event

After a weekend surrounded by high priced high fashion and high priced ‘Affordable Art‘, I needed a low-priced respite. I needed to be among real people, real artisans, and real things I could afford. I’m a man in love with all extremes – I’ll chase my filet mignon with a bag of Cheetos, and I’ll relish both experiences.

New York City had chosen the weekend of June 14th to somehow exchange climates with the muggiest depths of Hell itself, so while Brooklyn’s Renegade Craft Fair was an awesome delight, the weather made viscous slugs of us all, sleepily oozing our way around the abandoned and emptied McCarren Park Pool. For such a vast collection of DIY-ers, recyclers, and use-every-part-ers, holding the Fair in an unused pool was an exceptional and clever use of space.

When I attended Renegade 2 years ago, I was charmed by the handmade feel of everything. Magazines and comics were stapled together, many cloth things had visible stitching, and loose ends were the norm. Signs were handpainted. It was an aesthetic that I learned to love, and even embraced in my own works – the hands deliver the heart and soul, as imperfect as they may be. It’s not that this year’s collection of vendors were off-putting, but there’s definitely a climate change in the crafting scene, if Renegade is any evidence. Gone were many of the smartly recycled items from the past – old books and scraps of wood and LPs turned into new things – and replaced by glossy, printed signs for many of the vendors, and mini-mass-produced items at almost every table.

What I’ve always loved about the young crafting scene is that you could look around, get some ideas, and with a little bit of ingenuity, make something similar to what you’ve seen – but with your own flair. It’s that kind of open source crafting that really builds the community into something strong. Pressing prints on your own small printing press is a completely different entity than sending them out to be digitally, professionally replicated, and while I can appreciate and see the merits of both things, the latter seems to be less in the spirit of a ‘Craft Fair’. It makes the process inaccessible, and even worse, costly. No, you can’t do it yourself anymore, and there’s no smart acronym for whatever the opposite of DIY is.

And maybe it’s the cost of living going berserk everywhere, but prices seemed to be twice as much as what they were 2 years ago. Crafters are finding it harder to survive while doing their art, and the cost of materials has also gone up. None of this is to say that any of the artists there were anything less than inspiring – I fell in love with everything, no matter where it came from – carefully-sewn, cartoonish trophy heads, a whole array of great t-shirts and art prints, squid things and robots everywhere, adorable dolls and crocheted monsters that I would have loved to take home with me, were it not for premium costs.

Still, in the true spirit of Do-It-Yourself, there was one girl set up in a tall, vending machine-shaped tent, advertised as a ‘Postcard Machine‘. Insert $2 and you’d get a postcard fed back out to you – which would be drawn on the spot by the artist hidden inside of the mini-tent. Somehow, the entire heart and soul of the Fair were inside of that ‘device’ – everything that I loved form previous experiences, which felt absent from this year. An inexpensive, precious item, made by hand, accompanied by a personal experience – isn’t that at the core of crafting?

The heat made the day a sweaty blur, and while I was hesitant to touch too many things lest I leave a moist handprint on them, I felt the need to support my fellow creators. I purchased a small, felt squid doll-thing (which is holding a tray of sushi) for $19 from Cleo Dee, and a set of 10 ‘Presidential Facial Hair Hall of Fame‘ buttons to add to my button collection. Plus, I secretly love Presidential trivia, not to mention how funny they looked, and my affection for the World Beard and Moustache Championships. The set of 10 was $20, and even though I own a button maker, I felt the moral need to perpetuate the crafting scene with my wallet. 1” buttons for $2 each, however, is just the climate of things. I miss the 4-for-a-dollar days. Man, I stocked up that year. So, after $40 spent, the rewards were in quality, not quantity.

Nonetheless, I won’t concern myself with having a pocket full of small bills next year, since everything cost over 20 dollars anyhow. I WILL be returning, of course – even the intense heat couldn’t keep me away from such a gathering of pale, dark-haired crafty girls. Oh, and they neat stuff they make.

New York Comic Con has only happened twice before, and I was there. I think that I left parts of me there, actually… you know, the parts that were carelessly torn off by obscenely surging crowds without an inch to breathe in. This third NYCC, held in Manhattan’s Javits Convention Center, didn’t suffer from the notorious problems of its predecessors – so bite it, San Diego Comic Con! We’ve got a good one now too!

We arrived at New York Comic Con expecting to not arrive at it at all – no, like years before, we expected to be on a line that led a solid mile away from the entrance, our delicate nerd flesh exposed to the harsh April elements. Throughout my three-day exploration of NYCC, I only encountered one ridiculous line. NYCC has finally found a formula that works for the capacity of the crowd that it generates – and it’s a huge crowd. Of course it would be a huge crowd – NYCC isn’t just about comics. It draws in fans of all forms of entertainment – movies, music, video games, collecting, art, literature, and that good ol’ fashioned ‘ogling chicks in tight-fitting fantasy costumes‘ form of entertainment. If you don’t fall into any of these categories, stay home and knit yourself a coffin, because you’re already dead inside.

I wasn’t looking forward to being sardine’d (or associated) with a bunch of stereotypical geeks and their stereotypical issues with personal space and personal hygiene, but I also encountered very little of this. The NYCC organizers have widened the aisles between each row of booths and added a lot of free space to breathe in, so I can finally say that I wouldn’t hesitate to return next year. The misanthropes could remain at a comfortable distance from one another, and still ogle the beautiful girls who somehow blundered their way inside, slightly terrified.

I had a few small goals for the weekend : get a signature from artist Dean Haspiel for my Bizarro Comics book (the only thing I ever get signed), attend the Hellboy, Mike Mignola and Venture Bros. panels, and not spend too much money. I almost failed at the first 4 goals, and completely failed at the fifth – but that last one was my fault alone. That, and the awesomeness of Re-Ment dollhouse miniatures. Yes, you heard that right. This Hellboy-lovin’, Tom Waits listenin’ blogger loves dollhouse miniatures, and they were at the Con. I also wanted to buy the NYCC exclusive Iron Man glass, because I loves me some Iron Man and temporarily storing liquids.

I’d decided that the initial Friday of NYCC was to be relegated to exploring the main area of the Con and getting first dibs on collectibles, wandering the huge expanse of the Javits floor and just experiencing the heck out of it. The crowds were sparse all day, so it was a relaxed experience. A tip to Friday collectors, though : many booths don’t put out their ‘exclusive’ items until Saturday because of the limited Friday attendance and possibility of early sell-outs. Also, companies that have new things to display might not put them out just yet – they don’t want to spoil the surprise for regular attendees.

Vogue International, the company that provided the larger-than-life statues of Batman and Superman that were peppered throughout the Con (guarding escalators and such), had a booth just outside of the main display area that featured large statues and sculptures of various entertainment properties. Most interesting to me, however, was a display of props that were used in the filming of Batman Returns, including Danny DeVito’s Penguin mask and feet, as well as a robotic attack penguin. The rest of the Con didn’t have much of a museum quality – nor were these items for sale to an amateur prop nut (and professional Bat-nut) like myself. It’s probably just as well – once you start adding a category of ‘things that Danny DeVito has sweated in’ to your collecting lexicon, it’s all but over.

I wasn’t three steps inside the front door before I ran into NECA’s booth. Two Nightmare Before Christmas action figures (Pirate and Vampire Jack Skellington) that I’ve been coveting for well over a year – and $40 – later, I realized that I’d have to lug them around all day. I’d totally abandoned my wise strategy of locating the things I wanted to buy and then going on a spree at the end of the day to avoid the fatigue of the luggage and chafed backpack shoulders. It’s a real problem. I’m red for days.

From here, we wandered the smartly organized floors – the left side was for larger companies, while the right side was for small shops, small press, and artists. The organization really catered to a logical exploration of the entire floor with a purpose – and unlike previous NYCCs, the prices on items were discounted, not inflated, making it a great place for collectors to stock up on a few much-wanted odds and ends. The far back wall was given to larger autographing events, a mass of tables for trading card games, and a performance stage. Con attendees should also note that some signing events require a large fee and/or a ticket, so there’s never a guarantee that you’ll get to meet who you traveled 100 miles to meet.

NECA’s booth revealed a few new items to the public, including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles April O’Neill figure, and a Beetlejuice variant in his wedding tux (as opposed to the striped attire shown at Toy Fair). While I’m sure if they were new or not, the Arnold Schwartzenegger ‘Conan’ figure, and the Dark Crystal ‘Skeksis’ figure were both really beautiful in very different ways. NECA’s Con exclusive this year was a boxed set of four Ninja Turtles – unfortunately, they refused to sell the set until Saturday. I remained Turtle-free. They’ve been released at general retail anyhow, individually packaged. They sold out quickly, and some were actually spotted being sold at other booths later – at highly inflated prices.

Gentle Giant is offering a large selection of busts and figures throughout the upcoming year, including some really fine stuff from Hellboy II, a continuation of their Star Wars bust line and various ‘animated’ pseudo-properties, including more Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. For NYCC, they offered a collection of exclusive Harry Potter and Hobbit busts, as well as some zombies and Indiana Jones mini-props. They’re even beginning to make 12” Star Trek figures, beginning with the popular Captain Picard.

Not long after I’d seen these two companies, I happened to be walking across the floor and randomly encountered one of the co-stars of ‘30 Rock‘ (and regular Adult Swim voice actor), Scott Adsit. Just another fellow nerd, hanging out at the Con. Every so often, someone would take a look at him, do a double-take, and say ‘Hey! You’re that guy!’, which he’d smilingly acknowledge and allow himself to be chatted up.

Big Shot Toy Works produced a beautiful, articulated sculpture of Ashley Wood’s ‘Bertie the Pipebomb‘, which we ogled adoringly for quite a while before we realized that the price was $300. As a huge fan of Ashley’s work, and an owner of his Popbot and Lady Sham statues, and his Spawn figures, it’s something that I really would love to collect someday, when I’m more of a high-end kind of guy. A limited edition version, in black and rust, was produced for the show, and potential buyers entered a raffle for the opportunity to even buy the item. I didn’t even want to have my heart broken by winning the raffle and being unable to afford the robot, so I abstained.

We also swung on by Mezco, who have finally allowed the second wave of their Hellboy II toys to be photographed. Diamond Toys had their Minimate figures from Iron Man on display also.

We rounded out the day with a couple of panels – events in which a person or ten sits at a long desk in front of the room and is interviewed by a moderator or the audience, all live and off-the-cuff. Mostly, we just wanted a place to sit down, and the people running the gaming tables kept on yelling at anyone who needed to borrow a chair, as Javits didn’t provide many.

The first panel that I attended was the ‘Weird Tales‘ discussion. Any sci-fi nerd knows that ‘Weird Tales’ was a magazine that existed before the term ’sci-fi’ was even used and was a defining force in the genre of speculative fiction, featuring short science fiction and horror stories from many new, powerful authors including Lovecraft and Asimov. Little did I, or many other people, know – Weird Tales is still being published. Across a panel of four people, the room sleepily chatted abut the magazine, and where it’s come, and the art involved. One guest on the panel was ‘Molly Crabapple’, a known NY-area artist responsible for organizing a regular ‘Dr. Sketchy‘ drawing class – which usually features burlesque themes. She’d drawn a few portraits for a recent article in the magazine, but I think that her sense of importance regarding the article was overblown, and I found myself losing patience quickly. Anyone who throws their own name into a list of great, noteworthy artists isn’t someone who I want to hear talking for very long. Overall, the panel raised awareness of the magazine, but generated almost no excitement or interest.

The second (and final) panel of the day was a surprise – ‘Comic Artists Talk About Drawing‘. There was no announcement about who would be on the panel, but I soon discovered that it included legendary Thor artist Walt Simonson, Colleen Doran, fan-favorite Jim Lee and Dean Haspiel – who I’d been looking for all day after he didn’t make an appearance at his scheduled table. I had my Bizarro book to get signed, after all.

It was an inspiring panel, with each artist having a completely unique perspective on the process of drawing, and what comics meant to them – from growing up in poverty and scraping together nickels for tattered comics, to growing up in a middle-class midwest family and encountering a plethora of well-preserved comics. Mr. Lee humorously fabricated details about his own life after it became clear that his struggle wasn’t quite that of the other artists in the room.

Mr. Simonson was the most vocal and long-winded panelist, using up most of the 30 allotted minutes, but also came into the room with the most experience, so it’s not as if his meandering was wasted time. The feeling that was constructed was how important comics were to each of these artists emotionally, and how they eventually all realized their dreams of becoming part of the thing that they loved – all very inspiring. At the end of the panel, I summoned the courage to harass Dean Haspiel for a signature, and he was amazingly gracious as we briefly chatted it up about what comics meant to US, and he gave me a few suggestions on continued readings.

We retired to the Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington and rested up for a very busy Saturday. Check out a gallery of NYCC photos here in our own Community Section!

Though largely overcast and humid, this past weekend’s Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park was an enormously pleasant event. Gathering creatives and crafting personalities from all over the East Coast and regions beyond, every one of the few hundred small tents that encircled the walkway along the main park area had wonderful, handmade, exciting things to share.

I came to learn of the Renegade Craft Fair though a long series of coincidences and friendships with other creative types. I’d been planning an outing to this, the second annual New York fair, for months, immersing myself in the world of handmade and recycled objects, and making some objects of my own. With a long-standing fascination with ephemera and the power of the human hand when laid to raw materials, it felt like I was finally among my people. Sure, about 97% of the Fair was cute, creative young women, but it had merits beyond that. You know, when I remembered that there were crafts there too, and not just long skirts and piercings. You might think that ‘crafting’ inspires images of seniors assembling quilts or prepackaged AC Moore schlock, but this was a young, terminally hip crowd. To the left here, you can see the wonderful miss Jenny Harada, politely posing for one of my photographs, and wearing one of her monolithic creations.

Dominant items at the fair included cute hand-sewn plush creatures, handbags, stylish wrist-cuffs with various designs and embellishments, small pins and plenty of raw materials to make your own wonderful crafts. As a self-perpetuating community, the whole atmosphere was very friendly and casual, encouraging the creation of more and more unique THINGS, never a fear that another vendor might be usurping another business with similar items. The appreciation that every single item was lovingly created was far more dominant, and while the prices on many of these items were slightly high, I’m always compelled to spend a few extra bucks on small record labels and independent creators and anyone who puts their heart into their works.

I ended up purchasing a small polar fleece octopus within about five minutes, which cost twenty dollars, from Fish Cakes. Secretly, in the back of mind, I’d vowed to find something cehpalopodic in order to quench my well-known cephalophelia, and this was it. Later, I’d find some expertly crocheted octopi at another booth, as well as small tiles painted with octopi at another, and be forced to restrain myself. Also making an appearance were plush robots and other various robot-themed works, including a hilarious little ‘zine called ‘Young and Mechanical‘, a clever parody of the genre of teen-centric magazines that litter the racks near the checkout line at any given supermarket.

Speaking of ‘zines, I also picked up a Richard Pryor Coloring Book by Erica Waldorf for three dollars. While awkwardly drawn and thoroughly ridiculous, I was won over by a scene of Superman saving Mr. Pryor from some unseen danger. I’d like to venture that the Man of Steel was trying to save Mr. Pryor from himself. My purchases were mostly small 1” buttons to add to my growing collection on my multi-purpose satchel (or, if you’re a jerk, my man-purse), two significant purchases being from a 25-cent gumball machine filled completely with small treasure eggs, each with a unique, one-of-a-kind button inside. The machine, re-purposed by a young male crafter, proudly advertised ‘COLLECT ALL 20,000!’, which was pretty much a siren song to a collector such as myself. After inserting a quarter, I turned the crank and got a button which illustrated ‘cocaine’. Luckily, my second mystery pull was a button of a brain. Clearly, the two were meant to be together, a perfect combination of self-destruction. You can guess which one I’ll not be wearing to work. Oh, and for the ladies at work, librarians all, I picked up some small ‘I read banned books’ pins.

The Renegade Craft Fair website tells the story of two women who single-handedly pulled together a large community of crafters into events both in New York and Chicago, further revealing a huge network of craft fairs that take place across the United States, attracting all kinds of people who enjoy getting their hands dirty and making fine objets d’art. This network is further revealed within the many connections on MySpace between crafters trading, collaborating on and promoting their wares, and the list of hundreds of websites that Renegade presents on their event map. The Chicago event will take place in September, if you’re in the area.

So, a subculture is revealed, and for me, it’s an exciting and inspiring one. When you think of crafts, please don’t think of log cabins made out of popsicle sticks or country-chic wooden placards with gingham paint schemes and outsider-art angels declaring ‘Home Sweet Home’. Think of fine art redefined and made accessible, because the line is thinning, and it’s a thrilling one to walk.