No, not like Bill Gates or Stephen Hawking. I’m going to the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in Columbus, Ohio. As the name implies SPACE is a gathering of folks that are interested in small press comics. A large portion of these works are printed in exceedingly small runs, sometimes barely capping a thousand prints, which is downright tiny when you get down to it.
The main reason I’m going is the fact that it is pretty much the only comics convention that Cerebus creator Dave Sim attends anymore. And I am a huge fan of Cerebus. In fact, I have three tattoos of Cerebus characters. When I showed my tattoo of Cerebus as pope to Sim the last time I saw him at SPACE he was a little weirded out, to be honest.
I’m a little apprehensive about seeing Sim again. I’ve been reading his blog lately, and the man has become even more peculiar in recent years. And that is truly saying a lot about a man that when he was just 21 started a project that was slated to last for the next 26 years. Prior to Cerebus the longest running independent comic was Elfquest, and that only made it through a couple dozen issues. Cerebus ran for 300. Another anomoly was the fact that Sim made it clear early on that Cerebus would die in the last issue, and he meant it. Unlike the death of Superman or the recent death of Captain America, Cerebus will not rise from his grave anytime soon.
I’m also looking forward to finding some new comics to read. Since a lot of these comics have the aforementioned tiny runs they never appear in comic shops, at least, not in comic shops near me. And I like the frequently offbeat nature of the storylines, and the lack of editorial restraint available to self-publishers. Of course, the down side to all of this, is the fact that once I find a cool title it’s a bear to find any more of them, assuming that more of them ever get written or printed. But that’s a chance I’m happy to take.
I’ll post on some of my finds next week.
Tune in tomorrow for some more comics related geekdom and maybe still more aardvarks.
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