Steampunks & Clowns – A Beginner’s Tale of the 2010 Long Beach Comic Expo
Saturday, February 20th, was quite an eventful day in Long Beach. According to The District Weekly’s “5 Things to Do Today” events page, there were at least two festivals, a Mardi Gras parade, a wine tasting, and the Long Beach Comic Expo.
Guess where we ended up!?
With the success of the 1st Annual Long Beach Comic Convention last October, MAD Event Management organized this one-day expo early into the year, simply because “we can’t wait a whole year to do it again!”
Let me preface by saying that I have never been to a comic convention. The opportunities have always presented themselves, but circumstance always played a factor in my absence to these types of events. Although I admit am fairly ignorant to the world of comics, I’ve always found the culture to be quite fascinating. Considering how well the first convention turned out, this expo struck my curiosity, and for only $10, I’d have been damned to miss it.
Upon our arrival, we were greeted outside by THE DeLorean (Back to the Future), K.I.T.T. (Knight Rider), and a custom-made vehicle that was “operated’ by none other than R2-D2.
The owner of this automobile – appropriately dressed as Alec Guinness – constructed this car to automatically start up by merely saying, “R2! Start the engines!” Not even inside the building and I’m already flabbergasted by the dedication of the fans.
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Once inside, we commenced our journey into this vast world of comic book culture. The first vendor that caught my eye was Angus Oblong, creator of “The Oblongs” cartoon.
Oblong – and his fellow exhibitors – were complete with their signature clown make-up and armed with silly string.
The booth itself also featured custom-made t-shirts with various standard single-word phrases such as, “No,” “Jew,” “fag,” and “whore.” (Eric inquired about combining the phrase “fag-whore” into a shirt; not quite sure what will come of that).
We continued rummaging about the expo, exploring all the diverse comic stores ranging from distances as far as Bakersfield, meeting several eclectic artists, and on-the-spot caricature portraits. Nevertheless the main heart and soul of the expo was the devotion of the fans, especially those in costume. Hearing people share their ideas, past experiences, and their knowledge of the wide-range of graphic novels only heightened my admiration, and made the atmosphere all the more worthwhile.
As the afternoon progressed, we bumped into Rebecca Roberts and her friend/fellow photographer, Woody, both fresh out of the Mardi Gras parade. Rebecca and I conversed about our time spent at the expo thus far, her experience at the previous convention in October, and some of the souvenirs she had picked up this time around.
She then led me to David Malki’s table, author and artist of the Wondermark comics. His work caters to the “steampunk” demographic, a sub-genre of science-fiction and fantasy meshed with the style and whimsical humor of the early 19th century.
I think it’s safe to say that this was my favorite stand of the expo. His illustrations are not only impressively detailed, but the quirky humor that is woven into his work provides a familiar sense of modernization. I appreciate that.
And frankly, there’s just something inexplicably amusing about a picture of Lincoln’s silhouette destroying skyscrapers by shooting lasers out of his eyes.
Some years ago, I briefly spoke to Kevin Smith at an art opening a few months before the San Diego Comic Con. I confessed to him that although I’ve lived in Orange County my whole life, I had never taken the pilgrimage to the convention. His description of Comic Con was best summarized in one word: Clusterfuck. My initial reaction was intimidation, but this never belittled my curiosity. I took this opportunity as a learning experience: a method of becoming accustomed to this subdivision of pop-culture on a much, much smaller scale. Baby steps…
The experience itself didn’t fail to satisfy this first-timer’s curiosity.
- Alicia Friedman
March 3, 2010
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