APE Adventures (I): Cornicopia of Wackies

Two weeks ago, I went to the Alternative Press Expo (APE) as a groupie for the Fleet Street Scandal table. I've been to the ginormous San Diego Comicon before, but this was my very first trip to APE. I got to meet a lot of really cool artists, some who I'd admired only by way of their internet persona, saw a lot of really cool work from people I'd never seen before, and had a great time seeing Kevin and Chris impress the socks off of their exponentially growing fan base with their crisp, new, self published book (and free mini print).

Overall, I enjoyed this convention a lot more than Comicon. It was in San Francisco, which I prefer to San Diego for many reasons (SD has a kick ass zoo and wild animal park, but walking with girafees only gets you so many bonus points... I think they lose those points for Shamu). APE was like seeing all the types of booths from Comicon that I like the best, the ones with cool indie stuff that I can't buy off Amazon or at my local comic book shop. I think because the space is a lot more affordable than Comicon, you see a lot of stuff that wouldn't make it to San Diego...

Here are some of the best, worst, and most bizarre booths I found during my first trip to APE:

Friends! (Old and Newly found)


Fleet Street Scandal


Vera Bee


Geegar (Lou Romano and his awesome friends)


Patrick Morgan


Scott C & Raz(Double Fine)


Leticia Lacy and Wednesday Kirwan



Totally Cutetowne


LEEZARDS!


(a little pricey though... little dolls at bottom were $100!!!)



This guy cheated his way into the cute catagory by bringing a baby


I bought a tiny ceramic owl from these folks.



Cool and Weird





I think I made this guy feel awkward

The following photos are pretty much an extremely boiled down version of what I expected to encounter at APE. There is a definite progression, kind of like looking at a diagram of different species and how they veer off from one another... or like looking at ingredients that make up a certain kind of soup... A comic nerd stew... or... oh whatever... you'll see... Let's begin with:

Indie Comic Staple Crop






A Pinch of Goth Nerds



Some Hip-Ho...Or... Um... Yep.

(I believe that the banner behind this guy says "BODE"- but is pronounced "bod-ee," since the e has a line over it... and check out the bodacious statue in front of him, in case you missed it at first glance...)

A Fist Full of Creepy


This guy made sure I understood he was not Jack Chick (see below).


Could've fooled me...

Notice there is a dude to the left, behind the standee on the table. I asked if I could take his picture at his booth, he said yes, but then sat there not looking at me at all but grinning like that the whole time. I think he earned his place in this section...




I think this guy was selling drawings of him copying other famous people's drawings. When I was in elementary school I think I drew a pretty nice copy of Goofy on some newsprint... Sadly, no one offered to buy that from me... I should've challenged this guy to a Goofy battle...

"E" for Effort, or "D" for Depressing?

Much Coffee Man? Possible side kick...
Much Stuff Crammed on Table Man?


I wonder if this guy made sure people didn't mistake him for SuperCon.
(Take that, Chick Tracts!)


This guy lives in Los Angeles County... hear that, LA-ladies?


Man-O-man... You think it's cheesy enough, and then they pose...

Last, but OMG! definitely not least...

Totally Gay!

This is not the end of my tale, but if you would like to see more photos in the interim between posts... Check out Kevin Dart's APE Photoblog...