APE Escape 2007 Part 3: The Storytellers--Traditional, With A Twist
l to r: creators Ted Naifeh, Dave Dwonch, Joseph Costirlos, Von Allan (with Sam)
The last of our slightly less-than-timely coverage of the Alternative Press Expo, which took place last weekend, focuses on folks telling their sequential art stories in a longer form.
Ted Naifeh, a Western Addition resident, is the writer/artist of both the Courtney Crumrin series and Polly and the Pirates, which were both prominently displayed at his APE table (he's also been the artist for books that include Death Jr., Unearthly, and Gloomcookie , which he also co-wrote). The books at his APE booth follow an industry trend we really dig: they're several issues worth of stories bound in smaller-sized digests, perfect for toting around. We picked up volume one of the Courtney Crumrin story (Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things) and we really dug it. A girl with a rather testy attitude moves into a creepy mansion in a weird town and finds herself mired in several supernatural dilemmas. It's the perfect all-ages book: adult and kids alike will enjoy the story, while the adults will surely pick up on a more subversive vibe. The digests run about $12 each, and are available wherever Oni Press products are carried (which should be any good specialty comic store).
Dave Dwonch is a San Leandro-based writer and artist, probably best known at this point for his humorous riff on the superhero genre, Special Education. The book is the story of a high school populated by superheroes, or, specifically, the remedial class therein, as seen through the eyes of the main character "Special" Ed. It's an extremely funny twist on "hero high" stories like the X-Men and Sky High. We particularly enjoyed the remedial class teacher, "Dr. Zero," a retired, Dr. Doom-style villain that talks in a grandiose, megalomaniacal, third-person manner as he lectures his students.
"Comics are a rough business," he shared with us, but, in explaining the book's appeal, said that "Special Ed is an underdog story more than anything." The book's developed a fan base through word of mouth and Internet channels, notably comic-book-related podcast/Web community Comic Geek Speak, which has helped spurred sales. Mr. Dwonch is also a podcaster himself, one of the hosts of The Geeks Savants Podcast.
Speaking of Dave Dwonch -- did you know that there's a comic book publisher that calls Oakland home? It's the National Press Comics Group, and Jaimel M. Hemphill is its Editor-in-Chief.
Details on NPC, more creators, and more pics after the jump
Titles beside Special Education include Hemphill's own Shadow, about a CSI that serves a sort of vigilante justice by planting the very evidence he has to examine in his day job. Another title is Cassius, which, according to creator Javier Gonzalez, is about "the soldier that stabbed Jesus in the side," who's been cursed to live forever and has fought in every war since biblical times.
Hemphill says that he wants his books to be as affordable as possible to the public, and pledges that successful sales will drive down future prices. That attitude is music to our ears (though we should point out that NPC's prices are about 3 bucks an issue, which is totally in line with industry standards and of an equal quality, in our opinion).
Mr. Hemphill, against a backdrop of his company's burgeoning universe of characters.
Von Allan is a really interesting fellow. He came to APE all the way from Ottwa, Ontario. His art is really intriguing to us -- at once engaging and realistic, but almost overly so -- the awkward poses of the characters really add to the overall tome of the story in The Road to God Knows . . ." It's a tale of a girl trying to deal with her mother's schizophrenia -- not a pleasant subject, but one handled in a deft, compelling manner.
Allan was not even selling the book; he was displaying advance reader copies as he looks for a publisher. When we asked him about the possibilities of self-publishing, he explained that in his native Canada that would disqualify him from certain grants, as it would be considered "vanity publishing." However, if he finds a publisher, he can get some grant funding from the government.
The idea behind Joseph Costirlos' Dent is that while each individual issue has a stand-alone short story, these stories are in a shared universe with characters in common. The Berkeley-ite has been producing issues of Dent since 2004, and issues can be found at Comic Relief, the fine, fine comic store.
