CAKE

CAKE was great fun!  I only got to go for a few hours, but running out of time was both bad and good–bad in that I didn’t have time to trade any of my comics or get back to where the lovely CCS people were gathered and buy their stuff, but good in that the very small number of comics purchased much better lends itself to quick reading and digestion into a blog post  than the huge mountain of stuff from MoCCA did, much of which I still haven’t sorted through.

The first comic I picked up was Ghost by Pranas.  I first encountered this comic back in September, when Jon Chad brought out comics from his collection for a presentation on screen printing.  I thought it was fantastic then, and was very excited to add this comic to my own collection.  Ghost is a wordless two color screen printed fabric scroll comic.  It’s unique but simple; an adorable comic that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.

My next purchase was Redbird #2, by D. Zettwoch.  It’s a travel log, and though I found it to be an entertaining and enjoyable read, I didn’t pick it up for the content.  This book was a must buy because of the design.  The covers show off brilliant (and gorgeous) two color screen prints, actual maps are used as end papers, AND there’s a well designed fold out at the center of the book.  Anyone who loves book design should seek out this gem of a mini comic.

The last two comics I picked up were both from Marnie Galloway.  I was having trouble deciding between Medusa and Library, and seeing my struggle she offered them together at a discount in exchange for a joke.  I took her up on the deal.

Library is a black and white wordless comic, a poetic sequence of images.  I’m having trouble figuring out how to express what I feel about it–I picked it because I identified with it, because it felt true, but it took me several readings to feel like I sort of understood what was happening.  I think there’s something about that tension of knowing and not knowing that makes the comic intriguing to me.

Medusa is a two color comic that uses a similar poetic tone to tell a more concrete story about the mythological figure who’s name titles the piece.  As someone who loves mythology and the idea of Medusa, I found this comic heartbreaking and beautifully done.

It was a great expo, and I wish I could have spent more time browsing comics and interacting with the lovely cartoonists present.  Perhaps next year I’ll be back with a table of my own.