Ian Brill gives a nice overview of APE at Publishers Weekly. In it, he quotes SLG prez Dan Vado noting a change at the Alternative Press Expo, one which I noticed as well: The decline of the mini-comic.

While there were a few people self-publishing their comics, there were fewer of them than in the past, and there seemed to be an even marked decrease in the charming photocopied, hand-stapled mini-comic. Last year, I either bought or was generously given several mini-comics or self-published comics (you can read about that here). This year -- I bought two (one by Johnny Siu and another called "Fremont Girl") and was given none. (Boohoo!) The assumption is that the do-it-yourselfers have moved to the web.

The article also notes the Karl Christian Krumpholz talked about digital comics at his panel. Karl's comic Byron: Mad, Bad and Dangerous is being released at SLG's digital comics site Eyemelt.com. One advantage he noted was the ability to write a story unconstrained by specific page counts. The traditional pamphlet-format comic book is 24 or 32 pages long, with the length of the story or installment dictated by how many of the pages are devoted to ads. This makes for a unique form of storytelling, but it also can be constraining. At his panel, Karl mentioned that he has felt that he can tell his story more naturally without the constraints of specific page counts.

Oh, and I forgot to mention -- I was totally wrong about the costumes at APE! The silver androgynous android thing was no where to be seen. In its place were two people dressed as Green Lanterns. Far from being confused as to why they were dressed up like DC characters at an indie and alternative comics show, the man and woman walked about confidently in their skin-tight green spandex bodysuits, which were complete with Lantern Corps rings and air-brushed ass muscles.

-JdG