MARUO WOULD BE PROUD

Here is some serious Halloween/Suehiro Maruo realness, courtesy of my friends Monika and Yuichiro.



Yuichiro is dressed in a Maruo/Rampo-inspired outfit, while Monika is dressed as Midori, the Camellia Girl (Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show).

What did YOU dress up as for Halloween?

AMAZING SHOJO WORK BY LITTLE THUNDER

Little Thunder is one of our favorite contemporary illustrator/cartoonists, an artist around my age working in Hong Kong. She does narrative comics, along with illustration and design gigs for rad products and sites around the world.

Last week, Little Thunder posted a new batch of sketchbook pages, paintings, and illustrations to her Flickr. I actually gasped when I saw the Shojo manga-inspired "JOEY" series, which summon the sexy and rich textures and compositions of Moto Hagio and other Magnificent 49ers masters.

Check out more of LT's work on her flickr and Instagram, enjoy these pieces, and spread the word about her awesomeness.

TOKYO SCUM BRIGAGE X COSPLAY = UMEZZING!

What were you doing this weekend, while my buddies Voidmare & Dr. Senbei from TOKYO SCUM BRIGADE were covering Comiket? By definition, whatever you were up to was nowhere near as rad as this:

KAZUO UMEZU & KANEKO DEMERIN COSPLAY!!!

Pull your jaw off the floor and go check out all of their Comiket 78 coverage.

PRISON FOR BITCHES

Hope everyone is enjoying the full-on appearance of Summer (in the Norther Hemisphere, at least). I just got back from a work trip to New York, followed by a short but rad weekend of hanging out. The theme of this trip ended up being "The Internet... COMES ALIVE!" as I got to meet and convert 4 different online friends into IRL friends; It's always a weird experience at first, but a total pleasure when it goes smoothly... Thanks to newly-IRL folks Moni, y16o, Matt, and gea* for the great times hanging out!

So, what else have I been up to lately? Aside from slacking on Same Hat posts, and working on some promo materials for Last Gasp's Comic-Con booth, you may have heard that I put out a new zine with a (ahem) particular focus. That's right, cartoonist Michael DeForge and I collaborated on a 64 page Lady Gaga fanzine called PRISON FOR BITCHES!





The idea for the zine came about the day after the video for Telephone debuted, and the entire book went from drunken (Was I drunk? I must have been drunk.) email thread with Michael to printed book in under 7 weeks. The zine went on sale at Toronto Comics Art Festival last month, and is AVAILABLE NOW via our site: http://prisonforbitches.com. Kudos go to contributor Tony T for having the foresight to buy that domain (and http://letsmakeasandwich.com) while we were watching Telephone that night, haha.

You may be scratching your head, and if so that's fine and understandable. The new zine is a one-time deal, a proper fanzine in the style of fanzines I used to read in the 90s. The whole thing is the size of a 7" record, and was xeroxed and hand-stapled. It features over 35 contributors(!!) and 64 pages (including a 12pg color insert) of fan art, a Hegellian deconstruction of Gaga;s lyrics, comic strips, a live report, photos of Gaga cosplay in Kobe, and other nonsense.



The artists included are an amazing batch of most all of our current favorite working cartoonists and printmakers, including Johnny Ryan, Michael Kupperman, Hellen Jo, Lisa Hanawalt, the Wowee Zonk crew, Saicoink, Makkinoso, Nick Gazin, Elio, Derek Yu, Angie Wang, HARVEYJAMES, Lala Albert, and tons more!

If you wanna see more, check out this 25 page free preview on Google Books.

And if you really wanna see our zine in its proper form, you can buy it using Paypal/Checkout through the site. It was recently written up on Robot6 and the SF Weekly, which were big surprises and quite flattering for me & Michael.



Anyway, that same weekend in Toronto, I was on a TCAF panel titled, "Indie Comics Japan: Manga Outside of the Mainstream". The other panel members included About.com's manga maven Deb Aoki, PictureBox's head honcho Dan Nadel, D&Q translator for Tatsumi Jocelyne Allen, and Udon's Erik Ko-- and was moderated by The Beguiling/Comic212.net's Chris Butcher.

I don't remember feeling like I said anything super-insightful that day, but if you want to read a great recap of the conversation please see Deb's great report on About.com.

Another "Early Manga Days" essay (and pics from Tokyo) coming in the next day or two!

FRED SCHODT AWARD RECEPTION (WITH GOLD RAYS)

On June 26, I had the pleasure of being invited (along with my buddy Jenn Yin) to attend an award conferment ceremony and reception honoring the work of translator/author Frederik Schodt! Fred received the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, for his extensive work promoting Japanese popular culture in the United States. As anyone reading this blog knows, it'd be impossible to overstate the importance of Fred's work on the development of manga fandom outside of Japan. Fred's a generous and cool guy, and someone I deeply respect, so it was great to be a part of this event.

The award ceremony was held in San Francisco at the Official Residence of the Japanese Consul General, Mr. Yasumasa Nagamine. The award is given on behalf of the Japanese government, and signed by the Prime Minister and emperor. Check out the other wild & crazy folks to be awarded this, for some context. The full statement on Fred's work can be viewed on the Japanese Embassy site here [PDF].

The event was fancy but not as formal as I expected, featuring a number of speeches honoring Fred's work-- first as a translator, then later as an interpreter and finally (& most importantly) as a pioneering author introducing manga to English-speaking audiences. One crazy self-indulgent highlight for me was that Consul General Nagamine used an anecdote about Fred working as an interpreter at Sunkist headquarters that was straight from my long 2008 interview with Fred in Electric Ant #1!

The crowd there to honor Fred included his longtime translation partner Jared Cook, president of Tezuka Productions Takayuki Matsutani (who was super festive and flew over from Japan), Viz president Seiji Horibuchi, and assorted publishers & manga editors like Leonard Rifas (Educomics), Ian Robertson (Phoenix), Andy Nakatani (Pluto), Colin and Ron Turner (Last Gasp) and many others. In addition to drinks & dinner (YES), there were lots of interesting tidbits for us manga nerds. Like the fact that Blast's edition of Hideshi Hino's "Panorama of Hell" was the first ever non-flopped English manga publication. (Well, whatta ya know?)


Consul General Nagamine, Fred's nephew, Fia's son, Fred's lovely wife Fia, and Fred.


Obligatory nerdy fanboys shot of me & Jenn, with the older and cooler Fred & Fia.


And of course, no official award reception is complete without a band of old buds jamming out to Ue wo Muite and the Todai fight song..

For a video clip of Fred's band playing (with the Pres. of Tezuka Production singing, and the Consul General dancing), check out Jenn's post.

UPDATE: As I was writing this post, I saw that Fred has posted notes from the speech he gave on his site. Enjoy!

5 CURRENT FAVORITE BLOGS

A little different than my usual posts, I wanted to take a minute and shout-out the rad blogs that help me pass my days. If you enjoy Same Hat, you simply must give each of these a look, and add them to your RSS for continued perusal!

1. KURUTTA [LINK]

Kurutta is hands-down my current favorite blog on teh internet. I can't recommend it highly enough! Run by Nicke, my gay Swedish brother-from-another-mother, Kurutta follows a great posting style: weekly posts chock-full to the brim of media/photos/details on one specific topic. It doesn't hurt that Nicke's interest match up exactly with everything I'm into (and that Same Hat is all about): Jun Togawa, GISM, rare Tezuka artwork, Masaaki Yuasa's Mind Game and Seichi Hayashi pin-ups (along with other oddities).



Start with these posts: Maruo's punk covers, 50 yaoi shlongs, and Pinkman.
If you enjoy this: Imagination Takeover, a blog I found via Nicke all about Terayama Shūji and Tenjō Sajiki.


2. WASEDA RAMEN [LINK]

Nate (of Same Hat's Man in Japan posts!) is my best buddy from college and is currently living in Takadanobaba while working on his dissertation. He's been blogging extensively about all things Ramen while living near Waseda, (which is basically in Ramen Ground Zero in Japan). His mission is to document every shop in Takadanobaba (with numerous stops around Tokyo, in norther Japan, and even slurping noodles in mainland China).

On Waseda Ramen, each post is like a rad wikipedia entry of awesome, where he dissects the speciality at a particular shop-- often going into the nuances of the regional variety and noodle style served, ridiculous details on the store owners and clientele and lush, makes-me-so-hungry-I-wanna-bite-my-computer photos of the meals. Nate also peppers in lots of found photos, YouTube clips and keitai pics.

This is my go to site for all things Ramenology. I can't fucking wait to go visit him and hit some of his favorite shops.


Start with these posts: Yagura-tei (CRAZY SPICY!), Sado ga Shima (Niigata island ramen!), and Canned Ramen!!
If you enjoy this: Check out Nate's newest blog, RICE BALLS, which features short 2-line reviews of Onigiri from around the world. It's actually open to any contributor-- you guys should check it out and start posting!


3. TOKYO DAMAGE REPORT [LINK]

I've talked before about the greatness of Tokyo Damage Report, run by our buddy Schultz. TDR is my favorite in-country blog about Japan for a bunch of reasons, but the main one is that it's free from the self-obsessed, boring and often orientalist bullshit perspective of a lot of blogs about Japan by foreigners. Schultz doesn't forget that he's a white dude living abroad, but he's learned the language, lived there for years, been in Tokyo bands, and really knows his shit.

His blogging specialities include a guide to Tokyo (where I originally heard about Nakano Broadway!) metal and punk show reports, Japanese trade show photojournalism, fetish club and disco parties, and the occasional interview. He also created an unique Kanji-learning dictionary, which I recommend if you're past the intro levels in your studies.

Start with these posts: Security Trade Show, Unit 731 Walking Tour of Okubo, and 2008 Kawasaki Halloween Parade
If you enjoy this: Check out my friend Dan's lush photograpy-in-Tokyo blogs Fervor de Tokio and Street Level Japan. I also recommend Koenji Calling, a local scene blog run by a few Western punk girls living in Umezu's neighborhood.


4. BLONDE ZOMBIES [LINK]


Blonde Zombies is the most NSFW out of all the blogs mentioned here, but I assume that wouldn't scare any of you all away. "Crazy/Sexy/Cool Tumblr collection of weird shit" has become a major blog genre of its own, but Blonde Zombies goes a bit beyond that (and does it better than anyone else). One way to judge that kind of blog is by how much stuff you've already seen somewhere else before, and BZ is consistently showing me stuff I've never heard of.

Even the stuff I'm not into at least gets my synapses firing. Blonde Zombies' latest pre-occupations seem to be vintage porno mags, European horror comics and Russian pop album covers from the '80s.


Start with these posts: From the categories sidebar on the site: Zombies!, Euroterror!, and also early word processor Fangoria fanzines
If you enjoy this: Check out the like-minded Spanish grindcomics scans goldmine ERO-TRASH (The book Muerde is the best!) and the collection of exquisite Showa magazines and dirty pin-up clippings at Tokyo Girl


5. Michael Kupperman on Twitter [LINK]
This is not a "blog" per se, but it's one of the most constant sources of delight in my daily drudgery. Kupperman is not only a genius cartoonist (Tales Designed to Thrizzle 5 continues that trend, and the collected Tales 1-4 is out too!) but suited perfectly for the short and spontanerous (retarded?) madness of tweeeeting.

His speciality lately is random meme generation, such as "Star Trek Facts" and "Cool bands made Uncool". It's like free 140-character nuggets of comedic gold!


If you enjoy this: Check out British writer/actor Peter Serafinowicz, who was on Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Look Around You (and was the voice of Dark Maul!?). Peter rocks the Twitter right.

[PS: If you're so inclined and into RSS, you can follow my shared items via Google Reader at this link.]

END OF EROS BY JOSE-LUIS OLIVARES

[RSS readers, this post features galleries using PictoBrowser; Please click through to the blog to view them!]

Before we start the weekend, I wanted to post a quick suggestion for a hot MILFYTR. That is, a "Minicomic I'd Like For You To Read."

Cartoonist Jose-Luis Olivares and I met via Same Hat over email, and he was nice enough to send me a copy of his latest book. The comic is called End of Eros, and I highly recommend you guys check it out.

LINK HERE

End of Eros is a 32 page experimental comic, which tells a crazy but earnest tale of humanity, sex and the concept of a "melting pot" to the monstrous degree. The art is rad, and does some really interesting and subtle stuff with panels and layout. I really enjoyed this book.

Jose is a student at the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) and counts heta-uma masters King Terry and Takashi Nemoto among his influences. I also was feeling a definite Hedwig & the Angry Inch animations vibe in this work; Makes sense, since Jose said he'd seen the Hedwig production in Japan! He is currently interning with Drawn & Quarterly.

TCAF: THE GOODS!

As with any zine fest or comic con, the best moments of the experience come days later, back at home as you pore over all the trades and new finds from walking the aisles. I purposely avoided any books I could grab back home, like Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly books, and focused on new zines and minis from all over (and especially folks from around Toronto).

Here is a recap w/capsule reviews of the haul from TCAF 2009. [For previous TCAF posts, including a round-up of the event and all things Tatsumi, click here!]

+ Michael DeForge zines

I've talked about Michael a few times on here, but this was the first time I got my hands on paper copies of his zines. The three zines were Gags, The Seed Stirs, and another whose name I can't decipher. The books include a smattering of splash drawings, gags and experimental strips, and paneled comics. This young dude is scary talented, one of the most prolific and interesting artists working right now!

Check out more of his art on his site, King Trash.

+ Toronto comics newspaper zines


Courtesy of printmaker Jesjit Gill, I got my hands on these free (or damn near) newsprint comics zine. Jesjit organizes a new Toronto paper called "FREE DRAWINGS" which includes folks from all over Toronto flexing their chops. The right-most paper in this photo is from a groupd show by Jesjit, Michael DeForge and Steph Davidson called "Neighborhood Sacrifice". I found out from Jesjit that the price to print these is often just like 15 cents per copy!

I am working on a longer post for the EAZB just about newsprint comics and how they are the perfect format for 2009 recession community comics... I was really excited by these, both the format and the art.

+ Open Spaces, Closed Places #3 by saicoink

I put up a thing recently on my twitter, but OSCP by Saicoink is the perfect comic for folks that love Antique Bakery AND Suehiro Maruo (like me!). He style is influenced heavily by 60s and 70s romance manga, and her tale of high school love drama is hilarious and fun. I strongly recommend you check it out, the newest book is longer and perfect bound by hand :) (Saicoink also contributoed a great page to the body horror jam comic Electric Ant #2)

+ Ghana Movie Posters

From Buenaventura Press, this is a gallery catalog featuring hand-painted movies posters from Ghana, along with interesting essays about the industry and practice. It was a bit steep but worth it for repeated viewings.


+ The Good Samaritan by Shawn Cheng

A lovely and short mini by Shawn Cheng featuring what looks like hand-screened pages throughout. Shawn's style is super unique, and his color layering (on peach-paper!) adds a strange alien quality to what's a funny (and tragic) little tale. I also highly recommend his mini, The Would-Be Bridegrooms.

+ Remake by Lamar Abrams

I was recommend REMAKE by Lamar Abrams by my buddy Mickey, and was pumped to find it at the AdHouse booth at TCAF. I don't know much about Lamar, but this fucking crazy book is a great distillation of Japanese 4koma sensibilities with the best of Adult Swim style irreverence. The art gets tighter as the book goes on, but remains wild throughout. I highly recommend this.

+ Comics Comics #3 & #4

After following Comics Comics blog for a while, I finally got my hands on two issues of their comics crit/lit newspaper. Frank Santoro hooked me up with these directly, and it turns out that he is as chill annd generous in person as he is ferocious and knowledgeable in online postings. Comics fans have known about these papers (compiled by PictureBox's Dan Nadel, Tim Holder, Frank, and other friends) for a while, but it wasn't 'til reading the hard copies that I got what they are doing. These (along with some other newsprint publications mentioned here) really got my head spinning about the format. Also: Check out that article about Berserk in issue 4!

+ Never Learn Anything From History by Kate Beaton


I don't have much to add to the already loud chorus of folks in love with Kate Beaton's history webcomics. Aside from Bryan Lee O'Malley and Tatsumi, Kate was the belle of the TCAF ball-- I heard she sold out of 200 copies of this self-published book on the first day! Dizamn.

+ Wowee Zonk #1 and #2



As I'm working on issue 2 of Electric Ant, I've been thinking more and more about zines and collaboration. Wowee Zonk is a zine made by 3 friends (Chris Kuzma, Ginette Lapalme, and Patrick Kyle), which expanded to include comics by their friends in issue 2. Both issues are packed-full and interesting, but I was especially taken with #2, which was pretty dense with comics but in a lightweight tabloid format featuring newsprint interiors and a glossy cover. Toronto has a pretty fresh zine scene, and the Wowee Zonk crew especially is doing cool things. Check them out!

+ Rat Cliff by Andrei Georgescu, from Wowee Zonk #2


Special shout out to Andrei's totally badass comic. A knife through the neck of your homeroom teacher never looked so good.

+ College Type Funnies by Chris Kuzma & Patrick Kyle



More goodies from the Wowee Zonk crew, this feature a crazy short by Chris, and a longer tale of undead punk cred by Patrick. Yeah, I LOL'd

+ Beastlord by Chris Kuzma



Last thing from the Wowees, I grabbed this TMNT-meets-Frazetta mini from Chris. See more of Chris Kuzma's art on his personal site.

+ Amazing Facts... and Beyond! collection by Kevin Huizenga, Dan Zettwoch, and Ted May


A great collection of this weekly strip out of St. Louis. It runs in some alt-weeklies, but it's especially nice to get a super-dense mini of a few months' worth of comics in one package. Hilarious stuff.

+ Tramp and Stamp Postcard Series by Leif Goldberg and It's Sexy When People Know Your Name by Lisa Hanawalt


More expensive but worthy minis from Buenaventura. These screen-printed postcards are freakishly intricate and weird, while Lisa Hanawalt's mini was short and sweet. Lisa's pencil work is delightful and creepy, and I can't wait for a longer comic from her. She is also planned to take part in Electric Ant #2 (can't believe my luck!).

+ you are i am magic by Lark Pien


A lush and lovely mini from Bay Area comic maven Lark Pien. Her book featured effortless and pretty colors and textures, and a short and fantastical story-- a la a fanciful European children's book.

+ Michael Comeau's collage newspaper Parade of Humanity



Non-narrative, but taking advantage of the huge-ass newsprint format, I dug this dirty paper by Michael Comeau. It was only a few bucks from Koyama Press, and further cemented some weird ideas I had about the awesomeness of newsprint. Also, did I mention it's hella dirty?

Okay, that's the end of TCAF posts. I hope folks found some things they were digging in this post and take the time to get in touch with the artists. Here's to the next TCAF in 2011...

TCAF: THE BEGUILING!

This is the second-to-last post from my trip to Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) last weekend. I'll be putting one up later tonight with photos and capsule reviews of all the minis/zines from TCAF.

From my short time walking around Toronto, it because very clear that it's a comics and books-heavy town. Tons of used shops of different sizes and flavors flanked the University of Toronto campus, and I kept hearing about various cartooning events and shops carrying comics while I was there. Though I didn't make it to Magic Pony (gallery & shop), I did take time to make a pilgrimage to The Beguiling!



I'll go ahead and state my thesis up front: I think The Beguiling is the best comic shop in North America. While I did love Forbidden Planet in NYC, and Star Clipper in St. Louis is pretty great, I think The Beguiling takes the crown. Their closest competitor is the East Bay's massive and rad Comic Relief, which definitely bests The Beguiling in terms of sheer size and number of volumes.

The Beguiling felt different though, like it had been curated just to my tastes by someone with a strong love for the diversity of crazy shit out there. They had the most recent mainstream floppies on the racks, original prints by Mark Beyer, rare panel art for sale all over the walls, the biggest manga section I've seen (outside of Japan!), a treasure trove of minis and zines right by the front register, Spanish, French, and untranslated manga stacks, and a super helpful and knowledgeable staff. What more could you possibly ask for?

Here are a few photos from my visit:

TCAF posters past and present cover the front windows


Tintin guards the door, of what looks to be a converted Victorian house?


The Beguiling's Chamber of Secrets (aka, the minicomics & zine rack!)


Up front: my buddy Hellen Jo's excellent comic Jin & Jam #1 (go buy this!) and her earlier comic, Blister No.5.


What do we have hear? Copies of Electric Ant #1! Most were unsold, but thank you to the 4 brave readers who picked it up in Toronto.


And this was only about 1/3 of the store's manga selections.


The sign of a healthy shop... copies of Tokyo Zombie in stock!


French manga compilation, featuring a p-p-pretty rad contributor list.


French manga nerds got it better than us- the entire run of Taiyo Matsumoto's No. 5 was published there.


French edition of a Shin'ichi Abe book.


French edition of Akino Kondoh's manga Eiko (from our friends at Le Lezard Noir). Kondoh is featured in and on the cover of Top Shelf's upcoming AX Anthology Vol. 1.

I thought I took more pictures than that, but hopefully it gives a taste of the goodies within. Hats off to co-owners Peter Birkemoe and Chris Butcher on running such an excellent shop.

TORONTO COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL ROUND-UP!

As I mentioned last week, I decided this year to skip MoCCA and Comic Con and use that money to head to Canada for the Toronto Cartoon Arts Festival (TCAF). The festival is a bi-annual event featuring cartoonists from all over (and a preponderance of Canadians!).

The event is sponsored in part by The Beguiling, and the generous and nice Chris Butcher and Peter Birkemoe (co-owners of the shop) were running around the entire time to make sure things went smoothly. Interestingly, TCAF was held inside the Toronto Reference Library-- a public space with free admission and many non-comics folks doing their normal library business.

I headed out a little early on Thursday night, in order to have some time Friday before TCAF to explore Toronto. I left Sunday night, having gotten my fill of minis, panels, nerdity and meeting new people. Here is a quick, bulleted list of happenings (with a few additional posts to follow):

FRIDAY
+ Walked around Toronto on a Scott Pilgrimage, trying to locate Edgar Wright and the film production. I didn't have any luck, and was too lazy to walk to the house that is doubling as the exterior of SP & Wallace's house in the film (Thanks to Matt for the tips!). I did hit a bunch of book stores, and along the way saw the following notables from the comic:

Honest Ed's megastore

Casa Loma

+Visited the Beguiling, arguably the best comics shop in N. America. Their manga and comics selections weren't as expansive as Comic Relief (in terms of raw volume of books), but it felt curated precisely to my tastes-- with lots of international manga and zines! I'll put up a whole post about Beguiling finds this week.

+ Attended an event featuring Adrian Tomine interviewing Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I am devoting a separate post tonight to all my Tatsumi sightings and interactions during TCAF, and will share everything there!

SATURDAY
+Bought self-published comics and minis. There were lots of good finds to be had this year- I specifically avoided any book I could get back home (like from Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly). The best purchases of the trip were interesting newspaper zines, Remake by Lamar Abrams, and some new books by friends. I'll post pictures of the haul with recommendations too!

+Hung out in-person with new friends, like Saicoink and Michael DeForge. Both are awesome creators, and were super fun to tool around the show with. While visiting tables, ran into Electric Ant contributors Shawn Cheng, Derek Kirk Kim, Dash Shaw... and had a sighting of the fabled Shigacorn. I also spent a lot of time with manga master Jason Thompson, About.com's Deb Aoki, and my old Toronto buddies Vivian & Matt. NICE!

+Attended a few panels. The first was Perspectives on Global Manga, moderated by Deb and featuring a discussion with Bryan Lee O'Malley, Becky Cloonan, the Publisher at Udon, Antoine Dodé, and Jason Thompson about the influence of manga on their works.

O'Malley & Cloonan

DeForge and I also attended a panel moderated by the dude from Inkstuds featuring Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro, and some other dudes riffing on how "mainstream comics of the silver and bronze age have a relevance and impact on modern alternative comics," with lots of righteous discussions and images of Kirby, Ditko, and Steranko's work in the 1970s.

SUNDAY
+Spent a few hours getting my Autograph book signed. I forgot or didn't get up the nerve to ask a few folks, but I was really pleased with the new additions. Check them out at this post.

+Lots of last minute purchases, and said congrats to the 2009 Doug Wright Award winners: Matt Forsythe (Ojinbobo), Seth (I did not actually say congrats to him, but was tempted to steal his fedora which I saw laying backstage at an event), and Kate Beaton (Never Learn Anything From History).

+IN SUMMARY: TCAF was a really rad show, with free admission and a strong emphasis on engaging the Toronto community. While I dug MoCCA last year, I'm super glad that I skipped it (and SDCC) to make this trip happen. Many kudos to Chris Butcher and the entire Beguiling/volunteer corps. crew for pulling together so many indie creators and international cartoonists in one spot. I'll definitely be there for the next one, in 2011.

THE REST OF THE POSTS (AND PICS/VIDEOS) COMING VERY SOON!