The Worst Kind of People

Joining good friends and comic creators such as Aaron Delarosa (Adventures in Stereo), Phil Miarmi (Woodland) and Mark McMurray (Dumb Jersey White Boy), TWKOP (and myself) will be at this year’s Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD as part of the Our Friend The Atom table.

About the show:

SPX 2008 will be held the weekend of October 4 and 5, 2008 at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in Bethesda, MD, just one mile outside the nation’s capital, Washington DC. In its thirteenth year SPX now serves as the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comic books and the discovery of new creative talent.

SPX will bring together over 400 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, distributors, and each other. SPX will be open to the public from 11am Saturday, October 4th and run through 7pm that evening. The celebration continues Sunday from noon to 6pm. In addition, expect great programming all weekend long for you to enjoy!

SPX 2008 marks the twelfth annual presentation of The Ignatz Awards for outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse, recognizes outstanding work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an artform and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz is a festival prize, the first such of the United States comic book industry. Winners will be determined by ballot during SPX and presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony.

As with every year all profits from SPX will go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, protecting the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals.

This will only be my second time to SPX (and first with an actual book to shill) but it was a total blast last year; there are so many great creators and comics! Totally looking forward to it. More updates as SPX approaches.

As stated earlier, the first TWKOP mini will be available at SPX ‘08 this weekend. 16 pages of hastily drawn “laughs” for $1 at the Our Friend the Atom table, #D10. Also debuting at the OFTA table will be Phil’s Diarrhea Diaries #2 (featuring art by Corey Sauer, Ronnie Casson & Mark McMurray) as well as Aaron’s surprise comic.

I’ve been getting back into Daniel Clowes, Mike Allred, Richard Pettibon & Adrien Tomine lately. I hadn’t read Optic Nerve in years and it’s just as great as it was twelve (!) years ago. I’m trying to adopt a more pop look to future TWKOP strips (see Ex Box & You Send My Heart A Twitter for examples) but honestly, it’s been years since I’ve picked up a pen (or stylus, as it were) and I’m happy just to be drawing again - crudeness, frustration and impatience notwithstanding.

See you this weekend!

There may have been a lot of B.O. and a ton of nerds masquerading as hipsters, but discovering some awesome comics, meeting really cool people and the chance to hang out and yuk it up with friends for a weekend made SPX ‘08 a blast. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the table to say hello, especially those who bought our comics! SPX was simultaneously intimidating and inspiring and I can’t wait for next year.

Some of my favorite finds: Kate Beaton’s History Comics, Aaron turned me on to both Alec Longstreth’s Phase 7 and Laura Park’s Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream and I also found a couple of really cool prints that are now hanging in my office. McMurray showed me some incredible Ken Dahl comics that I forgot to buy but I’ll get them shortly (Welcome To The Dahl House was hilarious).

Sorry for the lack of new comics. Been busy laying out pages for Phil’s DD #3 and a story for the upcoming OFTA anthology as well as some non-comic related freelance work in addition to my regular 9-5 and whatever else I can make time for. I do have a backlog of ideas I have to put to paper, 13 strips to go before I hit my goal for TWKOP #2.

Long story short, I fell off a ladder from about 8′ to the sidewalk a few weeks ago, breaking my wrist, bruising my ribs & spraining my foot. But I am pretty much back to normal. I’m out of my cast and have been working on finishing up all the stuff I’ll need for MoCCA. What can I say, I’m lucky as hell. I am actually combining/updating the material from TWKOP #1 with what was to be #2 into one big compilation. This year’s MoCCA is also going to mark one year since our good friend Mark Griffin passed away after a long battle with cancer. The anthology OFTA is putting out was inspired by one of his strips, and is kind of our tribute to him. I wish my contribution was better but I’d like to think he’d get a laugh or two out of it.

I read the greatest thing in Mark Eitzel’s blog a few months ago: “Shooting the sh1t is I swear the most important human activity. If it was less fun it would be an Olympic sport.” It’s so true. We threw a big bash on Saturday and the best part was the party dwindling down to just a small group of us talking in my backyard into the night, picking up into the next morning right through breakfast and the afternoon. Laughing until our sides hurt, until we couldn’t breathe. To be totally honest, I don’t care if I sell a single book. I’m most looking forward to hanging out with my friends for the weekend, some of whom I never get to see (and all of them I never see enough). 

See you in NYC!

MoCCA was hot but tremendous. Met a bunch of people, sold some books (although not as many as Phil) & got to hang out with my friends in NYC for three days. I got about five hours of sleep that weekend, and had to be at work at 8AM on Monday!

Since then I took a break from making comics, concentrating on getting my wrist & foot better for the summer. My wrist healed quickly but my foot was slow going & I was getting worried for a while. It’s at about 90% now & I was able to get back into running a few weeks ago. I had these awful images of me not being able to run or swim all summer. What a freaking relief.

SPX 09 is only two months away, crazy. My story for the postponed OFTA anthology is done (broken wrist & all, I was the only one who finished on time!) & I will be working hard to get the TWKOP mini #2 finished by then. I have a few copies of Giant-Size TWKOP #1 left that I’ll put up in the store soon.

Ryan Pequin’s Three Word Phrase contains some of the funniest, laugh out loud gags I’ve read in a long time!

This year’s SPX (Small Press Expo) takes place this weekend in scenic Bethesda MD. TWKOP #2 is finished & printing as we speak! I’m looking forward to folding & stapling a bunch of copies of it over the next few days. It will be available at the Our Friend The Atom table, along w/ comics from my friends Aaron Delarosa, Mark McMurray, Ronnie Casson, Julie Behn & Corey Sauer! I’m so excited to see & hang out w/ everyone! There are a ton of comics I want to check out as well.

We are located at table D8, stop by & say hello!

MoCCA Fest 2010 is coming up April 10-11! Aaron, Phil, McMurray & myself will be manning the Our Friend The Atom table (#F15), scamming nerds out of their hard-earned $$$. No new mini but I will have some copies of Giant Size TWKOP #1 as well as TWKOP Mini #2, which debuted at SPX 2009. I do have new work for MoCCA in the form of an 8-page story in Phil’s Diarrhea Diaries #3. First time I used a pseudonym for a comic, & you’ll see why!

I’ve been super busy but I’ve managed to get enough strips done for TWKOP mini #3! You’ll see them posted in the upcoming weeks. The mini will debut at SPX 2010, taking place at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center September 11-12. I’ll be w/ my pals at the Our Friend The Atom table, stop by for some laughs.