美国国家公共电台 NPR A Comics Convention For The Unconventional: The Small Press Expo

A Comics Convention For The Unconventional: The Small Press Expo  

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We're going to go now to a comics convention for the unconventional. It's the Small Press Expo, or SPX, held every year just outside Washington, D.C. Glen Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast has attended SPX for the last 10 years. This year he asked attendees to tell him why SPX was different from the many other larger comic cons² that have been popping up across the country.

GLEN WELDON, BYLINE³: It sounds like any other comics convention, but it doesn't really look or feel like any other convention. It's smaller for one thing. Unlike the shows in San Diego and New York which take up whole city blocks, SPX fills one hotel ballroom⁴ in North Bethesda. Md.

There are no massive booths that tower over you with video screens hawking⁵ comics-adjacent stuff like toys, games, statues and T-shirts. Everything at SPX is at eye level - hip⁶ level, technically⁷, as it's just rows and rows of folding tables piled with comics and artwork.

WHIT⁸ TAYLOR: It's not just, like, a way to, you know, sell comics or buy comics. It's also a social event. So it's, you know, just a chance to catch up with people and meet new people both during the show and after the show. And that's kind of the most meaningful part.

WELDON: That's Whit Taylor from New York City. She's here for the comics, but she's also here to connect with the people who make them. And SPX is built around making that happen. It's a convention for independent comics. People define independent comics differently, but basically it means not Marvel⁹, not DC.

TAYLOR: I like that it kind of sticks to just comics because that's how it started out. I'm happy to see merch here and there, but, like, I like that it's really just about, like, independent artists or small presses.

WELDON: Mostly SPX is a few hundred men and women sitting or standing¹⁰ behind their tables, grinning earnestly at passersby¹¹ to get them to stop and sample their work. That work could be a handsomely bound graphic¹² novel, a print or, in many cases, a mini comic that they've drawn¹³ and copied and stapled¹⁴ together themselves, circumventing¹⁵ the gatekeepers at the major comics publishers. And that's something that matters to Sarah Elizabeth who drove up from Williamsburg, Va.

SARAH ELIZABETH: What I really like about this one so far is there's a lot more queer comics, a lot more comics by women here, specifically women of color. That's what stuck out to me the most.

WELDON: Liz Hathaway from Philadelphia is here to support the creators.

LIZ HATHAWAY: You know, I give a lot of credit to a lot of these artists because they really believe in what they're doing. They have a passion for it. They're spending a lot of their own money and resources to promote themselves.

WELDON: But Liz is also here for a more practical reason.

HATHAWAY: I have a comic book called "The Hellwood Kids," and it's coming out next year. So I'm trying to get a feel of how to - you know, they lay out everything, and they show their comics.

WELDON: It turns out that Liz and Whit Taylor and most of the attendees I talked to make comics themselves. That's something else that sets SPX apart and has since that began in 1994. Artists like Rebecca Sugar who created the Cartoon Network show "Steven Universe" and Lisa Hanawalt, whose character designs can be seen on the Netflix series "Bojack Horseman" - both did time behind an SPX table back in the day.

Now, SPX isn't completely unlike other conventions. You'll likely leave having dropped a healthy chunk¹⁶ of change. But people like Bailey Kung, who started coming to SPX as a volunteer and is now a member of the executive board, leave with something else as well.

BAILEY KUNG: It's definitely inspiring to be here. Everybody is making such awesome¹⁷ work, and it does make me want to go home and draw something.

WELDON: And given that animation¹⁸ studios like Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon now send people to SPX every year to scout¹⁹ for new talent, there's always a chance - a slim one - that the inspiration an artist gets here will ultimately come with a paycheck. I'm Glen Weldon.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 cons   

n.欺骗，骗局( con的名词复数 )v.诈骗，哄骗( con的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The pros and cons cancel out. 正反两种意见抵消。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We should hear all the pros and cons of the matter before we make a decision. 我们在对这事做出决定之前，应该先听取正反两方面的意见。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 ballroom   

n.舞厅

参考例句：

• The boss of the ballroom excused them the fee.舞厅老板给他们免费。
• I go ballroom dancing twice a week.我一个星期跳两次交际舞。

5 hawking   

利用鹰行猎

参考例句：

• He is hawking his goods everywhere. 他在到处兜售他的货物。
• We obtain the event horizon and the Hawking spectrumformula. 得到了黑洞的局部事件视界位置和Hawking温度以及Klein—Gordon粒子的Hawking辐射谱。

6 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

7 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

8 whit   

n.一点，丝毫

参考例句：

• There's not a whit of truth in the statement.这声明里没有丝毫的真实性。
• He did not seem a whit concerned.他看来毫不在乎。

9 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

11 passersby   

n. 过路人(行人,经过者)

参考例句：

• He had terrorized Oxford Street,where passersby had seen only his footprints. 他曾使牛津街笼罩了一片恐怖气氛，因为那儿的行人只能看到他的脚印，看不到他的人。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• A person is marceling on a street, watching passersby passing. 街边烫发者打量着匆匆行人。

12 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

13 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

14 stapled   

v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The letter was stapled to the other documents in the file. 这封信与案卷里的其他文件钉在一起。 来自辞典例句
• He said with smooth bluntness and shoved a stack of stapled sheets across his desk. 他以一种圆滑、率直的口气说着，并把一叠订好了的稿纸从他办公桌那边递过来。 来自辞典例句

15 circumventing   

v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的现在分词 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行

参考例句：

• They found a way of circumventing the law. 他们找到了规避法律的途径。
• This viewpoint sees the Multinational Corporation as capable of circumventing or subverting national objectives and policies. 这种观点认为，跨国公司能够遏制和破坏国家的目标和政策。 来自辞典例句

16 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

17 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

18 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

19 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。