Our trip to Staple! 2010 Part 1
The 2010 Staple! Independent Media Expo event
by Steven Ogden
The 2010 Staple! Independent Media Expo (http://www.staple-austin.org/) event took place on Saturday March 6th in Austin, Texas, hosted by Uncle Staple (Chris Nicholas). It was an incredibly fun and successful gathering of over one hundred talented creators of self-published comics, art, animation and literature - and so much else! Plus the many hundreds more folks who attended this wonderful show to scoop up all the treasure that was present in abundance. This year they even brought in pizza to sell in the lobby.
I attended with my wife, Vicki, driving up from San Antonio, just a short hour away. After finding the Poopsheet Foundation table and introducing ourselves to Rick Bradford, we spent the first hour or so digging through Rick’s several boxes of minis and digests that he brought with him. Rick is a great guy with an inventory you have to see to believe! He has zines and mini’s from foreign countries, various genres from wrestling to Christianity and everything in-between, early zines created by the pioneers and legends like Matt Faezell, Brad Foster, Steve Willis, and so much more! I love this stuff! He also had copies of Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s for sale. His knowledge of zines and creators is amazing, so he can help you find a particular artist or writer, like helping Vicki find more zines by Max Traffic, and we are glad to call him a friend. If you ever get the chance, stop by his table and meet him, or go look at his website http://www.poopsheetfoundation.com/
We then got to wander around the two large rooms that housed the event and meet tons of incredibly friendly and talented folks. Even though we tried to visit every table, it was an impossible feat. We did what we could before we wore ourselves out, but had a great time doing it!
The highlight of the show for me, other than meeting Rick, was getting to talk with Sam Hurt. I still have his Eyebeam strips I cut out of the papers back in the 1980’s. His surreal Eyebeam comic strip is simply genius and the acrylic vegetable note cards he was selling at the show are incredible works of art. We had a really nice chat discussing his art, his life and the business. Vicki said it was entertaining, yet sincere and she felt like we had been talking to a friend. We feel he should have been a Guest-of-Honor, as he is a successful published artist and an asset to Austin. Plus, he is a very down-to-Earth humble guy. We both feel lucky to have met him.
