Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival 2010: What I bought

A little over a month ago was the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, a totally insane comics and art show that, per capita, was probably the highest quality of its kind that I've ever attended. Just nuts guests and publishers and new books all burbling up in a space that was (thank, God) much larger than the space used last year and on a day where the weather was much more manageable. Here's a picture snapped from the stage up front, as the show took place in a church basketball gym.



We skipped SPX this year, so I thought there was a lot of stuff I was hungry to buy, but it turned out I spent most of my cash on stuff that made its debut at BCGF. Here's what I bought at the show...

(above, clockwise from left)

• PROGRAM GUIDE - Features a chilling illustration by Anders Nilsen.
• BIGFOOT - A beautiful hardcover from Drawn & Quarterly by Pascal Girard, this was the first thing I bought at the show. The art has this fragile quality with its simple color palette and layout and I can't wait to read it! I should've by now, but I've been busy, so leave me alone.
• SCENES FROM AN IMPENDING MARRIAGE - Adrian Tomine's collection of short comics surrounding his upcoming wedding! Getting new Tomine comics is like getting new Coen Brothers films for me. Always waiting for the next gem.
• LA DIARY (yellow cover) and Diary (pink cover) - Did you know Tom Kaczynski has a small publishing company called Uncivilized Books and Gabrielle Bell puts out new autobio minis through it? I didn't, either, until a couple days before BCGF. Gabrielle was at the show selling these dense beauties.
• TRANS UTOPIA - Speaking of Kaczynski! The fourth issue of his Trans series debuted at the show! I've waited years for this! Yaaay! And it even had a surprise ending...

(above, clockwise from left)

• SMOKE SIGNAL #7 - Cover by Jordan Crane! Submissions by Marc Bell, Charles Burns, Michael DeForge, Domitille Collardey, Sammy Harkham, Jim Rugg and many many more.
• SNAKE OIL #6: THE GROUND IS SOFT - A new volume of Chuck Forsman's handmade comic series! The specific pace Forsman's stories move with is probably my favorite part of the books.
• ONLY SKIN #6 - This series from Sean Ford is so FANTASTIC and this volume reveals a lot about the mysteries that've been stirring since the start.
  
• THE INCREDIBLY FANTASTIC ADVENTURES OF MAUREEN DOWD #1 - Bullets, car explosions, knives, mustaches, eye-patches, dudes crashing through windows with guns in their hands - this book from Benjamin Marra has everything you need.
• TWO EYES OF THE BEAUTIFUL PART II - Ryan Cecil Smith based this series of hand-printed mini-comics on Umezu Kazuo's Blood Baptism horror manga and, yes, this book is as fun as that sounds.

(above, clockwise from left)

• SPOTTING DEER - Michael DeForge has become the kind of creator whose work stops me in my tracks when I come across it. If I see a link online to a new strip or sample, I stop what I'm doing and check it out right away. He's exciting and this 12-page, full-color story is unlike ANYTHING I've seen before. People like Annie Koyama - the publisher behind Koyama Press, who put this title out - are absolutely my heroes. Just working to help put good comics out in the world. That's some noble shit.
• SM - I was telling my friend David that I hoped to find a really great horror comic at the show. BAM: DeForge was selling this 12-page comic that I think debuted there. So so so disturbing.
• UPTIGHT #4 - New issue of Jordan Crane's periodical series! There's a segment in the "Dark Day" story where he shows movement in a dark space using some technique I've never even seen before. HOW DOES HE DO IT?
• Crickets #3 - Like with Uptight #4, I had no idea Sammy Harkham was going to debut Crickets #3, the newest issue of his one-man anthology. Larger in format and page count than previous issues, this new issue is PACKED with comics that're new to me. Ugh, I love comics.

So that's it. Beyond the main floor, there were panels on a below level. I usually skip those in favor of buying comics for as long as I can, but missed one featuring Sammy Harkham that I'd wanted to make. Otherwise, there was a selection of original art downstairs that just floored me. I've never seen one before, but they had this Jack Kirby page from an issue of OMAC:


I didn't buy it.

The show was amazing, it was great to run into friends, and it's terrific to have so many shows showcasing this type of art and comics in an area so close to us. Comics!