Highlights of Expozine 2014

This past weekend was the 12th annual Expozine, a free event dedicated to small press. Featuring over 300 artists working in print, art and even film, the festival is a must for fans of emerging artists and alternative publishing. With each passing year Expozine seems to grow and grow, fuelled by the unending enthusiasm of both artists and patrons. Just a couple of hours after opening its doors to the public, personal space becomes limited with the room vibrating with laughter, curiosity and new discoveries. With such a wide range of styles and mediums, it’s difficult not to stumble upon something that will grab your attention and with many of the works available exclusively at expozine, it’s worth the time to pause and absorb as much as possible.

Always one of the highlights of expozine is local legend, Rick Trembles (who also designed a previous edition of the CJLO print magazine). A fixture in Montreal’s comic scene, Trembles emerged into the public consciousness through his incredible illustrated film reviews he used to do for the now defunct Montreal Mirror. The grand majority of them were assembled in a book, ‘The Motion Picture Purgatory’, which he was selling along with an updated zine addition featuring brand new reviews. If you are unfamiliar with Rick Trembles work, his drawing style is akin to Winsor McCay ('Little Nemo in Slumberland' and 'Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend') on a bad trip. Like McCay he excels at allowing the layout of the page tell a story as important as individual frames. The big picture has its own sense of rhythm and visual cohesiveness that serves to create a third meaning. In contrast to McCay though, Trembles work is infused with a punk energy; pulsing members, decapitation, and with his own comic-alterego he is unafraid to break the fourth wall.

Rick Trembles was accompanied by his father, Jack Tremblay, who was a successful comics artist during World War Two for Wow Comics and Commando Comics. Earlier this year, he was the recipient of the Doug Wright Canadian Cartoonists’ Lifetime Achievement Award at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. For Expozine, Tremblay presented his first comic since World War Two, entitled ‘ESTHETIC COMICS: IN OUR BACKYARD’ a surreal and abstract journey into the subconscious. The comic does not adopt any kind of linear notions of narrative, instead focusing on creating a nightmarish dreamscape of fantasy, memory and desire. The illustrations seem half-formed and the dialogue elusive, cryptic - they evoke the attempting to piece together a half-forgotten dream.

Another highlight of this year’s expozine was the work of Hazel Newlevant. Newlevant is originally from Portland and is now working out of Queens, NY. She was offering $5 portraits to anyone who was interested and I can’t resist such a proposition. While she was quickly sketching me, I took the time to have a look at her selection of comics and comic diaries. One in particular caught my eye, a watercolor comic called ‘If this Be Sin’. Newlevant was the recipient of the Prism Comics ‘Queer Press Grant’ in 2013 which allowed her to produce this comic about queer female musicians. Featuring 3 different stories about queer women and music, the book blends fiction with biography. Her style is soft and introspective, and even in the more historically biographical pieces such as the title story about Gladys Bentley adopt an air of phantasmagoria. Newlevant has an effortless style that feels accessible without being simplistic, her stories resonate and it’s difficult not to fall in love with her artwork.

That is just a small cross section of the wide variety of artists and works present at Expozine. A Full list of the 2014 participants is available to browse through on the website. This is a wonderful opportunity to have a look at some of the work you may have missed, or else give you something to look forward to for next year.