ICAF and SPX followup - Bart Beaty opines

My friend Bart renders his opinion at the Comics Reporter in First Person: Bart Beaty Reports on ICAF and SPX, 2006.

Bart and I don't always agree on things, but I do think his take is pretty good on both events. Personally, I'd still like to see ICAF engage a wider public - there's been, as you can see here, a lot of interest in comics in DC lately. I've learned a lot by attending ICAF over the years, and even when every paper doesn't engage or interest me, I still enjoy the Festival (now a Forum according to rumor).

I did speak to a non-comics reading colleague at work today and was suprised to find that she had gone to SPX on Saturday morning. Although she bought more t-shirts than comics, she's a trained medical illustrator and enjoyed the Con as a casual visitor.

Unfortunately both events were scheduled by coincidence for the same weekend - Bart says that's the only way he'll pay over $1000 to come down from Canada and I can't argue with that logic. But I'm sorry that I had to miss events that I would have liked to have seen in both cons.

For those who would like to see more commentary about SPX, Tom Spurgeon's gathered up links at Collective Memory: Small Press Expo 2006.