Pictured, l to r: Mary Van Note, Joe Sayers, Melanie Lewis, Julia Wertz. After the jump, comic art from Deb Aoki ("Bento Box") and a pic of SFist comic contributor Lev !

The Alternative Press Expo (or APE) was this past weekend at the Concourse here in San Francisco. The show, which is put on yearly by Comic-Con International, features indy and small press creators of zines, comic books, mini-comics, and more.

After getting Larry Young's help to kick off our coverage, we attended on Saturday. We met so many cool people and saw so much neat stuff that we're breaking our experience into several posts. First up: the funny stuff.

We'd seen some of Berkeley resident Melanie Lewis' work before, in a chapter of Pet Noir. We picked up one of her mini-comics, PS Comics Number 3. We kid you not: sheer genius. The second story, "Fruit Pals in . . .'Bitter Fruit'" was hilarious. Poor, poor, pathetic Pear. Check out Melanie's delightful anthropomorphic fruits (small sample below) and more at her Web site.

Local Joe Sayers is another damned funny creator. This was his fourth APE. In addition to his self-publishing efforts, he's had his work published in several places, notably MAD Magazine and the SF Bay Guardian. We picked up a book of mostly four-panel gags called I'm Gonna Rip Yer Face Off. Damn those self righteous embryos! (note: the we bought had different cover than the one we've posted below).

We also picked up a book he co-edited with comics whiz Josh Frankel (more on him in part 2 of our APE coverage) called Desert Island Paradise. Also very funny -- besides Sayers and Frankel, contributors include the aforementioned Melanie Lewis, the amazing Sam Henderson (of Magic Whistle fame), and many more.

Longtime SFist readers should be well familiar with Julia Wertz and The Fart Party. She's got a few new things going on: a new anthology project called "I Saw You . . . Missed Connections Comics" for one. Missed connections illustrated--funny stuff. She also told us that she's moving in a few weeks to Oregon. Sniff! Adios, Julia -- hope you'll still come to APE. At least Fart Party is readily available on the Web.

As one very funny woman leaves our city, another is making a move here. Stand-up comedienne Mary Van Note was at the show, hawking some shirts and 'zines. She's a San Jose resident moving up to the city in June. She recommends you check out her YouTube (NSFW!) videos, particularly her "experiences with an ultimate fighter."

Deb Aoki, a friend of ours from last year's show, has recently relocated to Emeryville. She's still cartooning (sample below). You can check out her collection of Bento Box strips that ran in the Honolulu Advertiser from 1996-2006 at Amazon. The nice, thick book runs about 14 bucks. The humor is especially funny if you're familiar with Hawaiian life and culture, but we think folks from the mainland will like it too (we did).

Hey! SFist's very own Lev was there!! He revealed a bit to us about his secret origins, how his animations led into his comic-making, and how some of his recent YouTube entries have seriously, seriously blown up. As he tells you weekly here in these pages, you can see more of his great stuff at http://www.ingredientx.com.

In part two of our APE coverage: Toshiko Kamiyama! Shannon O'Leary! Josh Frankel! Damien Jay! More! Keep your eyes peeled!