This past weekend was Small Press Expo in North Bethesda, Maryland. It was so amazing that I’m still blown away from it. The most exciting part of the show was premiering our Carnival Anthology. Above is a photograph of everyone in the anthology who was at SPX – The Carnies are: Ava Ann Vrooman, John Bintz, Carolyn Belefski, Joe Carabeo, Terry Flippo, Rafer Roberts and Jim Coon. Elizabeth Watasin, Else Tennessen, Kris Black, Nick DeStefano, Kenneth Rocafort, Rob Levin and Rafael Navarro are in the anthology, but were unable to attend SPX. I know for sure Rafael was there in spirit!
It was so exciting to premiere a book with so many artists and writers involved. The book means a lot to me because I gathered the creators and it feels great to know that they were willing to use their free-time to do a story for the book. It’s not easy. Everyone has life and jobs, but we made it happen and even sold out of all the “indy” handmade premiere issues that were at the show! The book is now being sent to the printer and we will have “professional” issues soon. You can pre-order for a mere cost is $4 with shipping to any location in the USA and $5 International. We have already had an order from France, so I’m pumped to mail that issue out. I love going global.
Another cool tidbit about the anthology is that the book represents Elizabeth Watasin’s comeback to comics. Her comic book Charm School is one of my favorites and over time I began to connect with her. I would have never guessed a few years ago that I would have her be a part of my first anthology. It’s awesome that she is returning and creating original work. I am curious to see what she is up to with her new creations and I adore her style. She is definitely a great asset to the anthology by illustrating the back cover and a two page Darque Towne story. I look forward to and wish her good luck with her endeavors.
Now back to SPX. The crowd was consistently great. Hardly ever did the mood get slow or draggy. I did a lot of fun sketch commissions including a piece for a Firefly sketchbook (in which I drew Mrs. Reynolds AKA the lovely Christina Hendricks) and a ‘favorite movie’ sketchbook (in which I drew The Wizard of Oz). I also drew a wolf on a golf hat… and learned that drawing on hat is kinda hard because of the fabric! I gave the wolf a bowler cap and a pipe. He reminded me of the Blacksad world, which is pretty rad. I also drew Gwen LeGette from The Legettes on a sketch card.
I really enjoy doing sketchbook commissions and I think it’s a great collection for someone to have. In fact, you may remember my Baltimore Comic-Con recap post from two weeks ago when I started my first ever convention sketchbook. I added two new sketches to the book at SPX. One was from Rusty of Full Sanction and the other from Roger Langridge, who does The Muppet Show Comic Book.
The Ignatz Awards after party was crowded! I think it was because of Raina Telgemeier’s SPX 2010 poster depicting the legendary chocolate fountain. I even overheard someone say that the actual fountain looked dinky and that they were actually expecting a huge fountain. I guess they thought people could swim in it or something. People and their expectations! Either way, the party was rocking. I got to meet the creator and producer of Red Moon, David McAdoo and Steve Kozak! I actually connected with them many years ago on MySpace. They are awesome guys who have a schnauzer terrier in their book. How could I not like that? I have been waiting to buy the book in person at SPX and finally the time came. I still have yet to read the book, but I can tell it is one of those things that I’m going to like. Sometimes there are just things that are right up your alley and I believe Red Moon is one of them for me.
As far a food goes, Joe and I discovered the east coast equivalent to Pinkberry within walking distance. We got tart melon and strawberry frozen yogurt with mochi, raspberries and pineapple. We went there on Saturday and Sunday nights. So good. We also ate at Vegetable Garden with some new SPX friends on Sunday night. It was great to be a part of SPX. I think it gets better every year.
Thank you to SPX and all the returning fans who visited the Curls Studio table as well as new people we met!
You can see more photos of Curls Studio’s adventures at SPX on our Facebook Fan Page. Click and join up with us.
XOXO,
Carolyn