#beth dean

Cartoonist Beth Dean sent me a lovely email regarding my section in Show Your Work! called “Work Doesn't Speak For Itself”:

The weekend before last I was at LA Zinefest. My approach to tabling shows is a pretty low key one, I put everything in nice packaging, make sure it can be seen from far away, and put out lots of copies for people to paw through without having to talk to me. I basically create the introvert experience I like at shows. When people come to the table I smile and say hi, or pay them a complement, but I never do the hard sell.

The folks next to me had a table full of your standard issue zines, most of which looked photocopied—I'm sure they were nice books but they just laid everything on the table and you wouldn't notice them from across the room, or even across the aisle. However, every time somebody walked up to the table, the guy would pick up one of the books, pull it open, and explain that it was done exquisite corpse style. He'd tell the person what that meant, and explain how each one of the drawings was screen printed by hand. He didn't tell you what the book was about, or what any of the stories were, or even what he was trying to accomplish. He just had this simple pitch about the unique process of making the book, which never varied, and that hooked almost every person he talked to. It was a really impressive thing to watch, especially since my own approach to selling is so different. People were buying his story, and not the book.

I know I'm supposed be finishing Frank Santoro's book, but... The Escapist is one of my favorite comic shops, and they do a lot to support small press in the Bay Area. When Comic Relief went under, they bought most of the stock and are adamant about continuing CR's legacy of stocking books by small press artists and publishers, including yours truly. We worked with them last year to make a comic anthology to go along with their Small Press Fest reading, and we were happy to sign on again this year, despite our current workload.