We had a great time at Artist Alley at our 5th C2E2 in Chicago, our biggest hometown show, and this was our biggest year yet! I was a little too busy behind the table to explore much of the floor (which is a good problem!), but I got to catch up with some fellow artists/ creators / writers and find out about some new stuff out there.
I randomly ran into my bud John Jennings at the Kinkos (I still refuse to call it Fedex) and his comics partner Damian Duffy stopped by the table to catch up. Creators of the Graphic Novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s sci-fi novel of Kindred, they were in town handing out books to artist contributors to their newest project Black Comix Returns that had a massively successful run on Kickstarter to promote black comics creators who are often under-represented in the comics industry. Check it out on Amazon!
Ken Krimstein, a New Yorker cartoonist and now faculty at Depaul University stopped by to chat for a second and I’m looking forward to getting his new book coming out this fall The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt, a graphic memoir about a philosopher known for exploring totalitarianism and the “banality of evil” that might, just might, be relevant concepts in today’s politics…
I didn’t get to see the Satrun Sisters of the Sketchy Duo, but Alli did stop by. We forgot to pick up their new print with Ruth Bader Ginsberg for Cora, but that’s what’s Etsy is for, right?
Finally Alli also found a new artist that I didn’t get a chance to meet, but she got two of his books. Yehudi Mercado‘s Hero Hotel is about a superhero hotel where the supes show their true colors from the perspective of the under appreciated hotel staff, and Sci-Fu is about a boy who transports himself to another planet by spinning vinyl. Both are fun, colorful and original stories for an all ages audience.
My daughter got to come out on Sunday and cosplayed as a pint-sized Wonder Woman, giving high fives to Mystique and Godzilla.