It may not seem obvious if you haven’t gone looking for it, but St. Louis has a thriving comics scene, with countless writers and artists crafting everything from genre fiction to give you thrills to experimental works to challenge your perceptions of the world around you. And once a year, the St. Louis Independent Comics Expo—SLICE, for short—gathers creators from around the Midwest and across the literary spectrum all in one place. This year’s SLICE takes place Saturday, October 26 at the Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries (3648 Washington Ave.) from 10:00am to 5:00pm. And believe it or not, admission is free.
“SLICE is St. Louis’s premier annual indie-print showcase,” says Kat Vendetti, SLICE’s Board Secretary and Volunteer Coordinator, “bringing together writers, artists, poets, and printmakers from St. Louis and beyond to showcase their self-published books, comics, zines, magazines, poetry, and more.”
The first official SLICE was held just last year, but its history goes back further: the convention was originally known as the St. Louis Small Press Expo (or STL SPEX), which launched in 2014 at Firecracker Press in St. Louis’ Old North neighborhood before moving to the Central Branch of the St. Louis Public Library up through 2019. “We have several new organizers who weren’t involved with STL SPEX, myself included,” says Vendetti. “Last year’s SLICE, I feel, was us seeing what we’re capable of executing—how many events we can run, how many exhibitors we can accommodate, etc. Now that we know what we can do, we know how much bigger and better we can go. This year’s SLICE will have around 120 exhibitors, 4 lectures, 3 workshops, 2 activities, and a food truck!” (The food truck, I am happy to report, is Kirkwood’s Blues Fired Pizza.)
Like other comic cons, SLICE expands outside of comics, but unlike the huge pop culture conventions, it doesn’t drag in actors from half-forgotten old movies and TV shows. As Vendetti mentions above, SLICE instead features many other printed artforms, including many like zines or poetry journals that are even harder to find in the wild than independent comic books. Why include these in the convention’s purview? “We wanted to keep the spirit of STL SPEX intact, which served to platform St. Louis’s small press creators,” says Vendetti. “Our focus is on fostering independent print culture in St. Louis, whether that’s comics, zines, printmaking, poetry, chapbooks—any and all paper arts. Last year we had Cassi Mothwin—an award-winning tabletop role-playing game designer, writer, and artist—as one of our special guests, and we’re excited that St. Louis got to learn more about her and her work. We have several exhibitors who are magazine publishers, photographers, poets, and printmakers, and we’re thrilled to share their work with the community.”
SLICE’s main event is the third floor exhibitor hall, which will be packed with tables of artists selling their comics, prints, zines, and other works (including, full disclosure, yours truly—come find me at Table 10 as part of the St. Louis-based comics collective Ink & Drink Comics!). But beyond that, space on the Sheldon’s first and second floors will be dedicated to workshops as well as spotlight panels featuring some of the convention’s special guests. When asked to pick some of the programming highlights, Vendetti couldn’t stop at just a few. “We have such an exciting slate of programming—it’s hard to pick just one or two!” Vendetti enthuses. “Shreyas R Krishnan will be in conversation with special guest Nadia Shammas [writer of SQUIRE, Ms. Marvel, Batman, and Dead by Daylight]for a lecture called ‘Dis-Orienting,’ where they’ll discuss Oriental tropes in pop culture, and SLICE president Steenz will join special guests Jamila Rowser [owner of Black Josei Press] and Mattie Lubchansky [writer of Boys Weekend and The Antifa Super-Soldier Cookbook] individually for spotlights on their work and careers. But also be sure to check out featured guest [Infinite Wheatpaste artist] Pidge’s panel on personal narratives in sci-fi and fantasy; our workshops on caricatures, portraits, and copyright and trademark; our live typewriter poets; and Central Print’s bookplate printing!” (“I know you said one or two,” Vendetti jokes, “but I have a tattoo on my arm that says ‘no rules’ and I simply have to live by that.”) The full guest and exhibitor lists as well as the programming schedule can be found here.
As exciting as the convention itself is, there is also an opening ceremony the night of Friday, October 25 from 6:00-8:00pm at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, just west of the Sheldon at 3716 Washington Ave. The event opens with a signing by artist Brian Lathan (who illustrated this year’s show poster (which you can see as the header image at the top of the article), followed by a panel discussion featuring Shammas, Rowser, and Lubchansky led by featured guest Nate Powell, a multi-Eisner and Ignatz Award-winning writer and artist from Bloomington, Ind., most famous for illustrating civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis’ graphic novel autobiography, March. The event also includes a raffle and the announcement of the winner of SLICE’s inaugural Local Best in Show Award, presented by Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Like the convention itself, the opening night ceremony is free to attend and open to the public.
If the idea of being in a confined space with so many people has you feeling squicky (and understandably so! I can’t think of the last time I went to a comic convention without catching some form of “con crud”), SLICE has also made some improvements to their COVID safety measures. “We’re strongly encouraging all exhibitors, attendees, and SLICE staff to wear a mask in all SLICE spaces,” says Vendetti. “We did this last year, but this year we’re also bringing HEPA air scrubbers to the expo hall and providing free KN95 masks at the entrance, info booth, and SLICE table. Huge thanks to board member Audrey Westcott for coordinating these efforts and making sure SLICE is safe for our community!”
When asked what she would deem a successful convention, Vendetti offers, “Ultimately, we want everyone involved—exhibitors, sponsors, attendees, staff, and our venue—to have a positive experience and be more in love with St. Louis’s small-press community than they were when they first walked through the Sheldon doors. We have incredible board members, committee members, and volunteers who work so hard to make sure that happens, and I’m grateful for every one of them.”
At its core, SLICE serves as a way to draw a spotlight onto the oft-overlooked and under-appreciated comics scene in St. Louis. “St. Louis has an incredible community of artists,” says Vendetti, who outside of SLICE works within the wider comics industry, both as a freelance comics editor and as production coordinator at rising indie publisher AHOY Comics. “I’m always amazed by the people I meet and how much they care about nurturing the arts scene here. Everyone looks out for and uplifts each other. I’m a big fan of the artists here and the work they make.” | Jason Green
For the latest information, including an exhibitor list, programming schedule, and convention maps, visit slicexpo.org.
