Jason Viola, Cartoonist Ordinaire - Boston and Buffalo

Last weekend we went to the Cambridge YMCA for the Boston Zine Fest, which was incarnated this year as a small fair tucked inside of a 12-hour music festival. Tabling during a constant stream of live performances had its benefits and drawbacks. The short sets of good music made the day go by very quickly and gave us something to look at when no one was at the table, but it made conversations difficult, sometimes impossible. I nearly lost my voice completely from shouting and remained hoarse until the next morning. Most of the folks in attendance were there for the music and it was nice to be able to introduce my comics to people who wouldn’t see them otherwise; the idea of drawing and printing your own comics was novel to more than a few. Because of that, my neighbors and I had to strongly encourage browsing; many felt they had to ask our permission to look at our books (and it is difficult to ask when a band is playing behind you).


This sketch is of a poet but I didn't catch his name. Of the zines and comics I picked up, some of my favorites were from Cathy Leamy, who draws endearing and refreshingly coherent autobio comics. 

This picture was stolen from Aya Rothwell's blog. I’ve said before that Boston needs a well-organized, comics-oriented, small press fair and at this tiny event I heard rumors that one may be approaching. And it's about time! At night you can hear Boston crying out for it.

After a full day of driving, there is nothing like sitting in uncomfortable chairs for five hours of poetry. Jesus. The night before the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, we went to the Small Press Poetry Fest, a marathon poetry reading that featured a sampling of different presses from the fair.

Photo by Guy Weiss. I am in the middle- weary, not knowing there would be four hours to go. It was all worth it though because I got to see my good friends Robin Brox and Aaron Lowinger perform, something I haven't been able to do since college. I used to be their editor a hundred million years ago when we wrote for our university magazine, and they are still writing wonderful poetry, still a very active part of Buffalo's literary scene. And Buffalo does have a great and tight literary and arts community. Boston, by contrast, is fractured, with pockets of artists and writers from different schools and neighborhoods; there is a lot of activity here but you very rarely see them come together. Buffalo, I think, is stronger for it, and the fourth annual Buffalo Small Press Book Fair is perfect evidence.

Because it was awesome. The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum was gorgeous, the staff was friendly and helpful, they served coffee, cookies, and fucking FRUIT, and the room was full of talented people. The vendors there had so many cool books and prints and crafts, we were very afraid of how much money we would have left by the end of the day.