This weekend, among a plethora of worldwide comics events, the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco is surely the premiere event for alt and indy comics. Headlined by Dan Clowes and Lynda Barry, that’s probably enough right there, but why stop — other guests include Megan Kelso, Tony Millionaire, Renée French, Tommy Kovac, Rich Koslowski, and more. If it were less than a plane ride away, we’d be there in a heartbeat.
Here’s a VERY quick rundown of who’s doing what at the show:
FANTAGRAPHICS:
Join us at the Alternative Press Expo at the Concourse exhibit hall in San Francisco this weekend! You can find us at tables 113-116 (a different location than the past couple of years, for you APE vets out there). Myself and our Ambassador of Awesomeness Janice Headley will be staffing the table. Our signing and panel schedule is as follows:
Saturday:
1:00 – 3:00PM Megan Kelso booth signing
3:00 – 5:00PM Tony Millionaire booth signing
5:00 – 6:00PM Spotlight on Tony Millionaire, moderated by Renée French
Sunday:
1:00 – 3:00PM Tony Millionaire booth signing
2:00 – 3:00PM Art of Storytelling panel with Megan Kelso
3:00 – 5:00PM Megan Kelso booth signing
We’ll be debuting Tony’s new Maakies collection Little Maakies on the Prairie, and we’ll have pre-release copies of Adele Blanc-Sec Vol. 1 by Jacques Tardi, Dave Cooper’s Bent, and Mome Vol. 20. We’ll have plenty of Dan Clowes books you can buy and take over to the D&Q table to get signed, too. Hope to see you there!
DRAWN & QUARTERLY
Tomorrow in San Francisco, D+Q will exhibit at the Alternative Press Expo in SF, 10/16 & 10/17, at booth 222. Vanessa Davis, Dan Clowes and Lynda Barry will be signing! Lynda will be debuting her new book PICTURE THIS. Dan and Lynda have spotlight panels on Saturday and note that Dan will NOT be at APE on Sunday. Come by the booth and say hi to Peggy and special guest intern Woody White!
New books will not only include the aforementioned Lynda Barry’s PICTURE THIS (a gorgeous and just-as-amazing followup to WHAT IT IS) but also Brecht Evens’ THE WRONG PLACE (I predict this will be the graphic novel debut of the year, I do, I swear), Tove Jansson’s WHO WILL COMFORT TOFFLE? (the sweetest shy child picture book story ever!), Doug Wright’s NIPPER (cheap paperback edition designed to hook you on the strip and then you’ll have to buy the more lavish hardcover volume from 2009 but it’ll totally be worth it) and Chris Ware’s ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY #20 (Is there a limit to the number of masterpieces one man can produce?)

Saturday
1:00-3:00 Vanessa Davis Signing
2:00-3:00 Spotlight on Dan Clowes, questions by Picture Box and Comics Comics’ Dan Nadel
3:00-5:00 Dan Clowes Signing
4:00-5:00 Spotlight on Lynda Barry, with Picture This slide show!
5:00-7:00 Lynda Barry SigningSunday
1:00-3:00 Vanessa Davis Signing
2:00-3:00 Art of Storytelling panel with Lynda Barry & others
3:00-5:00 Lynda Barry signingAlso do not miss our APE pre-party at Needles and Pens in SF Tonight, October 15th, 7:00 pm where Vanessa Davis will discuss and sign MAKE ME A WOMAN.
And on Saturday, be sure to check out the Giant Robot opening for the show “Removeable Pants” with Marc Bell and Peter Thompson.
SPARKPLUG COMICS
Sparkplug Comic Books will be at APE this weekend. Saturday and Sunday October 16th & 17th. There will be a group of us: David King, Virginia Paine, Tim Goodyear, Rina Ayuyang, Tim Root, Sophie Yanow, Renee French and Chris Cilla will be in attendance at the table or around it. We will be at table 118 next to Tom Neely’s I Will Destroy You at 119 and Pigeon Press at 120.
At APE:
• Renee French will be premiering her new book H-Day at the Picture Box booth at APE table 226. Renee will also have an artists spotlight interview at 6pm on Saturday.
• I’ll be on a panel at 1pm on Saturday with Susie Cagle, Thien Pham and Gene Yang talking about Bay Area comics over the years:
• Sparkplug will have a ton of new distro comix at the Sparkplug booth including Crime World 2 by David King, Anais in Paris by Mardou, You Don’t Get There From Here #16 by Carrie McNinch, Act Five by Steve Ditko, Benol the Huckster by Max Mose and Gazeta edited by Lisa Mangum & Maria Sputnik
TOP SHELF
Top Shelf heads to San Francisco this weekend (October 16-17) for APE, the Alternative Press Expo!
Come by and meet:
–Renee French, author of The Ticking and Micrographica, who’s got a new book H Day from Picturebox!
–Rich Koslowski (who drew the APE poster art), famed for Three Fingers (now in a new edition!), The King, and BB Wolf & the 3 LPs!
–JD Arnold, writer of BB Wolf & the 3 LPs with art by Rich. Also a Northern California comic retailer himself, at Comicopolis in Santa Cruz!And we’ll also have all our great recent releases like Will Dinski’s Fingerprints, the underground Japanese comics anthology Ax, and Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic magazine (including the new issue #5)!
Some of our Top Shelf 2.0 pals will be around as well, including Jed Alexander!
See you by the Bay!
AdHouse Books
We’ll be tabling with our good bud Scott Morse. So, look for us in the 33o area. Also, Adam Hines will be making his first APE appearance. Swing by and see why PWComicsWeek has said Duncan the Wonder Dog is their pick for book of the year.
We’ll have exactly ONE advance copy of the new Josh Cotter book Babs in the Sky with Neil Diamonds for people to peruse.
We’ll have just a few of the NoBrow editions with us. Our good bud’s at Last Gasp are also a distributor, so I’m sure they’ll have lots as well.
Other tables you should visit while at APE: Koyama Press. Dustin Harbin. Bumperboy. And all types of other great things that you might stumble upon.
Here’s hoping the Giants are still in it so we can do some celebrating in the city!
Hope all you leftcoasters can make it out to the show. We’re looking forward to seeing you!
And, as a reminder, any orders placed in the AdStore will be fulfilled the following weekend. Just sayin.
THE COUSCOUS COLLECTIVE
Inkstuds
Scott Morse
Double Punch
Larry Marder
Farel Dalrymple
David King
Flesk Publications
Susie Cagle
ARCH COMIX
WOW COOL
We’re sure to have missed something, but check out J.K. Parkin’s coverage at Robot 6 as well.
Yay APE!
Nothing like a bracing Alt/Indie COMICS Art tonic to chase away the figurative and literal NYCC Mainstream Con ‘hangover’ of the past week…
Nice that my SDCC ’10 pass allows me to get in for free— a two-fer admissions Yin/Yang of the year’s Comic Conventions range and scope, each balancing and complementing the other, and GREATLY appreciated by this Comics fan.
Yay Team Comics!