STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo 2008

Howdy, folks,
Follow these links to learn more about the special guests coming to the Staple! show. (You do have the show’s date of Saturday, 5 March 2005 marked in bold, double-thick permanent marker on your calendar, don’t you?)
This is not an exhaustive list, and googlers will see that I sometimes “cheat” by picking from links at or near the top of the list of Google results, but here you go:
Wheeler[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Too Much Coffee Man[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.tmcm.com/
interviews:
http://www.yankthechain.com/wheeler.html
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/3362/wheeler.htm
Hernandez[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Rumble Girls[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.rumblegirls.com/
interviews:
http://www.bookslut.com/features/2003_11_000970.php
http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17003
Kurtz[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]PVP Online[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.pvponline.com/
interviews:
http://www.digitalwebbing.com/interviews/051803_kurtz.html
http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.html?id=1551 (with Frank Cho)
Moreno/b:0c324c816dDracula vs. King Arthur[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.chrismoreno.net/
interview:
http://www.divergingcomics.com/main.php?id=roundtabletwo.html (with Shannon Chenoweth, Christian Beranek, and Scott Ziolko)
Silent Hill site where you can pre-order DVKA:
http://silentdevil.com/titles.php#dvka
Navarro[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Sonambulo[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.sonambulo.com/
More about Navarro and [i:0c324c816d]Sonambulo[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/sonambulo.html
Xeric Foundation Comic Book Self-Publishing Grant:
http://www.xericfoundation.com/xericcomicgrants1996.html
Lien-Cooper[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Gun Street Girl[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.graphicsmash.com/series.php?name=gsg&view=current
interview:
http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/bakersdozen/back20031126.shtml
Barbara writes about self-publishing:
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/pb/110382016281727.htm
Edwards[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Halloween Man[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.halloweenman.com/
interviews:
http://www.gruesome.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20050130211034309
http://www.thecomicfanatic.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=407&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Romo[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Fairview High[/i:0c324c816d]
[b:0c324c816d]Chris Moujaes[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Coz/Effect[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.squirrelworks.com/
Fairview High page:
http://www.squirrelworks.com/zones/fairview-high/current.html
Coz/Effect page:
http://www.squirrelworks.com/zones/coz-effect/current.html
DVDJapan article about Aaron Romo and Chris Moujaes:
http://www.dvdvisionjapan.com/sq1.html
—-—-—-—-——
Signing for the Comic Book League Defense Fund (http://www.cbldf.org/),
Terry Moore and Michael Lark:
Moore[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Strangers in Paradise[/i:0c324c816d]
http://www.strangersinparadise.com/
interviews:
http://www.indyworld.com/comics/moore.html
http://www.collectortimes.com/1998_05/MooreCoville.html
Lark[/b:0c324c816d], [i:0c324c816d]Gotham Central[/i:0c324c816d]
http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6008
review of [i:0c324c816d]Gotham Central[/i:0c324c816d] at The Fourth Rail:
http://www.thefourthrail.com/features/1202/oneofthegoodones13.shtml

Here’s a rather shameless plug for my new Halloween Man/horror forum!
http://futurius.net/plex/index.php?board=5.0
You all drop by now!

Hey, fellow Staple!rs, why don’tcha keep the show’s energy going at a nice, slow, even burn in the coming weeks by checking out the updated postings at sites from our special guests, exhibitors, and other friends:
Drew Edwards, Halloween Man
Halloween Man’s Haunt (Halloween Man message board)
http://futurius.net/plex/index.php?board=5.0
Scott Kurtz, PVP
message board
http://www.imagecomics.com/messageboard/viewforum.php?f=20
Ronee Garcia Bourgeois, Friends of Lulu, Comixtreme
http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15838
Austin Road Productions
http://www.austinroadproductions.com/
These are the folks I hired to shoot the video for interviews and panel discussions. Look for the edited video to appear on the Staple! site and on DVD.
(Austin Road Productions site under construction as of early March 2005.)
Austin Sketch Group
http://www.austinsketchgroup.com/
A weekly hang-out for folks wanting to get into this whole drawing/comics thing.
More later on. Gotta go take care of some stuff.

Message board for Barb Lien-Cooper’s [i:05ff8b3895]Gun Street Girl[/i:05ff8b3895]:
http://www.talkaboutcomics.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=170
Notice on Scott Kurtz’s board about CAPE, the Comic and Pop-Culture Expo coming up May 7th (Free Comic Book Day) in Dallas:
http://www.imagecomics.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=96027
A nice notice (okay, it’s a pre-show notice) from the CBDLF:
http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000249.shtml
SquirrelWorks message board (Aaron Romo and Chris Moujaes):
http://www.squirrelworks.com/forums/
including a post with Aaron’s and Chris’s pictures from the show:
http://www.squirrelworks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=463

Randy Lander of The Fourth Rail conducted two interviews and took a collection of books to review. And all that in one afternoon. Thanks, Randy!
http://www.thefourthrail.com/
Danielle Corsetto joined the afternoon webcomics panel. Check out her comics (incl. Girls with Slingshots), photographs, sketches, and whatnot at her web site,
http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/
Ronee’s article deserve’s another link:
http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15992
Terry Moore’s blog:
http://www.strangersinparadise.com/blog.html
Shannon Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man forum:
http://www.tmcm.com/cgi-bin/yabb/yabb.pl

Forum for Lea Hernandez:
http://www.talkaboutcomics.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=16&
Lea, creator of [i:7b5d3e1b4d]Rumble Girls[/i:7b5d3e1b4d], was showing her recently published [i:7b5d3e1b4d]Manga Secrets[/i:7b5d3e1b4d], available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1581805721/qid=1110351293/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-4266604-8548035?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Secrets[/i:7b5d3e1b4d] is a how-to book and a great reference all in one. I found the layout particularly interesting, and manga fans and artists will find much to enjoy.

Thanks for the namecheck and good words about Manga Secrets! You pushed the numbers back up at Amazon!

Wow, posting links at the Staple! forum is actually working. Yee-haw.
I think [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Manga Secrets[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] is a fine book and a welcome addition to a library that includes [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Understanding Comics[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] and [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Reinventing Comics[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] by Scott McCloud, [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Comics & Sequential Art[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] by the late Will Eisner, and [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Writing for Comics[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] by Alan Moore. (My own copy of Moore’s book should arrive at Austin Books within a week or so. http://www.austinbooks.com/)
The market for manga is growing in the U.S., and the market is huge in Japan ($5 billion a year in 2002, according to my quick read of this article:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=51622).
More stats in this article from 2005:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040704/NEWS02/407040301/1029
With the publication of [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Manga Secrets[/i:b3ebb8f9d9], Lea addresses an underserved segment of a large market and [b:b3ebb8f9d9]does it well[/b:b3ebb8f9d9]. The writing is clear and concise. The book reveals inside information that a reader new to the genre might take months to figure out. (For example, “In manga and anime, you know that a Bad Girl will be redeemed if she has a more restrained hairstyle.”) There you go: manga secrets indeed.
As someone with a passion for user interface design and elegant layout, I love the look and design of the pages in [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Manga Secrets[/i:b3ebb8f9d9]. This is the kind of book one hopes to create after absorbing lessons from Edward Tufte and other masters of design. (Edward Tufte: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/) Whitespace is used judiciously. The “normal” text is black on white, and step-by-step instructional text appears in a text box with a light earthy background color. This is not only visually appealing, but it also improves readability. A reader thumbing through the book to find a specific lesson will find it easily.
I’m certainly not the only person who has noticed that the manga section at Borders and other bookstores is growing quickly. A how-to book like this one is useful not only to artists, but also to readers who want to understand the nuances of an art form that has a history and iconography different from what many Americans are familiar with.
On another topic:
Lea could correct me if I’m wrong, but it would appear that the audience for manga in the U.S. remains predominantly male. In Japan the male/female ratio is balanced, which suggests (to me, anyway) that female readership of manga in the U.S. could grow explosively. An increase in female authorship and readership would be a great boon to the comic industry.
Even a newbie to comics like me can tell that the comics industry still suffers from a Men’s Club attitude. Frankly, I think that sucks, and I don’t often see women characters in comics portrayed in a manner I find appealing. The portrayal of women and acceptance of women in the industry may well have improved over the past few decades, but the situation still isn’t good.
Folks can argue with me until Staple! 2006, but the fact remains that when I walk into any comic book store I feel suffocated by the male, Male, MALE presence on the shelves. It’s as though Machismo took form as a he-cat and sprayed the room. Yes, the comics writing and artwork can be good, and yes, I still find male and female creators I admire, but I sense the art form still hasn’t grown up because it encompasses little more than half (if that) of the breadth of human experience.
An image of a woman is not a woman. (Certain readers may remember a great passage in Vonnegut’s [i:b3ebb8f9d9]God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] on this topic.) A woman who is simply a social appendage to a male hero is not a complete woman or a particularly interesting character. Quite frankly, I want to read about women whom I admire so much I’d fall in love with them. Sure, it doesn’t hurt if the women are pretty, but as someone who’s been around the block at least once I know that’s not what keeps me interested, whether the woman is fictional or real.
How many female characters in comics compare favorably to the women in the works of Anne Patchett? or Flannery O’Connor? or Tom Robbins? The writing and strength of characterization in those authors’ works is the standard to which all fiction should be held, in my opinion.
Oops, did I get off topic? Once in a while I must rant.
Secrets[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] was written by a woman whose work features strong female characters (e.g., [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Rumble Girls[/i:b3ebb8f9d9]). Though Lea may not have intended to bring a healthier male/female balance to comics, [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Manga Secrets[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] appears to do that as well. When I read the book I don’t sense so much a woman’s perspective as a balanced human adult perspective. And that’s just a bonus (!) because the book’s layout and instructions are reason enough to buy it.
In short, I’m glad Lea was at the show, I’m really glad I got a copy of the book (and an interview!), and I’m going to be reading and rereading [i:b3ebb8f9d9]Manga Secrets[/i:b3ebb8f9d9] as I consider what type of artwork would be fitting for certain stories I’d like to see illustrated.[/i]

I’m about as male as they come. Well…that is to say I’m pretty macho for a guy who paints his finger nails. ;)
Anyway, I agree that sexism and sexuality are two subjects our industry woefully ignores.
I’ll have to check out Manga Secrets!

Paul Benjamin wrote a very fine article about Staple! 2005:
http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29216
Check it out, y’all. Every review or article about the show that I’ve read has provided a different perspective.

posting links at the Staple! forum is actually working. Yee-haw.
I think [i:ea58b76a46]Manga Secrets[/i:ea58b76a46] is a fine book and a welcome addition to a library that includes [/quote:ea58b76a46]
Thanks for such a great analysis of Manga Secrets and the market, Gary!
I think the market for manga in non-comic bookstores is probably evenly split at best, but close to being dominated by female buyers, now. Most (not ALL, most) comics speciality shops offer women a scary view of a college guy’s dorm room. Anime cons tell the tales: Katsucon’s attendance was extremely close to 50/50.
Me, since all the comic stores in San Antonio have gone to the Dark Side, I’ll be road-trippin’ to Austin Books.
It’s not a guy hole, see? Not that there’s anything wrong with however someone wants their store to be, but I want to shop someplace without tripping over gamers, or being treated I’m invisible (now), or a date (then), or a nusiance (now and then).

Lea,
Ah, thanks. I do feel a bit better now.

The afternoon panel discussions at Staple! 2005 were moderated by Scott Hinze of Fanboy Radio:
http://www.fanboyradio.com/
The Fanboy Radio forums:
http://www.fanboyradio.com/forums/
Y’all have been visiting these sites, right?

Visiting?
OBSESSIVELY.
You said you feel better? About what? Austin books being rockin’? That manga buying is tipping towards gender parity?

I’m feeling better about the possibility of gender parity.
Austin Books rockin’? That had made it into even my thick skull. I was there just yesterday, in fact, buying stuff like:
Much Coffee Man: The Magazine[/i:8964f0f990] issue #11, in which a Vonnegut-inspired Terry Moore reviews the writing and artwork of Books One to Nine of [i:8964f0f990]Strangers in Paradise[/i:8964f0f990] by Terry Moore. (From the introduction: “I don’t know the exact count of all the [[i:8964f0f990]Strangers in Paradise[/i:8964f0f990]] books put together, but it’s over a thousand and they make a three-inch stack tipping five pounds on the scale. I know I’m stalling, but autopsies always start with measurements.”)
R.[/i:8964f0f990], a mini by Kristen Casselman, illustrated by Lloyd Dangle, in which Kristen reveals her . . . uh, private thoughts about Henry Rollins. (“and I want / I really, really want / Henry to read me Cohen / while rubbing my feet / and feeding me mangos / I don’t think it’s too much to ask”)
Stare[/i:8964f0f990] by William Rodriguez a.k.a. Mighty Mangler http://mangledstare.hidoshi.com/. I can’t wait to have little ones of my own after reading that book. (“Do other superheroes have baby carseats, too?”)
Thomas P. “Goatboy” Reidy III’s [i:8964f0f990]Useless Meanderings[/i:8964f0f990] #2 was on the shelf, so yoink! I grabbed that one as well. (Check out the “Things That Suck / Things That Suck Even More” section.) Thomas interviewed Lea Hernandez, something y’all’ll see soonish on this here web site. For now, though, go visit Goatboy’s realm at http://www.fullofmonkey.com/

Aw, man! Hearing Gary go off about weak femme characters got me all gooey inside! In that G-rated kind of way, even!!
One of these days I’ll finally get around to reading Lea’s stuff…
d

Put my books in the bathroom, especially after Tex-Mex. That’ll get them read!

Danielle,
I don’t mind being G-rated and Disney-compatible. I’m glad somebody grokked my rant.
I’m going to do what I can to fight the good fight in my Austin-based books.
Lea,
Is [i:7f915850ce]Manga Secrets[/i:7f915850ce] bathroom reading, a.k.a. a Throne Tome? Hmm, I’ll have to test that.

Boy, that’s a good question. I haven’t put it to the test. All my others have…passed…with flying colors. (So to speak.)
I’d say it’s good for browsing on the throne, but better for a place where it’s practical to also use paper and pencil.

/>I’d say it’s good for browsing on the throne, but better for a place where it’s practical to also use paper and pencil.[/quote:309160f9c1]
Most people don’t have a bathroom with a credenza, but Gary’s so organized he just might.
Hey, what do ya’ll think about the idea of an all female panel at STAPLE! next year to discuss gender issues in comics?
Interesting?

Nope! Put me on with the guys!
There’s nothing to be said about gender issues that can’t be said at any other panel.

Put me on with the guys!
There’s nothing to be said about gender issues that can’t be said at any other panel.[/quote:8444ac17d6]
True, just thought it might be cool to focus on it. Just an idea.
Plus an all female panel would be cool and photogenic. :)

In the immmortal words of Guitar Wolf…
/> IT!!!!!![/i:3621a0f288]

Gary, thanks for the kind words, dude… you made my day!

You’re certainly welcome, o Mighty one.