I am back from the Canberra Zine Emporium festival thingie! It was held near Rabaul Lane in the Canberra city where the Act Comic Meet put on a collection of comics for sale. We setup alongside the more comicy focused people that we found including the Bruce Mutard and the Milk Shadow books crew. Table selection seemed to be ‘there is a bunch of tables just grab one’ so that was far more random then I have been used to in the past. It was a sunny sunny day where I spent a large amount of my time throwing invite cards to the Liedekijin Exhibition at people and explaining comics. This was also my 1st time selling comic stuff outside in the sun which we was not expecting – so useful things like heavy objects to hold down the comics as the wind picked up, sunscreen, hats and durable taken to stick our poster on was sadly missing.

Amongst the random things that happened around us during the day was some guys filming a mock fight with bloody face paint included. While they didn’t seem to get in the way the theatrical groans and grunts was a weird backdrop. There was also multiple bands playing- which was nice up until the volume seemed to increase to the point where it made it impossible to speak to possible customers.

I have not been to a zine fair or comic selling event in the same town as I’m living before and I can tell you it rocks. You wake up having slept in your own bed, wander around the house eating breakfast at your leisure and wander on downtown after a short drive to setup your stuff. At lunchtime you know where the good food is and by the end of the day you still have energy and have not sent the majority of your money on food/travel and accommodation. This is all pretty damn sweet – more comic based conventions festivals/things in canberra please.

While half of me is is a little sunburnt so I look like a pretty lame version of two-face but apart from that a loverly time was had. People seem to have had fun looking at zines and comics so hopefully there will be future events on comicy goodness.

-Gavin THE Thomson