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This month, my column will feature a series of interviews with comic book artists and creators going to STAPLE! THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA EXPO (Saturday, March 3rd). Staple is an annual event in Austin Texas to promote independent creative media: comics, art, animation, and self-published literature.  In its third year, Staple is the must-attend convention for any self-respecting fan of indie comics.

Chris Nicholas is the founder and godfather of STAPLE! He’s the one behind it all. Chris is also a comic book creator himself with the fascinating mini-comic series “You Chose Right the First Time.”

How did the first STAPLE! come about? What led you to take initiative on this?

NICHOLAS: Back in the Fall of 2004 my friend Dave Lamplugh and I started self-publishing our own comic, You Chose Right The First Time. In the course of our efforts to sell and promote it we began meeting more and more folks from Austin and other cities in Texas who were doing basically the same thing, and who all had a similar complaint – that other than the local comic shops (and that one rather mainstream convention they have around Dallas) there was very little avenue to distribute this kind of stuff, unless of course you were willing and could afford to travel halfway across the U.S. to one of the indie shows like APE or MoCCA. A person would have to sell a lot of two-dollar mini-comics to make a trip like that anywhere close to economically feasible.

After not very long it became pretty clear that to me that we needed our own indie convention here at home, and that there was enough talent locally and regionally to put on a pretty good one. I started asking people, like those I’d met through the Austin Sketch Group, what they thought about the idea and got an enthusiastic response. Then, when the first 24Hr Comic Day happened, and Austin Books had the biggest turnout in the world, I became convinced that it was possible to do it here and started recruiting folks to help out. 

Traditionally, the east and west coasts are areas favorable to independent art and comics (APE, SPX, and MoCCA, etc). What does Austin offer that makes it ideal for this event?

NICHOLAS: Austin is a town that’s very supportive of the arts in general. The music scene here is legendary, but there are also tons of galleries, growing film and game industries, several comics shops and basically lots and lots of creative people. The people are friendly, the weather’s usually nice and it’s just a fun town, either to visit or to live in, and, probably most importantly, Austin has the finest BBQ to be found anywhere on the planet.

What are you most excited about for this year?

NICHOLAS: Well, for one thing, with over sixty exhibitors this year it will be the biggest show we’ve had so far. With that much creative energy in one place who knows what will happen. Also very excited about our featured guests, American Splendor artist Dean Haspiel and horror author Brian Keene. Dean’s going to do a Q&A panel moderated by your friend and mine, Scott Hinze, and Brian will read from one of his spooky novels.

A first for STAPLE! this year will be the Independent Animation Panel, featuring some local folks presenting their short animated films and discussing what all goes into making and marketing those kind of projects. Really looking forward to that.

The 7th and final issue of your comic book series YOU CHOSE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME will be available at STAPLE! Anything you can tell us about the conclusion?

NICHOLAS: Well, there’s gonna be a few more bodies, some insanity, and lots of cracking wise. I can unreservedly and very highly recommend it.

What do you see for Staple in the next few years?

NICHOLAS: Good question. I like to see it continue to grow, manageably, attract an even bigger crowd and hopefully inspire some folks to go ahead and make that comic or zine they’ve been thinking about doing. We of course intend to keep bringing in cool and interesting guests and putting on an entertaining program. We seem to have hit on a winning formula here that is basically “people + comics = fun”, and if we stick to that I think we’ll be just fine.

Check out the STAPLE! website for more details.

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