Originally published at INKKC.com on April 16th, 2009.
We will be shooting off like a crew of astronauts filled with anticipation and destined towards the unknown, minus the air-tight suits and Velcro. Instead equipped with cartoonist’s gear- inks, pens, and papers- we aim for the Small Press & Alternate Comic Expo (SPACE) in Columbus, Ohio. Over a hundred comic book creators make their way to the SPACE convention each year to share and solicit their self produced mini-comics. Like a zine, these mini-comics are usually in black and white and are cheaply produced, thus lacking the polish and commercial gleam of a regular $3.99 superhero title. And the convention is no different. No ex-playmates or television actors or sci-fi movie stars will be in attendance, just the largest concentration of unknown comic creators. (SPACE’s most notable guest is Dave Sims, creator of Cerebus. However it is unclear if he will be attending this year.)
The trip is more than an opportunity to navigate the perils of self-publishing or meet the next big name of the underground comics scene (a contradiction in terms I know, but then again Robert Crumb is more famous than Jim Lee) but more importantly it is an escape from our home- Kansas City. Our locale contains a bustling array of comic book talent who started their career with a version of this trek (Matt Fraction, Hector Cassanova, Harold Sipe, Nathan Fox… the list goes on) and their current success is an inspiration, and simultaneously a distraction. After the release of each new issue of Uncanny X-men or Scream Land hitting the stands from Honolulu to Albany, their creators appear to ascend further and further into the heavenly clouds of official comic-dom. Wikipedia would not challenge their “notability”, (like they did mine) and their entry would last forever, unless the heavens fall destroying all recorded history once and for all.
I don’t want to imply we are a group of bumbling amateurs hoping to get lucky. In fact our talent pool runs deep and wide with evidence for larger growth in the future. Kyle Strahm’s short graphic novel, Clockwork Creature was nominated for a Space prize last time he attended SPACE, and Matt Hawkins is a paper-craft master whose clients include various fast-food corporations and Disney. And combined with the remainder of our traveling party (Duane Cunningham-the voice of the KC Roller Warriors, Chris Garrett- indie-comic-extraordinaire, and myself) we amass a certain spark of ambition not unlike a rocket, fueled for (3, 2, 1) –BLASTOFF!
Stay tuned for transmissions from SPACE…