Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Oscar loved comics, I'm sure he would have made it out to Table Con

Have you started reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, its our current bookclub pick? Have you discovered Oscar and his obsession for fantasy and sci-fi. The narrator describes him as the kind of kid, "...who loved comic books...knew more about the Marvel Universe than Stan Lee."

I'm a relative newbie to comics, well at least to the American comic book world. When I was a kid, a cousin from Mexico introduced me to Kaliman. A couple of years ago when my friend Liza was developing a character, for a Latina super hero in Teatro Luna's production of Lunaticas, she walked into Tianguis with a stack of comic books--they were a part of her research. I picked up a copy of Supergirl and was mesmerized. "Did you know Supergirl was Superman's cousin? That she killed her mother?" I paused to ask, it had elements of a good telenovela, no one had ever clued me in.

It was serendipity that just as I was reading about Oscar's adventures I came across, The Unbelieveable Laundry Detergent Man by Jose "Nino" Mesarina. Its a comic book and its hero is a boy as awkward as Oscar who gains special powers after being forced to drink a very potent laundry detergent.


Nino is currently busy with an event he has masterminded, and that he describes as a comic book convention with a twist--one table will feature an artist alley, vendors, guest speakers, original artwork, comic books, and even a gamers area.

Nino tells me, "Table con was an idea...since high school...It's the only Latino run comic book convention in Chicago."

Table Con takes place this weekend. Its free admission and held at Third Coast Comics, 6234 N. Broadway. You can get details at the myspace page for Table Con. I'll be swinging by to check out the comics and discover more about Latinos working in the comic book industry.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Since normally I would go to Tianguis on Saturday Im thinking I will go to Table Con instead, thanks for the info, and I will take the time on the train to knit.

Nino. said...

Hi. This is Jose' " Nino" Mesarina. The creator of the Unbelievable Laundry Detergent Man, and creator of Table-con. I want to thank you if you showed up to buy my comic(s). I am sorry if you did show up and I didn't have a chance to speak to you more. Some nice young ladies did come in and mention " tianguis" at that very moment I had to take a call because one of the guest speakers, via speaker phone was scheduled to speak . I appologise if I wasn't able to speak to you more at length. Well, thanks alot for the support. I will be in touch.

Nino.

Unknown said...

I went to Third Coast Comics for the Table Con event. My time there was short, because of other plans I had made, but here are the couple of things I got from my 20min there.

One - Super friendly people. Im pretty shy at new places, and both Terry, the store owner, and Nino, the event organizer, made me feel right at home, I could get really into comic books just by talking with them for a bit.

Two – the thought of a super hero born of Laundry soap really attracted me. Im drawn to things that take the domesticated life and make it cool. So now I have the first two episodes of The Unbelievable Laundry Detergent Man for my next trip to the lavanderia, I haven’t been this excited about doing laundry in quite some time, and Bubbleland will hopefully never be the same for me again. Once I finish Laundry Detergent Man #2 it may be difficult finding Nino’s other episodes, but he did tell me there is a store on Washington in the Loop East of Wabash that carries some of his comics.

Three - I learned comic books can be a very collaborative effort different illustrators, story writers, I didn't know that, I’d always seen it as a one person show, which I suppose sometimes it is, but the collaborative process seems inviting and full of potential for a group of folks.

Finally, There were other comic book creators there which unfortunately I wasn’t able to talk to. Amazingly there was a public Q and A going on with an ex Marvel comics editor via a speaker phone on a cell!

Irasema Gonzalez said...

Nino, I am glad to hear that your event was a success. I am so sorry I missed it. *kicks self* I do want to continue reading the story of The Unbelievable Laundry Detergent Man. So, you will have to let us know how to find copies of your comic.

Jessica, thanks for the kind words about Tianguis. I miss my knitting lessons but I'm sure we will get together soon--I can't wait to see what you are working on. And thanks for the Table Con feedback, I'm sure Nino appreciates it. :)