Well it was quite a weekend. I'm still swimming in it.
On the site today: Dave Sim's response to the publishing offers from Fantagraphics, one of which was made on this very site (scroll down for more). As you may know, Dave Sim and The Comics Journal have a long and contentious history. Here's an excerpt from today's piece:
Let’s assume we could “do a deal” and let’s assume further that we could have the deal done by this time next year. Even releasing one book a year — with the kind of contextualizing that you’re talking about — which would be extremely optimistic, I think… and I’d imagine with your long experience in publishing you would agree… at best we would be talking about a contract through to 2029. Given how quickly everything is changing in terms of technology and publishing — practically on a daily basis — that would be really foolish on my part.
SPX 2012 was easily the best in the festival's history, and one of the best comics events I've ever been to. Warren Bernard and co., along with a ton of able and cheerful volunteers achieved a great balance between commerce, art, scholarship and... carousing. And for me that means incredibly strong sales, interesting conversations and off-color stories about forgotten cartoonists and comic book store owners of the 1980s. I have no perspective on the actual books at the show because I was selling PictureBox books all weekend. I heard from both panelists and attendees that the programming was especially strong this year and it seemed like the layout of the show easy to navigate and low-stress. I also remain impressed with the partnership between SPX and the Library of Congress -- both the collecting aspect of it and the institution's willingness to host cartoonists in its stacks.
I'm sure there'll be plenty of other round-up posts in the coming days. For now, here are your Ignatz winners.
