Monday, March 30, 2015

RIPExpo 2015

Angela got to run around RIPExpo 2015 on Saturday in Providence, RI. It was a blast. She traded with and met cool people. Check out the cool stuff she brought home!



So let's have Angela talk about some of the cream of this crop.

The Boy in Pink Earmuffs in Miss Priss Is Missing by Jay Fuller is incredibly adorable. The story comes from the web comic about a couple of 10-yr old boys making a ruckus, who also happen to be in love. So freaking cute. Clean confident line work. Ridiculous and funny stories. Adding this to my web comic reading. Plus, this comic has a pink cover, and the web comic is black, white, gray, and pink!



Here are two comics by Joe DeGeorge. I love them both. Owl Babies is an insane mock children's book and it is nuts. It is a modification of a real children's book by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson. Looks like he used that old style label maker to change and add text to turn it from normal kid's book to actually funny story. Then there's The Impractical Mushroom Forager's Handbook with so many happy mushrooms. Unfortunately for you, this book does not appear to be for sale online yet. I adore this book. Fairly accurate ink illustrations but all the mushrooms have smiley faces. Obviously, I wont use it for foraging, but I will use it for identification when the snow is gone and mushrooms are visible again.



Milk Pants by Amanda Scurti is ridiculous and I love it. Great art and humor. This is a book of illustrations she did based on snippets she heard on the TV while channel surfing. I love drawings f ridiculous things in a realistic style. I am going to go devour more of Amanda Scurti's work. There seems to be a lot of it, for which I am grateful.



I can't skip over the new work by Manvir Singh. I met him at MICE 2014 and was pleased as punch to see him at RIPExpo with a new book, Death & Rabbits. It is literally a zine with illustrations of rabbits and death deities on facing pages. There's even an index of the rabbit species and deities at the back. So cool. Again, your loss. I can't find a link to it online. Though you can get The Evolutionists' Doodlebook.



Feelings by Erin K. Wilson is a grin/frown sandwich. I smiled stupidly the first couple pages, frowned in understanding, then finished off with a stupid grin again. Just lovely. These appear to be autobio comics. Her art is confident and relaxed. I'll take whatever comic sandwich Erin will throw my way in the future.



I read Who is Amy Ameoba? a few years back and it has been rattling in my head since. Well, I finally got to meet the creator, Jason Viola. He is pretty nice. I was jabbering of course because the comic fumes were starting to get to me. But he had other stuff at his table. For some reason, I didn't get an Amy Amoeba book. But I did get the fantastic Fear of Flowers Beautiful and informative. He also had a collection of comics, Heart Farts, he created with his wife, Rebecca Viola, and her friend, Cara Bean. Awesome. I loved it. And one of then was part of an applied cartooning symposium here at CCS last year! I missed it! Drat. Oh well.



Back on the West coast a few years ago, at Short Run, I heard Georgia Webber talking about her series, Dumb, about when she lost her voice. And now there are 5 issues out! So I have them all now, of course. So exciting. She was great to talk to.



Last but not least, I finally got a copy of Junior by Luke Howard. Freaking sweet. This is from his CCS thesis project, I believe. I read it over winter break and it blew my mind. I just love it. Up there with I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura. Great art style, great pacing, great story telling. I really felt all the characters. Next I have to get a copy of the rest of his thesis in How to Be Shapes.



Well, those are my favorites. That's not even everything. There was other good stuff in the pile. Sheesh. Some talented people over here on the East coast. And yes, most of these photos feature either my cat, Nermal, or my dog, Ernie.