Monday, August 6, 2012

The Conventions and the Unconventional


It is already August and convention season is just around the corner. First up is SPX. I didn't get to attend last year because I went out to California for APE and it would seem I can only manage to do one or the other. However I am glad I get to go this year because I am going to dork out hard (WARE! HERNANDEZ! CLOWES!). Also, making it even more awesome is the fact that I will be sharing and neighboring with these awesome artists: J.T. Yost, Cody Pickrodt, Box Brown, Josh Bayer, and Ian Harker. Another reason I am pumped for SPX is the fact that the DIGESTATE anthology will be making it's debut. It reached, and exceeded, its Kickstarter goals and I cannot overemphasize how excited I am to get my hands on a copy.

Perhaps even more exciting is the THE PROJECTS which will be happening in Portland, Oregon on October 19-21st thanks to the ingenious plotting of Jason Leivian, Dunja Jankovic, Lisa Magnum, and Jason Miles.  THE PROJECTS aims to take a radical approach to the whole concept of the convention. Actually I should call it a festival rather than a convention. Or an event? An experience? A happening? Basically they are taking the tables OUT and bringing in the art, the collaborations, the workshops, the seminars. It will be like human collage!!! The creators explain it intelligently and succinctly here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/floatingworldcomics/the-projects-experimental-art-comics-festival-in-p
I am buying my tickets to Portland this week and I highly recommended trying to attend if you can. First of all it is free, but most importantly I get a definite feeling that this is going to be something very special and very new (at least for most of us). A lot of the comics conventions I am familiar with (and keep in mind that I really enjoy conventions) try and take a new and different angle, but they are all essentially the same. Whether the show is at the Armory, Brooklyn, or San Fransisco, whether it costs, is free or is "curated", they all follow a particular script. So it is really invigorating for me that this will be an event where people don't just co-mingle, but where something, art, may actually happen. I'm excited that it may expand rather than exclude.
So if you can go, you should try and be a part of this. And if you can't go, or if you just love this idea and love comics you can support it here

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