Small Press Expo

Over the weekend, a friend of mine and I flew up to Maryland to see our very first comic convention: The Maryland Small Press Expo, otherwise known as SPX. The trip was a lot of fun—we met some interesting people, and got to see some sights in DC, but what really struck me was the nature of the convention.

The convention was focused specifically on “small press” or “indie” publishers, mostly people who had printed their books themselves and not through one of the major publishers. This meant that the majority of the people with whom I spoke were putting their own money into the creation of these books, and, for the most part, only making back enough to print the next batch.

This made me wonder about art, particularly how these people were breaking their backs to publish their dreams and seeing very little come out as a result of it. Is what these young men and women do somehow more artistic than a mainstream publisher, because a mainstream publisher can support himself on the profit from his books? Does art require suffering for it to be art? If these people were successful, would it still be art, or would it descend into commercialism (for that matter, is commercialism art? Eh, a discussion for another time).

Most important, I think, is the fact that these people do continue to publish despite all the setbacks (again, the discussion as to whether they publish DESPITE the setbacks or BECAUSE of them is one for another time). From this fact, I can gather that art is a powerful force, sufficient to propel artists directly towards their own creative visions, free of compromise. True, it’s free of profit as well, but that just makes their choice—to focus on their own material—that much more impressive.