| Steve Buccellato's Weblog |
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Entry 10/28/02
IPEX REPORT
A couple of years ago, I went to a little comic convention in Downtown Los Angeles with the guys at Hyperwerks. We were there to show off / sell our new comics, including the first issue of my black & white Weasel Guy: Road Trip series. The focus of this convention was "Independent Publishers," and we thought our stuff would go over like gangbusters!
We were mistaken.
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The majority of the people exhibiting at this show were selling zines & hand-made ashcan-style comics. Some were very well done--most were created by amateurs. When we arrived, we smugly thought that we would RULE this convention because our books actually had high-production values and we were experienced comics pros.
Wrong again.
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Don, Rob & Ben talk the talk!
(Photos by Richard Starkings)
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For whatever the reasons--I'm still unclear why--our high-production values actually worked AGAINST us! The surly-looking youths who attended largely snubbed our prominently-situated table. We spent much of the day drawing to amuse ourselves and planned a line of goth comics to break into this niche market that ostracized us
(One day I will do that Goth comic! Maybe even on this website!)
This past Saturday the Comiculture Crew attended the IPEX (Independent Publishing Experience) show at UCLA. What we didn't realize until we got there, was that it was the SAME show I'd gone to with Hyperwerks back in 1999!
I'm happy to report that IPEX has grown up a bit.
The location (on the UCLA campus) was great and the attendees, rife with our target audience: college students! There was more of a feeling of legitimacy to the IPEX Convention this year. It seems that Slave Labor Graphics has kind of taken over as the sponsor of the show, which attracted some cool "indy" creators.
Was the show a big success for us? I don't know. It was pretty mellow compared with the crowds at Comic Con International & Wizard World. Still, we spoke to fans who like what we're doing and sold enough to pay for the table and the dreaded Westwood parking rates! Hopefully, we made some new fans and contacts while we were at it.
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To go off on a tangent for a sec: for those of you who don't know it, Slave Labor puts out some GREAT titles. They are THE 'Indy" publisher to watch, in my opinion. Fantagraphics may still have all the best, well-known artists (Seth, the Hernadez Bros., Dan Clowes, etc.), but those guys haven't been putting out a whole lot of material in the past few years (I'm sad to say). Slave Labor, and their Amaze Ink label are publishing books by the NEXT generation of great "indy" artists. In issue #2 of Comiculture, I'll be presenting an interview with one of them (stay tuned!).
Anyway, I just want to thank all the fans (and pros) who came by to see us. We had fun speaking to our neighbors at the Mac Afro booth, the gang at Prophesy Magazine (which looks like it will be awesome when it ships next February!), our pals at Golden Apple Comics on Melrose, and of course, our comrades at Comicraft: Richard, JG, Jose Ladronn, Joe Casey & the Red Star crew.
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My wife, Cat & Sleepy son, Alex give moral support!
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Next up, we'll be attending APE (the Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco. That's February 1st & 2nd--put it on your callendars! We may also do a comic store tour here in Southern California to promote our second issue. We'll keep you posted.
Thanks for reading!
--Steve
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