The roadtrip was fun and the con itself was very interesting. APE Con is affiliated with the San Diego Comic con, and it is the Alternative Press Expo.
I was excited to meet some of my favorite web comic artists, including Derek Kirk Kim ( Lowbright ) , Jason Shiga ( Fleep ) , Lark Pien ( Long Tail Kitty ) , and Joshua Hale Fialkov (Western Tales of Terror).
Derek Kirk Kim @ APEcon 2005
They were really cool, and I was able to repay them for their great free web comics by purchasing some neat stuff. Jason Shiga even tossed in a free graphic novel !(longest transaction in history).
I attended two of the panel discussions. The first was by Deni Loubert of Novelgrafx.com , a company that plans to bring comics to cellphones. Interesting stuff.
The second was "Secrets of Self Publishing". I'm afraid I can't tell you what was discussed, but the panel was good. I really want to check out Javier Hernandez's El Muerto.
I was a bit dissappointed by how so much of the self published stuff looked the same. The 3 common motifs were robots, kittens, and cephalopods in pastel colors. I guess I fall into many of the same trends, so I shouldn't judge. It's just striking how you can feed a generation of creators the same pop culture and most will invariably produce the same kinds of comics and illustrations.
Still, there were plenty of stand out artists, and I collected samples of lots of interesting stuff. I'm glad I went, and I hope to have a project of my own for next year's APE con.
Webcomics, short stories, and more @ cartercomics.com
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