Oaktown and APE 2009

When I first tried screenprinting some ten years ago, everything went smoothly. We bought a large roll of crappy screen and haphazardly stretched it across barely-square frames held together with cheap staples. In Scott's parents' garage, we smeared the emulsion with cardboard and retreated to the basement for a pot-addled session of Doom while it dried.

A few hours later, we set the transparencies on the screen, hung a shoplight socket from the ceiling at an arbitrary height for an arbitrary amount of time above the screen, and went back to gaming. We took the screen into the bathroom to rinse off the unexposed emulsion: success! We made all sorts of t-shirt designs, and I sold them as a value pack for $15 with two hits of acid and an issue of White Space, my art/poetry zine at the time. Those were the days!

Years later we tried our luck with amateur screenprinting again, only to butt our heads against all manner of fail. We tried a 150W bulb at various intervals: emulsion would either completely rinse out or burn permanently into the screen. We tried sunshine for exposure and it did work, but the emulsion had dried with large globs that didn't rinse out. Eventually we gave up and realized that our friend working at a bona fide screenprinting shop was a much better idea.

This time around I figured I should do everything by the letter. Of course I managed to put off the whole process until a few days before APE, so there was no allowance for error. My first attempt was a disaster: I was using a 150W outdoor flood bulb from Walgreens, elevated 12" from the screen using my drawing table lamp with a disposable aluminum cake tin for reflection. The transparency ink baked onto the screen and the black plastic portfolio I had used for a backdrop melted and warped until the screen was pushed up and tilted to the side. The flood bulb was extremely hot, and apparently heat can set the emulsion as well as light. Not to mention: heat melts plastic. Panicked, I immediately ran to the bathroom and scrubbed with screen clearer. It barely came out, and only after 20 minutes of elbow grease and chemicals.

Luckily things eventually worked out, and I soon had 40 Piecemeal covers and 30 t-shirts draped on every horizontal surface I could find in my apartment. Elated, I immediately jumped on my bike and went to the copy shop to produce the meaty innards for my freshly printed covers.

Early the next morning I hauled my goods in a rolling suitcase a mile through Logan Square to the California El, then along the 40-minute train trek to O'Hare. I landed in San Francisco and shot north on BART. My cousin Johnelle met me in Oakland and showed me around her shop, Mignonne Decór Later we hung out with Petra and Izzy and made a delicious dinner and slurped whiskey and wine. The girls decided they wanted to dress up and show me around Oakland, which in retrospect was a very odd decision, considering all the cat-calling and general harassment that ensued for the rest of the night. At some point I became drunk enough to booty dance with myself.

APE was great as ever: a sweaty, nervous, sometimes-drunken mass of socially awkward cartoonists peddling their life work on folding tables. Alec Longstreth and Greg Means graciously let me share their table. Alec brought along the third Basewood chapter to the delight of many fans. He also introduced me to his new flame, Claire, who he managed to remain intertwined with for a good portion of the rest of the show (see header illustration).

After the show I somehow separated from the general flow of cartoonists seeking food and drink. I ended up walking a few miles (where I became convinced that San Francisco is truly a concentrated epicenter of human freaks), eating a ghetto deli sandwich, then jumping on a Muni bus towards Jeremy and Grant's Giant Robot show. The bus lurched at an almost vertical angle, slowly making its way through tiny San Francisco streets tossing its occupants about. An attractive woman boarded and soon after a man jumped inside and let loose with an obviously innebriated outburst: "SHE'S EMBARRASSED OF WHO SHE IS!!" He jumped off and the bus continued its lazy lurch forward.

I was quite late to the Chip Beef, Chipped Tooth show and it had pretty much cleared out. We took the Muni to the Isotope awards which were incredibly packed. The whole room seemed to just be a line snaking away from the bar where Brett Warnock was serving up what I hear were tasty margaritas.

The rest of the night quickly became blurred as the contents of the Maker's Mark in my backback diminished. We stumbled across a Michael Jackson themed party, with a spirited-if-clumsy impersonator dancing on the sidewalk to a boombox. We had a near-spiritual experience gobbling down street tacos. We crammed into a tiny bar where Eraserhead was being projected on the wall. (Nothing like consuming beverages against a giant image of David Lynch's mysterious "baby" coughing up life juices.) We then retired to Karl's pad and crashed.

I was a hungover zombie for the next day of APE, hiding in a chair while nursing my water bottle, cursing my thirst for whiskey. That night a huge gang of us took over Lanesplitter's pizza. Everybody drew an entire spread of cartoon dicks in my sketchbook. Damien and Melanie drove Grant and me to their deluxe Oakland pad where we cavorted with their many pets. After hanging out with their cats, I made the decision to get kittens when I got back to Chicago.

Some Comics I Enjoyed

Rina Ayuyang has collected the best of her minicomic Namby Pamby and many new stories in Whirlwind Wonderland My favorite parts are her large Filipino family get-togethers, how she illustrates her mind wandering while waiting in traffic, and the struggles with coming to grips with being pregnant and what the future will hold. Rina does a great job changing the style up to best illustrate each mood and story.

Damien is so adept at presenting a believable world in comic form. His deceptively loose lines and shading in The Natural World #2 look like they've fallen onto the page exactly where they need to be. He also has some of the most beautiful lettering I've ever seen. Damien was awarded an Ignatz at SPX for his Natural World offshoot story in Papercutter #10

Thirteen thousand carefully drafted snowflakes and another six inches of Longstreth beard and we have the latest chapter in Alec's Basewood adventure: Phase 7 #007 Many surprise twists and some great little details to be found in this immaculately crafted comic. Alec has an intoxicating enthusiasm that shines through in all his comics. You can follow the progress of his hair growth during the creation of the final two chapters of Basewood on his Flickr

Joey writes some of the most gut-bustingly hilarious comics. I was looking forward to picking up Just So You Know which explores her coming out as transgender and deciding to live her life as a woman. I've known a few folks who've made this decision, and I love that Joey's brave enough to write this and explain to people who, like myself, don't wholly understand why or what's involved. As often poignant as it is funny. For example, she struggles through a longwinded coming out to her parents and offhand mentions that she likely did drugs for years as a coping mechanism, all they can say is "Wait?! You did drugs?!!"

Melinda Boyce came and visited the Trubble Club last winter. There's a wide range of stories in Scarface some sad like her last conversation with her grandpa before dying, others are more upbeat like her first mushroom trip. Melinda's got a real gift for capturing moments and has a wicked drawing hand. (Her other comic about meeting her boyfriend, "Okay? Okay!" was a bit sappy for my taste, but still very good.)

The bad: Jesse Reklaw has finished his year-long run of his daily diary strip, Ten Thousand Things to Do The glad: you can now get all six amazing issues as a box set for $20 with free shipping. I've blathered my love of this strip before, so I'll keep it short. Besides, Jesse puts it best himself: "candidly details the cartoonist's lifestyle of inking, drinking, and anxious thinking." So true! Do not miss out on this comic.

I hadn't heard of Robert Sergel before picking up Eschew #1 Clinically exquisite linework and a very quiet tone throughout, managing to creep you out on one page and make you giggle on the next. Or just stare at the page wondering what. Many pages have an airline escape brochure feel to them, detailing a simple, odd moment. Robert also seems to enjoy drawing men puking.

Gorgeous production with gold foil stamping and some of the most versatile use of 2-color printed innards I've seen. Add to that superb story and illustration -- what else can you ask for? John Pham really delivers with Sublife #2

One of few comics that will make me giddy when a new issue comes out. I managed to get the last copy of Ganges #3 at APE, stuffed it into my suitcase, and hovered over it like a paranoid junky protecting my last fix. Huizenga is perpetually exploring the medium, every issue gets me excited about the untapped potential of comics. In Ganges own words: "OH MAN! MAMMOTH RIFFS."