STAPLE, The Independent Media Expo, takes off this coming Saturday, March 1, at the Monarch Event Center in Austin, TX.  If you've never been before, STAPLE is "an event to promote independent creative media: comics, art, animation and self-published literature.  Building a community to encourage communication between creators and their audiences, all the while having a damn good time in the Live Music Capital of the World."  That's just the fancy way of saying the indy guys and gals of all persuasions get together once a year to show off our wares to the good people of Austin.  Yeah, fame and fortune would be awesome, but in the meantime, we have our creative drive keeping us going.

Among the special guests this year will be Eric Powell and Brian Wood, among other surprise   There will also be a Web comics panel with Scott Kurtz, Danielle Corsetto, David Malki, and Kris Straub.  With talent like this, one can see that Austin is setting itself up to be not only the third coast for movie making, but for all other forms of creative media as well!

On the gay side of things, I'll be there selling mycomic books Frater Mine and the oh-so-familiar generic goddess as well as representing Prism Comics with their 2007 Guide to Comics AND as a special bonus I'll have copies of Brian Andersen's super-cute So Super Duper for sale.  

Come out, say hi, and take a look at some of the great comics and books and stuff that will be there!

Hope to see you there!

Sean

"She answered the waffle iron."  Ha!

OK, OK.  "How did she burn the other side?"

"They called back!"  Double-HA!

Has anyone in the "differently-abled" community (as current political correctness would have it) been the victim of so many tasteless jokes as Helen Keller?  Yeah, there're jokes about nameless, faceless (no pun intended) lepers and, Lord knows, I can't look at a quarduple amputee sunning himself in Lake Travis without thinking "Bob", but these jokes are utterly transpersonal: the butt of the joke has no identity.  Helen Keller jokes..  well, her name is right there, for crying out loud!  Helen Keller's name has gotten kicked around for years...

...until now.  Now, Helen kicks back!  In April, Andrew Kreisberg & Matthew JLD Rice, through Arcana Studio, will release HELEN KILLER #1, and I cannot wait! 

In 1901, twenty-one year old college student Helen Keller, with the aid of a fantastical device invented by her friend and mentor, Alexander Graham Bell, regains her sight and hearing as well as near super-human strength and agility. Helen is enlisted by the Secret Service to protect President William McKinley who has been targeted for assassination by Anarchists. As a deeper conspiracy to destroy America unfolds around her, Helen discovers that her new abilities come with a dark and terrifying price!

Sweet Oedipus in Tartarus, could this be any better?  It's got parahistory!  It's got iconoclasm!  It's got Helen freakin' Keller leaving her genteel Edwardian bootprint embeded in the backsides of America's enemies!  I can't lie; when I read about Helen Killer, I 'gasmed in my pants.  Just a little bit.  Come April 23, I'm going to be in line at Austin Books and Comics with my $2.99 (plus tax) at the ready to buy this intriguing little gem. Tell your local comic shop to order you a copy as well!