Staples and Stickers and Stamps
As the number of titles in the Manatee Power library increases, we spend more and more time throughout the year printing, cutting, stapling, folding, stickering, and stamping. Shortly after one book is finished, we run out of another. Although I do feel a strong sense of love and pride as I'm assembling the first physical manifestation of a new book - and the twentieth - my excitement fades by the 200th. So we tried to be a little smarter about minicomics production. My sister, Randi, joined Rebecca and I on Saturday for a massive stapling-and-stickering-and-stamping extravaganza in an ambitious effort to make all the minicomics we'll need for the year. We... didn't quite make it to the end. The world of bookmaking becomes a little sleepy if you order sake with your sushi. But we came close! A weight has been lifted by my generous family and I already feel a little lighter (and it's not from the sake).
Some of these fine books are coming with me this weekend to the MoCCA Festival at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York City. After skipping it last year, I'm excited to be going back! There are many great cartoonists at MoCCA and I always fall in love with something new. And, like at SPX, it's so much fun to talk to readers and introduce myself to new ones. MoCCA runs Saturday April 9th and Sunday April 10th from 11am-6pm. If you go, please come by table E17!
While I'm in the city I'll be staying with my good friend Ray, who I've convinced to attend Punchdrunk's incomparable MacBeth-by-way-of-Hitchock theater piece, Sleep No More. Rebecca and I experienced it twice when it was in Boston and I urge anyone who can to see its new incarnation in New York. It warrants a blog post of it its own and, after we go, I'll try to write one.