Next Summer: The New South Festival in All Its Glory

Who did it, huh?

Who drew that picture over there, that picture of the Seventies' most BAMF, the man they call Afrodisiac?

It was Jim Rugg, of course: The artist who created the character. The artist who, among much other excellent work, also created the preteen skateboarding bundle of fire & social vengeance known as Street Angel.

And what does that, if anything, have to do with the likes of Austin, Texas?

This: Jim Rugg is the guest of honor at next year's inaugural New South Festival of Literary Arts and Cartooning, coming in June to our beloved French Legation Museum and the stomping grounds thereupon.

["But, Brenner," I hear you objecting. "Isn't there already a sort of local kind of comics convention each year? I mean, uh … that annual Staple! thing, right?"

No, reader, I reply, because there's a difference.

Because you know how the ginormous Comic Con – or Wizard World – or whatever the fuck it's called – is mostly about the movies and the TV shows and today's p-list celebrities hawking autographs and cheesy photo ops? And how Staple! isn't like that, because it's more about the actual comics and DIY media?

Well, exactly: Staple! is like where the world of superhero comics bleeds into the indie toy & gaming subcultures.

But the New South Festival of Literary Arts and Cartooning?

The New South Festival of Literary Arts and Cartooning, on the other hand, is more of where the world of non-superhero'd alternative comics bleeds into the literary and fine art scenes.

SURELY YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYIN' HERE, RIGHT?]

And, yeah, so this New South Festival boasts the abovementioned Rugg as its guest of honor. Because the NSFoLAaC's head honcho Danithan Mejia knows what's up with indie goodness. (Which is also why Rugg was so heavily involved in the first issue of Mejia's excellent Foxing Quarterly journal.) Which is also why the poster for the event was created by Box Brown. Which is also why the teams behind literary powerhouses A Strange Object and Write Bloody and The Austin Review are part of the whole deal.

COMICS! LITERATURE! THE LIMINAL ZONE IN WHICH THEY COALESCE!

No, I'm not saying that Daniel Clowes is going to be there. I'm not saying that Julie Doucet is going to be there. I'm not saying that Adrian Tomine or Los Bros or the Holy Toronto Trinity of Chester, Seth, and Joe are going to be there. I'm not laying any odds on the presence of Lisa Hanawalt or Michael DeForge or Dash Shaw or Lauren Weinstein or, uh, I don't know, Rebecca Dart? And I seriously doubt that Dan Nadel will sell his boots to fly down for the weekend.

But that's the kind of stuff we're talking about, dig?

We're talking about a festival – a curated festival – that includes a book fair of national (perhaps international) scope, with more than 100 exhibitors and cross-disciplinary panels, celebrating independent literature, alternative comics, small presses, and print culture.

You want more information, reader? You want to get in on the ground floor of this glorious thing and, in fact, help it toward fruition?

Suggestion: The initial Kickstarter campaign's about to end, so get on that right now.

Suggestion: Follow along on Facebook and see the progress being made, the fundraising parties being held, the inexorable march toward two mid-2015 days of So Much Of What's Good About Alternative Comics & Indie Lit In This Benighted World Of Ours.

Suggestion: It's gonna be one hell of a good time, tell you what.