But if any of the above apply to you, please read on.

We've recently encountered the most wonderful comic book anthology -- 16 stories by alternative creators, all taking place in the swords & sorcery genre. They range from hilarious to touching to just plain .

It's called "Elfworld." Among the better-known contributors is Jeffrey Brown, superstar alternative comix writer/artist of stuff like "Clumsy"--he also compiled this anthology. François Vigneault, a San Franciscan, is the editor, a contributor, and the one who brought the book to our attention.

Stories include Matt Wiegle's "Adventures In Mead," about an oafish warrior acting a little too much like a real-life drunk. Martin Cendreda's "An Elf's Lot," about a non-human pathetic loser. Ansis Purins' "Gnome Gatherin': Night Survey," which, frankly, we aren't quite sure how to describe -- perhaps part Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, part Yogi Bear, and part Hellboy. Perhaps our favorite is the one by Kazimir Strzepek, called "Basilisk," which puts a clever, humorous finish on the book.

In any case: overall great art, very good writing, high quality throughout, and cast of indie darlings that are definitely, definitely deserving of more attention. Order it here, or ask about it at your local sequential graphic story retailer (that is, comic book store).

After the jump: a full list of the contributors with links to their respective sites/works

On Saturday, fantastic Hayes Valley comic book store Isotope played host to Ed Brubaker, who's as hot a writer in the comics industry as anyone. Recently, a story written by Brubaker made headlines nationwide (and Colbert!): the death of Marvel Comics' icon Captain America. While that erupted in a media storm, Brubaker's books don't rely on such hype -- he's just a damned good storyteller with a feel for many different genres, and an excellent command of pacing, humor, and dialogue. His other recent and current titles include Sleeper, Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil, The Immortal Iron Fist (with co-writer Matt Fraction), and his creator-owned book (with art by frequent collaborator Sean Phillips), Criminal.

Fans from throughout the greater Bay Area came to get books signed and chat with Mr. Brubaker. They enjoyed the kind hospitality of Isotope proprietor James Sime, along with some libations expertly prepared by Kirsten Baldock (who's an author in her own right). More pics of the event after the jump.

Hey, Folks, welcome to part two of our APE coverage. The Alternative Press Expo was this past weekend, and there was so much fun stuff we had to break our coverage into several tasty morsels. If you missed part one and want to read about some folks making with the funny, please feel free. In this post, we're focusing on some creators that combine a less obvious type of humor with some great art and a generally longer form of storytelling than the one-panel and gag-type creators.

Toshiko Kamiyama had a few mini-comics at her booth. She suggested we try Heru. It's about the cutest thing we've ever seen -- a little autobiographical tale about her unfortunate hairdo as a child growing up in Japan. The 'do', as described by one of her cruel classmates, looked like a "German Nazi Helmet," which eventually turned into her nickname: "Heru"-- short for "helmet" in Japanese. (Though some relief was expressed at the "Nazi" aspect of the jibe being phased out). You can pick up a copy of your own at Super 7 in Japan Town or Doublepunch in North Beach. It's charming and a very satisfying read that you can share with just about anyone.

We reconnected with old friend Shannon O'Leary of Pet Noir fame. In addition to the beautiful, glossy, bound copies of that anthology, she had a dialogue-free mini-comic that's a bit of a precursor to her upcoming project Crimes Against Shannon (hah!). She described it to us as her personal story of a year in which she was on the victim-end of several (thankfully not life-threatening) unfortunate events.

Shannon introduced us to her table-mates, Melanie Lewis (who we talked about in part one) and Damien Jay, a recent transplant to Berkeley from New York City. We asked him if the independent comic climate in the Big Apple was comparable to the one out here -- he plainly told us that there were similar challenges, namely paying rent. However, with all the publishing in NYC, there were more opportunities to land freelance stuff. He gave us a look at some of his projects, in particular a book with a highly unusual genesis--the cover is the one pictured below ("Leslie Overnight", after the jump), but his Web site calls it "Opolis," and describes it as "A comic made out of photographs of a 3-D comics-infused building that was part of a show at Flux Factory in Queens, NY." Very strange, very cool, and way above our head. We appreciate Mr. Jay's patience in chatting with us, though.

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 . Damn those self righteous embryos! (note: the we bought had different cover than the one we've posted below).

Who better to help kick off our celebration of alternative press than one of the guys doing it right?

Larry Young is a fixture at APE -- his company, AiT/Planet Lar has been presenting there for years, exhibiting a diverse and interesting line of OGNs ("Original Graphic Novels") and other comic books. While we spoke briefly to the company's publisher, Mimi Rosenheim, a few years ago at the San Diego Comic-Con, we hadn't had a chance to catch up with her co-founder and husband, the dynamic Mr. Young, until recently. Our conversation with Larry evoked much of what we love about storytelling via sequential art -- the passion of the creators; the limitless, imaginative worlds they create; and the validity of using that medium for any genre (while we love our Marvel and DC-style capes and tights stuff, you aren't going to see over much of it at APE).

Much of our conversation focused on a new series written by Mr. Young himself and with art by Jon Proctor -- Black Diamond. The book, which is coming out in May, is a story taking place in the near future where the U.S. Government has grounded commercial airline flights and built an elevated highway spanning the nation -- The Black Diamond, "A dangerous road full of gearheads and misfits, drug runners and grey-market tech heads."

The interview follows after the jump:

Even many non-comic book fans have heard the old lesson from the Spider-Man mythos: "With great power comes great responsibility." Light Yagami, a brilliant-but-bored high school student, finds himself in possession of an artifact that literally has the power of life and death: a notebook dropped by a Shinigami (a.k.a. "Death God," perhaps best understood as a type of Grim Reaper). All Light has to do is write the name of a person in this notebook while picturing that person's face, and that person will die--and Light can determine the particulars of that final fate. If Light doesn't specify, the victim drops dead within six minutes and 40 seconds of a heart attack. If he does specify, Light can make the death occur however he pleases.

Once this fantastic element is established, the intrigue, and real appeal of the story begins. What would a responsible person do with this type of power?

Now, she's about to publish a hardbound, 120+ page graphic novel version of Pet Noir and, lucky us, we got an early review copy.

Let us tell you, nothing makes a six-hour plane ride go faster than chuckling at graphic representations of pet crime stories (see the depiction above of dog maul-case lawyer Nedra Ruiz, as drawn by MariNaomi. Holy crap, that's funny).

O'Leary's the editor, one of the writers, and even does art for one story in the book; all in all, 26 people contribute the stories.

Animals. Sequential art. What's not to like? The stories are divided into two distinct categories: Pet Noir ("Notoriously strange but true tales of pet crime that made sensational headlines") and Pet Crime Confidential ("Hair-raising personal stories of everyday crimes against animals").

The book starts off with a bang. "Some people collect things they like . . . some people collect things they need . . . then there are things people shouldn't collect because they aren't things: they're cats." Shannon, who penned this tale, if of course talking about "The Petaluma Cat Lady," amusingly illustrated by August Bournique. And, of course we know it's kind of wrong, but we laughed our ass off at the incident where the guy threw that poor doggie on the freeway a few years ago, as depicted by Paul Musso in "The Freeway Incident." (It's funny because of how Musso draws the despicable dog tosser; we're in no way laughing at poor Leon's sad fate.)

We were amused, intrigued, and in some cases delighted with what we saw in the review copy. For more info, we went straight to the source -- an interview with Shannon O'Leary follows: