This week I have been preparing for the annual Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland this weekend. It has been a tremendous show each time that I’ve attended (2006 and 2007) and having skipped it last year, I am returning with a vengeance!

For those who haven’t had the chance to visit my table at NYC’s MoCCA Art Festival last summer or this summer, you will have the opportunity to pick up my Little Garden #4 (the Little Garden Storybook!). For those who have that, I’ll also be selling a mini sketchbook of dirty doodles. I did five brand new doodles for the book just yesterday at my local coffeehouse, Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. You can notice the sales counter in my back cover doodle:

I’m driving down from NYC tomorrow with my friend L. Nichols who will have a brand new Jumbly Junkery at her table. That’s right, she’s produced another huge issue since MoCCA in June!

As for me, I will be located at table W46A with my pal Phil McAndrew who has got some comics that you’ve got to see.

Other awesome dudes and duderinas that you need to get your swerve on with are my teammates, the House of Twelve (Link: Not Safe For Work) who have a fantastic new book out–the first all ages House of Twelve book! See their table at D16 all weekend!

Then there’s my friends Colleen AF Venable and Marianne Ways who have the beautiful lumberjack themed minicomic to commemorate the Lumberjack Day holiday! See them at table W11. Check out the cover, do those branches seem familiar? Because I drew them!

Also, keep your eyes peeled for Philadelphia’s own Sally Bloodbath at H12B. She’s the co-editor and super-nice co-boss of Always Comix, an indie comics anthology that is very dear to my heart. I contributed a mean little story to volume 5 of Always, the Evil Issue! It’s a fantastic issue, beautiful in every aspect of its design.

When I get home from Bethesda after the weekend, I’ll post a wrap up and get cracking on the next phase in Little Garden. I’m eager to keep this crazy thing moving. I hate to stay still for too long. I think the current storyline is over; natural break, just enough time to let Angela, Lizzie and Iris settle into their new roles. For now, I’ll leave you with a big panel that I drew this afternoon at the aforementioned Cafe Grumpy:

-Darryl Ayo!