This was only the second zine’s mate – the first one last year was enormously popular with so many people showing up to opening night that someone called the police. It was a bit like an art book fair for sardines so this year’s move to a bigger venue was a welcome change.

At zine’s mate 2010 there were lots of events but my favourite was UMA Design Farm who set up a little studio with colourful backgrounds and wacky props on opening night, took peoples photos and made them a book in 20 minutes (thereby providing the perfect birthday present for my friend Akie). There was a great wall piece at the entrance by Naoki Sato and Daijiro Ohara – you can see him with a pencil touching it up here.

This year’s fair was a whole lot more international – I particularly liked Morel Books from London and Split Fountain from Auckland (I tried on a great pinhole sweater at their stall – tuck your head in and watch the world go by upside down on your belly). It felt like there was a whole lot more photography than last year and less illustration.

From the website: “Garo Manga, 1964-1973 will be an exhibition focused around the renowned manga (Japanese comics) journal Garo during the period of its greatest aesthetic experimentation and political commitment. Garo is well-known amongst comic enthusiasts and historians of postwar Japanese culture both for its challenging of formal and thematic conventions within the field of comics as well as for its engagement with the main political issues of the day, from rightwing incursions into national education policy to Japanese involvement in the Vietnam War.”

The Center for Book Arts space isn’t huge, but they have filled and organized the show nicely with so many books. I’m not normally a manga fan, yet these are quite beautiful looking and I was really impressed. I mostly liked seeing the ones about real life personal situations. Some of covers of the books are so graphic and bold and others were quite painterly. The interior pages are all nicely aging into a pretty yellow-ed tint. I recognized two of the manga artists because of the recent re-printing of their work by Drawn & Quarterly, (along with the help of Adrian Tomine)- Yoshihiro Tatsumi (The Push Man and Other Stories, A Drifting Life, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, Good-Bye, and the brand new Black Blizzard etc.) and Seiichi Hayashi (Red Colored Elergy) I’m glad to have gotten to see them in their original bound form. To learn more about the show check out The Center for Book Arts site.

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival:
Over 50 exhibitors selling their zines, comics, books, prints and posters in a bustling market-style environment at Our Lady of Consolation Church, 184 Metropolitan Ave.
-Panel discussions and lectures by prominent artists, as well as an exhibition of vintage comic book artwork at Secret Project Robot, 128 River St.
Saturday December 5th 2009: 11 AM – 7 PM
Our Lady of Consolation Church
184 Metropolitan Ave.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
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Paths Less Traveled

(I’m in this show so come say HI!!!)

Giant Robot is proud to host Paths Less Traveled, a group art show featuring new work by Allison Cole, Julia Rothman, Daria Tessler, and Jing Wei.
December 5, 2009 – January 13, 2009
Reception: Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.

Giant Robot Gallery 437 East 9th Street
Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A, in the East Village
New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY (4769) | grny.net

left, the beautiful facade of the armory, right, some of the PictureBox table

left, Fantagraphics table, right, adorable stuff from Anna Raff

left, so happy to finally meet Jessica and Tom from Drawn & Quarterly in person! right, cartoonist Seth signing his new book

left, Tom Gauld drawing a really nice little picture in my book, right, Emelie Östergren came all the way from Sweden to sign her new book which is actually one of my favorites I bought that day.

left, Nickelodeon magazine folded last week RIP. My friend Caitlin, who was a designer for them got laid off. So I made her get this comic for $1 so she’ll know exactly what to do now. right, some super cool clocks and little books from John Kerschenbaum

left, some of the Bries table, right, Nora Krug’s signing her new series.

left, Tom Neely- I think we have the same picture of him from last year, right, Icecreamlandia- loved their beautiful crocheted sign!

left, Had a nice time talking to Romanian artist Matei Branea, right, also a good conversation about self publishing with Joshua Ray Stephens.

Seymour: The Obsessive Images of Seymour Chwast
Tuesday June 16 6:30-8:30pm
Chwast and Steven Heller will flip through the new book chapter by chapter and allow us to listen in on their various and variegated commentary. Chwast has promised to expose his obsessions, as well as his fears, follies and successes.

NYC Zine Fest ‘09
June 27 & 28 at the Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope/Boerum Hill.

We’re also throwing a Fundraising Bash on May 29, also at the Lyceum. We’re raising money to subsidize the table rental prices and to pay for advertising, tee-shirts, etc. We’re looking for zinesters who are also musicians/ in bands to perform that night. We’ll also be selling raffle tickets on the 29th. The raffle will include rare zines, books, gift certificates, art, and more. We have donations from Spoonbill & Sugartown, Printed Matter, Melissa Staiger, Picturebox Inc., Trong Nguyen, and others.

MoCCA Art Festival ***my favorite event of the year***
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is proud to announce MoCCA Festival 2009 will be held June 6th & 7th at the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street in New York City. The Village Voice calls the MoCCA Festival “”the best small-press nexus (anywhere!)” Now BIGGER than ever! An incredible weekend of comic and cartoon art exhibitors, panels, lectures, sketches, autographs, and more! Thousands come every summer to meet and purchase works from some of the world’s best cartoonists, animators, and graphic novelists.

Adrian Tomine and Seth Tour

05/8-10 TCAF Toronto, ON
06/02, 6:00 Harvard Bookstore Cambridge, MA
06/04, 7:00 The Strand New York, NY
06/06-7 MoCCA Fest New York, NY
06/09 Free Library Philadelphia, PA
06/10, 7:00 Quimbys Chicago, IL
06/17, 7:30 Skylight Books Los Angeles, CA
06/18, 7:30 Booksmith San Francisco, CA

The Hybrid Book: Intersection and Intermedia The MFA Book Arts/Printmaking Program at The University of the Arts will host this international Book Arts Conference and Fair, June 4-6, 2009.

Book Arts represents a multi-arts forum: two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and time-based, one in which design, fine arts, craft, language, and new technologies combine, compete, and intersect. The focus of The Hybrid Book will be on that aspect–the book as a hybrid art form and book arts as multi-disciplinary.

WNYBAC is now Open!
The WNY Book Arts Center is located at 468 Washington at Mohawk in downtown Buffalo 1 block from the Central Library. The WNY Book Arts Collaborative exists to promote, encourage and develop Printing & Book related Arts through education and access for individual artists and underserved communities. Through active programs such as lectures, workshops and exhibitions, all facets of the printed word and image — printmaking, papermaking, illustration, design, writing, binding — can be explored and made accessible to the public as viewer and participant.
Members’ Exhibition is on from May 21-June 25

If you know of any other good upcoming events please let me know so I can add them to the list! I am going to try and do event posts more often.

left-Cinders gallery built a truck to sit behind and display their books. It’s hard to see from this image but it was really cute! See the soft steering wheel and windshield wipers?

left- James Morrison was hand silkscreening whatever his drawing of your choice onto colored tote bags. He did this previous years too but I was excited to see colored totes this year a new set of fun drawings.

left- ok this guy was a collector and couldn’t decide between a $1500 Ryan McGinness silkscreen or $750 naked Terry Richardson as a devil silkscreen. He picked Terry. It was funny watching him reason it. I mean it is an image of a red naked crazy man and “oh such a shimmer in the ink”. ha!

left-Love this Miranda July piece and the appropriate guy who sat in front of it.

left and right- The Purgatory Press table and lots of Susan Happersett’s work.

Liz Zanis gives us a preview to the book she illustrated and made examples for- Magic Books and Paper Toys by Ester K. Smith- remember her?

One room had a row of white books on one side and a row of black books on the other. You had to use white gloves to look at them. Liz did the honors. The white books turned out to be one billion dots in every shade of color. The black books were more interesting- the artist’s travels documented through maps, people visited through daily lists and what time they got up each morning stamped with a date stamper onto postcards. Kind of an insane anal project. Sorry I didn’t write down the artist name or anything. Someone know?Thanks Elisabeth The artist is On Kawara. It is a trilogy called I MET, I WENT and I GOT UP.

left- I was much less starstruck to see Michel Gondry this time. In fact I didn’t even bother to buy his new book on the making of his movie Be Kind Rewind. Did any of you like that movie? I mean the guy is a visual genius for sure but I think he shouldn’t try to write the movies too. right- I had never seen this guy Jason Jagel’s work before but really liked it. He was signing copies of his new book Seventy Three Funshine and drawing little pictures too. He somehow blows paint through some kind of tube tool – maybe an empty pen(?) onto a stencil he’s made. It makes this textured effect which is really really nice up close. The book must have weighted about 10 pounds though and carrying it around for the rest of the day was a bad idea. My arm is still sore. I’ll share the book this week.

There was an auction being held at the same time in a separate room of all the work in the gallery in the front. It was really weird to see. A rubber artist toy that looks like a cross between a Hello Kitty and a gremlin would come on the screen. Then people would bid like $900 and from the sidelines on phones someone else would outbid them.

Here’s the art up for auction. There was some really nice pieces.

left-Barry McGee Adidas sneakers- the shoelaces are amazing. right- If I was rich i would have bid on this Steve Powers silkscreen. I loved it.

You can get links to all the exhibitors from the show here.

Also the following weekend Oct. 31st- Nov. 2 is the Editions | Artists’ Book Fair which I plan to check out. I haven’t been to this one before but apparently it is showcasing the latest in contemporary prints, editions, and multiples and has 64 publishers and dealers. There is also a limited edition lithograph they are selling designed by Marcel Dzama! And a screenprinting demo of ten portraits of Michelle Obama. Sounds like it’s right up my alley. For more info go here.