APE 2009

Yesterday I ended up spending more time & money than I expected at the Alternative Press Expo at the Concourse Exhibition Center, starting with the exhorbitantly high $10 entrance fee. There was a lot of very fine print & illustration work. Monsters of various sorts seems to be popular content nowadays. Many of the repeat exhibitors complained that attendance was down from last year, perhaps due to the Treasure Island Music Festival this weekend.

I was glad to get re-acquainted with Will Dinski, whose work I remembered seeing at the MoCCA Art Fest a couple of years ago. I like his subtle silk screen graphics. I hope that Nick Mullins has the concluding episodes of his macabre & theatrically-mannered Carnivale ready for next year. Paige Braddock was kind enough to draw me a Jane of my very own. A visit to APE would not be complete without a run-in with the phenomenal Justin Hall, who may have stumbled while trying to spell "pervert" but who flatters me nonetheless. His latest mini-comic about officiating at a same-sex marriage dressed as the Green Lantern is worth twice the price of admission.