This shhh is bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

GET READY to divide and conquer because this is a weekend for the comics jet set. Starting tonight, Edie Fake will be at the New York Art Book Fair. We’re not sure if this registers as a comics event, but it sure acts like a convention and you can find the likes of Drawn & Quarterly and PictureBox among the exhibitors. You can also find Edie’s beautiful five-layered silkscreen Gaylord Phoenix print that we had promised would be available at SPX, but that got held up in the mail. To refresh your memory, it will look something like this only much more awesome in person. Edie is a regular at NYABF, and you should be, too. It is one of the cooler art events of the year over here in New York City.

If you’re looking for an after party, we recommend checking out the Pegacorn Press Release Party which will be held at the City Reliquary museum over in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tomorrow night. They will be celebrating the releases of the Future Tense anthology and the 2012 Paquita Calendar, which features the work of Edie Fake himself. Williamsburg keeps the ball rolling the following day with Pete’s Mini Zine Fest, which has got Ignatz winner Darryl Ayo Braithwaite, booze and and indoor/outdoor vibe to boot. We will be hauling ass to make it to everything.

On the other side of the country, the Alternative Press Expo will be rocking it. Superstar Mike Dawson will be representing the Acres at the biggest indie comics show in San Francisco. He will have all our books and, of course, will be sketching and signing his own Troop 142. We are, sadly, all done with those pretty Troop 142 patches, but, take heart because Mike will continue to hand out those HeroClix. More fun than even that, he will be on a Comix Claptrap LIVE panel hosted by evil twins Rina Ayuyang and Thien Pham. Mike will have company in Scott Campbell, Levon Jihanian and Esther Pearl Watson – which is good considering all the bad blood between the Ink Panthers and the Claptrappers. The Claptrappers are quite war-like.

Speaking of those Panthers, they are back in the saddle again, following Mike’s trip to Scotland and they’ve got a new podcast up here. Meanwhile, there’s been some fun shoutouts for Troop 142 from New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, ForeWord and Under the Radar. Over at the Atlantic, Gaylord Phoenix got the spotlight as an alternative to the rampant sexism currently running through those superhero comics. This is probably the only time one of our books will be mentioned with Teen Titans in the same article. Which is weird, but also kind of awesome. Lest we forget, you can still help out Dylan Williams’ family and Sparkplug by picking up Sean Ford‘s cover to The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. We know that’s plenty of clicking for you, but you really should not miss Ken Dahl‘s (aka Gabby Schulz’s) latest installment of SICK, which has Ken making his first foray into furry comics. If you want a little more insight into his fuzzy soul, check this out.

Okay, that ought to keep you busy for a while. We can’t wait to see everyone everywhere! Phew.

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

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