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Save the date! December 4th will see the second Brooklyn Comics and Graphic Festival at a new, bigger venue and with a guest list that would be the envy of any show this year, including Kate Beaton, Lynda Barry, and Johnny Ryan. Details below:

In response to overwhelming exhibitor demand, the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival will return on December 4, 2010 at a new, larger venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This year’s festival will will occupy two gymnasium-sized rooms at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church on North 8th Street. As always, admission will be free and open to the public for this one-day event. The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is an ongoing project by Desert Island, PictureBox and Bill Kartalopoulos. More information about the Festival will continue to be posted online at www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com.

WHAT: The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival

WHO: Special guests to include Lynda Barry, Kate Beaton, Gabrielle Bell, Charles Burns, Jordan Crane, Evan Dorkin, Renée French, Bill Griffith, Sammy Harkham, Irwin Hasen, Anders Nilsen, Paul Pope, Johnny Ryan, Leanne Shapton, Mark Allan Stamaty, Jillian Tamaki, Adrian Tomine

WHERE: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church
275 North 8th Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

WHEN: Saturday, December 4, 2010 from 12:00 – 9:00 pm

1 COMMENT

  1. Wasn’t last year’s festival curated by Dan Nadel? I don’t know exactly what that entailed, but I assumed it meant that all exhibitors were actively solicited by Nadel and the organizers. I don’t think it’s a show where you can just write a check and get a table.

  2. Wow… is there enough demand for a THIRD show? For everyone who couldn’t get past the velvet ropes of KingCon or BCGF?

    I like the idea of a curated show. Free table, but you must have talent. Attendees know the show will be worthwhile.

  3. I think the term “Brooklyn Comics” is misleading since this is a curated event and most of the Brooklyn cartoonists I know [and I know a lot of ’em] are never invited to this purported “Brooklyn Comics” show.

  4. Hi Dean,

    This is only our second time out with this festival so it’s hard to make generalizations like “ever.”

    But to follow up on what Gabe said, I have to say that your comment seems kind of silly on its surface. There’s a long history of comics conventions being named after their location, regardless of guest composition, and the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is part of that tradition. I don’t expect the New York Comic-Con to exclusively or exhaustively represent New York artists, or the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (another curated show with many out of town guests) to exclusively or exhaustively represent Toronto artists. I think it’s a recognized strength of those shows and many others that they attract high profile guests from out of town, and we’re really pleased to have Anders, Johnny, Renée, and other artists who don’t regularly visit east coast shows on our guest list.

    Even so, more than half of our featured, headline guests live in NYC (Kate Beaton, Gabrielle Bell, Evan Dorkin, Irwin Hasen, Paul Pope, Leanne Shapton, Mark Allan Stamaty, Jillian Tamaki, Adrian Tomine). We haven’t released our exhibitor list yet, but it’s pretty heavy on local and regional artists.

    But I also have to say that the fact that our guest and exhibitor lists include so many great artists from outside the NYC area is part of what makes the show feel so very Brooklyn to me. Gabe’s shop is a good microcosm: it’s a place where New Yorkers might stop by to pick up a silkscreened book from France, or where European visitors might discover a minicomic published out of Denver. What makes Brooklyn so distinct is that it’s a national and international cultural hub for independent arts, and I think the BCGF, while still small and growing, represents comics as part of that vital artistic and cultural scene. That’s something I’m really pleased to be involved with.

    I hope to see you on December 4th.

    Best,

    Bill Kartalopoulos
    Programming Director and Co-organizer
    Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival

  5. Thanks for your thoughtful response and reasoning, Bill. I hope the second year of BCGF proves rewarding.

    Still, curated comix shows reeks of elitism and, even though I’m not a flag waver of “Team Comix,” I do champion community over clicks.

    I guess the one interesting thing I can glean from this is that Brooklyn has enough cartoonists in it to spark comix clicks.

    Who knew?

    Meanwhile, I’ll keep DEEP6, my shared studio, open to any and all cartoonists who wish to visit us and make comix — as we have made available the past 3-years.

    Not meaning to ruffle too many feathers. Just disappointed in the borders, is all.

  6. BOYS BOYS BOYS YOU ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL.

    BCGF, NYCC and King Con serve different audiences and ALL are valuable.

    Take it to the bar, kids. I’ll wait for the hug.

  7. Living NOW in New York, with a comic con for just about every demographic and mission imaginable, makes up for all those years THEN living in the comics wilderness of Nebraska.

    Thank you to all the creators and curators who make these shows so worthwhile to a fan who loves to read good comics, and who enjoys the surprises found at each show!

    (Hey… where’s the comic con for librarians and educators?)

  8. “Dude, you are causing the borders to exist by saying antagonist shit.”

    No, I think the people saying, “These people can exhibit, but not THESE people,” are the ones creating the borders. Do what you want with your show, but don’t act stupidly surprised when people get a little pissed off at not being invited, especially when it wasn’t labeled as a curated show on the site beforehand (and is it even now?), and so cartoonists were waiting to register, only for it to say “sold out” without warning. That’s a pretty shitty way to handle things.

  9. Yes, I must say that I was a trifle disappointed, as I was checking the site regularly, waiting for these tables to go public.

    I’ve no problem with sending in an application and being “screened” before being allowed to buy up a table. NYCC does it with their artist’s alley, and it’s a great way to assure quality work. But as far as I can tell, I needed to be in Dan and Gabe’s radar, two people I’m pretty sure I don’t know personally. Do Dan and Gabe know everyone worthwhile there is to know in comics? Certainly not; no one does. Should that degree of shoulder-rubbing dictate an entire show?

  10. Dean wrote: “Still, curated comix shows reeks of elitism and, even though I’m not a flag waver of “Team Comix,” I do champion community over clicks.”

    I don’t know much about this venue, but apparently it has a limited number of tables in a confined space. (Like pretty much all conventions.) If the demand for table space is greater than the supply, tables will have to be rationed somehow. This may done through a first come, first served system. And I guess you could do it through a lottery system. Or the organizer could just pick the vendors he or she would most like to have, which appears to be what was done here. I don’t see how that is worse than first come, first serve or a lottery. On the contrary, first come, first serve definitely ends up catering to “insiders”–people who know the show organizer and know exactly when to get their table reservation in.

    I’m not saying any particular method of allocating tables is the best, but I don’t see anything wrong with a show organizer directly choosing the vendors–for one thing, it allows him to more specifically target the show to the market he wants to reach.

  11. Dean wouldn’t be bitching if he was invited. And I wouldn’t be bitching if I wasn’t invited. I wasn’t invited last year, I didn’t start crying. Get over it, man. I thought the Emmy would calm you down on this sort of thing. You’re loved, Dean. Try to believe that. “Fake the funk –?” C’mon, man.

    The rest of you complaining? There’s other shows. Start your own shows, have your own parties, don’t expect others to cater to you or the medium. Suck it up. DIY if you don’t like it. Yelling elitist is like yelling sell-out, childish, tiresome and usually says more about the whiner than the taget.

  12. Evan Dorkin,

    You were not invited last year because it wasn’t “invitation only” last year. People applied and then the show chose which applicants they’d go with.

    This year, they put up an application page and told people that the same application process would take place. However, they decided “screw that, we’ll just pick whoever.”

    It’s not “bitching” and no, telling individual artists to create their own shows is a really snotty and contemptuous remark.

  13. The comix industry has no room for borders and I can’t tolerate elitism. I don’t begrudge Dan and Gabe for having a comix show [in fact, I applaud it. I love tag sales], just don’t dub it a “Brooklyn Comix” show, is all. THAT was my gripe.

  14. Dean –
    Yeah, really. I know you, and I know you take things hard and personally. I thought you were being ridiculous/defensive here, sorry. And I bet lots of folks think you’re in certain comics cliques, to be honest.

    BTW, while we’re fighting, did you get the book I sent you? Never heard from you. I love you, Dean, I’m just not loving what you’re saying here.

    Joe –

    Contemptuous? Okay, whatever, I’ll take that and snotty and cry myself to sleep. I still don’t freak out and start drawing up “border lines” when I’m not in on anything in comics and I don’t understand the ire. I think people bitch way too much about others doing for them in this field, sorry if I don’t couch it nicely or no one agrees. Counter-program, start your own shows, whatever, just stop whining like anyone’s owed something. .

    And it’s a Brooklyn show because IT IS IN BROOKLYN. That’s where you go to get to the show. San Diego doesn’t limit the guests to SD, nor does invite-only Toronto. Jesus, like there aren’t real things to complain about in this industry. The name of a show.

  15. Editor’s note: After the thread was closed, Evan Dorkin asked me to post the following:

    I left the house after posting my last comment on the board and did some thinking while out, and I was sorry to see the comments closed because I wanted to post a public apology for my crappy treatment towards Dean in the first comment, and the defensive tone in the follow-up responses to Dean and the commenter named Joe. I had accused Dean of being defensive and complaining about something unimportant, and I did the same thing going after him. The points I tried to make were lost in the vitriol, the vitriol was uncalled for, and any attempt at humor fell flat and came off nastier than desired.

    So, sorry, Dean, and sorry, Heidi, for the unnecessary negativity on the comments section. I posted while in a bad mood, got called on it and got defensive. I try to be fair when arguing, and my bile was undeserved, Dean didn’t do anything to warrant it. I disagreed with you, Dean, and should’ve expressed it in a better way.

    Sorry, guys, Dean especially. The Emmy mention was downright stupid, I was very happy for you when you won and it’s a great feather in your cap and I trivialized it trying to make a stupid joke. I was cruel and unfair, and I try to be fair when I go off. Sometimes it’s just being a dick.