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APE didn't disappoint me, the stories where true, everything I had hoped for was there and the sugarplum fairies of possibility began dancing in my head.

My first task was to look for friends that have booths, say Hi, get new goodies and that kind of thing, then go meet new artist of interest and finally gather more information about putting out my own product.

Keith Knight's Red Banner & Crowd

The ever yummy Ms.Monster & B-minus Comiks

Finding Keith Knight (The K Chronicles) was easy, his booth with it's bright red banner was right out in front, getting near him however was another story as his booth was mobbed with people, I'd have to stop and say Hi later.

So I went in search of someone I had yet to meet and I'm such a "Fan Boy" for (sad, I know) the great and wonderful Ms.Monster ! and the B-Minus Comiks crew. I had met Aaron Farmer before and a few of other B-Minus guys, but being a Vampira (Maila Nurmi) and Elvira (Casandra Peterson) fan (again, sad, thank you) I had to meet Ms. Monster ! After all I think I was the first to send in Ms.Monster fan art. If you haven't seen their comic Hel on Ice or their horror movie hostess spoof TV show, then you need a good slap. Just plain good fun.

Another big one was finding Michael Manning who I've been a fan of for years, I didn't even know he was going to be there until a got to the show. I wanted to see what was new in the Spider Garden. Michael's books while while not for kids are deeply involved tales of intrigue that makes Dangerous Liaisons look like a day at summer camp. The art work is highly evolved and wonderfully detailed with sometimes startling imagination.

Then I stopped off briefly to see my friend Brian Kolm (Atomic Bear Press) and his table mate Alexis Fajardo (Ambition Studios) who just put out his "Guide to Self Publishing" which I wanted to pickup as part of my information gathering process (Hey, I don't want to screw up my first issue too much). If you don't know Alexis Fajardo I suggest checking out Plato's Republic, his online strip, pretty funny stuff.

So I'm walking around and I spot a guy showing a animated short he did called Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher (by Alex Woo). So I'm watching this and I'm like...this is better than a lot of stuff I see in theaters. Seems while Alex was in school he spend several years making this amazing short. The action is smooth, well drawn and totally funny and the day I make a few extra bucks (I'm poor remember) I'm getting an autographed copy cause this kid is going to get picked up by a major studio, either that or he's going to BE a major studio.

Speaking of my being poor, Josep Blas who does Space Punks (an extremely fun comic) was kind enough to give me a copy of his comic when I was saying I enjoyed his art, but I was currently unemployed and was running out of funds for the day (hell for the week). I thought that was a pretty cool thing to do as I hadn't even mentioned I was a fellow artist at that point and he doesn't know me from Adam. So help me return the favor and buy Space Punks (thanks Josep).

I also spent some time trying out the pens and paper samples at the Japanimation / Deleter table, they sell a line of inking pens, coloring markers and other artist supplies from Japan. The pens are really quite nice as are the papers. I really enjoyed trying them out and picked up some to try at home. They'll be posting a bunch of the stuff that people drew at the show on their website in the next month, so my little doodle should show up there sometime. One of the other neat things they have in their catalog that I really want (other than more pens and paper) is one of the Anime Pose Dolls.

I revisited some people I met at WonderCon to pick up more issues of Mike Hersh's Rabid Animal Komixs and Illusive Arts Entertainment's Dorothy a warped take on the Wizard of Oz that uses actors, photographs and 3D work to make up their panels. I also grabbed a a copy of Smith Brown Jones: Alien Accountant by Jon "Bean" Hastings as I plan on taking his cartooning class, never hurts to learn from a pro.

Speaking of pros, I spent sometime talking about the pros and cons of Abobe Illustrator and pin-up art with James Courtney who is an amazing pin-up artist and a really nice guy to talk with. Only a few people I can think of use Illustrator for work this complex and it always amazes me. I've used Illustrator more times than I care to think about and I can't even come close to the simplest of work like this yet. Hummm, hey Courtney you give lessons? Courtney also used to do work with Andy's Tee Shirts, they do hot rod t-shirts are the best in the biz at it, but that's a story for another time.

And while I'm on Hot rods, I spotted some cool little art cards promoting Tales of Hot Rod Horror by Devon Devereaux of Cackling Imp Press which looks like it promises to be rather fun.

I met a lot of other interesting artist as well Nick Butler, Andrew Yang, Stephen Silver, Billy Martinez, Erwin Haya, Paul Sloboda, Benjamain Ilka, Jen Kirsch to name just a few and many many more, so many I can't even keep track. So if I forgot anyone you have my sincerest apologies as everyone made my first APE show truly great.

- g.Webber