Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, part 1

After a good breakfast at the Embassy Suites hotel, I got my things together and headed out to the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. Buffalo does impress me. This city has a definitely different feel to it than New York City. In a way, it reminds me of Pittsburgh, the site of Anthrocon. After all, both are rather industrial cities in the Rust Belt.

Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

After walking various streets, admiring the beautiful architecture and whatnot, I arrived at the site of the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair. The event was quiet at first but within an hour, was hopping with activity.

Buffalo Small Press Book Fair crowd 1

As other such events I’ve attended (like the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest and the MOCCA Fest), there were many here selling their items. While many vendors were here selling their own small press books and/or used books, there were a few people selling comics and zines. More were selling all kinds of handicrafts too. One of the tables I purchased from was Green Girl Press, which was selling all these specialized cards made via letterpress (more on that in a bit).

Other notable crafters were the aptly named Crude Crafts, the incredible Hodgins Engraving Company of Batavia, New York, and Cuneiform Press, a company doing all sorts of things from typography to letterpress to artists’ books.

Letterpress machine

Letterpress is a type of relief printing using text and image on a specialized machine. It was used for many years but eventually fell out of favor due to the rise of computers and digital technology. It is still used with small press literature and independent artists nowadays. It is neat to see handicrafts and letterpress being used in this age of computers and mass production. I did feel somewhat of a kinship with these people, since my own small press comics are quite different from standard mainstream superhero material. By the way, do you want to know how a letterpress machine works? Check out this video I took!

Much more happened…but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I’ll have more then on the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair.

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About Max West

I am a freelance artist and the creator of Sunnyville Stories, an independent slice-of-life comics series.
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2 Responses to Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, part 1

  1. Pingback: Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, part 2 | Sunnyville Stories

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