Staple was a great show. It was my first real time out to Austin. I hung out a lot with David Malki and Danielle Corsetto, two of my favorite cartoonists. Now, Austin has this thing called “Keep Austin Weird,” which translates to “We want to be what we think Los Angeles is.” Most of the time that was pretty cool. It just doesn’t work when your server at a restaurant thinks he needs to amp up his “Can I get you anything else?” rounds with reams of bad schtick. I don’t know if he thought we were Hollywood producers or what. The sad part is I think we could have been small dogs and he would have tried as hard.
I met a lot of awesome readers too! Here are some pictures from the con.
I want to do a LOT more cons in the Texas area, so if you know of any, or you’re connected somehow, let’s get in touch!
“Keep Austin Weird” is about not letting national chains overrun local institutions. Believe me, Austinites dislike twitly waiters as much as anyone else.
I’d planned to buy a copy of the webcomics book at Staple! but I didn’t see any on your table..?
Hey Kris,
Thanks again for coming out. Glad you enjoyed the show.
Don’t blame us for the “Keep Austin Weird” thing - that was a marketing plot invented by someone who moved here from California.
Uncle Staple
How ’bout “Texas is weird enough, thank you”, as a new slogan.
You guys need to do one (or all!) of the Cons in the UK at some point. I’m doing the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing in London in a couple of weeks (it’s really just a flimsy excuse to go back to England and visit my family) but I know there are bigger Cons in places like Edinburgh and elsewhere in London. You guys should definitely do some research and make an appearance - I know firsthand that there is a small army of Starslip and PvP fans out there who would love to see you guys there.
The “Keep Austin Weird” thing actually originated with a attempt to protect local business from the big corporations. Unfortunately they neglected to copyright the slogan and so a T-shirt company laid claim to it. I can neither confirm or deny that they were from California.
Just remember that Austinites would never mimic Los Angeles or any other city, were far to pretentious for that. ;p
The “Keep Austin Weird” thing actually originated with a attempt to protect local business from the big corporations. Unfortunately they neglected to copyright the slogan and so a T-shirt company laid claim to it. I can neither confirm or deny that they were from California.
Just remember that Austinites would never mimic Los Angeles or any other city, were far to pretentious for that. ;p
Also the the waiter thing is strange, thats not really that common around here.
Out of curiosity, what do you mean by “bad schtick?” What kind of annoying things did the waiter say?
I was there! (at staple! I’m the guy that asked about movies and music) so I know you’re talking about Kerbey Lane. It’s, err, always like that. I think they see themselves as late-night-campus-diner segment of the Keep Austin Weird movement vanguard. One time I got waited on by a guy with so many tattoo sleeves he was sweating.
I was there too! My friend gave you twizzlers. It was a creepy drive from Dallas to Austin. There was this strange mist while we were driving through what apparently was Hill County that reminded me of the Silent Hill movie…
spooky!
I can’t believe I bought other books from other people when all I really needed was An Indy Comic By Kris Straub By Kris Straub. There was much funny in those pages. Much funny indeed.