Niemand

WE PROUDLY now sport a dozen SPXs under our belt, and we feel like champs. We also feel like calling everyone to set up a sleepover, wracked by separation anxiety. Speaking of, all apologies to L. Nichols for inappropriate snuggling and a shipping SNAFU. Our weekend started with a terrifying discovery during setup: our box of Flocks ended up goin’ back to Cali. We called every store in driving range and found three. We kept count of the times someone came asking for Flocks to a total thirteen. We blame acclaimed dungeon mistress, MK Reed, for cursing us on SPX eve. At least Keren Katz consoled us with some unlicensed, homebrewed Flocks merch. Nonetheless, the wonderful, beautiful people of SPX severely depleted our stocks of all but Flocks by closing time.

 

 

We split the gang Saturday night, heading to both the Ignatz Awards and an intimate dinner with everyone’s heroes, Chris Pitzer and Annie Koyama. Doubtless, you know this is Annie’s last SPX with Koyama Press. We needed and appreciated some real one-on-one time. Annie, like she does with everyone, stands behind us, keeping us going year after year and we expect that will never change. Naturally, we thought about the comics lifecycle, which seems to be about eight years. Every eight years, the folks on the scene collectively consider and reconsider their lives and their spots in the game. This being the twenty-fifth SPX, we expected to hear, and indeed heard, from a lot of people who were joining Annie in declaring this their last SPX. This sucks, for us. If it were up to us, no one would be allowed to bounce. As for us, despite rumors (which we heard for the first time this SPX) that Secret Acres was going to fold after Barry called it quits (at SPX 2018, no less), once again: we’re not going anywhere.

 

 

On the way back from dinner, our phones blew up. Keren, asked last-minute to present this year’s Outstanding Graphic Novel Ignatz Award, crushed it. We promise to get you video proof of what we already know, specifically that Keren is an amateur cartographer, and should never be allowed to run with scissors. In celebration of the Keren Moment, we took turns trying on her hat, with Sean Knickerbocker clearly the winner. We tried on a pretty pro tank top we got from Carta Monir. We stayed up late reading Hazel Newlevant’s No Ivy League, Eleanor Davis’s the Hard Tomorrow and Emma Jayne’s Ignatz Award-Winning Trans Girls Hit the Town.

 

 

Packing up, we realized that our shopping haul was pretty much all we had left. Sean Knickerbocker managed a total sellout of Rust Belt, anti-capitalist or not. Glynnis ditched all her copies of Persephone’s Garden, leaving her no choice but to check in at chez Acres. We counted a whopping one copy of Keren’s Backstage of a Dishwashing Webshow among the leftovers. All in all, Secret Acres hasn’t done numbers like this since SPX opened up the whole room. Don’t call it a comeback! Or call it a comeback, if you must. We cannot thank enough the good people walking the floor, manning the tables, running the show. Here’s to another twenty-five years of SPX.

 

 

We’re off to roll around in our huge pile of cash,  Indecent Proposal-style, but we’ll be back here in a bit for all things Comic Arts Brooklyn. See you in a few (unless you’re down for a slumber party right now (in a pile of cash))…

Your Pals,

Sadiya and Leon

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