[Editor’s Note: Illustration Age’s intrepid reporter (and creator of our bi-weekly comic Tales of Freelancia) Mike Freiheit generously shared photos from his recent experience at Comic Arts Los Angeles on our Instagram feed for the whole weekend, and he has also kindly agreed to share them here, along with additional commentary. Enjoy!]
I had the pleasure of escaping the 25 degree weather of Chicago to visit the fiery west coast to table at Comic Arts Los Angeles, an independent comics and arts expo.
By Chloe Perkis, published by Bred Press.
This is the third year I’ve attended, and I believe the fifth year of the show so far. In years past the expo was held in downtown LA in the fashion district, a fun, weird location with lots of foot traffic. This year it was moved up north near Glendale where there were few passersby but much more room for tables and merch, held in a weird gym which seemed like it was in the middle of a factory town that Bruce Springsteen might write a song about. (Is there a west coast equivalent of The Boss?)
Ezra Clayton Daniels and his awesome books.
The change of venue felt pretty palpable to me, but like with any unknown, upgrading (or downgrading) locations, you gotta take these risks and see what happens.
By Bred Press
I love tabling at shows, but I always struggle with the idea of being a selling power. I want to have fun first and foremost, and hopefully make enough money to pay for my trip (almost, this time), or make a profit (it happens most of the time).
By Peter and Maria Hoey, also known as Coin-Op
That being said, this show is great. All of the organizers are top notch, there’s always great feelings all around. The folks I met, be it artists tabling or people coming by to check things out, were all really nice and excited to be there.
There was also a nice mix of midwest, west coast and east coast creators, which is not something that’s easy to pull off, but it felt like a well curated show, and holy crap was there a lot of risograph stuff. It might be hitting it’s point of over saturation, but man did it all look real good.
Rosemary Valero-O’Connell and her amazing stuffs.
My blog writing abilities are slightly better than my tap dancing skills (terrible), so here’s a bunch more photos of great people and awesome stuff. I’ll definitely be back next year if they have me.
Ben Nadler, his art, and his pearly midwestern whites.
David Alvarado’s sweet sweet print.
Madeline McGrane makes amazing comics. I love this book. BUY IT.
Brad Rohloff of Bred Press. Come for the hand gestures, stay for the sweet, sweet books and prints.
Danielle Chenette!!!!!
This is a photo of a cute dog.
Danielle Chenette’s excellent print (sticker)
Johnny Sampson makes a lot of stuff and it’s all great.
Jon Marchione had some glorious printed matter.
Jon Marchione
Alabaster Pizzo and her sweet wares.
This book is hilarious. BUY IT!
More dog.
Matt Davis of Perfectly Acceptable Press. The best in the biz. He wanna hug you.
Illustration Age’s best reporter, Mike Freiheit.
Comics by a guy.
Also here’s me and a bunch of the stuff I make. Thanks for reading!
ILLUSTRATION AGE 
Thoughts?