I suppose on many levels, moving the Alternative Press Expo (previously held in San Jose) to San Francisco, seemed like it would present no problems whatsoever. Of course, the organizers didn't count on San Francisco's completely indifferent and bizarre weather (think: sunny, rainy, windy, boiling hot, back to rainy, etc., all in one day), as well as the fact that the city's transportation system, Muni, (already one of the worst in the U.S.) gets extremely difficult in the rain. I experienced misfortune from both these elements, but it didn't change the fact that San Francisco was, in fact, a great choice for the con. Perhaps I was the only one to be hindered by these factors, since they didn't slow APE down at all.

The convention was held in San Francisco's Fort Mason Center (located right next to the bay), and made for some hilarious culture clashes. I had a little bit of trouble finding the place, but all I needed to do was follow the gangly, long-haired, thick-glasses-wearing comic fans, who stuck out like sore thumbs compared to the somewhat sophisticated crowd at Fort Mason (I think a lot of people were there for some sort of diamond auction. No…not Diamond the comic distributor…actual diamonds).

Probably the definitive moment of this clash, occurred when I witnessed one such awkward comic fan, waltz into the diamond show, walk around disorientedly, and conclude loudly to the room "I guess this isn't it!"  He slowly exited from the room, with the diamond vendors scratching their heads, and wondering what his "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac" shirt meant.

The con was pretty cheap. It cost five dollars for the entire day, or if you had your badge from the San Diego con, it was free (I lost mine of course). Still, five bucks is a deal, considering that even if you didn't want to buy any of the comics on display at the con, you could go to panels hosted by Mary Fleener, Peter Bagge, and Larry Gonick, among others. The fact that signing up for the con took about 2 minutes was also nice, considering that it took me about a half hour to sign up at San Diego. After that formality, it was off to the convention floor.

I expected the con to be a bit empty in comparison to last year's, despite the fact that it was in San Francisco this time. I was pretty sure that the rain would drive everyone away, since even I had almost decided to skip it due to the awfulness of riding the bus in the rain. Since I live in the city, I was doubtful as to whether the people from across the bay would decide to go. Still, APE seemed just as full, if not more so than San Jose, although I began to think this was not the case when I got to the Peter Bagge panel (more on that later).

The first booth that caught my eye was Jeff Nicholson's (Colonia Press). I was happy that he had a booth right in the front, since it probably brought him a lot of business, which he deserves. I chatted with him for about a minute, and plucked down a couple of bucks for the new issue of Colonia.

After that, I decided to simply walk the full length of the floor, just to get a sense of what was out there. I didn't have much time to ponder every single booth in the detail I wanted to, since the Peter Bagge panel I was to go to was about to start in a couple minutes. Still, I decided to give myself a little time, especially after I saw Bagge himself walking the floor, obviously not worried about whether he'd make his panel on time.

What hit me the most about this year's exhibitors, is the fact that they were almost all mini-comic artists, yet they seemed incredibly diverse in subject matter. They're were of course countless auto-bio mini's out there, but on a majority the subject matter of the books seemed to lean more towards surreal, wordless type stories. I found a good portion of books that seemed to avoid at all costs the cliched world of auto-bio, and settle into a more fantasy-oriented world. Perhaps this trend is a direct reaction to the glut of auto-bio books seen recently. What is more different than auto-bio than stories that hold no basis in reality? Fantasy (although I hope this word doesn't make people think of books like Bone…I mean fantasy more in the sense of early newspaper strips, á la Little Nemo, or to a lesser extent as far as fantasy goes, Krazy Kat), seemed particularly at home in the world of xeroxed mini-comics.

One such book was Lark Piens "Stories from the Ward", one of the best comics on the floor as far as I'm concerned, which I bought quickly before heading off to the Peter Bagge panel.

 It was a quick walk to the Bagge panel, and fortunately, the rain had begun to die down. As I entered, Mary Fleener was just concluding her slide show. Hearing her comment on the last few images projected onto the wall made me wish I had attended the full panel. I did catch her talking about doing some hateful illustration work for Nike, which she described as "a really shady operation." Refreshingly, Fleener didn't limit her comments to comics, talking about pottery work she had done recently, as well as concluding the panel with a display of her musical talents.

Fleener then introduced Peter Bagge, as he walked to the front of the room accompanied by polite applause. As he made his way to the front, I glanced around, a bit disappointed at the turnout for the event. Bagge is probably one the most recognizable (in terms of art) talents in alternative comics, although perhaps this popularity has cooled a bit since Hate ended at issue #30. I counted about 20-30 people in the room, which seemed to be very few, considering that the Scott McCloud panel at last year's APE was standing room only. Still, it made for a more personal panel, although Bagge really had no plan or agenda for the hour he was allowed to speak.

I'd never heard Bagge converse before, although I had seen him signing at conventions, and had concluded for his columns in Hate that he was a rather likeable fellow. That conclusion turned out to be true (at least I thought so), as Bagge began the panel by saying something along the lines of: "Well, thank you for coming. I'm not sure exactly what to do, since I didn't prepare anything, or bring slides like Mary. Hopefully, I'll come up with something". Bagge first gave a very brief rundown of his career (self-publishing, Weirdo, Neat Stuff, Hate) and then proceeded to talk a little bit about how much of his current work is appearing online, in publications such as www.suck.com, which cater almost exclusively to cartoons. Bagge admitted that he didn't understand the "flash" technology that was being used for the cartoons, but his upcoming projects did seem rather interesting. In addition to the suck.com website, Bagge says he'll be working on cartoons for a new Web TV channel, that is also devoted to cartoons. 5 minutes into his first hour, he seemed to be out of material, and opened the floor to questions.

Perhaps influenced by his brief lecture on his new cartoons, the first 4 or 5 questions revolved around the failed Hate cartoon, as well as the mechanics of animation. Bagge seemed to be a bit surprised at the audiences' interest in animation, rather than his near legendary comic, but answered the questions informatively and politely.

I myself could have cared less about animation, and desperately wanted Bagge to change the subject. Sadly, another animation question was logged, and after Bagge fielded it, I quickly raised my hand and blurted out "So, what was it like to work on Weirdo with R. Crumb?"--a question that I genuinely wanted to know the answer to. It's no secret that Bagge is a big Crumb fan, and I always thought that it was interesting that Bagge (a virtual unknown at that point in the 80's) got to edit Crumb's greatest work.

Bagge then recalled how he had begun corresponding with Crumb at the time of Weirdo's conception. When Crumb finally tired of editing the anthology himself, he let Bagge take it over because "Crumb said I sounded like the most reliable person he had been talking to, so he gave the book to me (laughs)" or something along those lines.

According to Bagge, Crumb was very kind and helpful to him during his time at Weirdo, but when Bagge calls Crumb up at his current residence in France, "…he usually just says 'What do you want?!?' (Laughs). He just treats me like some fan boy now."

After more questions were asked about Bagge's current projects like "Yeah!" (sadly cancelled), and why he killed off Stinky (to which Bagge responded "I tried to make it really obvious that he was gonna die. I kept foreshadowing it."), the hour was completed, and Bagge politely ended the panel.

As I made my way back to the main hall, I remarked to my friend that while the panel was interesting, I would have preferred that Bagge had been more prepared. He's one of my favorite cartoonists, and it would have been nice if he could have walked us through his entire career, dropping names and giving hilarious behind the scene stories.

It was in my second tour of the floor that I really dropped a lot of money. I think the spirit that everyone should have when they go to a convention like APE, is to try everything. That means, going to EVERY booth, and trying to buy one item at each. APE is mainly populated by people who get their comics printed up at Kinko's, and thus you find very diverse stories, ranging from thoughts on Buddhism, to tales entitled "An Illustrated Depiction of the 273rd Day of Interplanetary Bathysphere 12".

I was very pleased with the books being sold, as well as the feeling from creators and fans at the con. Everyone did seem to be trying everything, and almost all the exhibitors seemed in good spirits. I was able to ask questions, and get very informative answers (unlike last year's APE), and all the artists I talked to seemed very enthusiastic about what they were selling.

The quality of the book presentation was also very good. They were xeroxed mini comics, sure, but many of them worked within the limitations of mini-comics to achieve some very nice design sense. Creators Nick Mullins and the previously mentioned Lark Pien did this very well.

There were of course the traditionally slapped together mini-comics, but even those contained intriguing art and writing. Nil #3 seemed to be very cheaply produced, but had a striking cover, with good interior content to match.

Almost all the books on the floor were $1.00 a piece, which was nice. Even oversized "mini-comics" such "Paper Theatre" cost a buck.

"Paper Theatre" was a very good book, which contained a few wordless stories. I mentioned that this time experimentation was very evident at APE, but I also noticed that the combination of prose and pictures was rather prevalent on the floor. In a lot of ways, the mini-comic artists at APE were less concerned about being traditional comic artists then they were about being artists. Yet, they still displayed a large sense of admiration for the combination of words and pictures, which produced very great stories.

High-water Books and Top Shelf Productions were also in attendance, as was Fantagraphics (although I didn't buy anything from them…already had everything). High-water continues to make me very optimistic about comics, since everything they had on display was beautiful. Perhaps the most heartwarming aspect of the con was that I could see a variety of APE mini-comic artists making the leap from self-publishing, to joining High-water books impressive lineup. There were definitely some future Brian Ralph's or Megan Kelso's in the crowd.

After making sure I'd hit every booth, I reluctantly left the con, eager to get home and start reading the books I had just bought. Upon returning home, it was obvious to my friend and I that the con needs to stay in San Francisco. It was also obvious to the two of us that this year's APE had been the showcase to some very talented artists. Hopefully, APE will continue to be a showcase to artists like them for years to come.

Copyright 2000 John Roberson All Rights Reserved.

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Copyright © 2000 Austin English All Rights Reserved

Austin English is a Bay area comic artist and writer.

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