There are more than 360 incredible cartoonists and publishers attending SPX in 2012, along with the already announced special guests: Chris Ware, Dan Clowes and the Hernandez Brothers. We have a lot to do between now and September. We’re aiming to knock your socks off.

I know there are some disappointed folks out there who were not able to secure a table for this year. I wish we had infinite space to accommodate you all. Whether you did or didn’t get a table this year, let me say on behalf of everyone at the Small Press Expo: THANK YOU.

Thank you for supporting this show and making the event what it is. In turn, we exist only to support your work – to see that your creative product is promoted to new audiences, protected from censorship and preserved for posterity.

The hardest part about producing SPX each year is not being able to accommodate all of the awesome talented folks who would like to exhibit at the show. Even with our largest show floor ever we’ve sold through all of our available table space in record time.

Thank you to everyone for your support and enthusiasm for the show.  We are so very aware that without you there would be no SPX and everything we do in preparation for our annual festival is in the interest of providing you with the best experience possible.

If you have submitted your registration information already, please continue to check the 2012 Exhibitors page. We’ll be updating the list of confirmed names between now and March 1st. By that date we should have a complete list posted and also have the waiting list sorted out.

Thank you all for your patience while we nail this stuff down.

For folks who aren’t likely to make the wait list, just as a reminder, we will be selling additional Exhibitor badges.  If you can find folks to share space with who do have their tables confirmed you can grab an extra badge come show time for $10.

If you have any questions whatsoever about your registration form please send a note to: exhibitors@spxpo.com.

Thanks again – we’re looking forward to seeing everyone in September!

We are locked and loaded for SPX 2012, to be held September 15 and 16 2012, at our favorite place, the North Bethesda Marriott Hotel and Convention Center.

The registration form is now available and tables are being sold, first come, first serve.

Tables rates and ordering information are all in the registration form.Do not forget to order additional badges if your table is being shared by more than 2 people.

Dustin Harbin hosts the 2011 Ignatz Awards!

The Ignatz Awards, named for the character in the classic comic strip Krazy Kat by George Herriman, is a festival prize that recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The ballot is created by a panel of five cartoonists and is then voted on by the attendees at the event. This offers a unique reflection of the views the professionals and their fans.

SPX 2011 – Navigating the Contemporary Publishing Landscape from Small Press Expo on Vimeo.

In the early 2000s, corporate publishers nearly raced to acquire graphic novels. Now, as the mainstream publishing industry faces severe contractions and as online media assumes many traditional functions of publishing, cartoonists face a rapidly changing publishing landscape, one that includes a resurgent small press. Johanna Draper Carlson spoke with Domitille Collardey, Mike Dawson, Meredith Gran, Roger Langridge and Julia Wertz about publishing options today.

Outstanding Mini Comic

• Ben Died of a Train, Box Brown

Outstanding Anthology or Collection

• I Will Bite You, Joseph Lambert

Outstanding Online Comic

• Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton

Promising New Talent

• Darryl Ayo Brathwaite

Outstanding Story

Browntown, Jaime Hernandez

• Outstanding Series

Everything Dies, Box Brown

Outstanding Comic

• Lose #3, Michael DeForge

Outstanding Graphic Novel

• Gaylord Phoenix, Edie Fake

Outstanding Artist

• Joseph Lambert, I Will Bite You

Special thanks to Dustin Harbin for being a great host! We should have video up soon!

Comics have increasingly expressed personal experience, but have focused largely on inner life, depicting the human form via traditional, synthetic cartoon figuration. Moderator Craig Fischer speaks with Robyn Chapman (Hey 4-Eyes!, Make), Jennifer Hayden (Underwire), Gabby Schulz (Monsters), and Jen Vaughn (Don’t Hate, Menstruate!, Heavy Flow) about the ethics, erotics, and extremes involved in representing the external experience of the body.

Dan Nadel had a chat with SPX Executive Director Warren Bernard about our new Library of Congress Collection. Check out the article here and learn more about the program here.

Jeff Alexander and SPX have had a long and happy relationship together; in 1998, he joined Chris Oarr as part of the Ignatz Awards Committee, and became the Ignatz Awards Coordinator in 1999. In his time as coordinator from 1999 through 2006, the Ignatz Awards added several new categories (Outstanding Online Comic, and splitting Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection into the seperate awards of Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Anthology or Collection) and became an important award within comic book circles.

When Jeff stepped down as Ignatz Coordinator, it was to become the Assistant Executive Director of SPX for 2007-2009, and in 2010 he served as the Executive Director of the show. Jeff was always a familiar sight doing whatever needed to be done, from cash pulls to crowd control. Jeff also did a lot of behind the scenes graphics work for the show. He created an Ignatz Awards comic strip every year for the program spotlighting the nominees, created the retro-pulp posters for the parties and receptions, and designed the badges for Ignatz Award Nominees to wear proudly.

Jeff Alexander was also a cartoonist in his own right, with his comic Literary Grafitti published a few years ago. Jeff had talked about taking his extra free time to get back into comic creating again, and hoped to build up enough before long to justify his own table at SPX.

Jeff was funny and sarcastic, able to crack up a stone-faced audience with a single rejoinder. Every year he swore it would be his last helping with SPX, and as soon as the show was over he’d say, “I have some great ideas for next year’s show.” Over the years he built friendships with hundreds of our artists and exhibitors, and he often said the worst thing about working on the show was that sometimes things had to get done when you really wanted to stop and talk to all of the great artists. He had a wide range of interests, from anime and Doctor Who to mahjongg and paintball.

Jeff Alexander wasn’t just a fellow volunteer/board member, he was a good friend, and all of us at SPX will miss him terribly.