This weekend, Bethesda welcomed the Small Press Expo to town. The event has developed into one of the biggest independent comic conventions there is, bringing comic artists and aficionados from all over the continent to the D.C. area. But despite its relatively high profile, it has a remarkably laid-back, D.I.Y. feel. Unlike the bigger, major comic cons, the level of full-scale geekery is scaled back at SPX: a minimum of costumes and dudes you suspect might still live in their parents' basements. Instead, there's just a huge group of friendly people with a shared interest in comic art. And that art comes in a lot of diverse forms here, so that within a few steps you can see slightly skewed super-hero fare, intensely personal and ornately drawn mini-comics, or even graphic novelizations of old Baby-sitter's Club books. You could make a weekend of just perusing all the work on display in the main hall, but SPX had a full schedule of panels, discussions, and workshops to go along with the exhibition. The highly sought-after Ignatz Award was given in ten categories to some of the best comics of the Expo, as rated by the visitors.

The registration table, which a volunteer told me was a mob scene earlier in the morning, where they had people lining up to get in long before the 11 a.m. start time. (Ian Buckwalter)

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