Exhibitors
I spent a few hours in Seattle on Nov. 12, 2011 for the first Short Run, Seattle's Small Press Fest. Organizers Eroyn Franklin, Kelly Froh, Jenny Gialenes and Martine Workman held the one day event at the Vera Project in Seattle Center. Admission was free and my understanding is that the tables were very reasonably priced. Participation was excellent with a nice mix of zinesters and komikers from Seattle and Portland. The event included a massive bake sale, a screening room for indie animations and a drawing game. What more could you ask for?
Show stalwart, Kelly Froh was tabling with her partner Max Clotfelter. Her books included her lastest works The Greatest and Slither #7 as well as most of her back catalog including: The Former Room-mates of Gary Jones, Tales from Amazon, Weekend Casserole, Forevertron, and many others.
Max had numerous issues of Warlok, Andros #5 (a digest-sized pub filled with a few full page illustrations and lots of short comix), old favorites like Shore Leave Showcase, and a bunch of newer minis like Jackpot!, Fema Family 2012, and Electric Corn Bread. He also collaborated with pal Tom Van Deusen and friends on the stapleless Soft Blockage. OMG, could there be a better title for a Clotfelter cover!?!
There was a nice presence of future and/or former Fantagraphics alums (like Jason T. Miles and Andrice Arp) at the show. In fact, the after party (which I wasn't able to attend) was held at the FG bookstore on Vale. Jim Blanchard was tabling with a beautifully rendered assortment of comix and crap like his Teat Warp and Mayhem minis and Peter Bagge's Neat Stuff Trading Cards.
Carl Nelson was hawking Blind Spot, a square-shaped (5.5" x 5.5") comix with circle-cut cover and staples-at-the-top reading orientation. Nelson shared his table with Billis Helg, and was alongside The Bureau of Drawers collective.
I believe the other cover shown above is called Dan Quayl, in spite of the rather large "420 DRE" license plate lettering on the cover. It's a 6.5" x 10.25" anthology put together by Amy Kuttab, Jesse McManus, Jason Overby, and Blaise Larmee—and a collective of publishers—for FCBD. I think I glommed onto it at the Sparkplug table.
Chelsea Baker, who's instrumental in the annual Olympia Comics Festival, was tabling alongside Roberta Gregory. Baker is into making daily comics and posting them on her website. She's also collected them into self-published editions and had several on hand, including the one above which covers the first half of 2011.
Michael Dowers brought his daughter to the show and had a whole table full of back stock from Starhead Comics and Brownfield Press. Among the treasures were copies of Bezango Obscuro #1 by Steve Willis and Rat Fink Comix by R.K. Sloane.
Among the mini comix were a few copies of Die Laughing by J.R. Williams and Eat Shit or Die, a hilarious collaboration between Williams and Peter Bagge.
Plus, R.L. Crabb's My Life with the Squirrels and mini comix disguised as a children's book called Pete the Pit Bull Puppy by toon loon Jim Siergey.
Also just in time for the show, Michael teamed with Christine Payne-Towler, founder of Tarot University, to publish a new deck of gorgeous cards called The Tarot of the Holy Light. Michael created the digital artwork for each card from "creators, designers, illustrators, artists and engravers" from the 1600's. The box features the artwork of Patrick Dowers with art direction by Pat Moriarity. Bonnie Cehovet provides an in-depth review of the deck at Aeclectic Tarot. The Tarot of the Holy Light 78-card deck is available for $26 (postage paid) from Tarot University.
And speaking of Pat Moriarity, the former Fantagraphics AD was sharing a table with Marc Palm. Moriarity recently finished reworking his website and was selling his A Tribute to Bad Lyrics 22-song CD that includes a 16-page mini comix by the artist. He's a regular contributor to Mineshaft Magazine and had several issues for sale, as well as most of the 7-issue run of his You and Your Big Mouth comix books and a collection of mini comix like Buzzy and Mugs. Check out the Buy Comics page on his site to get yours!
I have to admit although I spent more time at Short Run looking at small press comix, there was a good mix of both zines and comix there. Among the zines I picked up were Margaret Ashford Trotter's Blood Orange, a celebration of Halloween, and Meredith Wallace's Life, Death, Love & All of the Above. Here's a synopsis of it I clipped from We Make Zines: "A year and a half in the making, I began writing a series of vignettes in the summer of 2009 as I was falling in love with my boyfriend. That winter he was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia and I kept on writing. The latter portion of the zine tells the story of his diagnosis, initial hospitalization and bits of the following months. The zine ends with an explanation of CML and a little bit about where I'm at emotionally a year after his diagnosis." Wallace runs the False Start Distro, which seems to be on hiatus, but you can find her zine at Quimby's for $4.00.
Also from Margaret Ashford Trotter of Little Chemistry, comes Thunder in the Building #2. Published through a Xeric Foundation grant in September 2010, the second issue features Young Savage in which the protagonist turns to her best friend for support after breaking up with her long-time boyfriend. In the emotional turmoil that follows, she reveals a horrible secret.
Emily Nilsson and (I think) Viginia Paine represented SparkPlug Comic Books with a great selection of their titles, including Asthma by John Hankiewicz.
Blair Wilson had a great collection of prints and comix and a few mini comix. I picked up two issues of From Hell to Breakfast filled with wonderfully morphic illustrations alive with detail that jump off the page.
Sean Christensen come up from Portland and filled his table with several recent mini comix and a good selection of his back catalog. Among the recent efforts were Play Overlord (5" x 6.5"), created in a series of jam session between Sean, Theo Ellsworth and Amy Kuttab, and Collected Shorts re-presenting four stories that originally appeared elsewhere and dedicated to the memory of Dylan Williams.
Sean's tablemate, David Nuss of Revival House Press, had an assortment of titles including Trigger #1 and #2 by Mike Bertino. Jesse Reklaw was also on hand, with collections of Slow Wave, Ten Thousand Things to Do and his latest, N.Y.D.I., reviewed here.
Comics from Graham Kahler were also for sale. I picked up Tiny Little Super Bean, a 20-page mini comix wrapped in an extra heavy-weight cover.
Two issues of Kahler's Blunderbuss were also available. Check The Curiosity Dept. for Kahler news.
Breanne Boland has published three issues of Furlough and several other comix and zines. I picked up Furlough #1 at the show. Her publications are available from her Etsy Shop. Greg Means of Tugboat Press had a tableful of Papercutters, which can be purchased from Atomic Books, Sparkplug and many other distros.
Francois Vigneault, of Family Style, had a great assortment of FS books on hand including Elfworld Vol.2 #2, which he edited, and Friends #3, which he wrote and drew.
That wraps up our coverage of Seattle's first Short Run Small Press Fest! Many thanks to the show's organizers, volunteers, bakers, exhibitors, and animators!
Interviews
Reports on Short Run
