"I like that it kinda sticks to just comics," Whit said. "That's how it started out. I know that shows can kinda go in different directions. I'm happy to see merch here and there, but I like that it's just about independent artists or small presses."

Some small presses do set up tables at the Small Press Expo, fittingly enough — publishers like Drawn and Quarterly and Fantagraphics are SPX staples — but mostly, it's men and women sitting or standing behind the tables, grinning earnestly at passersby to get them to stop and sample their work. That work could be a handsomely bound graphic novel, a print, or, in many cases, a mini-comic that they've drawn and copied and stapled together themselves.