CAKE 2016: What a haul!

The fifth annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) took place last weekend, and it was a blast. I've gotten more and more involved in helping out with the festival over the past few years, and this year, once again, I handled the official CAKE social media accounts, so if you're interested in what I saw during the fest, I recommend heading over to the @CAKEChicago account on Twitter.

As for what I ended up bringing home, here's what ended up being a pretty massive pile of comics:

Let's see if I can detail all of this comics goodness:

Along the top row:

• A tote bag promoting the Charles Schulz Library and a "Toonie" t-shirt, both from the Center for Cartoon Studies.
• A print from the "CAKE Not Dead" comics reading that took place on Saturday night, featuring art by Ben Marcus.
• CAKE's minicomics incentive giveaway print for this year, featuring art by Ezra Claytan Daniels.
• The Great Green House and Other Stories, by Henry Guerra.

Next row:

• 20x20: 20 Years of Conundrum Press.
• Two issues of a newsprint comic called Emergence, published by Neoglyphic Media.
• Three installments of Thursday Night Comics and a. afarensis, by John Vestevich.
• "An Excerpt from Bottled," by Chris Gooch.
• Kutikuti Feminist Issue, by Femicomix Finland.
• Godhead #1, by Caitlin Skaalrud.
• Ppppmm Hhssss #1, by A.T. Pratt.
• Papa Time, by Max Weiss.

Next row:

• Shadow Hills #1-4, by Sean Ford.
• The Electric Cruise and Misfits and Strays, by Andy Glass.
• G Hhrt Xipj, by Walker Tate.
• Nori and the Bats in the House, by Rumi Hara.
• Sit and Think About What You've Done, by M.R. Trower.
• An untitled snake minicomic by Krystal DiFronzo (who also did this year's CAKE poster art!).
• Gorgeous and Jeremiah, by Cathy G. Johnson.

Next row (if it can be called that; this "row" sort of ends in the middle of the pile, just to the left of Nori and the Bats in the House):

• The Winter 2016 edition of Fine Print, a newsprint comic collection/zine.
• Lou, by Melissa Mendes.
• Fortune, by Jason Walz.
• Someone Please Have Sex With Me, by Gina Wynbrandt.

Next row (what the hell, we'll just call this the last row): 

• Viewotron #2, by Sam Sharpe.
• Two Shots, Lucky Shot and Little Dudes, by Andrew George.
• Paid For It, by "Chesty Matt" (a.k.a. Joe Matt).
• A Brief History of Slinkys, an excerpt from the forthcoming book Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, by Andy Warner.
• Night Air, by Ben Sears.
• Bad Dog!!/Good Kitty!, by Isabella Rotman and Mike Freiheit.
• Dead Dead Dead, Your Black Friend, and Daygloayhole: A Neverending Story, by Ben Passmore.
• Dancing With Jack Ketch, by Josh Shalek.
• Folrath #1, a zine by Zak Sally.
• Honey, by Corinne Halbert.
• And finally, a tiny minicomic (with another even tinier minicomic tucked inside!) called Come Back Soon, by Rachel Bard.

And that appears to be everything. Whew! I'll be trying to get some more blogs about some of these cool comics up over the next few weeks, so stay tuned. And now we can start planning for CAKE 2017!