Brooklyn Expo of Comics Debuts in Williamsburg, NYC, This Weekend

The Brooklyn Expo of Comics, or BEC, makes its debut this weekend, Saturday, Nov. 14, and Sunday, Nov. 15, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 21-1 Havemeyer St. in Williamsburg. The name nods to the bacon, egg and cheese, the bodega breakfast sandwich that is a New York staple.

The show fills two floors with more than 100 creators and publishers selling their work, alongside a full slate of panels and workshops. It is presented by BODEGA, the Brooklyn Organization Dedicated to the Endurance of the Graphic Arts, a nonprofit co-founded by James Tynion IV, Bryce Gold and Courtney Menard to support comics and graphic arts in Brooklyn and the wider New York area.

The poster lists Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Lisa Hanawalt, Jim Woodring and Alison Bechdel as headline guests. Also named are Tara Booth, Wendy Xu, Tradd Moore, Caroline Cash, Ronald Wimberly, Linnea Sterte and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell. The organizers' Instagram describes a conversation between Spiegelman and Gary Groth on Harvey Kurtzman and MAD, and another between Ware and Françoise Mouly on the architecture of the comics page.

BEC also launches the BODEGA CAT Awards, short for Comics Arts Trophy. The winners will be presented at the Mid-Con Party at Union Pool, 484 Union Ave., on Saturday at 8 p.m., a short walk from the church. The party is for ages 21 and up. BODEGA is also selling merch and its first sandwich-themed comics anthology, BAGEL, at Table B1 during the show.

The show runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on both days. For Japanese readers, it is a chance to meet American independent cartoonists and pick up self-published books and minicomics directly from the people who make them.