Scott Kurtz thought he was going to speak about creating Web comics, something he's done at umpteen comic book conventions. But at the fourth annual Comic and Pop-Culture Expo (CAPE!), held Saturday at Craddock Park and nearby Zeus Comics, he got a little surprise.
Photos by JASON JANIK/Special Contributor
Friends and family pulled off a big surprise at CAPE! for Scott Kurtz that included a fanciful cake, at left. Yep, that's a cake.
Sunday was the 10th anniversary of Kurtz's online comic strip, PvP , so Saturday's panel discussion was nothing more than a ruse. The Lake Dallas cartoonist's first inkling that something was up was when he noticed his parents and grandparents in the audience. "Hey, there's my dad," he exclaimed.
All was revealed minutes later, when Brian Kurtz presented his brother with a seven-layer cake that featured edible re-creations of the PvP cast. Presents soon followed.
Appropriately enough, Kurtz had a very cartoonish way of expressing his surprise: "If I had a monocle and a cummerbund right now, they'd go 'Pop!' and 'Whoo, whoo, whoo!' " he said, twirling his finger in front of his neck.
E-mail Dan your cartoonish expressions at dkoller@quickdfw.com.
Just as surprised as Kurtz was Dallas cartoonist Kris Straub, who thought the panel discussion of their book, How to Make Webcomics, was legit. Although Kurtz got all the presents, Straub also has reason to celebrate this week. He's published a collection of the first two years of his online comic strip, Starslip Crisis. ($14.99).
Arlington writer David Hopkins, who moderated Kurtz and Straub's panel until it morphed into an anniversary party, was in on the secret. And that wasn't the only time during CAPE! that Hopkins demonstrated that he knows a thing or two about deception.
His booth had copies of Mine All Mine, a collection of 16 one-page strips about stealing, all written by Hopkins but each illustrated by a different artist. Hopkins said copies will be in area stores May 14, and he's asking $2 for them. Or you could just steal one.
One Mine All Mine contributor, Dallas cartoonist Joshua Boulet, debuted his own book at CAPE!: The Green Reefer Kick Ass Comic Book Special #1. It made me giggle more than once, and I hadn't even engaged in the title character's favorite activity. If you want to buy a going-away gift for admitted Mavericks pothead Josh Howard, it costs (ahem) $4.20.
The area's other Josh Howard, the Arlington-based cartoonist, was also hawking a new book at CAPE!: Dead@17: Compendium Edition ($24.95). Howard has gone back and retouched certain pages from the Dead@17 trilogy that he wasn't satisfied with. As he puts it in the introduction, "I've gone and pulled a 'George Lucas.' "
