Small Press Expo logo

Now in its 21st year, Small Press Expo (SPX) is the country’s premier independent comics and graphic arts festival, held annually in Bethesda, MD. Bringing together more than 4,000 creators from around the world, the Expo gives small press and indie comic artists and cartoonists the opportunity to display and sell their work. Unlike larger comic conventions, SPX does not allow retailers to exhibit on the show floor, resulting in a greater focus on indie creators and publishers. As the doors opened to this year’s SPX, which took place on September 19–20 at the North Bethesda Marriott, the line to purchase admission passes stretched around the main hall and down to the lower level of the conference center. Previous attendees commented on the 2015 event’s unprecedented crowds. Inside, the enthusiasm was palpable, and participants explored table after table at what is one of the indie comic scene’s longest-running festivals. Though the tables of artists stretched endlessly down the main hall, the conference felt more intimate than larger comics conventions, with plenty of chances to interact directly with the creators and discover new works. Throughout SPX, conversations surrounding representation in comics were brought to the forefront. Saturday’s events schedule included panels that highlighted women creators, black artists, and queer comics. One of the first sessions of the day was an SPX spotlight on Kate Beaton and Noelle Stevenson, two webcomic artists who have recently gained acclaim in the print format. Beaton’s historical and literary humor comics have been collected in two volumes—Hark! A Vagrant (2014) and Step Aside, Pops (2015, both Drawn & Quarterly)— and Stevenson’s Nimona (HarperCollins, 2015), originally a webcomic, has made the 2015 National Book Award long list. Moderated by Heidi MacDonald (“The Beat” blog editor), the panel celebrated Beaton and Stevenson’s latest publications and how their works have a wide appeal and a growing fan base, especially with children and young adult audiences. During the audience Q&A part of the session, a father shared his daughters’ love for the ongoing comic “Lumberjanes” (BOOM!), which Stevenson cocreated with Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, and Shannon Watters. Stevenson appeared gratified to hear that young women had identified with the characters in the comic, and when the audience member expressed his daughters’ desire to emulate some of the unique hairstyles in Stevenson’s work, she encouraged him to “let kids do stupid things to their hair.” Meanwhile, Beaton’s The Princess and the Pony (Scholastic, 2015) is the author’s first foray into picture books, and she emphasized her own love for princesses as a driving force behind the title. “Princesses are able to make their own choices,” she said and stressed that form of agency was empowering in its own right.

Poster for the Small Press Expo 2015

Asserting one’s agency became an inadvertent theme of the panel, as the creators also engaged in important conversations regarding their experiences in comics as women. When asked why they chose webcomics as their initial medium (as opposed to the “traditional” route of print comics), Stevenson emphasized that the world of webcomics was the first place that she saw female creators and female characters in great numbers. Both artists recalled how as children, they felt that comics were a “boys” thing and spoke of their efforts to counter that through their own art. Conversations around representation continued into the afternoon, and the “Black Art Matters” panel discussed the necessity of increasing diversity both on the page and behind the scenes. Moderated by longtime cartoonist Keith Knight (“the old man of the convention,” he joked), the panel featured artists Darryl Ayo (Press [A] to Talk), Ron Wimberly (Lighten Up), C. Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics), and Whit Taylor (The Fabric of Appropriation). Wimberly opened by discussing an experience in which a Marvel editor had asked him to lighten the skin tone of a character, and provided critical commentary on race in comics. Taylor then detailed how she was told that because she was writing about race, retailers weren’t sure how well the comic would sell, and Trotman pointed out that “no one likes to think of themselves as prejudiced, but we live in a white supremacist society.” She emphasized that the diversity problem exists behind the scenes as well, and when stories of marginalized groups are told through the lens of white/straight/cisgender people and how they feel, they are speaking over the voices and experiences of marginalized groups. Taylor added that it is not enough to simply draw or write characters of color—they must be developed and nuanced. The artists also advised aspiring young creators of color. Knight reminded new creators to be open to learning from everybody and “to regroup every six months.” Taylor emphasized the need for self-care, and Ayo quipped that it is “impossible to fail in comics because there isn’t enough money to constitute a failure.” Trotman served as emcee of SPX’s Ignatz Awards later in the evening, which recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning. In an unprecedented sweep, every 2015 Ignatz Award winner was a woman, including Outstanding Artist winner Emily Carroll for Through the Woods (S.&S., 2014). The indie comics on the show floor demonstrated the rising tide of much-needed diversity that many up-and-coming creators are already providing to the comics world. Highlights included numerous retellings of traditional fairy tales, including Rockall, a fresh take on the selkie myth by Amelia Onorato, and Autumn Crossman-Serb’s Sapsorrow, based on Jim Henson’s adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast.” Crossman-Serb spoke of her love for Henson’s story. “Sapsorrow was so tragic and interesting and ethereal,” she said, but she wanted to adapt it because “the prince was so rude to her as the Creature…. Beauty had to be nice to the Beast…. I decided he would be a paragon of Men and Good Manners and Sweetness in mine.” Also of note was Eileen McLain’s Transit Fashion, a street-style art book with illustrations that showcase a wide variety of not only clothing styles but also gender, age, body type, and ethnicity to represent the diversity of New York City. The overall tone at SPX made it clear that things are changing in the world of comics. Independent artists are creating nuanced, critical work, and though there is still a long way to go, they are starting to be recognized for such work. These artists wish to see themselves in the stories they tell, and SPX is an ideal venue in which to do so. Suzanne Walker debuted her first piece of comics writing, Mooncakes—a queer, Chinese American paranormal romance featuring a hard-of-hearing witch (as well as a genderqueer werewolf)—with her cocreator Wendy Xu at SPX.