Mpls Indie Xpo is this Saturday!

If you live near the Twin Cities and enjoy fun times, then you should definitely consider attending one or more of the MIX events this week. They are, in order:

THURSDAY:

"Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Film Fest"
St. Anthony Main Theatre, 6:30pm (doors open 6pm)
SE 115 Main St, Minneapolis

Yes, as the name implies, we will be screening Scott Pilgrim. But there's oh, so much more. At 6pm Big Brain will be selling comic-related merch, including the much sought after sixth Scott Pilgrim book. There will also be door prizes and a big raffle. ALSO, the first 30 people to show up get a free silkscreen poster inked by none other than BTA's Zander Cannon. Then at 6:30 we'll screen 18 minutes of the best animated shorts in town, featuring the animation of PUNY, Mitch Loidolt, Nick Bachman, and David & Mary Sandberg.



FRIDAY:

Book Signing: Dinski, Renier, Sally
Big Brain Comics, 6-8pm
1027 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis

Come to Big Brain from 6-8 for a triple book signing, featuring WILL DINSKI, AARON RENIER, and ZAK SALLY! ...

MIX Kick-Off Party!
501 Club, 8pm - midnight
501 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis

... Then head over to the 501 Club to party until midnight.

SATURDAY:

Mpls Indie Xpo (MIX)
The Soap Factory, 9am - 5pm
518 Southeast 2nd St, Minneapolis

The main event happens at The Soap Factory from 9-5. MIX is a FREE convention where you can meet, chat up, and buy things from the greatest indie comics creators in the world. You can even meet Brett Warnock, co-publisher of Top Shelf Productions, who is in Minneapolis for the FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE! Also, swing by the programming room at 2pm to see me mumble my way through an interview with The Daily Cross Hatch's Brian Heater. Should be fun!

MIX After-Party
Altered Esthetics Gallery
6pm - late
1224 Quincy St NE, Minneapolis

Finally, hit up the AFTER PARTY at Altered Esthetics. There you can watch a screening of Joanna Kohler's "Big Time Attic" film, hear Danno Klonowski's thoughts on art and life and what it all really means, and then tip back a few drinks. Should be a blast, I hope to see you there (whoever you are).

For much more info about what I've described, including addresses to all these fine establishments as well as a full schedule of happenings during MIX, go here:

mplsindiexpo.com/program


TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Top 10 Commentary Podcast #1 by Zander Cannon

One of the great things about DVDs when they started to come out was the commentary track. How amazing, I thought; by adding one more audio track to the disk (a relatively small addition), you could add an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes information to the movie. If you were buying a movie you had watched a million times, you were now getting to virtually sit down with the director and listen to his or her recollections of the process of making the movie, and in doing so, see each scene with fresh eyes.

Well, why not comics? With the ease with which we can put audio into people's hands via the internet, it's a very simple matter to record a commentary for a comic book. The people who want to listen to it are self-selecting; they presumably all have the comic already, so all that is needed is to sit in front of a microphone and chitchat for a while.

This is the commentary podcast for Top 10 Season 2 #1, written by Zander Cannon and drawn by Gene Ha. It clocks in at almost 52 minutes, so put aside some time, curl up with the issue, and enjoy!

Top 10 Commentary Podcast No. 1

We Are Six

I Wish Someone Would Invent: A Comic-Con Street-View

Have you ever thought about an invention that maybe YOU can't make, but it sure would be nice if someone else did?

One of the things about coming home from Comicon for me is that someone will ask me what it was like or what I saw, and to remember, I inevitably sort of revisit a virtual map of the room in my head, remembering who was in what aisle, what was on which corner, etc. Of course, the squishy organ in my head is limited, and fallible, and so I wish someone would invent an actual street view of Comic-Con.

As most people know, on Google Maps there is a feature called Street View, in which you can see a 360-degree panorama from almost any position on any road in any city. Google accomplishes this by sending out a Street-view car on all of these roads which has an apparatus that takes a photo in every direction, then stitches them all together to make a panorama. The Google apparatus is mounted on top of a car, but what if someone were to make one that sits atop their shoulders or on a backpack or on a hat? That person could walk around the San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, C2E2, or Wizard World Anywhere and create an document that would accomplish several goals:

1. A record of what was there that year. How many people did you see and forget? How much of the show did you not have time to explore? What was the new hot thing in 2010 that is utterly forgotten a decade later? Or hey look, it's the next decade's most popular artist as a 22-year old indie creator! How cool would it be to review all of the things the comic show had that year?

2. Promotion of the show. Not everyone goes to a show for the big names that are in the advertising. What if the show has a decent showing of indie creators that are local to the area? What if there are a bunch of booths selling just the sort of thing you're a geek for? What if you have no idea what a comic book convention is like? A chance to quickly check out a show could make the difference to someone on the fence about shelling out the money to go out there.

3. A chance for exhibitors to improve their convention presences. Let's look at the Convention Street View. Oh no, you can't even see me in the sea of people. I need a sign that's at shoulder height or a name tag on the side of my table. Maybe a big sign behind me. Oh wait, that guy did it and it looks terrible! And so forth. It's hard to think about what you really need when you're just scrambling to get all of your stuff on a plane and to the convention hall. Something like this could really focus one's efforts.

A project like this would take time (it's tough to get everywhere in a crowded comic convention), money (cameras aren't free), effort (stitching all the photos together), infrastructure (a map to place this into), and motivation (something beyond it being cool), so it seems like it would either have to be an extremely motivated comic geek, someone on the staff of each convention, or Google itself, or a combination thereof. Perhaps an individual creates the camera-hat and the convention pays him to photograph the show, then Google uses its technology and infrastructure to create the map, linking it from the individual's website and the show's website. Everybody wins!

Especially me, because I never remember what I saw at Comic-Con. I was druh-unk.

So, you want to invent it? Already know about a gadget just like it? Got a reason why it would never work? Got some suggestions? Got your own "I Wish Someone Would Invent..."? See you in the comments!

Neon Tommy Interview at Comic-Con

Holly Butcher over at Neon Tommy asked Dan Olson and me to chat about our convention experiences. We had the damnedest time trying to find a quiet place to talk, and finally found a patch of concrete nestled between some locked doors and a giant air conditioner. Here's how it all went down:






Thanks, Holly! And thanks to Kristin at Altered Esthetics for hooking us up.