BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS 2012!!

Hello, this is my third year checking out this con, first time tabling. It’s always made me very happy. As a weirdo multimedia artist, the whole ~*~GRAPHICS~*~ part makes me feel very included. Also, I find it to be a unique (and mangeable) crowd comprised of creative, innovative types that cultivate excitement and smart discussion. I tabled with some truly inspirational humans, check all them out at Crystal Club. Overall I felt warmth and acceptance, which is something I haven’t been feeling in the other places I inhabit. I drifted around person to person like a happy cloud.

fig. 1 Things I want to talk about: 

dw- Did you know Mr. Kid Clampdown draws on graph paper? Well it’s true, I know because I own an original now. I should’ve bought his new print, it’s beautiful, but I don’t have the space or ability to display nice prints right now. His intricate line work makes sense as a layered color print.

Foe Books- Do you know what makes sense? Printing dithered, black and white dot compensated images as a beautifully composed and considered book. Laura Brothers’ work makes for a brilliant optical experience. Books like this prove that printed material does not have to fear digital process, and needs to embrace its potential. 

JUNG/FRANKENSTEIN- Daniel Newman and Mike Taylor put together an eclectic, sort’ve sketch-book book. I enjoy looking at it and consulting the title key page in the front. I can tap into their thinking a bit, like a name plate in a gallery without the sterility. Mike’s really smart, we tabled next to his (Providence corner I guess) he asked me some really insightful questions, I wish I got to pick his brain more.

John Pham- Holy shit, I feel like you all know who John Pham is already, but I fucking didn’t, why didn’t you tell me!? I instantly gravitated to Scuzzi and Super Toy and bought them on the spot. Looking at them gives me the same overwhelming, detailed vintage sci-fi boner I got from Stray Light Gray. He told me he’s an animator too, I wanna see that. He also gave me a zine of drawings and optical lines that utilizes the transparency of the page and the subtlety of off-pink, day glo orange and green to create some beautiful effects. If I was a judge on the panel for the Risograph awards…I’d probably…I don’t know… 

Anthony Cudahy- For Thirst really captures the feeling of trying to squeeze water from a stone. That’s kind’ve what I took from his newest zine. His dusty, light drawings and drifting subjects don’t allow you to feel presence. He creates subtlety that’s internally refreshing. 

2013- Kathrina’s an amazing person of multiple talents. Their calendar is such a treat, each month is another comfy scuzz world I love inhabiting and relating to. There’s even a menstrual chart! That’s SOOO useful!!

Kawaii- I love seeing Slow Youth’s take on the Kawaii theme. I’m really glad they didn’t sacrifice their graphic style for the sake of their theme. They did an excellent job on layout and color consideration, it’s a fantastic art-object. 

THICKNESS 3- Thickness 3, Thickness 3. That is all. No, oh my gosh, I’m so happy to own this now. I didn’t think it could get sexier, HOW DID IT GET SEXIER? Maybe ‘cause it’s noticeably more queer this time around and that’s more arousing to me. But holy shit, it’s also brutally, beautifully, fetishistic. Psyched about the inclusion of Tagame and Burkholder. The printing is spot-on and clever. Best contemporary presentation of porn comics.

Eye of Horus- Alabaster’s new zine combines the golden age of illustration (particularly Beardsley), Egypt, and a healthy layer of scuzz to create something fantastic and refreshing. I think Allie might be in a class of her own. 

In the Up Part of the Wave- Lala Albert’s work as this giant printed newspaper is just serene. The sea colors with the pink is gorgeous. The compositions are like an Ito manga if Ito knew how to be graceful. I love her gross alien face stuff, but I found this zine to be particularly enriching.  

fig. 2 Stuff I love in ways I’ve already explained a bunch (wait I love Pixel Dog so much I forgot to get Zach Hazard’s new zine)/stuff I haven’t been able to process

fig. 3 CRYSTAL CLUB TABLE! DAILEN! ROCK ON!

fig. 4 Excited trades I’m excited about from Emely B. (Kanye Tamagotchi), Pete Toms, Alex Degen (This zine is 2 pages and it’s the funniest thing I’ve consumed in a while, the humor is on par with Serafinowicz/Popper, my comedic heroes. AD: funniest dude in comics), Katbus Brawl, Aleks Sennwald, Kat Fajardo, Kim Te/Katbus/Meg/Me (friendship zine), BMFU (the killer collection), Geoff (he pulled a comic out of nowhere, isn’t that great?), James McShane (Fun Fact: James loves horror manga just as much as any of us nards!), and Slongo.

Well I basically made a tiny bit more than I paid for the table, but it’s fine, I just wanted to trade, and as you can see I made out like a bandit. I love everyone though, stuff like this challenges me in just the right way. Hope to see physical manifestations of everyone again soon. Be sure to check me out in upcoming editions of Happiness, Throat and Jeans. Also I’m having another installation at Purchase in a couple weeks?! I know, I dunno.

xoxolivia

NEW YORK ART BOOK FAIR REPORT (Printmaking Now #3)

I stopped in to the fair today, I was exhausted and unprepared and felt like a putz, but it was the only time I could go. Boy has this fair grown! I was sick in the hospital last year, but past years it was only indoors. Wow! I’ve always liked this fair, perhaps because I have a nostalgic soft spot for PS1, but I also like seeing a book fair in a gallery space because the vendors can really claim the walls. Some exhibitors become installations which is very fun to walk through. 

I was most excited to see and pick up some of Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe’s Stray Light Grey [I wrote about them previously]. I’m so excited that Marlborough Chelsea was giving away newspaper sized zines of Freeman/Lowe’s stuff. For free! For the populous! They’re full of beautiful pictures of their fake books. It’s incredible. The gallery was also selling the original books (which are full of original collages) for $15,000 a shelf. Isn’t that insane?! I love that idea, Marlborough Chelsea is apparently rebranding themselves with a crop of younger artists. I think they’ll do great. 

Electronic Arts Intermix is another art organization I think is really great. I have a few of their cards from maybe like the 07-08 Fair (I have an awesome Secret Project Robot book from that time too, but I digress) so I was really excited to have new video artist trading cards haha. They’re showcasing some of their video archive at the Dia:Beacon right now too, I’m totally gonna hit that up. Also the lady at the table was really nice about letting me know their archive is available to the public. Isn’t that great? 

Sad Sex is now a book! I think Desert Island made a great choice making Heather Benjamin the first of their own published books. The book was smaller than I thought it would be, but it fits the nature of the original zines. I also got a free pinup with it so I’m thrilled. Desert Island was also selling some of those experimental offset books Lederniercri puts out. I was really tempted to buy the Sekitani one, but I wasn’t ready to make a big purchase. I should’ve though, I could’ve echoed my samehat posts from 2 years ago. I should’ve bought it, will one of you get it for me??

I found a table for some sort of Japanese publisher and picked up Boundary by Takahiro Murahashi. It’s a series of layered, figural, collage cutouts in the tradition of Matisse. They’re beautiful to look at in printed greyscale form. Guse Ars is his printing collective, looks like he puts out a lot of nice stuff.

I managed to pick up the Showpapers for Michael DeForge and Takashi Murata, two of my favorite artists, two completely different worlds. Boy, Showpaper does a fantastic job.  

Make sure to make down to PS1 this weekend guys! It really is worth going, and if you don’t go now the fair might explode from expansion. There’s also a lecture series now? I wish I could go, but I have to work. Be sure to check out the Purchase College table too, I don’t have anything there, but great people from my school do! Rock on!!

EDIT: 

AHHH SCOTT HUG TOO! HE’S GREAT. Hell to Pay is great black and white collage fun. I really wanted to pick up the shirt from his fake celebrity captions series. I saw his work randomly in a group show featuring the likes of Jack Early and Heather Benjamin. It was called B-out, but here’s a picture:

I thought it was brilliantly curated and told him so, then he told me he curated it!

At SPX I made sure to only buy/trade for things I really wanted, so I’ve been thoroughly enjoying everything I picked up, but I wanted to highlight a few.

My picks and finds from SPX:

DOCTOPMARU – PTYTB I was pleasantly surprised to see Garrett’s stuff at the Slow Youth table. In a world of abrasive strangeness it’s refreshing to see some somber and quiet surrealism.

Hellen Jo – What a rad lady!! Both Last Letter and Deep Cut are works of emotional progression that utilizes the act of page turning in the best possible way. Zines will never die with people like Hellen around. Such a treat to see her and Calvin Wong on the east coast, and apparently they’re coming back for BCAGF! Yes!!

Hope So Funnies – Katbus Brawl, Nick and Colin are fun and weird and great. Try to find them somehow and get this zine. It’s got strange forms, paintings, and a beautiful, intricate centerfold by Katbus in between her fun, childlike panels. Check out her stuff on comicsworkbook too.

Decadence #9 – I love scooping up European comics when I can. This is an awesome anthology I’d never heard of so I grabbed it sorta overpriced from the Picturebox table. In particular I enjoyed seeing Lando’s Grecian and Pyramid laden work. Decadence is a really appropriate word for contemporary art. The stuff in this comic reminds me a lot of what’s going on with web and digital art right now.

JEANS – Why was this only 5 dollars? It’s large and has 2 different 3-layer screenprints in it, and they’re not just slap-dash, unregistered, whatever printing like many screened comics. It’s raunchy and weird and includes previous favorites AD and Leah. I hadn’t seen Amy Searles’ work before, but I’m a fan now after seeing her Kafkaesque pregnancy story.  

Nervenkrank: a Story about John Heartfield - I was surprised to see a realistic comic biography that has a lot of potential. John Heartfield was an important political figure in Dadaism that tends to get skimmed over a lot in art history. American creative audiences especially have a skewed notion that Dadaism was just a big fuck you to the art world when in reality it was a movement paved from war trauma and asylum. As someone who takes the history of collage pretty seriously, I’m happy Katherine K. Wirick’s making this book.

Neon Super Gladiator – I’m kind’ve embarrassed to say I wasn’t really familiar with Andy Kart’s work before this SPX. He has really great lettering and line work that sorta reminded me of Big Guy and Rusty, but when he saw my Taiyo Matsumoto shirt and my friend’s Tezuka shirt we struck up a conversation about manga. To my surprise he brought up Umezu as one of his favorite artists, so I had him draw him.

Hot Dog Beach #2 – YES! Lale Westvind is now an Ignatz award winner! She truly deserves “Upcoming Talent” she’s put together so much great work, I’ve only known of her since MOCCA, but she makes me really excited about comics. Look at the cover!! It’s photoshop collage weirdness without being too retro or too digital. She does so many things at once and does them all the right way. Also, if you’re a fan of how she draws the female body (which in my opinion is empowering as fuck) try to get ahold of Titus and the Cyber Sun.

Tiny Bangs – Speaking of empowering as fuck. Olivia Horvath’s work is smart stuff about sexuality and self-reflection. There are so many great still moments in Tiny Bangs, I relate to how the main character acts when they’re alone I think that introspection is a hard thing to capture. Olivia’s graceful watercolors work wonders. Pick up their stuff at BCAGF, I’ll be tabling with ‘em.

Two Eyes of the Beautiful – I’ve read this already, but didn’t own ‘em yet, I was going to talk about SF #2 but I SOMEHOW LOST IT. WHY. Anyway, Ryan Cecil Smith’s work has a special place in my heart. We have many of the same influences and he gets me thinking about how to incorporate those influences into my art. I don’t know if this is a point of contention, but this stuff is far away from fanart, and comparing it as such is detrimental to the comics-are-art cause. Working off of previous artists in this way is standard in the art world, like readymades to combines. If anything it’s appropriation, but I think that only applies to his SF supplements. I see it as an artist being upfront about his influences that have been in obscurity to western audiences for years. I look forward to reading the new Secret Prison when I have the cash. Oof.

I had a really fun time, I stayed with my best friend Kim who made that crazy Kim Jong-il X Putin screenprint (if we were awful global leaders we’d be them!). Thanks everyone and special thanks to my friend Robin for driving me. SPX was rad, great guests, not too much major stuff or silly bullshit. Definitely a more diverse crowd than MOCCA, these cons should make sure to keep attendance/table fees low as possible and they’ll do way better in the long run. I guess I’m gonna be writing more in this blog as I try to be more confident in what I have to say so sorry to subject ya’ll to that. Phew!