Special Guests
Tony Millionaire
STAPLE! is pleased to announce the appearance of Mr. Tony Millionaire at our second annual expo. Mr. Millionaire is the creator of Maakies (www.maakies.com), Sock Monkey, the new Billy Hazelnuts, and other fine comical adventures. We are proud and excited to have Tony Millionaire at STAPLE!
Tony Millionaire’s Maakies is one of the most popular weekly comic strips in America, running in many of the largest U.S. weekly newspapers, including the Village Voice, the L.A. Weekly, the Chicago Reader and Seattle’s The Stranger. He has won numerous Eisner and Harvey Awards, including “Best Syndicated Strip” in 2004.
Maakies has been collected in Maakies, When We Were Very Maakies, the House at Maakies Corner and Struwwelmaakies, all published by Fantagraphics. Other, non-Maakies book releases include his series of Sock Monkey comics, graphic novels, and children’s books from Dark Horse Comics, and, from Fantagraphics, Mighty Mite: The Earmite and the upcoming Billy Hazelnuts.
Jim Mahfood and Dave Crosland
Those very Silky Bureaucrats themselves, Jim Mahfood and Dave Crosland! Jim (www.40ozcomics.com) and Dave (www.hiredmeat.com) will be bringing their own unique brand of artistic madness to STAPLE! Come see the Bureaucrats at the show on March 4, 2006 in Austin, Texas, and then check out one of their now famous Live Art performances later that evening (location TBA)!
Jim Mahfood has been working in the underground art field for almost ten years, earning a solid cult following and putting out consistantly diverse and original work. He has published his own comics, worked along side Kevin Smith on the Clerks comics and Brian Bendis on Marvel Team-Up and Wha Huh?, and written and drawn his own titles, such as Grrl Scouts, Stupid Comics, Felt, and The Further Adventures of One Page Filler Man. He, along with partner Dave Crosland, founded the Silky Bureaucrats, an indy art movement set-up to destroy all boundaries and rock live art in various clubs around the world.
A true connoisseur of white wines and Thai soups, Dave Crosland has handled the art duties on several Image Comics titles, including Puffed, Heaven LLC, and Bad Ideas. His most recent, self-written Image release was Slop: Analecta, a 144-page collection of short stories and inkblots from the past five years of his career. This winter will mark the release of yet another eye candy jambouree from Crosland, in the form of a 3-issue miniseries with Devil’s Due Publishing, called Hack/Slash: The Land of Lost Toys.
Keith Knight
Keith Knight is an award-winning San Francisco cartoonist and rapper whose work can be seen in such varied publications as Salon.com, the Funny Times, Faultlines, ESPN the magazine, Blacknews.com and Mad Magazine and, locally, the Pacific Sun. His two weekly comic strips, the K Chronicles and (th)ink (www.kchronicles.com) can be found in over thirty-five alternative, ethnic, political and college newspapers across the country. He has five comic-strip collections, including the latest, “the Passion of the Keef”. His newest book, “the Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Art”, is a primer for anyone using or wanting to use art to uplift their communities. His semi-conscious hip-hop band, the Marginal Prophets, won a 2004 California Music Award for their latest disc, “Bohemian Rap CD”.
Xeric Grant Panel
Five recent winners of the Xeric Grant - Alex Cahill & Jad Ziade - Something So Familiar (www.newradiocomics.com), Emily Benz & Summer McClinton - Thread (www.threadcomics.com), and Michael LaRiccia - Black Mane (www.michaellariccia.com) - will discuss their work and the processes involved in acquiring this prestigious grant. Indispensable for the aspiring self-publisher, this presentation is not to be missed.
Toby Craig Book Assembly Demo
Toby Craig (www.ithinkican.com) will present a live demo of how he assembles his own books. You can read more about his process in our featured article.
Fiction Circus
The Fiction Circus is the shameless promotional vehicle of local Austin irregulars Miracle Jones and Professor Steven Future, who have found that it is pretty much impossible to get people to appreciate short fiction without pyrotechnics and crazy costumes. They accept this. They EMBRACE this.
Most writers have dignity. Not the Fiction Circus! With live musical accompaniment, daring feats of narrative legerdemain and linguistic sorcery, and occasional human sacrifice, the Fiction Circus is moments away from becoming the new international sensation among the literati, illuminati, and transcendent. You can smugly say that you saw it before it sold out. Because it will. You can see it in their piggy eyes.
More guests and special events to be announced soon. Continue to check the news section for more announcements.
Plus over 50 exhibitors
In addition to the special guests mentioned to the left, some of the exhibitors include Chris Moreno, Silent Devil Productions, Rafael Navarro, Viper Comics, Drew Edwards, Danielle Corsetto, Jeffery Stevenson, John Thornton, Justin Humphries, Nate Southard, Dylan Edwards, Jason Degroot, Toby Craig, and more!
See full exhibitor list and exhibitor web sites