September 3, 2023 • 47 mins
Warren Bernard on Small Press Expo (SPX) and the Library of Congress
Warren Bernard is a prominent figure in the world of comics as the Executive Director of the Small Press Expo (SPX), an acclaimed independent sequential art festival. He's an accomplished comics-focused writer and historian, co-authoring the Eisner Award-nominated book "Drawing Power." With extensive expertise, he has extensively researched and written about the pivotal 1950s Juvenile Delinquency / Senate Comic Book Hearings. Warren is a valued contributor to over a dozen books, frequently sharing materials from his own expansive collection. His insightful lectures have been hosted by esteemed institutions including the Library of Congress and The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS). Warren resides in Bethesda, Maryland, where his passion for comics thrives.
During this engaging discussion, Warren Bernard shares:
- His journey from being a passionate comics enthusiast to his current role as the Executive Director of the Small Press Expo (SPX) and curator of the SPX Collection at the Library of Congress.
- The evolution of the SPX Collection since its inception and the meticulous process of accumulating over 10,000 works, preserving the legacy of indie comics.
- How his role at SPX has increased his visibility, opening up opportunities for podcasts and interviews, and how this unique perspective has affected his approach to discussing comics and sharing his expertise.
Tune in to this episode to uncover the remarkable impact of the Small Press Expo, delve into the fascinating world of comics, and gain valuable insights from Warren Bernard's journey as a curator, author, and historian.
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Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:
- Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
- Edited by Daniel Alexis
- Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor
Photos:
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- Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob Lee (00:10):
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob
Lee. And today I am thrilled tohave a special guest joining me,
a renowned Eisner Awardnominated comic author and
historian, curator, and theexecutive director of the Small
Press Expo. Please welcomeWarren Bernard. Welcome to the
podcast.
Warren Bernard (00:29):
Thank you very much. Great. I don't know about,
but I'll take the rest.
Rob Lee (00:34):
The rest is just your day. That's good. That's great.
No. No.
I I think, you know, people ask,like, how did you become aware
of me? How did you get on my howdid I get on your radar? And I'm
like, I'm observing, and I Ifollow this thing. If someone
piques my curiosity or whatthey're doing piques my
curiosity, I wanna know more andalways super excited when people
(00:57):
wanna just step into the ringand chat with me for, you know,
half an hour or so. So it'sreally cool.
Warren Bernard (01:02):
It is an honor to say the least. I I, you know,
I what whatever it is I've beendoing that caught your interest,
I'm happy for it. And like Isaid, it's an honor to be here.
Rob Lee (01:13):
Well, thank you so much. And as as we go into this
sort of introductory portion,I'd like to start off with, you
know, a question of, you know,like, what sort of current stuff
and then sort of, like, in thepast. I'm gonna start off with
the current stuff. You know,we're recording this on I'm
gonna date it. We're recordingthis on Wednesday.
So what's been, like, thehighlight of your your week so
(01:33):
far or highlight of your summerthus far?
Warren Bernard (01:35):
Oh, the highlight of my summer so far. I
I did a a sort of comics roadtrip, about I think it's around
6 weeks ago now that I visitedcartoon and comics friends, up
through Connecticut,Massachusetts, Vermont, and
then, upstate New York andvisiting different people that
(01:56):
I've met in the SPICS communitythat have become that have
become really good friends with.So that was definitely the
highlight in no no uncertainterms. There have been others. I
just saw a great baseball gameup in Philadelphia last week,
last, Saturday night.
The Phillies won 9 to 4, so homeruns, drag bunts, which, you
(02:16):
know, who does drag bunts herein this 3rd decade of 20 21st
century? So it was anyway,there's I've got lots of cool
stuff.
Rob Lee (02:25):
That's great. And I'm really trying to sort out how to
do the I I call it the socialpreview. You did the sort of
comic trip to the eastern. Like,it's you know, I I was recently,
let's say, beginning or maybepre summer in, in New York, and
it was, like, 5 people I wassupposed to visit. And I visited
none of them because I don'ttrain at all costs.
(02:47):
I was like,
Warren Bernard (02:48):
no, I
Rob Lee (02:48):
was gonna hang in my hotel and figure out where I'm
gonna go at while I'm up here,but, definitely, when you meet
people, especially doingsomething like this or doing
something where you're justencountering a lot of different
people who do really coolthings, you wanna be able to
cultivate and and, and maintainthose relationships, so FaceTime
and connecting.
Warren Bernard (03:07):
Well, yeah. But I I I don't consider it as sort
of mechanical as that. Yeah.Okay? It's kind of like, you
know, I I meet these people.
We find out that we've got manythings in common. Some of it is
due to age. Some of it is due tointerest. Some of it is due to
(03:27):
position. And so I I don't viewit quite that mechanical.
It's much more organic thanthat. Because there are there
are lots of people that I've metthrough SPX that that for
whatever the reason is, eitherwe didn't connect on some kind
of level other than being at theshow or what have you. But, it's
(03:51):
clear that when when youestablish you know, so so,
actually, doing SPX was theentry point. Yeah. Anything
after there is just as organicas you going to a concert,
meeting some people, or ormeeting someone in class at
school or someone at work thatyou become friends with.
So it's it's just the ignitionpoint. Sometimes the fire
(04:12):
ignites, and sometimes itdoesn't. So there's you know, I
I just wanna relate it thatthere's nothing different
between doing it at SPX or doingit at any other job that's out
there or doing it at a concertor wherever it may be.
Rob Lee (04:26):
That that makes a lot of sense, and I and I think it
gets muddied sometimes where Icrave that. I crave the thing
that I feel organic, like, hey,we're out there in a scene or,
hey, I had you on the pod. And,you know, I I do another podcast
outside of this where it's verydifferent and we cover movies
and really get into the nerdminutiae of movies.
Warren Bernard (04:45):
Yeah. Sure.
Rob Lee (04:46):
But not every one of these 600 plus interviews that
I've done goes on
Warren Bernard (04:50):
to that podcast. It's very small group of like,
okay, you
Rob Lee (04:50):
get it. We can vibe on that. Yeah. Organic. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You've you've gotyou've gotta have
Warren Bernard (04:54):
that connection. And and and when you do, you
know it. It's like, oh, yes. Theperson at the other side, I know
who you are, and we could talkabout this for hours.
Rob Lee (05:11):
Absolutely. So, you know, I said that I wanna start
off with the current. Now Iwanna start off, go go back a
little bit. I wanna, you know,tap into sort of your, your
involvement. Where does it startwith, Small Press Expo and the
US Library of Congress, UnitedStates Library of Congress?
Like, can you share sort of yourjourney and, like, ultimately,
(05:32):
what led to your role asexecutive director of SPX?
Warren Bernard (05:35):
Yeah. Sure. So when so we'll start with the SPX
side, and then I'll kind of, youknow, put them all together.
Please. I I live maybe a 5, 7minute walk where SPX used to be
held here in downtown Bethesda.
Mhmm. And, I had left my mycorporate job, and I was looking
for stuff to do, and someonetold me about SPX. I think the
(05:57):
first one too was, like, 2,000or something like that. And, you
know, 2001, there was no show.And then I think it was in 2002
or 2003.
Maybe it was 2002. I said, youknow, maybe I'll volunteer, take
a 2 hour shift committee. Andwithout getting it you know,
(06:19):
because I could talk about thisfor another hour, but we don't
have that time. What whateventually happened was is I was
approached to to take over SPXbecause of, actually, because of
my corporate background, becauseof the things that I did. So my
my first year as executivedirector was 2011, and, I am now
(06:42):
well, actually, I surpassedbeing the longest running SPX
executive director 9 years ago.
Rob Lee (06:50):
Well, congratulations.
Warren Bernard (06:53):
So, this is my this is my 13th one that that I
have done. It's it's fantastic.Matter of fact, we're, you know,
I'm I'm now I also site beingexecutive director. I'm in
charge of the website, so I'vebeen doing all this web
development stuff that it keepsmy because what I did in the
corporate world is I I had astaff of, like, 50 programmers
(07:14):
working for me, programmers andmanagers and the support staff
and things like that. And so wewe developed large scale
computer systems.
So getting into the web worldkinda keeps my keeps my, techie
genes active as the case may be.So, so I've been, you know,
doing this for a while. Andbetween 2,022,011, I was a I was
(07:37):
a volunteer. I I would help out.I wound up doing various tasks,
and I just did more and more.
I, you know, was in charge ofthe exhibit room and stuff like
that. And I'm the one who foundthe Bethesda North Marriott has
the place to go because theHoliday Inn, where it wasn't
downtown Bethesda, was beingreconfigured and wasn't gonna
fit our needs. Right. So, so butsomewhat parallel to that, I
(08:00):
guess it was around 2,007, 2008.I wanna do some volunteer stuff.
And, I knew this gentleman whohad this very large collection
that is now at the Library ofCongress. So, I was able to go
ahead and be approved as being avolunteer down there, and they
(08:20):
don't take everybody. I was itwas an honor to to be selected
down there. And so I've been, infact, I was just there last
week. So as part of the Libraryof Congress volunteer step, what
I do is is I catalog politicalcartoons.
So I I look at these oldpolitical cartoons literally
from I I had gotten by a book onthe Warren g Harding
Administration because I knewnothing about about that. So I
(08:44):
take these cartoons, and I goahead and I put historical
background, any pop culturereferences, which there are,
artistic references, cartoonistwas trying to say through the
cartoon. I also put in what thecartoonist was trying to say
through the cartoon andtranslate any idioms that may
(09:05):
may have occurred, and that goesinto the Library of Congress. So
I've I've done that for a longtime. And so I've done that for
a couple of years, and I noticedthat their collection basically
stopped in the 19 nineties.
This is, like, 2,009, 2,010. Andso I approached them about, you
know, well, there's there wasthis SPX thing over here, and
(09:27):
they have all this great art.And there's the Library of
Congress over here, which lovesto get great art. So the issue
was not could a deal be struck.It is it was could a deal be
struck for this, was how was thedeal gonna be, gonna be
constructed.
And it took about a year. Youknow, it's the federal
(09:48):
bureaucracy and stuff like that.And we worked it out so that,
there was now the SPX collectionat the Library of Congress. And
every year, we donate all of theIGNAT submissions to them. And
we have a team of normally, it'sanywhere from 4 to 6 Library of
Congress staffers that comethrough the exhibition hall at
SPX asking for donations for thecollection.
(10:11):
And this particular relationshipis unique. There is not another
relationship like it in theworld that I'm aware of that a
comic show of any kind,superhero, indie comics, really
doesn't matter, where PopCulture Convention, for that
matter, has a major institutionlike the Library of Congress,
(10:32):
basically picking up stuff asit's coming out. Yeah. And and
so if you think about that, youknow, there's now about 10,000
items in the collection. Well,the the the thing is is that the
way a lot of these museums andother larger institutions work
is is normally they wait forsomeone to either donate or sell
(10:52):
their collection.
It may be a creator, who has alarge archive and all this stuff
is in it, blah blah blah. Thisis the first time that I'm aware
of, and and I've done theresearch about this, that as we
go along, we're collecting thestuff as it comes out. And the
reason for that is is that itwas the Library of Congress
(11:13):
understands the ephemeral natureof many comics in particular,
many comics and prints. Becausea lot of a lot of people, as you
know, they'll print up a 100,200 copies, and that's it. Yeah.
It's it's it's totally gone. Sowe focus on things of an
ephemeral nature and also thingsthat don't come to the Library
of Congress as part of copyrightsubmission. So there are, for
(11:35):
instance, there are a number ofKickstarters in, out there that
they have not gone ahead andsent registration copies in. But
we picked them up as a matter ofcourse, either by donation at
the show or by submission, forthe Ignatz Awards. So, so that
that relationship and and it'sit's really cool because now I
(11:58):
mean, I'm aware of the past youknow, over the past, like, even
2 or 3 years during thepandemic, they were using the
collection for different things,either exhibitions or they have,
for instance, members ofCongress or congressional staff
will request to see stuff out ofLibrary of Congress on a given
topic.
And SPX stuff gets in gets putinto that mix. We've had
(12:20):
displays in the, first floor ofthe Jefferson room where they
have these large cases outthere, and it was all SPX stuff.
So they they view this verywell. They they love having the
material. And the good part isis they've done you know, a lot
of people say, well, I don'tlike paying taxes.
Well, okay. Fine. And and and Iget that. But when it comes to
(12:43):
federal taxes, I don't have aproblem because I know a whole
bunch of that is going towardspreserving the SPAC collection
for Library of Congress. Okay?
In fact, when we first startedthis, they didn't have the right
kind of acid free envelopes tokeep the mini comics, and they
special ordered them. They theythey had them made just for the
mini comics. They they hadpeople in the conservation part
(13:07):
put together special boxes forsome of the special material
that we've got. It'sunbelievable. And and it's
stored in vaults that store thesame stuff that you would see in
a museum collection.
So, you know, all thepreservation stuff is there.
It's kept in an acid freeenvironment. The humidity
control is there. The heatingcontrol is there. And as I tell
(13:29):
people, you know, please donateto the library the SPX
collection at Library Congress.
We will preserve your works tillthe sun goes supernova.
Rob Lee (13:37):
I love it. And and thank you for, for walking us
through that. I I definitely youknow, as I it's it's time
passes. Right? And, you know, Igo back and look at, like, when
I started with this podcast tonow, I start thinking of, you
know, what's changed, those sortof archival, the sort of,
preservation component, whetherit be in storytelling or even
(13:58):
the subject matter within thestories.
Like, I can look back into 2019when I started this podcast and
look like, oh, wow. That placedoesn't exist that we spent 20
minutes talking about is gone.So being able to have someone's
work documented and, you know,it it be comics. It it'd be
something that has things thatare very referential to a
(14:19):
certain time and that it's theidioms you that you mentioned.
It's it's great to capture that,and, you know, that's one of the
things that I've been looking atworking working through, as I
was telling you a little bitbefore we got started and
working with a group of studentsand the whole subject it's a
library.
It's a library for thiscommunity that I'm in, and I'm,
(14:40):
like, a person that was one ofthose kids that grew up in this
area, now coming back nearly 40and being able to contribute in
that way, I definitely that'sreally great to hear that that's
that sort of connection that,you know, SPX and the Library of
Congress had. That's that'sreally great.
Warren Bernard (14:57):
It's like I said, it's unique, and it
thoroughly validates any of thework coming out of the indie
comics community. And I'll neverforget the first SPX. There was
a guy who was selling I I lovethese handcrafted mini comics
that have special packaging, orit's really clear that it was
(15:17):
handcrafted. And I went up tothis to this gentleman's table,
and I had already seen his stuffbefore. I go, look.
Can I go ahead and, you know,get 2 of these for the Library
of Congress? And he fell back inhis shoes like, you're kidding
me. Really? My work in theLibrary of Congress? I was like,
yes.
You'll work in the Library ofCongress. So and and I've gotten
(15:38):
that reaction many, many times.So there's there's this
historical preservation aspectof it, but there's also the
emotional aspect of it. So,yeah, it's it's it's a it's a
very cool thing.
Rob Lee (15:54):
Nope. That's that's wonderful. I'd I'd have my own
really, really, really jankynonprofessional version of that
at my own home. Like, I'mrecording from my home studio
currently, and, you know, I haveitems. Like, folks will send me
stuff, and it it it definitelyfeels precious.
You know, like, I I had, oneartist. He took my logo that you
(16:15):
can see in the background aswe're recording, and he turned
into a small diorama. And it'sand he he does this work that in
these small altoid tens, and herecreates things. And I'm like,
did you create, like, Operationin an Altoids tent? How did you
do that?
Or scenes pop culture scenes,and it's just really cool. And
I'm very selective of what Ikeep in this space because I
think there's a creative energythere to sound really hokey
(16:38):
about it. But to the point, noteverything goes in there for
something as small as my littlelittle place, but something that
has the backing of, like, thatsort of, like, you know, air,
and it's it's the US, you know,Library of Congress that I would
imagine any artist, anycreatives, like, there you go.
So it's on a resume. It's on anartist statement.
It's there.
Warren Bernard (16:57):
Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And and and
understandably, there have been,there there have been times,
like, for instance, with theRhizograph stuff.
And it's expensive to produce,and it's totally understood that
it's like, you know, I only made6 of these, and I really need to
make more money back. And so,you know, stuff like that comes
up, but that's totallyunderstandable. I you know, we
we we totally get that. Sosometimes there's some stuff
(17:20):
we're, like, very hands up, butbecause of, financial
circumstance, we totallyunderstand that it's not a
viable thing to occur. Althoughthat that diorama does sound
cool.
Rob Lee (17:30):
It's it's it's super cool. I'll I'll send you an
image of it a little later. Solet let's let's shift gears a
little bit into, you know, sortof the the impact right around
the, Small Press Expo, like, youknow, within the the Indies
comp, the indie comic community.Like, we're we're touching on a
bit there as far as therelationship with the Library of
Congress. But like sort of whathas been like, you know, some of
(17:52):
that additional impact inconversations or just what ways
do, like, people look at, like,SPX.
Like and again, you know, I wasthere, like, last year, and it
was funny. Like, I ran intoKeith Knight. I ran into James
Spooner, and I was able to getsome interviews out of that and
connect. And it was, like,really great. And I was like,
I'm coming back every year.
(18:13):
You know, it was a little it wasfor me, but, you know, I'm I'm I
was very new to it. So as faras, you know, being in the the
role that you're in, what hasbeen that that sort of impact?
Warren Bernard (18:23):
Well, first, Keith and I are old friends, and
he's staying at my house thisyear for SPX.
Rob Lee (18:30):
That's great. Doctor doctor Keith Knight has reminded
me.
Warren Bernard (18:33):
Right. Right. Yeah. Right. Doctor Keith
Knight.
No. Although there were those ofus that that we just roll our
eyes at that, attemptedpretension. Especially at some
somebody who's, like, addictedto lobster rolls. Okay? How
pretentious can you be?
So so there there are actually,2 things that when you when you
(18:53):
look at the scale and scope, Oneof them is is SPX's influence as
just having an SPX. People camefrom New York and Toronto and
London, and they saw SPX, andthey said, we need one of these
for our city. And so there's noto me, there there's whether
(19:14):
it's in art or comics or evenfestivals, there is no greater
compliment than to be aninfluence. Mhmm. Yep.
And so we were a deep influencethat way. The other thing that
that is a big impact is theIgnatz Awards. When when people
write up their little resumesfor either their books or on
(19:36):
their website and stuff stufflike that, they always talk
about the Eisner Awards and theIgnatz Awards. And the Ignatz
Awards have proven to be a aboth a a stepping stone and a
prestige item within the indiecomics and publishing industry.
Because so, you know, you seepeople kinda come through SPX,
(19:57):
get discovered, and all of asudden they're at First Second
or Random House or Abrams orwherever it may be.
Raina Telgemeier is a classicexample. She came to SPX and
sold her mini comics for, like,50¢ or a dollar. You know? And
this is the same person who hashad, you know, New York Times
bestsellers. So so so that nowanother area in which SPX is
(20:23):
interesting, and I can't speakfor the other shows, but at
least before the pandemic, Ican't speak because I haven't
run to anybody since then.
We would get people from theanimation studios from the West
Coast come to SPX looking fortalent. Mhmm. And there are, by
my count, at least was probably15 to 20 people who used to
(20:43):
exhibit at SPX that are now outon the out on the West Coast,
either doing development dealsor working as animators or
working as production designersor working something like that.
So SPX was the stepping stone inthat direction. Another place is
commercial illustration and theNew Yorker.
People like do you know LonnieMilsap? Yes. Okay. So Lonnie,
(21:07):
you know, have been coming toSPX, and he's he's a great
talent. I love him, and he's abig basketball fan on top of
that.
And so, you know, he's he's goneto the New Yorker and a and a
number of other people. We'vehad New Yorker cartoonists come
down and be special guests atSPX. So that that's another
world in which there's a certainamount of discovery that that
(21:28):
occurs. So the those are thethose are the big areas where
SPX itself has been aninfluence, and then you tack on
the Ignatz Awards, then you tackon different creative
communities coming into SPXlooking for talent. Yeah.
Rob Lee (21:45):
I can even, like, speak to you know, going going there
last year, I was able to getmaybe 3 interviews out of folks
that I've talked about. I boughta bunch of, like, books and
stuff when I was there, and Iwas like, hell, yeah. This
works. And, you know, I gotconnected to you know, I did the
interview with Keith, and then Igot connected from Keith to Liza
Donnelly, who connected me to aninterview I did in New Orleans
(22:07):
with and I was just like, thisis, you know, 6 degrees of
separation. And it's it's reallycool, and it almost takes a bit
of the sort of vetting work outof me.
It's like, oh, I did this coolinterview with this person.
They're saying this person mightbe a great person. Let's check
it out. And it's it just reallyworks. It really works that way,
and I can root it back to thesmall press expos, a part of
(22:29):
that whole equation andtrajectory.
Warren Bernard (22:31):
Yeah. And, once you know one person and and they
like you, then then they'll thenthey'll do that. As you can
tell, there's this big networkout there. As a matter of fact,
Liza was one of the people Ivisited on that road trip I I
referenced earlier. Her and herhusband, Michael, they've got a
fabulous collection of worksjust from New Yorker
cartoonists.
(22:52):
It was a real treat going upthere. But but yeah. You know,
once you get in, the thecommunity is is very nice and
very tight, and you can getthere are less than 6 degrees
separation, especially if yousend me a note, I can make it 2
degrees of separation for a lotof cases.
Rob Lee (23:10):
Well, a note will be coming your way. If I'm being
honest, so I wanna talk about,about your background. I mean,
like, you know, I was seeing afew different things. You know?
You know, Eisner Award nominatedcomic author, historian,
curator.
There's a lot of, you know,interesting things about you.
It's is in addition to your youryour your data background, your
(23:32):
IT background, which I didn'tsee on it at all, so that's even
greater. So what what sparkedthat initial, like, interest in
comics for you? And, could youtell us a bit about your sort of
journey in comics?
Warren Bernard (23:46):
Well, when when I was a real young, you know, 3,
4, 5 years old, my parents wouldget me the Dell Comics. But what
truly triggered it is when I gotmy tonsils out, my parents gave
me my first Superman comic. Andthat was that led me down the
road to perdition. It it it thatthat that's the one that hooked
(24:08):
me. And, so starting is, youknow, there there was, in,
junior high school, there wasone guy there that was selling
me his adventure comics.
So I got into LegionSuperheroes, and I would go up
to the newsstand with anotherbuddy of mine, and we and he
turned me on to I didn't knowabout Marvel Comics until I was,
(24:28):
14 because my neighborhood inNew York didn't carry any of
them. It was all DC stuff. Andso I had a horizon expansion
with my buddy, John. He had, atthe time, a near complete set of
of marvels. And, so I I readeverything, and I became a huge
Fantastic Four fan.
So I put together my owncollection, which regretfully, I
(24:51):
had to sell, in college. Andalso by the time I got into
college and through college, thesuperhero stuff had kinda lost
its appeal to me. Mhmm. And so Igot into the underground stuff.
I still have all my undergroundcomics.
I got into indie comics, whichwas a little later in in the
seventies. But then, you know, II wasn't really the collector I
(25:16):
wound up to be until untillater. Because when I got into
the into the corporate world, mysister said it best. She said I
disappeared for about a decade.And so I I and I only went to
you know, from most probably inthe last 2 decades in 20th
century, I must probably onlywent to maybe 3 shows.
Mhmm. Okay. But I I started upagain, to put the collection
(25:41):
together I have now. I startedfocusing on books. I started
collecting books, cartooningbooks, the same way an
antiquarian book collector wouldcollect books.
So I grew up to signed editions,1st editions, editions, and dust
wrappers and stuff like that. SoI've got a, you know, a really
good collection of that stuff.And I've got the undergrounds.
(26:01):
And then at SPX, that was ahorizon expansion. And I started
collecting a lot.
In fact, I've got one of thethings I do collect. I collect
some mini comics. People havemuch better collections than me,
but what I collect is is Icollect comics on tabloid
newsprint. Mhmm. Okay?
So so you've got things likelike here. Well, you you've got
(26:22):
a a a secret prison. You've gota whole bunch of things that
have been done in the DC areaover the years. So, I've got a
large collection of thatmaterial. I've got, you know,
lots of first editions, lots ofstuff signed to me as part of
SPX.
Another thing that expanded myhorizon, I went into a
(26:44):
bookstore. I was I was just outof college at the at that point.
And I've just, you know, usedbookstores were a totally
different thing back than thanthan what they are now. You
can't even find them now. Right.
Back then, it was a joy to goin. And when you went to the
comic or humor section, you hadno idea what you were gonna see,
which made that explorationreally interesting. And I pulled
(27:05):
down a a book with the 3rd NewYorker album, 1930. And I loved
it. And I I went out off off inthat direction, and then there
was other stuff that you wouldrun across going to the used
bookstores that if you didn't goin there, you wouldn't have
found because the mainstreamstores didn't have that kind of
stuff.
(27:25):
Yeah. So, so there there's likea an aggregation. And then there
were some people that I thoughtwere historically interested. So
I've got, pretty decent holdingsof stuff by Windsor McKay and
Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzmanand do you know Esims Campbell?
(27:46):
No.
Elmersible. Well, you know aboutMatt Baker? The, so he was the
first, attributed to be the 1stblack successful black
cartoonist, comic book creatorin the 19 forties.
Rob Lee (27:59):
Yeah.
Warren Bernard (28:00):
A decade before Matt Baker even came along, E
Sims Campbell was the firstblack, cartoonist slash
illustrator to be successful.And he had he was doing cartoons
for the humor magazines of theday. He had commercial accounts.
He was very successful in whathe was doing. And while he was
(28:20):
doing this and he had asyndicated strip that went
through, King Features'syndicate.
And while he was doing this, hewas also doing cartoon strips
for the black newspapers in NewYork.
Rob Lee (28:32):
Wonderful.
Warren Bernard (28:33):
And so I've I've got a a bunch of his stuff. I've
got I I think all of the covershe did for the old Life and
Judge Magazines and and otherstuff. I've got 2 books signed
by him. So it's so there arepeople like that that I kind of
went after that I felt werehistorically important. So I've
got that aspect.
So I look at it also as ahistorian.
Rob Lee (28:54):
Yeah. That's that's that's great. I mean and and
when I when I get into, like,sort of expo convention season
and, you know, when I when I go,I think this will be the 3rd
convention slash expo that I'vegone to this year, and I'm kinda
looking forward to this.Alright. Who's who's about to
pop?
Who can I actually have thisconversation with, and who am I
(29:16):
gonna buy something from? Andbecause it's again, it's it's
gonna be something that I'mgonna try to get signed, and I
want to protect it. It's notlike I'm gonna read this, like,
in in that moment, or I'm gonnaget a secondary copy because I
want the side one to be, youknow, crisping away. But,
definitely having some of thosethings that that re sparked that
(29:38):
interest. You know, the otherday, it's not necessarily
related, but the other day, canI could tell that with all of
the things that I'm doing andthe sort of minimal, like,
downtime that I have, I was ableto log into, you know, the
library website, you know, thethe the central library here,
And I was like, webcomics, whereare they?
(29:58):
And I started, like, reading,you know, maybe, like, Spider
Punk. And I was like, I'm usingmy downtime to explore this
comic. And now when I gosomewhere, I have a trade. I
have a trade paperback in my,backpack with my recording gear.
So it's like, yeah.
I'm getting to this time. I'm inmy pop culture scene. I'm in my,
this season, and I'm justramping up for just being around
(30:21):
and being in conversations withfolks like you and folks that
are are artists and folks thatare writers and and folks that
are, like, champions of, comicsand that that form.
Warren Bernard (30:31):
And and by the way, you're what you just said
reminded me, there's one otherthing we do with the Library of
Congress I totally forgot tomention. We actually archive
webcomic sites.
Rob Lee (30:40):
Wow. So Yeah.
Warren Bernard (30:42):
So, in fact, this guy, James Kuchulka, his
diary comics, the entire run ofhis diary comics was on a server
that was about to bedecommissioned. And he sent me a
note. Warren, can you help?Yeah. And we got the Library of
Congress, and so there's now acopy of that, the all of his
stuff down at the Library ofCongress.
(31:03):
And we've done that. Like, theNIB is being backed up. The SPX
website is being backed up. Sothere's so there's this, there's
a digital piece to what we'redoing there, because the these
webcomics, you know, theythey're there for now, but you
have no idea how long they'regonna be there. Right.
So so we do it for that stuffalso.
Rob Lee (31:25):
Yeah. I have a, I have a few installments of, the NIB
in the in the studio that wasgiven to me as a gift. And when
I saw because it was on theradar. I wanted to have this
sort of arc of who can I speakwith in these different sort of
places because I wanted to,like, I try to stack, you know,
like, alright, we got some comicwriters? We have these different
publishers and so on.
And I was like I was like, TheNiv. I was like, I like I like
(31:48):
their style, like what they do,and then I was just like, okay,
it's wrapping up. I was like,you know, but, Well
Warren Bernard (31:53):
well, you should I I would recommend like, Matt
Bors is coming to SPX.
Rob Lee (31:58):
Okay.
Warren Bernard (31:58):
Okay? And so I I would recommend talking to him
because, I've I've known Mattsince my god. I I got his first
mini comic. He was like I thinkhe was 21 or something like
that. So not for a very longtime.
So I've I've been talking withhim through his entire journey
with the NIV and the differentiterations it's gone through.
(32:18):
And, he would be able to giveyou a good feel as to what it's
like to run a site like that inthis kind of a of a, media, you
know, media milieu.
Rob Lee (32:29):
Got it. That that that's I'm I'm I'll put that
note. That's that's great. So Isee. I got I got 3 more sort of
like real questions.
And then I had like the rapidfire questions.
Warren Bernard (32:40):
Okay. All right.
Rob Lee (32:41):
How's for you? So, you know, is is there a a pivotal
moment or experience that, youknow, comes to mind when you
think of your your journey. Imean, I see, you know, the
Eisner Award nomination. I see,as you you touched on earlier,
you know, the historiancomponent. It's it's it's great.
There's a lot that's that's inthere too. You know, like, I've
(33:02):
been if I'm if I'm answeringthis question in in the scope of
what I do, yeah, I've beenpodcasting for close to 15
years, and I I can't think of 1.I just think All Over McCool,
which sounds so hokey, but alsoI feel that too because it's a
new opportunity. But what whatwhat comes to mind for you as a
pivotal moment during thisjourney for you?
Warren Bernard (33:22):
Well, there there are 3 of them. Okay? So
one of them was, of course,being nominated for an for an
Eisner award. I was like, you'vegotta be kidding me. You're
making this up.
Okay? So, anyone who doesn't saythat, I don't care if I win or
not. Most people, they'll getnominated. Alright? So it it it
wasn't a problem if I didn'twin.
It was like, I got thenomination. That's fine. I'm
(33:45):
happy. So that was one of them.The second one was, the second
well, the first two shows that Iran at SPX were special in its
both ways.
The first one was is is we had,Antel Nes and Roz Chast and
Diane Newman lead a panel, leada slate of mainly women creators
(34:10):
coming to SPX that we had thisemphasis just on the women,
which up to that point, no showhad ever done. Yeah. But then
the following year, I was ableto get, Dan Clowes, Chris Ware,
and the Hernandez brothers toall come to the same show. And
that to me was like an absolutemind boggler. There was a third
one.
When when we did the, when wedid the Fantagraphics 40th
(34:34):
anniversary show, we had I mean,it was unbelievable. We had a
brunch on that Sunday, andthere's a photograph of, like, 2
dozen of the top Fantagraphicscreators all in one photograph.
Ed Pisker was there, SimonHanselman, Charles Burns, the
Hernandez brothers. I mean, itwas unbelievable who was in that
(34:54):
room. It was absolutely mindboggling.
But the the other one that blewme away was probably be even
more so than those is, being onCartoonist Katebabe. Okay? The
Ed Pisker, Jim Rugg channel. Youknow, I I did a in fact, that
was the first purse I would itwas an honor for me. I was the
(35:17):
first person they theyinterviewed when they started up
the channel.
Yeah. And I went up toPittsburgh and, you know, I
thought I was gonna sit downwith the 2 of them. They go, no.
No, Warren. You sit over there.
And it was like I was beinggrilled like I was I was in some
kind of job interview. Okay?They started throwing questions
at. And and and that one is isstill up. And and, so every time
(35:37):
I come into Pittsburgh, I woulddo a couple.
And what happened was itthoroughly shocked the hell out
of me. K? That the commentsection was like, oh, yeah.
Yeah. Warren's you know, wewanna see more Warren, stuff
like that.
And the ultimate compliment wasafter SPX in 2019, Jim and Ed
came to my house to do a videotour of my collection. Wow. A a
(36:02):
very a very brief one, which bythe way, you are hereby invited
to come over to my house for atour of the collection.
Rob Lee (36:08):
K? Wonderful. Thank you.
Warren Bernard (36:10):
And so we we did this video and we you know, I
would, like, break somethingout, speak about it for 2
seconds, and move on to the nextthing. And for the first, like,
year or 2, it's 3, 4, 5000views. It's now up, like, 25,000
views. And last year at SPX, Ihad 2 people come up to me and
say, Warren, I love the workthat you're doing it on
cartoonist kayfabe. 1 guy wantedme to sign his program.
(36:32):
I'm like, no. I'm just someschlump. Okay? I I got you know,
I'm just some guy. I, you know,I I don't have no.
No. No. Why? I really want it.So, you know, I I signed it.
Okay? So, you know, I go up onceor twice a year to Pittsburgh,
and I I have the honor ofsitting with, Jim and Ed. I've
done about 30 videos with themon all kinds of different
topics, everything from we didMaster Race, and they and I was
(36:56):
very happy. They allowed me thethe privilege of talking about
my favorite superhero comic ofall time, Fantastic 4 48250, The
Coming of Galactus and theSilver Surfer, which to me okay,
try and beat that. I don't care.
You're not gonna do it. You'renot gonna convince me. Alright?
So so there's there's been thiswide range of stuff that we've
(37:19):
talked about in terms of comics.We did we've done Concrete.
We've done Little Nemo. We'vedone Will Eisner. We've done a
little bit of Chris Ware. Youknow, there's all kinds, like I
said, 30 different videos we'vedone. And and that that to me is
a is a surprise, an honor, and ashock.
Rob Lee (37:38):
So so great. I am I'm I'm marking out a little bit.
Yeah. It's like, I know I knowthese people. I know these
names.
I have I have stuff. This isgreat. So, actually, I think
that, you know, and and you mademy job a little easier in sort
of that, response. One of mysecondary questions has been
answered, so that's great. Sonow I'm down to sort of my last
(37:58):
question, and I I think I have asense on it.
But at least, you know, I wannakinda, you know, use this to
close out the sort of, you know,real part of the, of the of the
interview, before we get to therapid fire part, which is what
I've been told is the b s partof the interview. But for for
folks, you know, coming out,what can he what can he look
(38:19):
forward to? I mean, I'm on amailing list. I get the emails
for you from you. But what canfolks look forward to to, this
year's, XPX?
Warren Bernard (38:26):
Well, we we've got a a great slate. Mara Naomi
is coming, and BillGriffithsippi, the pinhead. His
Ernie Bushmiller graphic novelbiography is coming in about 3
weeks before the show. So it'llbe one of the first show is it
not the first show to go aheadand have it debut at at SPX.
We've already I can't get intothe programming panels because
(38:47):
even I don't know what they areyet.
They no. You know, it's liketypical management. It's like,
well, you're in charge, but youdon't really know what the hell
is going on down there. Okay? Sowe we've got I think it's 22
programming panels and I think11, 12, and 14 workshops, and
we'll be announcing thosesometime next month.
So that that's all done. TheIgnatz Awards are gonna be on
(39:11):
the Saturday night of SPX, andwe've, the nominations are
percolating now out of thejudging team. You know, it's
gonna be our normal there's waitwell, how about this? So I I did
it back of the envelopecalculation. If you spent 3
minutes at every table at SPX,you would not be able to watch
(39:31):
any programming, go to thebathroom, or eat for the 14
hours that we're open.
Rob Lee (39:37):
Oh, packed.
Warren Bernard (39:38):
So so there's a lot to do. So just getting
through the floor is is a lot.You know, you know, once again,
you know, we're gonna have,Phantom Graphics is going back
and Top Shelf and No Brow andSelf Made Hero, Silver Sprocket.
So so the big indie publishersare gonna be are gonna be with
us once again. And they alwaysbring additional just so
(40:00):
everybody knows, there are otherguests that come to sign at
those tables that aren't SPXspecial guests.
So there's and I have no ideawho those people are because
they you know, I always getsomething from, you know, top
shelf or Fanta, whoever it is.Like, last year, I had no idea
that Jeffrey Brown had come toSPXB at at top shelf's table.
(40:22):
I'm like, why didn't you tellyou know, I was like I was like,
Jeff, I had no you know, I Ispoke to Chris Stone. I was
like, Chris, you're supposed totell me when someone of that
stature comes. So there's acertain amount of surprise that
even I I have no idea what'sgonna happen.
Okay? So that that kind ofencapsulates what's, you know,
what's going on for this year'sshow.
Rob Lee (40:42):
I'm I'm so looking forward to it, and I I think I
wanna switch up because lastyear was, like, the first, and I
was like, I don't know how tonavigate this. I'm just trying
to, like, fill it out. But, youknow, at a point like, you you
touched on, like, people aresuper welcoming. It's it's a dep
different sort of setup thanI've been at before. It's like,
hey, you know, I can chat withfolks and it doesn't feel like
(41:03):
I'm interrupting them fromsomething else.
It's like, no, no, no. Hey.Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know,
it's really cool.
So I think what I'm gonna end updoing this year is kinda like
maybe do the the overnightthing. I was there for a couple
hours, last year and moving tosort of my next stop, but this
is gonna be more of a, you know,concerted effort to really get
depth this year.
Warren Bernard (41:23):
And and, you know, it's one of those things
that, one of the big differencesbetween our show and the
mainstream, superhero comicshows is that when you ask for
an autograph or ask forsomething to get signed in a
book, they're not gonna they'renot gonna charge any money.
Mhmm. Okay? And this goes to theto the very top people. And so
(41:46):
that that that's that's and andas you say, the vibe is
different.
You know, as you see, there areno cosplayers. They're you know,
everyone is just kinda hangingand milling around and everyone
everyone is approachable. Yeah.So it it it is a totally
different vibe.
Rob Lee (42:02):
That's what that's what I dig about it, and I am super
excited. And, you know, like,it's it's always even outside of
doing this this this podcastaround it, when there's things
that I like, I am an evangelistfor it. I did never stop talking
about it. It's like, fuck. Pullup, guys.
Bethesda, here we come.
Warren Bernard (42:19):
Well well, thank you. Well, how about this? I'm
so glad you came in. I'm so gladyou liked it.
Rob Lee (42:25):
Loved it. So this is the part of the podcast now that
I want to get you with theserapid fire questions. You know,
you you were talking earlier,feeling like you're in the
interview setup. This is gonnabe more of a goofy version of
it, but Okay.
Warren Bernard (42:38):
But I
Rob Lee (42:38):
think I think you'll dig it. And but as I tell
everyone, don't overthink it.Whatever your answer is, is your
answer. So I have 6 of thembecause I've, I've been typing
while we've been talking. So, itwas 3 initially, and now it's 6.
So I told you something.Alright. Here's the first one.
If you could hang out with anyfictional character, who would
it be?
Warren Bernard (42:59):
Any fictional character, who would it be? I'll
be honest with you. I'll saySuperman.
Rob Lee (43:05):
K. What this is this is funny. What's something that's
pretty ordinary that you're verysnobbish or particular about?
Warren Bernard (43:15):
Crab cakes.
Rob Lee (43:16):
You get it. So you get it right right there. That that
might be the end of the podcastright there. You you get as a
proud Baltimorean, you know.What is your favorite color?
Blue. Yeah. Go to comfort food.A second food question of this
group.
Warren Bernard (43:33):
Go to comfort food. Well, I, pad thai is one
of my comfort foods. I like agood burger is a comfort food.
Pizza is a comfort food.
Rob Lee (43:45):
I like it. I mean, I hear the I hear the northeast
accent, so I'm like, yeah, youknow pizza.
Warren Bernard (43:50):
I I was born and raised in New York City. You can
take the boy out of the city,but you can't do the opposite.
So
Rob Lee (43:56):
Do you have a favorite movie? And I know the favorites
are always when people getcaught, like, depends on the
year or
Warren Bernard (44:03):
what have you. Oh, jeez. Well, blade the first
blade the Blade Runner would beone of them. Good one.
Godfather, parts 12.
When I was a little oh, I'msorry. Well, one of the ones I
(44:25):
have to admit from this is whenI was a little kid, the original
Planet of the Apes with CharltonHeston.
Rob Lee (44:30):
Nice. Uh-huh. This is the last one I got for you. I
asked someone this yesterday,and I thought it was really
funny because I like to trollbaristas sometimes. I'm like,
Yeah, can you put enough creamin there that makes it look like
my skin color versus and theylook at me.
It's usually I like the troll. Ilike the troll. What is your go
to coffee award? Are you acoffee person? What's your go to
(44:50):
coffee?
Warren Bernard (44:50):
No. I don't drink coffee or tea. Oh, really?
No. I I don't drink coffee ortea or alcohol.
It does not mean that I don'thave other vices that check out.
Well, no. It's legal in thestate of Maryland now. So, yes,
I I do have I do have one vice.
Rob Lee (45:07):
I love it. It is it is legal. Well, that's actually,
it. You're you're off the thehot seat of the the rapid fire
questions. Yeah, you made it.
You made it. We we survived. SoI want to, 1, thank you for for
coming on to this podcast andspending some time with me. We
we made it. We made it happen.
(45:28):
And, despite trains notcooperating and all of the
things, and and 2, I wannainvite and encourage you to,
share with the listeners wherethey can check out, you know,
SPX. Any anything that you wannashare in these final moments as
we close out of this podcast?
Warren Bernard (45:43):
Yeah. All the information is up on our
website, www.smallpressexpo.Com. So go out there. Everything
is there.
It's all on the front page. Ittells you all of the you know,
you click on the box, but here'sthe special guest box. And and
but a lot of it is gonna beannounced in about 2 to 3 weeks.
So more details are gonna comeout. By the middle of August,
(46:04):
there's gonna be a lot ofinformation on the show.
Rob Lee (46:06):
And there you have it, folks. I wanna again thank
Warren Barnard from the SmallPress Expo for coming on and
sharing a bit of his journeywith us on this podcast. And I'm
Rob Lee saying that there's art,culture, and community in and
around your neck of the woods.You've just got to look for it.
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob
Lee. And today I am thrilled tohave a special guest joining me,
a renowned Eisner Awardnominated comic author and
historian, curator, and theexecutive director of the Small
Press Expo. Please welcomeWarren Bernard. Welcome to the
podcast.
Warren Bernard (00:29):
Thank you very much. Great. I don't know about,
but I'll take the rest.
Rob Lee (00:34):
The rest is just your day. That's good. That's great.
No. No.
I I think, you know, people ask,like, how did you become aware
of me? How did you get on my howdid I get on your radar? And I'm
like, I'm observing, and I Ifollow this thing. If someone
piques my curiosity or whatthey're doing piques my
curiosity, I wanna know more andalways super excited when people
(00:57):
wanna just step into the ringand chat with me for, you know,
half an hour or so. So it'sreally cool.
Warren Bernard (01:02):
It is an honor to say the least. I I, you know,
I what whatever it is I've beendoing that caught your interest,
I'm happy for it. And like Isaid, it's an honor to be here.
Rob Lee (01:13):
Well, thank you so much. And as as we go into this
sort of introductory portion,I'd like to start off with, you
know, a question of, you know,like, what sort of current stuff
and then sort of, like, in thepast. I'm gonna start off with
the current stuff. You know,we're recording this on I'm
gonna date it. We're recordingthis on Wednesday.
So what's been, like, thehighlight of your your week so
(01:33):
far or highlight of your summerthus far?
Warren Bernard (01:35):
Oh, the highlight of my summer so far. I
I did a a sort of comics roadtrip, about I think it's around
6 weeks ago now that I visitedcartoon and comics friends, up
through Connecticut,Massachusetts, Vermont, and
then, upstate New York andvisiting different people that
(01:56):
I've met in the SPICS communitythat have become that have
become really good friends with.So that was definitely the
highlight in no no uncertainterms. There have been others. I
just saw a great baseball gameup in Philadelphia last week,
last, Saturday night.
The Phillies won 9 to 4, so homeruns, drag bunts, which, you
(02:16):
know, who does drag bunts herein this 3rd decade of 20 21st
century? So it was anyway,there's I've got lots of cool
stuff.
Rob Lee (02:25):
That's great. And I'm really trying to sort out how to
do the I I call it the socialpreview. You did the sort of
comic trip to the eastern. Like,it's you know, I I was recently,
let's say, beginning or maybepre summer in, in New York, and
it was, like, 5 people I wassupposed to visit. And I visited
none of them because I don'ttrain at all costs.
(02:47):
I was like,
Warren Bernard (02:48):
no, I
Rob Lee (02:48):
was gonna hang in my hotel and figure out where I'm
gonna go at while I'm up here,but, definitely, when you meet
people, especially doingsomething like this or doing
something where you're justencountering a lot of different
people who do really coolthings, you wanna be able to
cultivate and and, and maintainthose relationships, so FaceTime
and connecting.
Warren Bernard (03:07):
Well, yeah. But I I I don't consider it as sort
of mechanical as that. Yeah.Okay? It's kind of like, you
know, I I meet these people.
We find out that we've got manythings in common. Some of it is
due to age. Some of it is due tointerest. Some of it is due to
(03:27):
position. And so I I don't viewit quite that mechanical.
It's much more organic thanthat. Because there are there
are lots of people that I've metthrough SPX that that for
whatever the reason is, eitherwe didn't connect on some kind
of level other than being at theshow or what have you. But, it's
(03:51):
clear that when when youestablish you know, so so,
actually, doing SPX was theentry point. Yeah. Anything
after there is just as organicas you going to a concert,
meeting some people, or ormeeting someone in class at
school or someone at work thatyou become friends with.
So it's it's just the ignitionpoint. Sometimes the fire
(04:12):
ignites, and sometimes itdoesn't. So there's you know, I
I just wanna relate it thatthere's nothing different
between doing it at SPX or doingit at any other job that's out
there or doing it at a concertor wherever it may be.
Rob Lee (04:26):
That that makes a lot of sense, and I and I think it
gets muddied sometimes where Icrave that. I crave the thing
that I feel organic, like, hey,we're out there in a scene or,
hey, I had you on the pod. And,you know, I I do another podcast
outside of this where it's verydifferent and we cover movies
and really get into the nerdminutiae of movies.
Warren Bernard (04:45):
Yeah. Sure.
Rob Lee (04:46):
But not every one of these 600 plus interviews that
I've done goes on
Warren Bernard (04:50):
to that podcast. It's very small group of like,
okay, you
Rob Lee (04:50):
get it. We can vibe on that. Yeah. Organic. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You've you've gotyou've gotta have
Warren Bernard (04:54):
that connection. And and and when you do, you
know it. It's like, oh, yes. Theperson at the other side, I know
who you are, and we could talkabout this for hours.
Rob Lee (05:11):
Absolutely. So, you know, I said that I wanna start
off with the current. Now Iwanna start off, go go back a
little bit. I wanna, you know,tap into sort of your, your
involvement. Where does it startwith, Small Press Expo and the
US Library of Congress, UnitedStates Library of Congress?
Like, can you share sort of yourjourney and, like, ultimately,
(05:32):
what led to your role asexecutive director of SPX?
Warren Bernard (05:35):
Yeah. Sure. So when so we'll start with the SPX
side, and then I'll kind of, youknow, put them all together.
Please. I I live maybe a 5, 7minute walk where SPX used to be
held here in downtown Bethesda.
Mhmm. And, I had left my mycorporate job, and I was looking
for stuff to do, and someonetold me about SPX. I think the
(05:57):
first one too was, like, 2,000or something like that. And, you
know, 2001, there was no show.And then I think it was in 2002
or 2003.
Maybe it was 2002. I said, youknow, maybe I'll volunteer, take
a 2 hour shift committee. Andwithout getting it you know,
(06:19):
because I could talk about thisfor another hour, but we don't
have that time. What whateventually happened was is I was
approached to to take over SPXbecause of, actually, because of
my corporate background, becauseof the things that I did. So my
my first year as executivedirector was 2011, and, I am now
(06:42):
well, actually, I surpassedbeing the longest running SPX
executive director 9 years ago.
Rob Lee (06:50):
Well, congratulations.
Warren Bernard (06:53):
So, this is my this is my 13th one that that I
have done. It's it's fantastic.Matter of fact, we're, you know,
I'm I'm now I also site beingexecutive director. I'm in
charge of the website, so I'vebeen doing all this web
development stuff that it keepsmy because what I did in the
corporate world is I I had astaff of, like, 50 programmers
(07:14):
working for me, programmers andmanagers and the support staff
and things like that. And so wewe developed large scale
computer systems.
So getting into the web worldkinda keeps my keeps my, techie
genes active as the case may be.So, so I've been, you know,
doing this for a while. Andbetween 2,022,011, I was a I was
(07:37):
a volunteer. I I would help out.I wound up doing various tasks,
and I just did more and more.
I, you know, was in charge ofthe exhibit room and stuff like
that. And I'm the one who foundthe Bethesda North Marriott has
the place to go because theHoliday Inn, where it wasn't
downtown Bethesda, was beingreconfigured and wasn't gonna
fit our needs. Right. So, so butsomewhat parallel to that, I
(08:00):
guess it was around 2,007, 2008.I wanna do some volunteer stuff.
And, I knew this gentleman whohad this very large collection
that is now at the Library ofCongress. So, I was able to go
ahead and be approved as being avolunteer down there, and they
(08:20):
don't take everybody. I was itwas an honor to to be selected
down there. And so I've been, infact, I was just there last
week. So as part of the Libraryof Congress volunteer step, what
I do is is I catalog politicalcartoons.
So I I look at these oldpolitical cartoons literally
from I I had gotten by a book onthe Warren g Harding
Administration because I knewnothing about about that. So I
(08:44):
take these cartoons, and I goahead and I put historical
background, any pop culturereferences, which there are,
artistic references, cartoonistwas trying to say through the
cartoon. I also put in what thecartoonist was trying to say
through the cartoon andtranslate any idioms that may
(09:05):
may have occurred, and that goesinto the Library of Congress. So
I've I've done that for a longtime. And so I've done that for
a couple of years, and I noticedthat their collection basically
stopped in the 19 nineties.
This is, like, 2,009, 2,010. Andso I approached them about, you
know, well, there's there wasthis SPX thing over here, and
(09:27):
they have all this great art.And there's the Library of
Congress over here, which lovesto get great art. So the issue
was not could a deal be struck.It is it was could a deal be
struck for this, was how was thedeal gonna be, gonna be
constructed.
And it took about a year. Youknow, it's the federal
(09:48):
bureaucracy and stuff like that.And we worked it out so that,
there was now the SPX collectionat the Library of Congress. And
every year, we donate all of theIGNAT submissions to them. And
we have a team of normally, it'sanywhere from 4 to 6 Library of
Congress staffers that comethrough the exhibition hall at
SPX asking for donations for thecollection.
(10:11):
And this particular relationshipis unique. There is not another
relationship like it in theworld that I'm aware of that a
comic show of any kind,superhero, indie comics, really
doesn't matter, where PopCulture Convention, for that
matter, has a major institutionlike the Library of Congress,
(10:32):
basically picking up stuff asit's coming out. Yeah. And and
so if you think about that, youknow, there's now about 10,000
items in the collection. Well,the the the thing is is that the
way a lot of these museums andother larger institutions work
is is normally they wait forsomeone to either donate or sell
(10:52):
their collection.
It may be a creator, who has alarge archive and all this stuff
is in it, blah blah blah. Thisis the first time that I'm aware
of, and and I've done theresearch about this, that as we
go along, we're collecting thestuff as it comes out. And the
reason for that is is that itwas the Library of Congress
(11:13):
understands the ephemeral natureof many comics in particular,
many comics and prints. Becausea lot of a lot of people, as you
know, they'll print up a 100,200 copies, and that's it. Yeah.
It's it's it's totally gone. Sowe focus on things of an
ephemeral nature and also thingsthat don't come to the Library
of Congress as part of copyrightsubmission. So there are, for
(11:35):
instance, there are a number ofKickstarters in, out there that
they have not gone ahead andsent registration copies in. But
we picked them up as a matter ofcourse, either by donation at
the show or by submission, forthe Ignatz Awards. So, so that
that relationship and and it'sit's really cool because now I
(11:58):
mean, I'm aware of the past youknow, over the past, like, even
2 or 3 years during thepandemic, they were using the
collection for different things,either exhibitions or they have,
for instance, members ofCongress or congressional staff
will request to see stuff out ofLibrary of Congress on a given
topic.
And SPX stuff gets in gets putinto that mix. We've had
(12:20):
displays in the, first floor ofthe Jefferson room where they
have these large cases outthere, and it was all SPX stuff.
So they they view this verywell. They they love having the
material. And the good part isis they've done you know, a lot
of people say, well, I don'tlike paying taxes.
Well, okay. Fine. And and and Iget that. But when it comes to
(12:43):
federal taxes, I don't have aproblem because I know a whole
bunch of that is going towardspreserving the SPAC collection
for Library of Congress. Okay?
In fact, when we first startedthis, they didn't have the right
kind of acid free envelopes tokeep the mini comics, and they
special ordered them. They theythey had them made just for the
mini comics. They they hadpeople in the conservation part
(13:07):
put together special boxes forsome of the special material
that we've got. It'sunbelievable. And and it's
stored in vaults that store thesame stuff that you would see in
a museum collection.
So, you know, all thepreservation stuff is there.
It's kept in an acid freeenvironment. The humidity
control is there. The heatingcontrol is there. And as I tell
(13:29):
people, you know, please donateto the library the SPX
collection at Library Congress.
We will preserve your works tillthe sun goes supernova.
Rob Lee (13:37):
I love it. And and thank you for, for walking us
through that. I I definitely youknow, as I it's it's time
passes. Right? And, you know, Igo back and look at, like, when
I started with this podcast tonow, I start thinking of, you
know, what's changed, those sortof archival, the sort of,
preservation component, whetherit be in storytelling or even
(13:58):
the subject matter within thestories.
Like, I can look back into 2019when I started this podcast and
look like, oh, wow. That placedoesn't exist that we spent 20
minutes talking about is gone.So being able to have someone's
work documented and, you know,it it be comics. It it'd be
something that has things thatare very referential to a
(14:19):
certain time and that it's theidioms you that you mentioned.
It's it's great to capture that,and, you know, that's one of the
things that I've been looking atworking working through, as I
was telling you a little bitbefore we got started and
working with a group of studentsand the whole subject it's a
library.
It's a library for thiscommunity that I'm in, and I'm,
(14:40):
like, a person that was one ofthose kids that grew up in this
area, now coming back nearly 40and being able to contribute in
that way, I definitely that'sreally great to hear that that's
that sort of connection that,you know, SPX and the Library of
Congress had. That's that'sreally great.
Warren Bernard (14:57):
It's like I said, it's unique, and it
thoroughly validates any of thework coming out of the indie
comics community. And I'll neverforget the first SPX. There was
a guy who was selling I I lovethese handcrafted mini comics
that have special packaging, orit's really clear that it was
(15:17):
handcrafted. And I went up tothis to this gentleman's table,
and I had already seen his stuffbefore. I go, look.
Can I go ahead and, you know,get 2 of these for the Library
of Congress? And he fell back inhis shoes like, you're kidding
me. Really? My work in theLibrary of Congress? I was like,
yes.
You'll work in the Library ofCongress. So and and I've gotten
(15:38):
that reaction many, many times.So there's there's this
historical preservation aspectof it, but there's also the
emotional aspect of it. So,yeah, it's it's it's a it's a
very cool thing.
Rob Lee (15:54):
Nope. That's that's wonderful. I'd I'd have my own
really, really, really jankynonprofessional version of that
at my own home. Like, I'mrecording from my home studio
currently, and, you know, I haveitems. Like, folks will send me
stuff, and it it it definitelyfeels precious.
You know, like, I I had, oneartist. He took my logo that you
(16:15):
can see in the background aswe're recording, and he turned
into a small diorama. And it'sand he he does this work that in
these small altoid tens, and herecreates things. And I'm like,
did you create, like, Operationin an Altoids tent? How did you
do that?
Or scenes pop culture scenes,and it's just really cool. And
I'm very selective of what Ikeep in this space because I
think there's a creative energythere to sound really hokey
(16:38):
about it. But to the point, noteverything goes in there for
something as small as my littlelittle place, but something that
has the backing of, like, thatsort of, like, you know, air,
and it's it's the US, you know,Library of Congress that I would
imagine any artist, anycreatives, like, there you go.
So it's on a resume. It's on anartist statement.
It's there.
Warren Bernard (16:57):
Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And and and
understandably, there have been,there there have been times,
like, for instance, with theRhizograph stuff.
And it's expensive to produce,and it's totally understood that
it's like, you know, I only made6 of these, and I really need to
make more money back. And so,you know, stuff like that comes
up, but that's totallyunderstandable. I you know, we
we we totally get that. Sosometimes there's some stuff
(17:20):
we're, like, very hands up, butbecause of, financial
circumstance, we totallyunderstand that it's not a
viable thing to occur. Althoughthat that diorama does sound
cool.
Rob Lee (17:30):
It's it's it's super cool. I'll I'll send you an
image of it a little later. Solet let's let's shift gears a
little bit into, you know, sortof the the impact right around
the, Small Press Expo, like, youknow, within the the Indies
comp, the indie comic community.Like, we're we're touching on a
bit there as far as therelationship with the Library of
Congress. But like sort of whathas been like, you know, some of
(17:52):
that additional impact inconversations or just what ways
do, like, people look at, like,SPX.
Like and again, you know, I wasthere, like, last year, and it
was funny. Like, I ran intoKeith Knight. I ran into James
Spooner, and I was able to getsome interviews out of that and
connect. And it was, like,really great. And I was like,
I'm coming back every year.
(18:13):
You know, it was a little it wasfor me, but, you know, I'm I'm I
was very new to it. So as faras, you know, being in the the
role that you're in, what hasbeen that that sort of impact?
Warren Bernard (18:23):
Well, first, Keith and I are old friends, and
he's staying at my house thisyear for SPX.
Rob Lee (18:30):
That's great. Doctor doctor Keith Knight has reminded
me.
Warren Bernard (18:33):
Right. Right. Yeah. Right. Doctor Keith
Knight.
No. Although there were those ofus that that we just roll our
eyes at that, attemptedpretension. Especially at some
somebody who's, like, addictedto lobster rolls. Okay? How
pretentious can you be?
So so there there are actually,2 things that when you when you
(18:53):
look at the scale and scope, Oneof them is is SPX's influence as
just having an SPX. People camefrom New York and Toronto and
London, and they saw SPX, andthey said, we need one of these
for our city. And so there's noto me, there there's whether
(19:14):
it's in art or comics or evenfestivals, there is no greater
compliment than to be aninfluence. Mhmm. Yep.
And so we were a deep influencethat way. The other thing that
that is a big impact is theIgnatz Awards. When when people
write up their little resumesfor either their books or on
(19:36):
their website and stuff stufflike that, they always talk
about the Eisner Awards and theIgnatz Awards. And the Ignatz
Awards have proven to be a aboth a a stepping stone and a
prestige item within the indiecomics and publishing industry.
Because so, you know, you seepeople kinda come through SPX,
(19:57):
get discovered, and all of asudden they're at First Second
or Random House or Abrams orwherever it may be.
Raina Telgemeier is a classicexample. She came to SPX and
sold her mini comics for, like,50¢ or a dollar. You know? And
this is the same person who hashad, you know, New York Times
bestsellers. So so so that nowanother area in which SPX is
(20:23):
interesting, and I can't speakfor the other shows, but at
least before the pandemic, Ican't speak because I haven't
run to anybody since then.
We would get people from theanimation studios from the West
Coast come to SPX looking fortalent. Mhmm. And there are, by
my count, at least was probably15 to 20 people who used to
(20:43):
exhibit at SPX that are now outon the out on the West Coast,
either doing development dealsor working as animators or
working as production designersor working something like that.
So SPX was the stepping stone inthat direction. Another place is
commercial illustration and theNew Yorker.
People like do you know LonnieMilsap? Yes. Okay. So Lonnie,
(21:07):
you know, have been coming toSPX, and he's he's a great
talent. I love him, and he's abig basketball fan on top of
that.
And so, you know, he's he's goneto the New Yorker and a and a
number of other people. We'vehad New Yorker cartoonists come
down and be special guests atSPX. So that that's another
world in which there's a certainamount of discovery that that
(21:28):
occurs. So the those are thethose are the big areas where
SPX itself has been aninfluence, and then you tack on
the Ignatz Awards, then you tackon different creative
communities coming into SPXlooking for talent. Yeah.
Rob Lee (21:45):
I can even, like, speak to you know, going going there
last year, I was able to getmaybe 3 interviews out of folks
that I've talked about. I boughta bunch of, like, books and
stuff when I was there, and Iwas like, hell, yeah. This
works. And, you know, I gotconnected to you know, I did the
interview with Keith, and then Igot connected from Keith to Liza
Donnelly, who connected me to aninterview I did in New Orleans
(22:07):
with and I was just like, thisis, you know, 6 degrees of
separation. And it's it's reallycool, and it almost takes a bit
of the sort of vetting work outof me.
It's like, oh, I did this coolinterview with this person.
They're saying this person mightbe a great person. Let's check
it out. And it's it just reallyworks. It really works that way,
and I can root it back to thesmall press expos, a part of
(22:29):
that whole equation andtrajectory.
Warren Bernard (22:31):
Yeah. And, once you know one person and and they
like you, then then they'll thenthey'll do that. As you can
tell, there's this big networkout there. As a matter of fact,
Liza was one of the people Ivisited on that road trip I I
referenced earlier. Her and herhusband, Michael, they've got a
fabulous collection of worksjust from New Yorker
cartoonists.
(22:52):
It was a real treat going upthere. But but yeah. You know,
once you get in, the thecommunity is is very nice and
very tight, and you can getthere are less than 6 degrees
separation, especially if yousend me a note, I can make it 2
degrees of separation for a lotof cases.
Rob Lee (23:10):
Well, a note will be coming your way. If I'm being
honest, so I wanna talk about,about your background. I mean,
like, you know, I was seeing afew different things. You know?
You know, Eisner Award nominatedcomic author, historian,
curator.
There's a lot of, you know,interesting things about you.
It's is in addition to your youryour your data background, your
(23:32):
IT background, which I didn'tsee on it at all, so that's even
greater. So what what sparkedthat initial, like, interest in
comics for you? And, could youtell us a bit about your sort of
journey in comics?
Warren Bernard (23:46):
Well, when when I was a real young, you know, 3,
4, 5 years old, my parents wouldget me the Dell Comics. But what
truly triggered it is when I gotmy tonsils out, my parents gave
me my first Superman comic. Andthat was that led me down the
road to perdition. It it it thatthat that's the one that hooked
(24:08):
me. And, so starting is, youknow, there there was, in,
junior high school, there wasone guy there that was selling
me his adventure comics.
So I got into LegionSuperheroes, and I would go up
to the newsstand with anotherbuddy of mine, and we and he
turned me on to I didn't knowabout Marvel Comics until I was,
(24:28):
14 because my neighborhood inNew York didn't carry any of
them. It was all DC stuff. Andso I had a horizon expansion
with my buddy, John. He had, atthe time, a near complete set of
of marvels. And, so I I readeverything, and I became a huge
Fantastic Four fan.
So I put together my owncollection, which regretfully, I
(24:51):
had to sell, in college. Andalso by the time I got into
college and through college, thesuperhero stuff had kinda lost
its appeal to me. Mhmm. And so Igot into the underground stuff.
I still have all my undergroundcomics.
I got into indie comics, whichwas a little later in in the
seventies. But then, you know, II wasn't really the collector I
(25:16):
wound up to be until untillater. Because when I got into
the into the corporate world, mysister said it best. She said I
disappeared for about a decade.And so I I and I only went to
you know, from most probably inthe last 2 decades in 20th
century, I must probably onlywent to maybe 3 shows.
Mhmm. Okay. But I I started upagain, to put the collection
(25:41):
together I have now. I startedfocusing on books. I started
collecting books, cartooningbooks, the same way an
antiquarian book collector wouldcollect books.
So I grew up to signed editions,1st editions, editions, and dust
wrappers and stuff like that. SoI've got a, you know, a really
good collection of that stuff.And I've got the undergrounds.
(26:01):
And then at SPX, that was ahorizon expansion. And I started
collecting a lot.
In fact, I've got one of thethings I do collect. I collect
some mini comics. People havemuch better collections than me,
but what I collect is is Icollect comics on tabloid
newsprint. Mhmm. Okay?
So so you've got things likelike here. Well, you you've got
(26:22):
a a a secret prison. You've gota whole bunch of things that
have been done in the DC areaover the years. So, I've got a
large collection of thatmaterial. I've got, you know,
lots of first editions, lots ofstuff signed to me as part of
SPX.
Another thing that expanded myhorizon, I went into a
(26:44):
bookstore. I was I was just outof college at the at that point.
And I've just, you know, usedbookstores were a totally
different thing back than thanthan what they are now. You
can't even find them now. Right.
Back then, it was a joy to goin. And when you went to the
comic or humor section, you hadno idea what you were gonna see,
which made that explorationreally interesting. And I pulled
(27:05):
down a a book with the 3rd NewYorker album, 1930. And I loved
it. And I I went out off off inthat direction, and then there
was other stuff that you wouldrun across going to the used
bookstores that if you didn't goin there, you wouldn't have
found because the mainstreamstores didn't have that kind of
stuff.
(27:25):
Yeah. So, so there there's likea an aggregation. And then there
were some people that I thoughtwere historically interested. So
I've got, pretty decent holdingsof stuff by Windsor McKay and
Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzmanand do you know Esims Campbell?
(27:46):
No.
Elmersible. Well, you know aboutMatt Baker? The, so he was the
first, attributed to be the 1stblack successful black
cartoonist, comic book creatorin the 19 forties.
Rob Lee (27:59):
Yeah.
Warren Bernard (28:00):
A decade before Matt Baker even came along, E
Sims Campbell was the firstblack, cartoonist slash
illustrator to be successful.And he had he was doing cartoons
for the humor magazines of theday. He had commercial accounts.
He was very successful in whathe was doing. And while he was
(28:20):
doing this and he had asyndicated strip that went
through, King Features'syndicate.
And while he was doing this, hewas also doing cartoon strips
for the black newspapers in NewYork.
Rob Lee (28:32):
Wonderful.
Warren Bernard (28:33):
And so I've I've got a a bunch of his stuff. I've
got I I think all of the covershe did for the old Life and
Judge Magazines and and otherstuff. I've got 2 books signed
by him. So it's so there arepeople like that that I kind of
went after that I felt werehistorically important. So I've
got that aspect.
So I look at it also as ahistorian.
Rob Lee (28:54):
Yeah. That's that's that's great. I mean and and
when I when I get into, like,sort of expo convention season
and, you know, when I when I go,I think this will be the 3rd
convention slash expo that I'vegone to this year, and I'm kinda
looking forward to this.Alright. Who's who's about to
pop?
Who can I actually have thisconversation with, and who am I
(29:16):
gonna buy something from? Andbecause it's again, it's it's
gonna be something that I'mgonna try to get signed, and I
want to protect it. It's notlike I'm gonna read this, like,
in in that moment, or I'm gonnaget a secondary copy because I
want the side one to be, youknow, crisping away. But,
definitely having some of thosethings that that re sparked that
(29:38):
interest. You know, the otherday, it's not necessarily
related, but the other day, canI could tell that with all of
the things that I'm doing andthe sort of minimal, like,
downtime that I have, I was ableto log into, you know, the
library website, you know, thethe the central library here,
And I was like, webcomics, whereare they?
(29:58):
And I started, like, reading,you know, maybe, like, Spider
Punk. And I was like, I'm usingmy downtime to explore this
comic. And now when I gosomewhere, I have a trade. I
have a trade paperback in my,backpack with my recording gear.
So it's like, yeah.
I'm getting to this time. I'm inmy pop culture scene. I'm in my,
this season, and I'm justramping up for just being around
(30:21):
and being in conversations withfolks like you and folks that
are are artists and folks thatare writers and and folks that
are, like, champions of, comicsand that that form.
Warren Bernard (30:31):
And and by the way, you're what you just said
reminded me, there's one otherthing we do with the Library of
Congress I totally forgot tomention. We actually archive
webcomic sites.
Rob Lee (30:40):
Wow. So Yeah.
Warren Bernard (30:42):
So, in fact, this guy, James Kuchulka, his
diary comics, the entire run ofhis diary comics was on a server
that was about to bedecommissioned. And he sent me a
note. Warren, can you help?Yeah. And we got the Library of
Congress, and so there's now acopy of that, the all of his
stuff down at the Library ofCongress.
(31:03):
And we've done that. Like, theNIB is being backed up. The SPX
website is being backed up. Sothere's so there's this, there's
a digital piece to what we'redoing there, because the these
webcomics, you know, theythey're there for now, but you
have no idea how long they'regonna be there. Right.
So so we do it for that stuffalso.
Rob Lee (31:25):
Yeah. I have a, I have a few installments of, the NIB
in the in the studio that wasgiven to me as a gift. And when
I saw because it was on theradar. I wanted to have this
sort of arc of who can I speakwith in these different sort of
places because I wanted to,like, I try to stack, you know,
like, alright, we got some comicwriters? We have these different
publishers and so on.
And I was like I was like, TheNiv. I was like, I like I like
(31:48):
their style, like what they do,and then I was just like, okay,
it's wrapping up. I was like,you know, but, Well
Warren Bernard (31:53):
well, you should I I would recommend like, Matt
Bors is coming to SPX.
Rob Lee (31:58):
Okay.
Warren Bernard (31:58):
Okay? And so I I would recommend talking to him
because, I've I've known Mattsince my god. I I got his first
mini comic. He was like I thinkhe was 21 or something like
that. So not for a very longtime.
So I've I've been talking withhim through his entire journey
with the NIV and the differentiterations it's gone through.
(32:18):
And, he would be able to giveyou a good feel as to what it's
like to run a site like that inthis kind of a of a, media, you
know, media milieu.
Rob Lee (32:29):
Got it. That that that's I'm I'm I'll put that
note. That's that's great. So Isee. I got I got 3 more sort of
like real questions.
And then I had like the rapidfire questions.
Warren Bernard (32:40):
Okay. All right.
Rob Lee (32:41):
How's for you? So, you know, is is there a a pivotal
moment or experience that, youknow, comes to mind when you
think of your your journey. Imean, I see, you know, the
Eisner Award nomination. I see,as you you touched on earlier,
you know, the historiancomponent. It's it's it's great.
There's a lot that's that's inthere too. You know, like, I've
(33:02):
been if I'm if I'm answeringthis question in in the scope of
what I do, yeah, I've beenpodcasting for close to 15
years, and I I can't think of 1.I just think All Over McCool,
which sounds so hokey, but alsoI feel that too because it's a
new opportunity. But what whatwhat comes to mind for you as a
pivotal moment during thisjourney for you?
Warren Bernard (33:22):
Well, there there are 3 of them. Okay? So
one of them was, of course,being nominated for an for an
Eisner award. I was like, you'vegotta be kidding me. You're
making this up.
Okay? So, anyone who doesn't saythat, I don't care if I win or
not. Most people, they'll getnominated. Alright? So it it it
wasn't a problem if I didn'twin.
It was like, I got thenomination. That's fine. I'm
(33:45):
happy. So that was one of them.The second one was, the second
well, the first two shows that Iran at SPX were special in its
both ways.
The first one was is is we had,Antel Nes and Roz Chast and
Diane Newman lead a panel, leada slate of mainly women creators
(34:10):
coming to SPX that we had thisemphasis just on the women,
which up to that point, no showhad ever done. Yeah. But then
the following year, I was ableto get, Dan Clowes, Chris Ware,
and the Hernandez brothers toall come to the same show. And
that to me was like an absolutemind boggler. There was a third
one.
When when we did the, when wedid the Fantagraphics 40th
(34:34):
anniversary show, we had I mean,it was unbelievable. We had a
brunch on that Sunday, andthere's a photograph of, like, 2
dozen of the top Fantagraphicscreators all in one photograph.
Ed Pisker was there, SimonHanselman, Charles Burns, the
Hernandez brothers. I mean, itwas unbelievable who was in that
(34:54):
room. It was absolutely mindboggling.
But the the other one that blewme away was probably be even
more so than those is, being onCartoonist Katebabe. Okay? The
Ed Pisker, Jim Rugg channel. Youknow, I I did a in fact, that
was the first purse I would itwas an honor for me. I was the
(35:17):
first person they theyinterviewed when they started up
the channel.
Yeah. And I went up toPittsburgh and, you know, I
thought I was gonna sit downwith the 2 of them. They go, no.
No, Warren. You sit over there.
And it was like I was beinggrilled like I was I was in some
kind of job interview. Okay?They started throwing questions
at. And and and that one is isstill up. And and, so every time
(35:37):
I come into Pittsburgh, I woulddo a couple.
And what happened was itthoroughly shocked the hell out
of me. K? That the commentsection was like, oh, yeah.
Yeah. Warren's you know, wewanna see more Warren, stuff
like that.
And the ultimate compliment wasafter SPX in 2019, Jim and Ed
came to my house to do a videotour of my collection. Wow. A a
(36:02):
very a very brief one, which bythe way, you are hereby invited
to come over to my house for atour of the collection.
Rob Lee (36:08):
K? Wonderful. Thank you.
Warren Bernard (36:10):
And so we we did this video and we you know, I
would, like, break somethingout, speak about it for 2
seconds, and move on to the nextthing. And for the first, like,
year or 2, it's 3, 4, 5000views. It's now up, like, 25,000
views. And last year at SPX, Ihad 2 people come up to me and
say, Warren, I love the workthat you're doing it on
cartoonist kayfabe. 1 guy wantedme to sign his program.
(36:32):
I'm like, no. I'm just someschlump. Okay? I I got you know,
I'm just some guy. I, you know,I I don't have no.
No. No. Why? I really want it.So, you know, I I signed it.
Okay? So, you know, I go up onceor twice a year to Pittsburgh,
and I I have the honor ofsitting with, Jim and Ed. I've
done about 30 videos with themon all kinds of different
topics, everything from we didMaster Race, and they and I was
(36:56):
very happy. They allowed me thethe privilege of talking about
my favorite superhero comic ofall time, Fantastic 4 48250, The
Coming of Galactus and theSilver Surfer, which to me okay,
try and beat that. I don't care.
You're not gonna do it. You'renot gonna convince me. Alright?
So so there's there's been thiswide range of stuff that we've
(37:19):
talked about in terms of comics.We did we've done Concrete.
We've done Little Nemo. We'vedone Will Eisner. We've done a
little bit of Chris Ware. Youknow, there's all kinds, like I
said, 30 different videos we'vedone. And and that that to me is
a is a surprise, an honor, and ashock.
Rob Lee (37:38):
So so great. I am I'm I'm marking out a little bit.
Yeah. It's like, I know I knowthese people. I know these
names.
I have I have stuff. This isgreat. So, actually, I think
that, you know, and and you mademy job a little easier in sort
of that, response. One of mysecondary questions has been
answered, so that's great. Sonow I'm down to sort of my last
(37:58):
question, and I I think I have asense on it.
But at least, you know, I wannakinda, you know, use this to
close out the sort of, you know,real part of the, of the of the
interview, before we get to therapid fire part, which is what
I've been told is the b s partof the interview. But for for
folks, you know, coming out,what can he what can he look
(38:19):
forward to? I mean, I'm on amailing list. I get the emails
for you from you. But what canfolks look forward to to, this
year's, XPX?
Warren Bernard (38:26):
Well, we we've got a a great slate. Mara Naomi
is coming, and BillGriffithsippi, the pinhead. His
Ernie Bushmiller graphic novelbiography is coming in about 3
weeks before the show. So it'llbe one of the first show is it
not the first show to go aheadand have it debut at at SPX.
We've already I can't get intothe programming panels because
(38:47):
even I don't know what they areyet.
They no. You know, it's liketypical management. It's like,
well, you're in charge, but youdon't really know what the hell
is going on down there. Okay? Sowe we've got I think it's 22
programming panels and I think11, 12, and 14 workshops, and
we'll be announcing thosesometime next month.
So that that's all done. TheIgnatz Awards are gonna be on
(39:11):
the Saturday night of SPX, andwe've, the nominations are
percolating now out of thejudging team. You know, it's
gonna be our normal there's waitwell, how about this? So I I did
it back of the envelopecalculation. If you spent 3
minutes at every table at SPX,you would not be able to watch
(39:31):
any programming, go to thebathroom, or eat for the 14
hours that we're open.
Rob Lee (39:37):
Oh, packed.
Warren Bernard (39:38):
So so there's a lot to do. So just getting
through the floor is is a lot.You know, you know, once again,
you know, we're gonna have,Phantom Graphics is going back
and Top Shelf and No Brow andSelf Made Hero, Silver Sprocket.
So so the big indie publishersare gonna be are gonna be with
us once again. And they alwaysbring additional just so
(40:00):
everybody knows, there are otherguests that come to sign at
those tables that aren't SPXspecial guests.
So there's and I have no ideawho those people are because
they you know, I always getsomething from, you know, top
shelf or Fanta, whoever it is.Like, last year, I had no idea
that Jeffrey Brown had come toSPXB at at top shelf's table.
(40:22):
I'm like, why didn't you tellyou know, I was like I was like,
Jeff, I had no you know, I Ispoke to Chris Stone. I was
like, Chris, you're supposed totell me when someone of that
stature comes. So there's acertain amount of surprise that
even I I have no idea what'sgonna happen.
Okay? So that that kind ofencapsulates what's, you know,
what's going on for this year'sshow.
Rob Lee (40:42):
I'm I'm so looking forward to it, and I I think I
wanna switch up because lastyear was, like, the first, and I
was like, I don't know how tonavigate this. I'm just trying
to, like, fill it out. But, youknow, at a point like, you you
touched on, like, people aresuper welcoming. It's it's a dep
different sort of setup thanI've been at before. It's like,
hey, you know, I can chat withfolks and it doesn't feel like
(41:03):
I'm interrupting them fromsomething else.
It's like, no, no, no. Hey.Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know,
it's really cool.
So I think what I'm gonna end updoing this year is kinda like
maybe do the the overnightthing. I was there for a couple
hours, last year and moving tosort of my next stop, but this
is gonna be more of a, you know,concerted effort to really get
depth this year.
Warren Bernard (41:23):
And and, you know, it's one of those things
that, one of the big differencesbetween our show and the
mainstream, superhero comicshows is that when you ask for
an autograph or ask forsomething to get signed in a
book, they're not gonna they'renot gonna charge any money.
Mhmm. Okay? And this goes to theto the very top people. And so
(41:46):
that that that's that's and andas you say, the vibe is
different.
You know, as you see, there areno cosplayers. They're you know,
everyone is just kinda hangingand milling around and everyone
everyone is approachable. Yeah.So it it it is a totally
different vibe.
Rob Lee (42:02):
That's what that's what I dig about it, and I am super
excited. And, you know, like,it's it's always even outside of
doing this this this podcastaround it, when there's things
that I like, I am an evangelistfor it. I did never stop talking
about it. It's like, fuck. Pullup, guys.
Bethesda, here we come.
Warren Bernard (42:19):
Well well, thank you. Well, how about this? I'm
so glad you came in. I'm so gladyou liked it.
Rob Lee (42:25):
Loved it. So this is the part of the podcast now that
I want to get you with theserapid fire questions. You know,
you you were talking earlier,feeling like you're in the
interview setup. This is gonnabe more of a goofy version of
it, but Okay.
Warren Bernard (42:38):
But I
Rob Lee (42:38):
think I think you'll dig it. And but as I tell
everyone, don't overthink it.Whatever your answer is, is your
answer. So I have 6 of thembecause I've, I've been typing
while we've been talking. So, itwas 3 initially, and now it's 6.
So I told you something.Alright. Here's the first one.
If you could hang out with anyfictional character, who would
it be?
Warren Bernard (42:59):
Any fictional character, who would it be? I'll
be honest with you. I'll saySuperman.
Rob Lee (43:05):
K. What this is this is funny. What's something that's
pretty ordinary that you're verysnobbish or particular about?
Warren Bernard (43:15):
Crab cakes.
Rob Lee (43:16):
You get it. So you get it right right there. That that
might be the end of the podcastright there. You you get as a
proud Baltimorean, you know.What is your favorite color?
Blue. Yeah. Go to comfort food.A second food question of this
group.
Warren Bernard (43:33):
Go to comfort food. Well, I, pad thai is one
of my comfort foods. I like agood burger is a comfort food.
Pizza is a comfort food.
Rob Lee (43:45):
I like it. I mean, I hear the I hear the northeast
accent, so I'm like, yeah, youknow pizza.
Warren Bernard (43:50):
I I was born and raised in New York City. You can
take the boy out of the city,but you can't do the opposite.
So
Rob Lee (43:56):
Do you have a favorite movie? And I know the favorites
are always when people getcaught, like, depends on the
year or
Warren Bernard (44:03):
what have you. Oh, jeez. Well, blade the first
blade the Blade Runner would beone of them. Good one.
Godfather, parts 12.
When I was a little oh, I'msorry. Well, one of the ones I
(44:25):
have to admit from this is whenI was a little kid, the original
Planet of the Apes with CharltonHeston.
Rob Lee (44:30):
Nice. Uh-huh. This is the last one I got for you. I
asked someone this yesterday,and I thought it was really
funny because I like to trollbaristas sometimes. I'm like,
Yeah, can you put enough creamin there that makes it look like
my skin color versus and theylook at me.
It's usually I like the troll. Ilike the troll. What is your go
to coffee award? Are you acoffee person? What's your go to
(44:50):
coffee?
Warren Bernard (44:50):
No. I don't drink coffee or tea. Oh, really?
No. I I don't drink coffee ortea or alcohol.
It does not mean that I don'thave other vices that check out.
Well, no. It's legal in thestate of Maryland now. So, yes,
I I do have I do have one vice.
Rob Lee (45:07):
I love it. It is it is legal. Well, that's actually,
it. You're you're off the thehot seat of the the rapid fire
questions. Yeah, you made it.
You made it. We we survived. SoI want to, 1, thank you for for
coming on to this podcast andspending some time with me. We
we made it. We made it happen.
(45:28):
And, despite trains notcooperating and all of the
things, and and 2, I wannainvite and encourage you to,
share with the listeners wherethey can check out, you know,
SPX. Any anything that you wannashare in these final moments as
we close out of this podcast?
Warren Bernard (45:43):
Yeah. All the information is up on our
website, www.smallpressexpo.Com. So go out there. Everything
is there.
It's all on the front page. Ittells you all of the you know,
you click on the box, but here'sthe special guest box. And and
but a lot of it is gonna beannounced in about 2 to 3 weeks.
So more details are gonna comeout. By the middle of August,
(46:04):
there's gonna be a lot ofinformation on the show.
Rob Lee (46:06):
And there you have it, folks. I wanna again thank
Warren Barnard from the SmallPress Expo for coming on and
sharing a bit of his journeywith us on this podcast. And I'm
Rob Lee saying that there's art,culture, and community in and
around your neck of the woods.You've just got to look for it.
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