Stumped Town

YES, that really is some Capacity ink up there. It was a lightning fast forty-eight hours in Portland. For the record, we’re not sure whether we were stalking Dean Haspiel or he was stalking us, but he was getting his shoes shined when we were getting pizza at JFK, sitting a few rows ahead of us on the flight to PDX, standing outside the Doug Fir while we were getting sloshed (we needed the acid after all the fat at Le Pigeon), sitting a few rows behind us on the flight home (and we were so tired we were nearly cuddling with our rowmate, and comics deity, James Sturm) – and, of course, we were all at Stumptown together.

Stumptown rocks. There were no organizational hitches that we noticed. Though we heard tell of overbooking from others afterward, there wasn’t anything we didn’t dig. The setup was open and airy. There were actual windows. We had some great real estate right at the entrance. We had Theo at the table. Should we thirst, there were volunteers bringing us water. And we thirsted!

That film crew did indeed show up. We had our big interviews in front of D&Q and the aforementioned Sturm and none other than Peggy Burns. We thought we did okay, but it’s tough to perform in front of Peggy, who is a killer communicator on a Wu Tang level. At least it was extra convenient for us to pick up Wilson on the way back to the table, where Theo had his turn in front of the cameras. It might have scared the crowd a bit, but if you’re wondering what real starpower looks like, check out Theo working the red carpet for the paparazzi below. He has style. He has grace. He better work.

Our panel was hella fun, or so everyone but one half of Secret Acres thought. Now, we were meant to discuss “the ever changing world of producing and publishing indy comics.” Other than needing to needle Blaise about his trophy thing and the comments thereupon, we decided to walk the talk of the talker to which Journalista Dirk linked. We figured if that Jeff Jarvis guy can talk about learner directed education, we could make it happen (Could you, Jeff Jarvis, you pompous bastard lecturer?). So we started with questions, rather than ended with them. It turns out that Jeff Jarvis was right; learners know what they want to know. We won’t get into the nitty gritty, but we will say this: Secret Acres’ stationery is real pretty; Theo Ellsworth lived in a cave; print and digital are not mutually exclusive (unless we’re talking about newspapers and periodicals); Minty is back in action post PS Comics – and, for all the talk, Secret Acres got Blaise to admit that the format of his future work will be a book. Now that’s mad real, as they say in France.

But what of the comics, you ask? There was Wilson (It’s great. Deal with it being great.). Minty dropped the killer Salad Days on us, and whatever she was up to on that break, this mini is worth the wait. Sean Christensen followed up Miranda Baby with the fatter and equally awesome Labanotation. Tom Neely killed us with Henry & Glenn (that’s Rollins and Danzig, of Crystar fame) and he drew us a nice cock. The lovely Joey Sayers kept the beat with the second issue of Just so You Know. But those are all the people we know we know.

Then there were those we did not know we did not know: Virginia Paine, The Warehouse on Poplar; Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, I Cut my Hair; Julia Gforer, Flesh and Bone (Sparkplug Comic Books); Max Clotfelter, Alligator Milk; Kelly Froh, a lot of crap, as in various; Pam Cameron-Snyder, Crosses of Power; and, finally, Malachi Ward, whom we found at the Pony Club after-party and who gave us three pretty great comics, Utu, The Scout and U.S.S. Origin. Silly Malachi. Don’t give it up for free. We’d have paid for it.

And none, not one of these people, were assholes. Now that’s a con. You folks reading this, go out and get their stuff.

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

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