds of <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Rubber Blanket<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Rolling deep this year, the Jog\/Mautner\/Tucker posse scattered the crowd as their trained Terminator-critic eyes scoured the tables. Look out Loretta! These guys were causing trouble everywhere they went. I saw most of the now infamous critics&#8217; panel where Tucker walked out to use the bathroom. Instant <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alltooflat.com\/about\/personal\/sean\/2009\/09\/comics_time_two_panels_from_sp.html\">classic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sean Collins&#8217; &#8220;New Action&#8221; panel was a lot of fun. An insightful and enjoyable panel. And I thought the audience was into it. I hope I didn&#8217;t repeat myself too much. I think it went really well, tho. Check it out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alltooflat.com\/about\/personal\/sean\/2009\/10\/spx_2009_the_new_action.html\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Then I was starving. Ah, good ol&#8217; Tasty Diner. Milkshakes and veggie burgers. And Kevin talking about <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Little Lulu<\/span>. Instant classic.<\/p>\n<p>[More soon. Just wanted to get something up during the work week.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We were in the back this year. Unusual, but not bad. A flowing artery within the event. The big seller was the Simpsons&#8217; Treehouse of Horror. The question on everybody&#8217;s lips was, &#8220;How did Ben do it?&#8221; Monster Men sold well. That thing sells at shows. New Anya Davidson wowed the kids early. New 1-800-MICE awed them later. New Cold Heat platters moved at an even clip. Dan wasn&#8217;t grumpy. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1220],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-spx"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}