I Am All Over This Year's SPX

The schedule or programming for this year's Small Press Expo was announced a week ago, and in case you haven't looked it over yet, please be advised that it's got a lot of Cates.



(That's my collection of "VIP" badges from past SPXes. The "VIP" badge is the one you get if you aren't an exhibitor but are a part of the programming. There are no perks—no special limo, luncheon, or lounge—but you don't have to pay to get in to the show, which is nice. Drawings by Kevin Huizenga, David Heatley, and Jay Hosler, if I remember right.)

I'll be joining Bill Kartalopoulos and my co-editor Ken Parille for "A Conversation About Dan Clowes" at 2:00 on the 11th. We'll mostly be talking about Clowes's post-Eightball work of the past few years, including the recent book Wilson.

At 1:00 on the 12th, I'll be talking with Marc Singer and James Sturm about "Teaching Comics." That is, we'll be talking about teaching a course on comics; I presume we probably won't be talking about educational comics or comics about teaching.

And later on Sunday afternoon (at 3:00), I'll be moderating a panel on autobiographical alternatives to the memoir, with Jesse Reklaw, Vanessa Davis, Sarah Becan, and Gabrielle Bell.

Wow, that's a lot to do — I hope I'll also have some time to shop for minicomics! I haven't been to a small-press show in more than a year, so I be there are some good new things out there that I won't know about until I see them. You can expect a report from the field.