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It Appears That SPX Was The Best Thing Ever

I mean, any show where Jeff Smith and Kate Beaton discover that in addition to each being comics royalty¹ they are related to each other is going to be hard to beat. But as just about every tweet from the floor talked about enthusiastic audiences, creators selling out of books, and fun had all ’round … well, that’s just great. I was stuck some 320km away on EMS duty for the weekend and missed it, but at least I treated a woman for smoke inhalation after a house fire so that’s something.

People that were at SPX that have additional news include:

  • Templar, AZ and Poorcraft creator Spike got some attention from the hoity-toity New York media for her other high-profile gig of Smut Peddler wrangling. More precisely, New York Magazine took note of the open call for SP2 submissions and officially approved of the notion, although I’m not sure if the placement on the lowbrow axis is because it’s smut or because it’s comics.
  • Evan Dahm, who would like you to know that he’s part of a shared-world series that’s Kickstarting:

    Cartozia Tales is an all-ages fantasy series, with nine stories in each issue, all set in the same world.

    We are really committed to making this an all-ages series, because we think the world needs more comics that can be shared across generational boundaries. We won’t be including things that aren’t suitable for even very young readers. (Several of the core creators are parents of young kids, so we know that part of the target audience.) We are focused on telling the sorts of stories—of mystery, wonder, and discovery; of searching and striving; of trials and betrayals—that engage us as adult readers. Because we take kids seriously as readers, we know they enjoy the challenge of the occasional new word or a moment of narrative complexity. We especially want to honor the child’s playful impulse to discover and invent complicated imaginary worlds.

    Cartozia Tales has published one issue already, the second is at the printers, and the Kickstart is to bring that up to ten issues, with contributions from the likes of Dylan Horrocks, James Kochalka , Kelly Sue DeConnick, Meredith Gran, and more. It looks like a great project in the vein of BONE (or Dahm’s own Overside creations), and I’ll be watching it carefully. They’ve got eight days to go, are only at 2/3 of goal, and the project runner is doing that most honorable thing and paying his creators. Give it a good look.

People that were not at SPX that have news include:

  • Zach Weinersmith, who found himself stalked by a dangerous Boulet last week, has a chance to turn the tables. It appears that Mr Weinersmith will be at the same eurocomics festival, representing America at its best. If anybody can get a picture of the two of them together in that moment before everything descends into madness and violence, I will pay them a dollar.
  • K Brooke “Otter” Spangler, who finds herself getting even more free book shillage than previously thought possible, via a very kindly fan:

    So! A very generous reader purchased an extra copy of the paperback version of Digital Divide. She requested this extra signed & sketched version to be given away to a reader. If you want to be entered in the drawing, please tweet at me (preferred method) or email me (if you do not do the Twitters) with something like “Gimme free book!” or the whatnots. I’ll pick one winner at random on Thursday.

    Since this contest is only open for three days, I won’t give Otter² the usual grief for not having a linkable newsbox. I will reserve the right to give her all kinds of grief for anything I feel like in the future, though.

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¹ As opposed to American royalty.

² Fun fact about otters via Wikipedia: With the exception of the sea otter, they have anal scent glands that produce a strong-smelling secretion the animals use for sexual signaling and for marking territory.

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