Back on the first Saturday of this month, I tabled at the eight annual ICE CREAM comics fest in Iowa City.

Previously I’d only ever driven thru Iowa City on my way between Kansas City and Chicago for CAKE, but when I was tabling at the MdW Summit book fair at Charlotte Street in November, John Engelbrecht of the Public Space One art center clued me into this great little event, which is run by Dave Dugan, an Iowa City cartoonist who prints his comics and drawings on his own handmade paper. Dave placed me next to Jakob Streiff, a fellow Kansas Citian cartoonist whom I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting before.

The front entrance of the Close Mansion with a sandwich board sign for ICE CREAM.

ICE CREAM happened in the beautiful old Close Mansion close to downtown Iowa City. This is one of several arts buildings run by PS One, who also operates print and video co-ops where members can use the equipment. Seems like what my friend Thayer Bray is building here in KC with his Greenhouse Print Space! Very cool community resources.

It me.

What really made ICE CREAM bumping was their cross-promotion with the Mission Creek music and literary festival happening at the same time. I met several ICE CREAM attendees wearing Mission Creek wristbands who were newbies to zine culture and the self-publishing spirit, but pumped to learn about it! I’m sure it helped that the University of Iowa, whose main campus is in Iowa City, runs the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

My table at ICE CREAM 8, including the few Retrofit Books I still have to distribute.

If you’re a Kansas Citian reader, I’ll be tabling next on Sunday, April 27th inside the KC Artist Coalition during Wanderfest, a neighborhood block party showcasing all the funky, artistic businesses and studios in the Tower East neighb, like Oddities Prints, who’ve done excellent work on Riso prints for me, and local ceramicist Kate Schroeder.

Wanderfest flyer. The Kansas City Artist Coalition is at 3200 Gillham Rd, KCMO.