APE brings the 2009 comic show tour to an end. Funny how it opens and closes in San Francisco for me. Wonder-Con in February, how long ago it seems, and strangely like yesterday. Maybe it’s something to do with the seasons in the City by the Bay. February is cool, but not bitter, at least not by Moscone (though it can be bone-gnawingly cold on the Bridge or at the end of Geary where it smacks into the Pacific.) But the feelings of leaving the show in mid-winter and a month into autumn are not dissimilar.

Two very different shows, too. Wonder-Con is arguably what San Diego used to be more than twenty years ago (in truth, the vibes are completely different and Wonder-Con is actually bigger now than SDCC used to be). APE is theoretically the West Coast answer to MOCA and SPX. I could argue that Stumptown Comics Fest (which is, hands down, my favorite show of the year—sorry Jim) should be included, but talking about comics in Portland is like…well, it’s unfair. APE also, rightly or wrongly, has more of a reputation of being an indie flea market than an actual comics show. But if you’re painting with that brush, then SDCC is a pop culture flea market. That said, there’s a lot of craftsfolk making art and not actually making comics on display.

But the comics that are at APE, they’re pretty solid. Plenty of individual creators/teams at work there, but perhaps not as many (non-self-)publishers on the floor as in previous years. No AiT (didn’t get a chance to wish Larry a happy birthday, his being a day after mine), no Oni (who I thought for sure would be there), no First Second (or did I miss them? Gina’s hard to miss even in a crowd), no Image (though some titles, such as Brandon Graham’s KING CITY and Richard Starkings’ ELEPHANTMEN were showing.) Larger indies such as Slave Labor, Fantagraphics, D&Q and Buenaventura were all there on the main floor (which is where the action was; not so much up in the wings.) There were, however, a lot of publishers who had only minimal representation with Diamond (like me, like Hightower Comics, next to me, and like a seeming hundred others.) And that’s why you go to shows like these: to see the stuff that falls through the cracks. APE is very big on the stuff that would otherwise slip into the storm drains and be washed out to sea. This isn’t a judgement as to quality, just an observation of the facts.

I won’t hazard as to reading the tea leaves as to what the above actually suggests. With more shows coming on line, midlist publishers may have to carefully choose which ones they attend and sell at. And I’m sure there’s a real difference between the publishers who see these shows as important venues to get the word and sales out (like me) and those who are going to a show to fly the flag and get the word out and connect with fans. Reed is bringing a new Chicago show, whatever Wizard ends up calling itself is beefing up a NY show and still running a string of them across the states, and a new show in Anaheim. Now, I may be belaboring the obvious, but going to these shows is an expensive proposition. And I’m just a guy who can cart his own stuff around and set up out of two suitcases and a box of books. Any operation much larger than that starts racking up bills rather quickly (particularly if you do anything more than go back to your room and curse at the cheap Wi-fi and stay up all night reading THE COMPLEAT CANNON after a bowl of phó and broccoli beef).

Going to shows like these is not cheap. And unless you’re selling a big line, making back your table fee (much less hotels, gas, meals and succumbing to the deals at the Vertical table) is the yardstick of success. I don’t know how many publishers cleared that particular bar. By that metric, I came out okay. But really, that mark’s kinda low. So yeah, that’s the GET IN THE VAN part of the show. Or part of the career as it may be. Pile in your car and drive to shows and get the books into people’s hands. So if I look exhausted, well, it’s because I was by that time. Three shows in the last four weeks and a signing at a local chain bookstore Saturday. Pardon me if I’m not bright eyed and bushy tailed as the denizens of Bryan Talbot’s GRANDVILLE (and I wasn’t, and at least one pro noticed that I wasn’t chipper.) Actually, I think I did fine, once people came to the table, but man, if you’re expecting me to radiate warm fuzzies to get you to come and look at my book, you can keep walking. If that means that I don’t get the closers’ coffee, I’ll have to live with it. Perhaps sensitivity training is in order.

So, the San Francisco Concourse, home of APE since I’ve been attending it in 2003, has two levels. The main floor is sunken and to the left and right as you walk in, are twin wings that are a half-floor above. For some reason, and I can’t tell you why except maybe sheer laziness, traffic on the wings is a lot lighter than on the main floor. Been that way since I first attended; will be like that after humanity has faded and whatever’s left gathers up our bones and plays dress-up with them there. The wings are dead. Look down on the main floor, and people actually have to turn and step to find a clear path (at the peak hours). Look around your own table and it might not be rolling tumbleweeds, but you do wonder where everybody’s at.) Of course, on Saturday, the show had to contend with unseasonable sunshine and near-perfect park weather. Hardly conducive to packing yourself into a building with comix types. And, truth be told, when I was walking back from lunch with JK Parkin (of Robot 6) and David Brothers (4theLetter) at the Holy Grill, I was sorely tempted to say “Man, it’s so nice that I’m just gonna lie down in Golden Gate Park and commune.”

I didn’t, but don’t think that I wasn’t thinking about it. Not to mention that the warmth made the inside of the concourse as warm as I can remember it being in any of my trips there. Traffic itself on Saturday was low, at least until after lunchtime. Though I was pleasantly surprised to hear from one gentleman that I was the only stop on his list of things to see at the show, and he’d come up all the way from Santa Barbara. So that was flattering, and a first. I usually get a few people who follow THE THIRSTY online, but not many who come seek me out on account of it. Moved some books, and even saw that my tablemate Alex Sheikman (of ROBOTIKA, as published by Archaia) sold some of his all-too-reasonably-priced hardcovers as well. So there were people buying, but not as many as at, say, Stumptown. And Stumptown is my yardstick for an indie comics show, but again, that may not be fair. However, fair or not, it’s what I’ve got until I make it to SPX some year (which seems a questionable use of resources in terms of the cross-country flight.)

There was one thing that APE and Stumptown had in common: no cosplay. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Sure, there were plenty of people dressed strikingly, but not in costume as such. I guess all indie comics shows are the same like that. Cosplay seems to be limited to mainstream shows, even this close to Halloween. I’ll also note that I don’t think I’ve sold anything to anyone in costume. Ever. But then STRANGEWAYS isn’t exactly a mainstream offering, at least as these things go. It was funny: I was selling a horror/western book, and Alex was selling what amounted to a science-fiction sushi western, though it was rare that we could get any cross sales. Perhaps if both of us wore cowboy hats or something. But the truth of it was that our books didn’t feel like they really belonged. We were too mainstream to fit into the alt-vibe that the show has. But on the flipside of that, STRANGEWAYS at least, is too independent to get traction at some shows. Then there’s shows that are just plain bad and nobody can sell a damn thing and a titan in the field like Howard Chaykin can catch up on his reading because nobody wants to take an opportunity to chat with him or get a sketch. Fools, says I.

I did, however, connect to some kind of audience and got books in hands. Took a few moments to go chat with Brandon Graham of KING CITY and get the first issue of the Image re-pressing of the book (which I’ve seen talked up, but had never actually seen until now.) As I said recently, KING CITY is every bit as good as other folks have mentioned. I figured it would be from my reading of his recent MULTIPLE WARHEADS, but it was nice to experience it firsthand. Chatted comics and the wonder that is SLASH MARAUD (did that ever get a trade collection?) and that it was ever published, by DC even! Really, go read it sometime to see why.

Caught up with some friends (which is another reason to go to these things) towards the close of the show and did a minimal pack-in for the night. Ate the aforementioned phó at a restaurant right across 7th from my hotel and read some of the books that I’d picked up at the Isotope the night before. The gigantic THE COMPLEAT CANNON caught my eye. Reading it is…amazing. I’m not going to say that it’s a masterpiece of sequential storytelling, but man, is it compulsively entertaining. It’s Wally Wood drawing tough-as-nails psychopaths, shapely womenfolk, intercontinental mayhem, hippies, bikers, druggie cultists, neo-Nazis on the march, and small-town-America targeted by the loathsome clutches of the International Communist Conspiracy. There’s some great Wood cartooning here, and the subject material is so completely unhinged that it defies description. It’s pulpier than pulp, gloriously so. I didn’t mean to have it keep me up most of the night, but every time I thought I could put it down and not turn the next page, I was proved wrong.

It didn’t infect my dreams as much as I thought it would, however.

The trouble with setting up a show for independent comics fans (or cognoscenti of any stripe, really) is that your morning hours are a waste. Ain’t a none of them that gets up before noon on a Sunday. I don’t think I sold a book until after two. That leaves four hours of sales, and the early part of the morning chatting with your neighbor about which was more groundbreaking: AMERICAN FLAGG or DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (FLAGG might have the edge in technique, but DKR had more emotional impact), or showing off the work of Osamu Tezuka to someone who hadn’t really seen it before, but had oddly glommed onto some of Tezuka-san’s technique.

Chatted with Tom Manning, author of the utterly awesome RUNOFF, and the new (intriguing but as yet unread) ERIC. Read through GRANDVILLE when I thought nobody was looking. Wondered if I was going to run out of postcards (didn’t.)

For as quiet as Sunday started, things pulled through in the end, and I made the same sales as I had on Saturday. A touch more, if I included the ashcan editions of chapter 1 of THE THIRSTY. Surprising, including a sale right before the doors closed for the day. Still, it seemed as if I didn’t need to be there for a few hours of the show altogether, but I suppose I didn’t have anywhere else more exciting to be.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was a visit to the booth by Brent Anderson (who stopped to say hello to Alex more than any interest in my humble book). Though it was nice to hear a little of the inside story of STRIKEFORCE MORITURI (one of my favorite books from Marvel ever, and an overlooked gem of the 80s). Even got to talk a bit about digital versus traditional comic work. Funny, but nearly everyone I’ve talked to in comics who is shifting to digital art still does a pencil pass, usually for layouts. Wonder what that is. Habit? Not that it’s an issue for me, since I just dream up too many panels a page for artists to try and draw so that I can fit the impossible amounts of dialogue onto.

Perhaps I should sell some merchandise. I think about that, and how it’d help grease the wheels of grinding out that table cost, but then I think that I didn’t get into this to sell T-shirts or art prints or coffee mugs or anything else. I came here to tell stories. Anything else is just getting in the way, just more stuff to manage when I’m obviously doing such a great job with the other things that I already have to take care of. So yeah, I think about that, and then I ask if I want to be a cottage franchise or be a writer. I’ve already got to be a letterer, producer, editor and publisher, why not tack more duties on top of that? I mean, maybe I have to start up my own cottage industry in order to get people to read my work? I sure hope not, but it remains a possibility.

The roadshow? It’s fun when you can pick and choose the dates, and not stack ‘em up so close to one another. But anything, even sitting behind a table and talking about your book, anything becomes work when you have to do it enough. It’s like I’m doing work just so that I can do the work that I want to do (and not have it be a complete waste of time and resources.) APE itself can be a lot of fun, joining the indie comics circus, but even the circus can become a grind after awhile.

This is the stuff you think about while “I Dream of Wires” blasts out the car stereo as you’re heading back home on the 80 East, stuck in Bay traffic. It you turn it up loud enough, sometimes you can drown out the voices in your head.

But only sometimes.