Staple 2009!!!!

!!!!!!!
Originally uploaded by less like math

Oh dear readers,

What a crazy weekend. For simplicity's sake we'll just say that it was all around amazing. Friday night was uneventful in the traditional sense but I did get to take a bath in a HUGE bathtub which is not my normal bath situation. My back is still giving me a lot of trouble so laying in a bathtub that makes you feel like a baby and reading comics and eating good food and sleeping a really long time was exactly what was called for.

moving on to what you all came to hear:

Saturday Summer, Jen, Paul, Braedyn and I went to Staple!!!! It was seriously, seriously THE MOST fun. There were lots of great comics and zines and great makers of comics and zines. I discovered a couple of new favorites. Namely Meaghan Rosales, whose comics I completely adore. I bought one of her mini books and now wish I would have picked up a couple more. She has a smart, wry, self deprecating sense of humor that is immediately infectious and her loose, personal drawing style is completely endearing. She is also, by chance, the girlfriend of my friend and ex-BP co-worker Manfred. So, that's cool too. I also discovered and really liked Neil Brideau. His characters are AMAZING! Lots of robots and animals and big-eyed children. He has a scratchy, frenetic, dense drawing style that makes me want to spend a lot more time with my pens and his stories are funny and sweet and weird and just great great great. I also especially liked him because he traded me one of his comics for a page out of my sketchbook. TRADESIES!!!!!!! ilovetrading!!!!

but it doesn't stop there:
Jeffrey Brown was in attendance so we got to see him speak and we got to meet him and he drew us some pictures and he signed our books and he talked to us a lot and he was incredibly nice and personable and exactly what you want people whose work you really like and respect to be like, should you ever meet them in person.

the crowd to see him speak was pretty small, by anyone's standards. that did mean that there was a lot of time for questions and instead of shying away like I normally would in that kind of situation I went ahead and asked my question. Two of them actually. But not before Braedyn, whose hand was in the air as soon as they opened the floor to questions. His question to Mr. Brown?

Braedyn: "Do you like monsters?"
J. Brown: "Yes.....i mean, kind of.......sometimes. Unless they're really scary. I mean, no.....monsters aren't real. Is that what I should say?"

Hilarious. Braedyn and Jeffrey Brown also talked at some length about how Braedyn is an artist and the value of keeping a sketchbook and also a little about Transformers. He signed my copy of Little Things, which as per my awesome plan, I gave to Paul. He's been reading it on my suggestion and REALLY liking it. It is the first autobiographical graphic novel he's ever read so it's not just like discovering a new author/artist you like, it's discovering a whole new genre. I totally remember that feeling and how life changing it seemed. I don't really know how much it ACTUALLY changed my life but it sure seemed like it was going to. It's a nice feeling to get to introduce someone you really like to something you know they're going to really like. The people who first introduced me to all of my favorite comics are so so so important to me (Summer Anne!!), and it's great to get to be that for someone else.

It was such a great way to spend a Saturday. More than anything it was just inspirational to see all of these great people writing and drawing their stories and then just getting them out into the world. It's easy to forget the the only things you really need to publish yourself are a copy machine, a stapler, and something to put down on paper. It's nice to be reminded of that. So, thanks Staple, thanks comics, thanks Jeffrey Brown. Maybe by this time next year I'll have my own table.

*gulp*