Staple!: The Independent Media Expo Returns

Comics! Zines! Posters! Stickers! Sketchbooks! Any number of OC figurines lovingly sculpted by hand in, what, Fimo or something!

They and their talented creators are all part of the 15th annual Staple! Independent Media Expo taking over the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex in Austin this weekend.

That’s both days of this weekend, yes – Sat., Oct. 12, 11am-6pm and Sun., Oct. 13, noon-6pm – and you know that Uncle Staple (the event’s canny and grizzled founder, Chris Nicholas) has lined up a diverse slate of entertainment for you this year, right? So many celebrated guests – Christina ‘Steenz’ Stewart – Noah Van Sciver – Ngozi Ukazu – Lilah Sturges – Rosemary Valero-O’Connell – Evan Narcisse – Carey Pietsch – Carl Antonowicz – so many informative and educational panels and presentations, so many fellow comics-and-indie-media enthusiasts to meet in the exhibitors room and adjoining lounge amid a bright spectacle of pictures and words and fandoms.

(Note: We’re especially looking forward to The Future Without You: A Live Comics Performance on Saturday, and Sunday’s Latinx Comix Panel.)

“This year is promising to be our best year yet,” says that grinning Uncle Staple. Of course, he always says that – except for that one year when he didn’t think so, and the happy crowds proved him wrong anyway – but, hey, if he’s right, he’s right. And it certainly wouldn’t be wrong for you, citizen, to join the comics-appreciating, game-playing, trivia-loving, creatively-inclined crowd for a day (or two) of camaraderie and celebration.

We daresay, “Excelsior!”