The signs have finally gone up, and the construction barrels have been placed. The very real Roosevelt Bridge, that spans between DC and Arlington across the Potomac, is where our heroes, Foggy and Smithson live. It is also a bridge that I drive every day. The issue of maintaining infrastructure in the US is a serious one (recent bridge collapses in Baltimore and Pittsburgh are top of mind) and I, in fact, chose the Roosevelt bridge partly because it was crumbling…you know, for comedic value. Well, efforts in the Biden administration (remember “build back better”?) have now started to move forward. So, its a mixed blessing for GONOGO. On the one hand a dilapidated bridge adds to the world-building of the GONOGO multiverse, on the other hand, not having the bridge collapse is probably for the best in the real world. I suppose this is a problem that only a few other cartoonists have, that is, having the strip set in the real world. Bloom County was fictional, The Otterloops lived “just outside the beltway” and the Simpsons live in Springfield…I suppose that one of the inspirations for this comic, POGO, was set in the Okefenokee swamp, which is a real place….but it is also not in very much danger of having much infrastructure to speak of, let alone to maintain…
GONOGO goes to SPX
This past weekend I went to SPX (the Small Press Expo, just outside Washington DC). It was my first time attending, and I was simply going to get the vibes and to see if there might be a future for GONOGO in print form (and leveling up in general). Everybody was extremely lovely (except for one person, who I still bought a book from because I support their cause…but they were a bit dismissive and frankly, rude) I saw the creator of “My Dad is Dracula”, Jason Poland, who I have seen on the internet many times. I bought his self published book and we chatted a bit about the webcomic thing. What struck me was that he did not have a publisher, in fact many (if not most) of the artists in the hall did not have a publisher. I recognize that the promise of the democratizing influence of the internet (or perhaps “leveling”) means that we are all free to make and post what we want, but we are all out there on our own.
Anyway, I was able to make connections with some really interesting artists like, Maritsa Patrinos, Andrew Greenstone, Claire Connelly, John Yuskaitis Jr, Pranas T. Naujokaitis, Peter Kuper (who draws the current Spy Vs Spy) and Dale Rawlings. Specifically Dale, who I met in person for the first time, is a DCMV local and part of the DC Conspiracy, and he draws “GOP Nuts”. I was hooked into DC Conspiracy a number of years ago, and slipped off their radar, but I hope to be back and submit GONOGO to their free newsprint comics digest “Magic Bullet” for their next issue.
All in all, SPX was a great experience and it showed me that although we may be siloed away on the internet, there is a community out there in the real world selling their comics, one self published book at a time.