I really only have a couple of things for this week (I won’t collect every single link about Small Press Expo, after all) but I thought I’d take this space to talk a little bit about Small Press Expo 2013.

It was, as always, exhausting and amazing. I really didn’t get to spend as much time walking the floor as I would’ve liked nor did I get to see so many people I wanted to see. But I’m kind of resigned to the fact that this is how the show goes for me now. I was already pretty wiped out on Saturday (but astonishingly, actually managed to eat three meals, mostly because Greg Bennett made sure of that. I am incredibly grateful for that).

The entire process of the Ignatz was pretty intense this year. I don’t think a lot of people submitted until after table registrations happened. But then the books just kept coming. And coming. And coming. I know none of us expected to get so many books. I know I didn’t.

But I think the strength of the nominees really showed the depth of the titles we got. There were many a few usual suspects but I know the jurors were extremely thoughtful in their choices. So many of the categories were tough choices for me.

And yes, I was clearly delighted when all the Outstanding Graphic Novel nominees were women. That just happened organically and all of those books absolutely deserved to be there.

And speaking of that, I was so thrilled Liza Donnelly agreed to host this year. She’s spoken at the United Nations! When she said she was thinking about having all the presenters be women, I basically said “I would love that.” While we both worked to pick a good list of presenters, she definitely gets all the credit.

The whole ceremony and experience meant a lot to me. In my earliest days of reading and writing about comics, I never thought I’d get to do something like this. I’ve had a rough couple of years and so it felt satisfyingly wonderful to be able to be a part of something so amazing.

(I was so happy Ulli Lust won! Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life is amazing and I loved it so much. And I am so jealous of my friend who got to hang out with her quite a bit. When he said “You two are on the same page about so many things,” that really didn’t help.)

Onto your regularly scheduled and short D.C. Area Scene.

News/reviews/interviews: 

• Author Of American Born Chinese Talks To Fans In Bethesda, Jenny Chen, Asian Fortune
• SPX 2013: Liza Donnelly’s Ignatz Awards make some history ‘to celebrate’ women cartoonists, Michael Cavna, Comic Riffs/Washington Post (the only SPX-related link I’ll post, probably)

Kickstarter:

• Mechanaflux #2 – All-Ages Fantasy Comic Book by Shawn Padraic Murphy

Events:

• Now through Nov. 3: Comics Making Studio with Members of the DC Conspiracy, Artisphere, Arlington, Va. Residencies every Thursday. Meet and greet on Sept. 21.
• Now through Nov. 10: Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
• Sept. 17: Gene Luen Yang signing, 7 p.m., Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library. Sponsored by Politics & Prose. (You could still make it!)
• Sept. 21-22: National Book Festival, Washington, D.C. With Lynda Barry, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Fred Chao and Jonathan Hennessey (Book Festival is two days, but graphic novel/comics programming is on Sept. 22.)
• Oct. 10: Paul Pope, 7:30 p.m., Takoma Park Library, Takoma Park, Md. Sponsored by Politics & Prose.

Have comic news or events related to the D.C. area to share? Email me by 4 p.m. Tuesday. More information is here.