Comicsgirl

At some point late in the third battle last night at The Red Palace, Super Art Fight co-creator and co-host Ross Nover remarked, “My mom wanted to know why she couldn’t come to the show tonight.”

Of course, considering this was taking place in a bar and featured burlesque dancers in between battles, it’s unlikely anyone in the audience had any illusions this was supposed to be a family-friendly event. But Nover was more reacting to the inherent unpredictability of Super Art Fight. Anything goes, after all, and the more ridiculous the drawings, the better.

Super Art Fight, as the name would suggest, pits two artists against each other in a drawing competition. They have 25 minutes to out draw the other and win over the audience, who then picks the winner (the artist that gets the most cheers wins). The battle starts with each competitor declaring a starting topic and every five minutes new ones are introduced by the Wheel of Death. Submitted to the Super Art Fight website, they’re usually preposterous, ranging from “Godzilla’s Sexy Cousin” and “Marty McSuperfly.”

Nover, along with fellow host Marty Day, kept the action moving. They have a teasing and affable rapport with each other and are always willing to just keep making jokes. Their reactions are part of what make the show so great — they have the perfect combination of quick wits and bafflement about what they’re seeing being drawn and really pull the audience into the action. (Nover also treated the audience to a rendition of Vanilla Ice’s “Ninja Rap” from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle II. I would love to tell you it made sense at the time — although, it almost did — but mostly, it was impressive he remembered as much of it as he did.) [It has been pointed out to me that this was actually Partners in Kryme’s "T-U-R-T-L-E POWER" from the first movie. I am behind on my TMNT knowledge, obviously. Or blocked most of the movie out of my memory. One or the other.]

Last night’s first battle featured Dann Malihom (who dressed as a ninja) and Kelsey Wailes (who wore a cardboard robot mask). Their starting topics were, appropriately enough, ninjas and robots. These two were probably the most competitive with each other, crossing over into the other’s side early in the battle. Wailes turned Malihom’s ninja into a robot and he turned her robot into a ninja. The battle initially ended in a tie until a recount (er, rescream?) declared Malihom the winner.

While most competitors do come from a comics background (many participants in Super Art Fight also make web comics), Darl Gnau has a background in tattooing. He was the challenger to Nick Borkowicz in the second battle. Their starting topics were Frankenberry and Yummy Mummy. That clearly almost immediately got weird, especially as soon as the first Wheel of Death topics — “Sadshark” and “Your Mom” were announced. I think all you really need to know about this battle is that a fetus Frankenberry with a machine gun was drawn at one point. Gnau was the winner.

The third round and main event was between Super Art Fight veterans Brandon J. Carr and Jamie Noguchi. While the first two battles were plenty of fun, this one was the most entertaining. Their starting topics were “Mother” and “Father.” After a Danzig joke was made, Noguchi took “Mother” to mean the album cover the song was from instead of anything more appropriate. Carr, for his part, drew Homer Simpson to represent “father.”

Their experience really showed and they were quick to adapt to comments from the hosts as well as Wheel of Death topics. Upon being given “Dracula at the beach,” Noguchi drew a few scattered dots and declared he was done. But the vampire theme continued throughout, as various drawings were given bat wings and fangs. Carr, after misplacing his original markers, somehow managed to have multiple colors instead of just the traditional red and black, and he used them to delightful effect. In the end, Noguchi won, but only by .1 decibels.

But really, even with winners being declared, the competition aspect feels pretty secondary to how much fun this whole thing is to watch. If you don’t think spending two hours in a bar watching people draw silly things on wall-sized pieces of paper, Super Art Fight will prove you wrong.

I posted a bunch of photos to Facebook. If you’re in them, feel free to tag yourself.

Currently, Super Art Fight is primarily based in Baltimore, but does perform at various cons along the East Coast. There will be a show on Aug. 20, so if you’re in Baltimore for Baltimore Comic-Con, it’s worth checking out (I realize it will probably conflict with the Harvey Awards, but still …).

I think I’ve actually been to the VA Comicon before. Or at least, I’m pretty certain I’ve been to some comic book show in this very hotel (but that was at least 15 years ago, if not longer). It all seemed very familiar.

I wouldn’t really define this as a con, personally, but I suppose they can call it whatever they want. It’s one room of people selling comics — mostly back-issue type stuff, but a few small press people.

Small press people including, of course, AdHouse Books, which is mostly why I went (I figured if I wasn’t going to MoCCA — I couldn’t exactly afford it and it seemed like a hassle — I should still get to have some comics-related fun). I make no secret of my love for AdHouse. I love the diversity of books AdHouse publishes — even if they’re not all going to be to my taste, I know they’re going to be intriguing and original. Publisher Chris Pitzer just obviously loves comics and that shows in the books he releases.

So yeah, I basically just went there to see Pitzer and pick up some AdHouse books and to drop off some copies of Magic Bullet #2 for distribution in Richmond (the people behind the registration table looked at me a bit strangely when I asked if there was a freebie table, then eyed the copies suspiciously. It’s a comic newspaper! It’s cool!).

I tried to hand-sell Remake to two different people. The first young teenage boy wearing a Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie, so I figured he was the target audience for this comic. But he seemed a little put-off by my insistence and ran off with his friend. Then we tried to sell it to a young woman by telling her “It’s like Scott Pilgrim!” After she informed us she didn’t like Scott Pilgrim, I said “It’s better than Scott Pilgrim!” I failed there, too. (It’s not like there was anything in it for me — it’s not my comic. I just like Remake. Sadly, Remake Special wasn’t ready for this show).

I wandered the rest of the show a bit, but it wasn’t that big (about what I expected) and mostly various back issues. Since I just cleaned out a bunch of comics and I’m not a collector anymore, there wasn’t anything in particular I was looking for. But I like shows like this. I liked the few people who actually came in costume. After all, I grew up here, and while Richmond is a different and cooler place than it used to be (or at least, that’s my sense of it), I also know it’s not always easy to find where you fit. If there’s a sense that other people like what you do, that can go along way.

Would I go out of my way to go to this show again? Probably not, but it worked out nicely that I got to go.

I don’t think this event had an official title, and I don’t blame the participants for this, but I do think it could have been organized a bit better. It was also sadly under-attended.

And while those sound like complaints, I think the informality of it actually worked to this event’s advantage. It felt more like a group of friends hanging out and talking about comics.

Brooklyn-based Christopher Cardinale gave his presentation first. He started by giving his background — he collaborates in communities around Brooklyn to create murals — and has been featured in World War 3 Illustrated magazine as well as defunct Punk Planet. If these things aren’t an indication, he’s someone who uses his art as activism.

His recent full-length comics work, Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush (Cinco Puntos Press, 2010) is based on a short story by Luis Alberto Urrea. Most of his presentation was about the visual research his did for the book.

Cardinale said he started out just drawing sketches based on Urrea’s words and his own memories of when he lived in Mexico, but at a certain point, he decided he needed to go to the town, Rosario, in which the story is set. Urrea’s uncle still lived there, but he could only provide Cardinale with his nickname. The town was small enough that Cardinale was eventually able to find this uncle who helped show him around the town.

Mostly, Cardinale spent time taking photos (many of which he showed) and sketching areas of the town. Since the main characters in the book were teenagers, he convinced a few teens in the square to let him draw their portraits (although the kids wanted to keep them when he was done). He also sought out photos from the time period the story is set — the 1960s — from Urrea’s family.

He showed some comparisons of his early sketches — the way he imagined things — versus the reality. The most striking was a bridge that runs through the town. Cardinale initially pictured it as a small, mostly wooden bridge. The actual bridge was large and concrete.

He finished his presentation with a recording of Urrea reading from the story, accompanied by art from the comic.

Matt Demicki talked about Trickster (Fulcrum Publishing, 2010) next. The project came about after he’d read a Native American trickster story in an anthology and decided to illustrate it. He thought there might be something to the concept, so he began reaching out to Native American storytellers. He looked for balance — he wanted a broad range of tribes as well as trickster characters.

After each storyteller submitted his or her story, he began pairing the stories up with artists, although he was careful to make sure that each storyteller was happy with the artist.

It wasn’t necessarily an easy project. One storyteller did decide to not participate, even after artist Gokhan Okur had already created pages for it (you can see them here). Others didn’t want to write their stories down due to Native American storytelling being such an oral tradition (in those cases, Dembicki would transcribe the stories).

Dembicki mentioned there wasn’t too much resistance overall to the comic format. Some tribes actually thought it was a great way to preserve the stories since the oral tradition was dying out, and it made storytellers like Hawaii’s Thomas Cummings Jr. more interested in the comics format.

Dembicki then tried to play Joseph Stands With Many reading his story, which was featured on NPR, but Busboys & Poets’ wifi was having none of it (this is a common occurrence, really). You can watch it at NPR.com, however.

After that, Jacob Warrenfeltz and Michael Auger talked about their role in the book.

Warrenfeltz said in his comics he’s drawn a lot of people and cities (and I think he probably mentioned motorcycles in there too) but not too many animals. He liked the chance to be able to do so. He said that many writers give him fairly formal scripts, breaking down each panel, and that he sometimes feels like a “monkey with a pencil.” This project wasn’t like that, however — he was given a two-page short story to work from and so he found the process liberating. He also praised Dembicki as an “idea guy” and that he’s always happy to participate in whatever project he has going on.

Auger was brought into the project late after some things fell through. His background is more in illustration and children’s books and no so much comics. He did say, unlike Warrenfeltz, he traditionally draws animals, so he did think this would be an easy fit. However, his story actually ended up not having too many of them. Still, there wasn’t much dialogue so his approach wasn’t too different from how he tackles children’s books.

Due to the bad wifi connection, Dembicki didn’t get a chance to talk about the process for the cover, but Fulcrum Publishing has a whole entry about it. While I agree that Peter Kuper‘s initial design is striking, I think the eventual cover (which features Warrenfeltz’s art) is much more evocative.

After that, the artists signed books and the Busboys and Poets staff began to put the pressure on everyone to get out (they had another event to set up for).

The event was sponsored by the books’ publishers and Teaching for Change.

Full disclosure: I know both Matt Dembicki and Jacob Warrenfeltz.

I’m not feeling too creative about post titles today, but it has a nice symmetry with the one from Friday, at least.

SPACE was pretty great overall. I liked the broad range of exhibitors, from young and old, from established creators to newcomers. It also felt very welcoming and I felt a good sense of community. The exhibitors all seemed excited to see each other and to get to spend time together.

Now while I’m not an exhibitor at these sorts of shows, I know plenty of creators so I do benefit and enjoy the hanging out aspect. But I think if you’re just a general attendee, SPACE probably isn’t big enough to fill up your entire weekend. Although I’ve heard mixed things about sales, I do know exhibitors who did well this year and usually do fairly well at this show. I have nothing to compare this year to since I’ve never gone before, but while it never packed, there seemed to be consistent attendee traffic most of the time I was there. (People wondered if the conflict with C2E2 mattered but I don’t know if anyone came up with a conclusion. I bet there will be more discussion of that in the next few days.)

The hotel itself is fine — pretty clean and spacious and maybe it’s a Midwest thing, but the drinks at the hotel bar were cheap (but I’m used to DC-area drink prices so maybe I don’t have a good comparison). Yes, there was some amusement over the other groups in the hotel (hunters and beef farmers, apparently) but everyone behaved themselves. As far as I know.

I do have to complain about the area, though. I know many factors go into why events like this are held where they are and I completely understand why SPACE would have to be there, but it is fairly isolated. I didn’t have my own transportation and the nearest major grocery store was about a mile and a half away. I don’t think the neighborhood is particularly dangerous, but there’s just not much around there.

If I go back next year, I’ll just be better prepared.

I took some photos of the, er, fun on Saturday night, which I may put up on Facebook and/or Flickr, but I completely forgot to take any photos of the show itself. Rafer Roberts has a few on Flickr (including one of me intently studying my bottle of Mexican Coke) and Matt Dembicki has others on his site, including a few from the pre-party at Packrat Comics.

Overall, I’m very happy I went. I’m very excited to dig through the comics I bought and I came away with a couple of new friends. I’d say it was pretty much a success.

I’m finished packing and ready to head out to Columbus, Ohio, for Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo. I was looking for some shows I hadn’t been to and were different from my general Mid-Atlantic tour.

Still, money is an issue, so that quickly began ruling things out (one of these years, I’ll make it to Stumptown Comics Fest, I swear). But Ohio didn’t seem to far off and the list of exhibitors had some old favorites and some creators who don’t seem to go out to the East Coast too often, so it seemed like a good idea.

So I enlisted my friend Timothy Lantz to come along and suggested he get a table (it’s not necessarily his scene or crowd, but he knows a few people who do exhibit there every year). It will be great to see him for an extended length of time.

Yes, I know everyone else is going to C2E2 and while it wasn’t an option for me, really, I’m still happy to be going to SPACE.

If you’ll be there, I’ll likely be hanging around Tim’s table quite a bit. Otherwise, I’ll be buying and reading comics and the sorts of things people do at shows like this.

I will probably be updating throughout on Twitter and Facebook, but I’ll have something up here no later than Monday evening.

It will be a fun vacation. And will continue my tradition of visiting places and really only seeing the inside of a hotel/conference center.