Return of the APE: 2012 In A Nutshell

Without question, this is my favorite show on the circuit. While all the Marvel and DC names were sitting in the dedicated artist's room on NYCC, we Indie artists WERE the show at the concourse here in SF. I practically sold out of my own book, a full printing of The Carnival: The Human Hourglass in a first edition with color cover, got to talk to some other great artists, and picked up some books that i can't wait to read.

Tablemate Alex Sheikman, pictured below, talking to some of his fans, sold his handsome hardcover of the Dark Crystal Prequel Volume 1, and showed off originals for volume 2 due in December. I kept my originals out to catch people's eyes as they walked by. For no advance notice, after all, no one was coming to the show to pick up my book, I was happy to see that the work had some visual appeal as it certainly drew a decent number of folks over the table's edge.

Apparently I'm pretty old skool with my art, as i'm still using ink on paper. But really, should we be surprised at anything anymore? With the digital age upon us, there really is no way anymore to know just how images are being created. You could be scanning your sketches, creating your own brushes in photoshop, doing work on your Cintiq, or simply putting ink on 2 ply bristol with real, not virtual, brushes.

In any case, the computer has clearly led to images as striking as Sho Murase's single illustrations, images that would have been far more difficult to produce in a less digital age.

I have a great stack of books to read on the shelf behind me: Sushu Xia's China Comics, the Lilah-O one shot, Gabrielle Bell's The Voyeurs, Daniel Cooney's Valentine TPBs, the Holguin/Sheikman Dark Crystal and Luke Pearson's Hilda and the Midnight Giant (which looks like an instant classic).