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 Here’s a on offer that many people might just get excited about: The Small Press Expo and Nickelodeon are teaming for a Call for Submissions where cartoonists can pitch ideas for an animated short. One person will be selected and get a cartoon made, working with the Nickelodeon animation staff. The offer is open to exhibitors […]

This post is purely for Porter Airlines fetishists who enjoy that portion of their trip to TCAF every year. Those of you who take Porter Airlines know that as delightful as are the low airfares from various points in the US, they are secondary to the charm of this regional airline with it’s pertly pillbox-behatted […]

A lot of information on small press, indie. CAF evets have piled up in my inbox. Here’s some of the news: • The newly revamped APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Jose has put out a call for programming— The Alternative Press Expo (APE), taking place in San Jose’s Convention Center on October 3 and […]

Special correspondent Christian Hoffer went to the SPACE indie comics expo in Columbus and got a lot of comics and met a lot of people. Here's his report.

Photo via Kevin Budnick
It’s a little hard to find concrete reports from indie shows these days unless Secret Acres or Robyn Chapman post reports, from the social media, looks like CAKE Chicago this weekend was a successful indie show. I’ve heard mixed reports on sales in past years, but based on the “haul photos” I’ve seen, a lot of comics were purchased. I dug up a few more concrete reports:

Jonathan Bogart has a very funny post that reveals what Tom Spurgeon And Kevin Huizenga like to talk about, but he had a good time:

Since I’ve spent the last several years in a comics headspace dominated by European comics of the 50s through the 80s, it was great to just walk the tables and get a sort of immediate crash course on the dominant aesthetics and various kinds of scenes brewing in the self-publishing and micropublishing worlds of Midwestern and Midwestern-accessible comics. 

It was a goddamn delight to see Jillian Tamaki the rockstar of the event – I saw people walking by Gilbert Hernandez on the floor without a second glance, but Jillian’s table was mobbed every time she was there, and seemed to do good business even when she wasn’t.

I was talking a bit with Kevin Budnik at CAKE this weekend, and I think he hit on an excellent point. He was a bit nervous going into the show this year because his table is waaaaay far in the back corner of the space. Argueably, the worst table there: the very last table in the corner farthest away from the entrance. Yet he was doing pretty well sales-wise — possibly better than SPX, but he hadn’t done a firm tally on that when I spoke with him — and he attributed that to walk-ins.
[snip]
This year, I talked to and saw several creators at CAKE — certainly more than a dozen — that sold out of some or all of their books. If one or two people sold out, I’d blame that on them for not bringing enough, but over a dozen? That’s something else. I talked to organizer Max Morris, and he was saying that their preliminary count for Day One was 1500-2000 and the half-day numbers for Day Two looked to be half that, but given how many people were selling out, I suspect the final two-day tally is closer to 5,000.

This past weekend was the fourth annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, or CAKE, and I’m happy to say that it seemed to be a successful event for everyone involved, from the organizers, to the attendees, to the many amazing artists who were exhibiting their work. I’ve volunteered for the event in previous years, but this year they asked me to get even more involved, so I was the Social Media Coordinator for the weekend, running the official CAKE Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts. I spent the weekend walking around, taking pictures on my phone, and doing lots of tweeting, retweeting, and sharing, so if you check out the past couple days of activity on those accounts, you’ll have a pretty good picture of what I was up to.

CAKE! So many awesome comics artists, so much great work. (at @CenteronHalsted) https://t.co/ou1qeFBZBA pic.twitter.com/Tb2HxoxwdI

— Alex Koppel (@arsduo) June 7, 2015

Holy butts, #CAKEchicago2015 was amazing. Met so many great and talented folks who absolutely had better things to do than talk to me

— rae whitlock (@RPWhitlock) June 7, 2015

@keilerroberts RT @natebeaty: Developed a roll of many saucy cartoonists @CAKEchicago 2015: https://t.co/vv3j5q5hoi pic.twitter.com/NcUKNYO1TR

— Scott Roberts (@scaattr) June 9, 2015

Tons o’ photos in that last link:

Anyhoo, sounds like after four years this show has established itself as the midwestern incie fest that Chicago has needed for a while.

Did you go? Did you like it? Sound off in the comments!

The new two day launch event for CXC in Columbus has been the buzz among cartoon circles for a while now and the website is now open with the initial guests: Kate Beaton, Jerry Beck, Bill Griffith, Françoice Mouly, Jeff Smith, Art Spiegelman and Craig Thompson. AND the first round of events, below. The exhibitor application form is in the above link and, well, this is surely going to be a hoedown for the comics. PLUS a new logo by Dustin Harbin, above.

CXC is run by festival executive director Tom Spurgeon, Smith, OSU’s Lucy Caswell and Vijaya Iyer. According to Smith “What makes this show unique is Columbus itself. We have unprecedented levels of institutional support for cartooning and comics here, from the museums and schools to the Thurber House with its annual Graphic Novelist in Residence which recognizes outstanding new talent. This festival brings the whole city into the celebration.”

Indeed, this looks to be a petty grand event for the comics community and the local community.

Thursday, October 1
Jerry Beck Presents Classic Animation
Featuring The Universal Cartoons of Walter Lantz
animation historian and critic Beck shows a selection of all-time great animated shorts, providing context and commentary 
The Wexner Center For The Arts, 7:00 PM, Sponsored By The Wexner Center For The Arts (Ticketed)

Friday, October 2
Talk And Teach Classroom Presentations
experts and working professionals give advice on practical matters of use to comics-makers and fans
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library And Museum Will Eisner Seminar Room, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM (Free)
Spotlight Presentations
a pair of one-on-one discussions: one with special guest Bill Griffith, one with a guest to be announced
The Wexner Center For The Arts, 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM (Ticketed)
Evening Presentation
Jeff Smith In Conversation With Kate Beaton And Craig Thompson
three cartooning greats discuss their careers and shared experiences, including their latest all-ages books
The Wexner Center For The Arts, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM (Ticketed)



Saturday, October 3
Cartoon Crossroads Comics Exposition, Panels and Presentations
buy new comics, meet exhibiting professionals, see panels featuring our special guests and enjoy a generally festive atmosphere celebrating all things comics and Columbus
The Cultural Arts Center, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Free)

CXC will conclude on Saturday evening at Columbus College of Art & Design with an event organized by CCAD in collaboration with CXC: Smith talks to Mouly and Spiegelman on 35 years of their groundbreaking RAW Books and their amazing careers since.

Reception
Canzani Center, Columbus College Of Art And Design, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Jeff Smith In Conversation With Françoise Mouly And Art Spiegelman
Canzani Center Auditorium, Columbus College Of Art And Design, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM (free)

Jamie Coville deserves immense praise for his efforts at recording panels at the conventions he attends, and he was at it again at TCAF 2015, with recordings of some of the best panels and the inimitable Doug Wright Awards. Can we all give him a round of applause? Here’s his links to the audio and his photos

Note: Friday May 8th was Librarian & Educator day. For the general public TCAF was May 9-10th.

Protecting Comics: Graphic Novel Challenges in Today’s Libraries (54:27, 48.9mb)

Presented by Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Charles starts off with a small history of how comics became thought of as being only for children. He then gave some statistics of Challenged and
Banned Graphic Novels in both Canada and the US. He explained the path to censorship, why people try to ban comics, a list of top challenged books in both countries, the book challenges they are dealing with right
now (This One Summer, Palomar, The Graveyard Book, Bone, Fun Home & Persepolis), how libraries can cope with challengers, managing the challenges and the resources available. They did a Q & A with the audience
and addressed issues with cultural differences, particularly with European views on nudity books marked for children, older books with offensive depictions of race and how to respond to that.

Do it yourself Comic Con (1:02:45, 57.4mb)

This panel had Eva Volin, Liz Coates (Librarians) and Sven Larsen (Papercutz) talk about doing Comic Cons within a Library. Eva and Liz spoke about their Comic Con like events they held at their Libraries,
with very little in ways of staff or money. Eva talked about first deciding who the convention is for in terms of demographics, she recommended partnering with the local comic book store for advice and assistance.
She spoke of passive programming that can be done and gave examples, getting free comics, getting creators to visit via Skype, finding people in the community who can be a resource and
borrowing ideas from other events, she also said afterwards it’s good to promote the event by putting up pictures of it as it helps affirm it’s success and helps it grow. Liz talked about the recent King Con
even in Kingston, ON. She talked about the programming, funding, partnering with local stores, challenges she faced and the creators she was able to bring in. Sven spoke about
helping these events from the publisher side. He said publishers are willing to give free stuff to help the event, but not likely books as they are trying to sell them. He said you may not get publishers
co-operation on getting creators to go to the events because they want the creator working on their books so he recommended going to the creators themselves. He also gave some advice about dealing with
publishers, saying not all publishers are equal when it comes to supporting these types of events. He advised in when you contact them and what information you should give the publisher about your show.
Charles Brownstein came up and talked about how CBLDF is putting together of resources of creators who are willing to do Library visits. Sven also suggested using local publishers to assist with the show.
There was Q&A and among the topics were School Libraries doing similar type events, how to approach your supervisor with the idea and having your paperwork ready in terms of by-laws and permits.

Big Comics Q&A: Classrooms (52:46, 48.3mb)

On this panel was Leslie Holwerda and Glen Downey. Leslie talked about introducing comic activities through her Library classes. Kids love using comics to learn and it shows the popularity of Graphic Novels beyond
circulation numbers. Among the things her lessons include is having kids find particular things within the comics, she gave 3 Canadian Graphic Novels that she uses and she has the kids find things within the comic, discussion
questions, assessment opportunities and feedback. She also talked about a Superhero Battle program that kids were excited for. She had the kids read just beyond the white male heroes for diversity. Glen Downey spoke
about 3 principals for Comics in the Classroom, Tradition, Vocabulary and Applying what they learn. On Tradition he talks about the history of the comic form from Cave Paintings to today. He says this is important
as it gives the art form legitimacy and helps make the medium as important as Literature and Art. He says that some people see Comics as a part of just literature which he thinks is limiting and not fully accurate.
He says vocabulary is important because kids will talk about comics in the same way they will books and are not able to express what they are seeing. He says we should teach the terms (GNs and Comics) and their
conflict. Doug also explained how studying comics helps kids with their writing.

Book Talk: Diverse Graphic Novels (57:06, 52.2mb)

The presenter was Andrew Woodrow-Butcher. Along with him were creators Tory Woollcott (Mirror Mind), Kat Verhoeven (Towerkind) and Beguiling Employee Rebecca Scoble. Both Tory and Kat talked about their books and
what makes them different. Rebecca discussed Mahou Josei Chumaka and Offbeat, two books who feature diverse characters. Andrew then talked about a number of books including, Luz, Hidden, Where Babies Comic From,
Lola, Drama, Rainy Day Recess, Kevin Keller, El Deafo, A Game For Swallows, Adventure Time, The Bravest Warrior, Runaways, A Graphic Guide adventure series and many others. He also gave reasons for each one and
usually their target age groups.

TCAF 2015 Kick-Off Event: D&Q 25! (1:13:15, 67mb)

Chris Butcher started off the kick-off event and gave thanks to various people who help put the convention together. He talked about his first exposure to Drawn and Quarterly comics when he was young and working
for a different retailer. He also talked about the company’s growth. Chris Oliveros came up and spoke about TCAF, how important they are and how they’ve supported the company. Then the panel started with Sean
Rogers interviewing an all star line up of Jillian Tamaki, Jason Lutes, Seth, Adrian Tomine and Lynda Barry. The group first talked about their latest books, then went into when they joined Drawn and Quarterly.
Seth gave his early history with the company and his first impressions of Charles, Jillian spoke of the sense of community with the publisher, Adrian said he loved the D & Q line and wanted to be a part of it,
Jason talked about his coming out of art school, not really sure of what to do with himself, interning at Fantagraphics and finding the indy comics scene to be very sombre. He began to self-publish, then a smiling
Chris wanted to publish him. Lynda gave her sad but funny history of working in comics prior to working with Chris. Seth and others talked about one of the first major creators D&Q published, Julie Doucette and
her impact on comics, particularly women doing comics. The group also spoke about digital and print versions of books, limitations and how they can learn from them. Peter Birkemoe also spoke about Drawn and Quarterly.

The New Mainstream (1:03:44, 58.3mb)

Moderated by Chris Butcher, this panels line up was Ryan North, Karl Kerschl, Brenden Fletcher, Babs Tarr, Ray Fawkes, Cameron Stewart and Chip Zdarsky. The group spoke about the experience of going from indy
comics to “mainstream” comics, getting push back on their work while working on their books, universe continuity getting involved in their stories, the different audience and people not liking their work,
creating different costumes for the characters and the reactions they get from them, a characters long history and how they deal with it, keeping characters in their iconic state for long term readability
purposes, being Canadian (except Babs Tarr) and is there a reason they are now all doing mainstream comics, their goals for their books, the benefits of working with editors, writing single issues and writing
for a trade at the same time, stuff they want to sneak into the books and writing for a specific audience.

Spotlight: Gurihiru (1:03:38, 58.2mb)

Deb Aoki talks to the Japanese art team of Guihiru. They are Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano and have been working on North American comics for a number of years now. Through their translator they talked about their work
on Avatar the Airbender, A Babies vs X Babies and how they and Scottie Young created the babies version of the characters. They also revealed which baby character they did not like drawing and why. They fondly reminisced
of their time on Thor and the Warriors Four. They revealed why they started working for North American publishers, their preference to work in colour, their work prior to North American publishers and the adjustments
they had to make. They revealed the had created a Star Wars Japanese – English dictionary, a picture book for an Australian publisher and mentioned their colouring of Raina Telegmeier’s Smile. The conversation shifted to
their process from layout sketches to a finished page, working in pen and ink and in digital, how they collaborate when they work, how they schedule their way of working on a book and juggling multiple projects at once,
arguments they have and how they resolve them, why they decided to work under a single name and how they met. It was requested that no pictures be taken of them, as many Japanese creators like to keep their privacy. The
influences of US comics on Japan was brought up, with them mentioning Spawn, Neal Adams, Frank Frazatta were very popular in Japan. The audience asked if they were interested in writing, the number of female artists in
Japan and their reaction to the amount in North America.

What do Women Want? Writing Comics for a female audience (1:03:26, 58mb)

On this panel was Brenden Fletcher, Sam Maggs, Sydney Padua, Sandra Bell-Lundy, Svetlana Chmakova and the panel was moderated by Lianne Sentar. Topics discussed were pitching comics aimed at female readers and
the reaction they get from that, web comics and female readers, female fans and their feedback, why female lead books are seen as ‘female’ books but books with male leads are seen as ‘universal’, how writing for
a female audience affects their writing, books they recommend for female readers, what proportions they decide to use when designing and drawing the female figure and their favourite female characters.

Truth & Intimacy in Graphic Memoir (52:00, 47.6mb)

Moderated by Johanna Draper Carlson, panelists included Raina Telgemeier, Dustin Harbin, Etienne Davodeau and joining part way through was John Porcellino. The group started off describing their work, then they discussed
how true are their stories, what they include and exclude, how people who’ve been depicted in their books reacted, why they started doing graphic memoir, the most difficult part of doing the work, whether people respond
more to sad or happy stories and what other artists doing graphic memoir were they influenced by.

Drawn and Quarterly: Ask Me Anything (52:02, 47.6mb)

Chris Oliveros, Peggy Burns and Tom Devlin answers Heidi MacDonald’s questions on a variety of topics including what role Chris now plays within the company now that he’s stepping down, what Peggy and Tom will be doing
and what will happen to their old roles, why Chris started publishing comics, doing the D&Q anthology and what inspired it, former publisher Vortex and wooing Chester Brown away from them, Peggy’s history of working at
DC and moving to D&Q, Tom history with his former Highwater Comics company and how he ended up working for D&Q, the company’s surviving the 90s and their transition to publishing Graphic Novels & adapting to the book
market, their first big successful Graphic Novel, the amount of Good cartoonists and keeping up with them all, the title of Chris’s new book and when it’s coming out, how the group works when picking what they publish,
which new book they are all excited about, how long it took for D&Q to make money, the cost of living in Montreal, their future goals, Kim Thompsons death and how Chris wanted his company to outlive him not only to a 2nd
generation but to a 3rd as well.

The Doug Wright Awards 2015 (May 9) – 28 Photos

Full 11th Annual Doug Wright Awards (1:10:24, 46.4mb)

The Awards were presented by David Collier, Don McKellar, Lynda Barry, Seth, Brad Mackay, Conan Tobias and Zach Worton.

The nominees for the 2015 Doug Wright Award for Best Book are:

Ant Colony by Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly)

Fatherland by Nina Bunjevac (Jonathan Cape/Random House)- Winner

Safari Honeymoon by Jesse Jacobs (Koyama Press)

The People Inside by Ray Fawkes (Oni Press)

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood)

The nominees for the 2015 Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. “The Nipper”) which recognizes Canadian cartoonists deserving of wider recognition are:

Aaron Costain for Entropy #10

Elisabeth Belliveau for One Year in America (Conundrum Press)

Julie Delporte for Everywhere Antennas (Drawn & Quarterly)

Meags Fitzgerald for Photobooth: A Biography (Conundrum Press) – Winner

Simon Roy for Tiger Lung (Dark Horse)

Sophie Yanow for War of Streets and Houses (Uncivilized Books)

And the nominees for the 2015 Pigskin Peters Award, which recognizes unconventional, experimental, or avant-garde Canadian comics are:

Comics Collection 2010-2013 and Less than Dust by Julien Ceccaldi

Great Success! 1983-2013 by Henriette Valium (Crna Hronika)

New Comics #3-5 by Patrick Kyle (Mother Books)

Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention by Tings Chak (The Architecture Observer)

“Swinespritzen” by Connor Willumsen – Winner

The evening also saw long-time London Free Press editorial cartoonist Merle “Ting” Tingley inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame, aka “Giants of the North”.

His award was accepted by his son Cameron Tingley

After a few very successful years with Paul Karasik steering the programming, Comics Arts Brooklyn has announced a new Programming Director for 2015, Columbia University’s Karen Green, whose many titles include Ancient & Medieval History Librarian, the Graphic Novels Librarian, and the Curator for Comics and Cartoons.  Green’s honors include serving on the board of directors at the Society of Illustrators, the Eisner Awards judge panel in 2011 and recently as a member of the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning in 2015.

Green has been putting on many historical and contemporary comics programs at Columbia in recent years, including an amazing exhibit of the university’s own cartoon holdings,and I’m sure she’ll do an amazing job for CAB.

The note that announced this move, also annoucned that exhibitor applications for CAB 2015 are now open, closing June 1st.

Portrait of Karen Green by Miss Lasko-Gross
CAB postcard by Jesse Jacobs. 

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival  takes place this weekend, but as regulars know, it’s really more of a whole week of comics related events and exhibits. While the TCAf site has a perfectly awesome site listing all the events, just in case you are too lazy to click on the link, I’ve presented a digest version below.

The programming for TCAF proper is now available on the Guidebook app, but I don’t have a copy to point you to. I can tell you I’ll be mad busy with four panels! And the entire slate is as star packed as you’d expect.

The weekend is also the anchor for a series of satellite events as follows:

Thursday May 7th-Friday May 8th:

• CSSC/SCEBD Academic Conference :Two full days of programs presented by the Canadian Society for the Study of Comics i

Friday May 8th:

• Librarian and Educator Day, a full day of three tracks of programming aimed at these markets.
• Word Balloon Academy a day or professional programming aimed at comics creators

Saturday May 9th-Sunday May 10th

• Comics vs Games, a parallel slate of exhibits focusing on indie games

As if that is not enough here’s a list of satellite events:

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Graphic Life Writing of Marta Chudolinska – An Exhibition

Swedish randos (aka Dongery) from SPX 2005

§ There’s been some chatter over the last week or so over this public FB thread by Stephen Bissette about what he sees as exclusion of certain creators at indie comics shows. It sprang out of an older thread, and the conversation eventually includes Bill Kartalopoulos, who works with SPX and MoCCA, as well as Zack Soto of the just concluded Lineworks NW, Tom Spurgeon of the upcoming CXC show, and a lot of exhibitors past and present. The main complaint, it seems, is that there isn’t enough room at shows like SPX (the one which hurt the most feelings) and TCAF and Lineworks NW and so on and this leads to exclusion. Or as one Carl Antonowicz puts it:

If one’s work doesn’t meet the unstated aesthetic of the committee, one is out of luck.

Which is…yeah. If you’re gonna spend the money to put on an indie comics show—an undertaking so bereft of big profits that many of them are crowdfunded—you do get to choose what kind of comics you want to showcase there, and it turns out that people dedicated enough to actuallly put on a show generally have a pretty clear idea of what kind of comics they want to promote.

There are some sad stories in the comments—veteran cartoonist turned educator Don Simpson can’t get into the local indy show in his native Pittsburgh, and 90s mainstay David Chelsea was denied a table at Linework but gets a free table at the local Wizard show. And other people can’t get in and so on and so forth.

I have my own comment there, but if you read this site at all you can probably guess what I say: there are a zillion small shows out there and more coming. If you can’t find a local place to get set up and show your wares, you must live in a very remote spot. And yes, tables are expensive at some of these shows (but see next couple of items), but guess what: NO ONE PROMISED YOU’D BE ABLE TO MAKE MONEY AT THIS THING. There are more good cartoonists than ever and old-timers do have to compete against the new kids, who often have strong support networks via social media and colleagues from art school. And even if you build it, they may very well not come because you could be set up between Todd McFarlane and Kate Beaton.

Is this a competition? Sort of. While comics people are generally inclusive to a fault, the moment you put your first line on paper/screen you started competing for attention and acclaim (which come in unlimited amounts) and for money and space (which come in more limited amounts.)

One aspect of CAFs/indie shows that gets thrown around a bit in the thread is how they have become an alternative distribution system. It’s true a lot of publishers rely on CAFs to make a lot of their profits. This is far from healthy, but we’re still talking work that is of a niche appeal, and we have an indie comics reading audience that really likes buying their comics at shows where they can get a signed edition, have a personal transaction and maybe even buy some other stuff they didn’t know about that is normally warehoused in a shoebox under the creator’s sofa.

So while I understand the frustration of people who can’t get in to certain very popular events, there are lots of other ways to get out there. And all of this is going to change more. A column by the late great Dylan Williams from 2011 where he’s rethinking his convention strategy shows now much the landscape has changed in a more four years..and in four years it will have changed some more.

I think another underlying aspect of this is the youth movement in comics, and older creators feeling very much left out of the picture. But that deserves a post all its own.

§ Meanwhile, Bissette himself was a guest of the Big Wow Con in San Jose and reunited with the old Swamp Thing crew of Rick Veitch, Tom Yeates and John Totleben.

§ AAANNNNNNNDDDDD speaking of CAF/con economies, Barry and Leon, the Secret Acres boys, have posted their MoCCA Fest 2015 report and confront the money things head on. You’ll notice that MoCCA isn’t on the “dream list” for comics folks because tables are very expensive:

We’ve talked a bit about the con economy on this blog before. But let’s go there again. MoCCA has the highest table cost of any show we attend at $460 per table. That’s a whole $110 above SPX and a whopping $64.50 above TCAF. TCAF costs attendees nothing. MoCCA is five bucks. SPX is three times that, asking a whole fifteen dollar bill of everyone coming through the door. They look alike from here. Or do they? Tony Breed, a Chicago guy and our RIPE neighbor of a couple weeks ago, came by and said the most interesting thing: his sales at CAKE were slow, but he makes more money at that show than at any other. This year, we brought home something less than half of our take from MoCCA 2014. We made money. We can’t not make money. We live here.
Our most expensive show, by far, is TCAF. Believe us, if we could afford to skip customs and ship our books to Canada, we sure as shit would. Depending on the exchange rate, food and shelter and gas, we need to clean up every year or we go broke. We’re pretty sure Annie Koyama is making more money at TCAF than she could at any other show and, at any other show, break-even has got to be way up there for Koyama Press. We’ve enjoyed a couple of years of making more money at TCAF than we have at MoCCA, but we took home less money every time. And we’re a publishing company, micro or no. If you’re an artist making mini-comics, you’re not making table at MoCCA without a gang to split costs – and profits – and if you can’t make it there, you’re not making it anywhere else, either. How much are you saving traveling to Toronto or booking a room at the SPX Marriott? If not for the money, why bother with shows at all? Do we really need to answer that question?

§ Speaking of Secret Acres, they’ve joined the gang of small presses (Koyama, Uncivilized, Alternative, Nobrow, Enchanted Lion Arsenal Pulp, etc) that are being distributed by Consortium. Consortium seems to do good things for small comics publishers so good for them.

§ And speaking of Linework NW, it sounds like it went well:
And it’s a good one at that. In its first year, last year, Linework packed 3,000 people into the Norse Hall in northeast Portland. This year they expanded the festival to two days in an effort to thin the crowds, but if Saturday was any indication the event is only getting bigger. “I love it,” Portland artist John Black said at his booth. “It’s more of an illustrator’s (event), you know what I mean? It’s for people who make stuff.”

Standing room only in the @danielclowes panel! #lwnw2015

A photo posted by @lineworknw on Apr 19, 2015 at 3:37pm PDT

HASHTAG BLESSED pic.twitter.com/SwMlXZvX17

— Melanie Gillman (@melgillman) April 19, 2015

§ BUT over in Binghamton, NY, everything was coming up Milhouse for the local comic con:

More than one thousand people attended the River Road Comic Expo Sunday at Tioga Downs. The event was free and open to the public, and featured industry artists as well as local independent artists. “It’s great to have a place to come and be able to get a little face-to-face time and shake hands with the guys who make your day,” said illustrator Mike Capprotti. There were also vendors selling both new and old books and related products. “One of the great things about the pop culture community is that everyone’s really enthusiastic,” said expo organizer Jared Aiosa.

§ George Lucas has felt a tingling in the force and thinks Marvel might reboot Howard the Duck for the screen!!!

During the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, Lucas commented on negative movie reviews, noting how even the worst reviewed films can “float up to the surface of the lake, and then they become cult classics. … It means you made an interesting movie or a weird movie, and a small group of people love it.” He continued by saying, “Even Howard the Duck is a cult classic. I have a feeling that Marvel’s gonna redo it because of the technology they have today.”

§ In less frightening news, John Ridley, showrunner of American Drime and OSar winner for 12 Years a Slave, may be working on a show for Marvel/ABC reinventing an existing Marvel superhero character or property.” Vague as hell so it could be anything, even Howard the Duck.

§ Reminder, Bart Beaty and co. are analyzing the hell ouf of comics over at What Were Comics? including Fun Home and more.

§ I forgot to link to this cool of page of interviews from the pages of Frontier Hellen Jo, Sascha Hommer, Ping Zhu and Sam Alden.

§ Here’s an old link I had to an investigation of a crappy scraper site.

§ And an interview with Keith Knight who has seen it all and then made a funny comic strip about it. .

§ Juliet Kahn offers a list of The Best Anime And Manga For Beginners and i think it’s pretty solid, but she left out …..(enter a list of 1000 names)

§ Finally, Zainab Akhtar reviews Jillian Tamaki’s SexCoven, the small press book of the year thus far.

Just as a reminder, this weekend is the first big West Coast Caf of the year: LINEWORK NW which is FREE to attend in Portland’s Norse Hall. Info in the above link but here’s the skinny:

Linework NW will take place on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19, 2015, at the Norse Hall in Portland, Oregon. Hours of operation are 12pm-8pm both days. Attendance is free and open to the public.

Harassment Policy: Linework NW will not tolerate verbal or physical abuse, derogatory or discriminatory language, sexual harassment, and disruptive or inappropriate behavior. Anyone who feels they have witnessed or have been subjected to inappropriate or abusive behavior at the festival is encouraged to report it to a Linework NW volunteer immediately. Linework NW organizers will be available to mediate conflicts at the festival, and we reserve the right to ask anyone we determine to be violating our policies to adhere to our community standards, up to and including excluding them from the event.

Linework NW is organized and operated by Sam Marx, Shanna Matuszak, Kinoko Evans, Tristan Tarwater, Zack Soto & François Vigneault. The show was founded by Zack and François.

Special guests include Dan Clowes, Lisa Conger, Lisa Hanawalt and Jay Howell.

Maybe Clowes will spill some beans about the new graphic novel he’s been teasing! Keep us posted.

And here’s the programming line-up:

12:30: Freelance Illustration: Work and Life
Ryan Alexander-Tanner
Steve Lieber
Meg Hunt
Pam Wishbow
moderated by Tristan Tarwater
–
1:30: Lisa Hanawalt Spotlight
Moderated by Tom Spurgeon
–
2:30: Jay Howell Spotlight
Moderated by Bwana Spoons
–
3:30: Free Speech and the Aftermath of Charlie Hebdo
Sean Aaberg
Suzette Smith
Sam Alden
Tom Spurgeon
moderated by François Vigneault
–
4:30: Modern Portraiture
Michael Horwitz
Nicole J. Georges
Hazel Newlevant
Jeannette Langmeade
Moderated by Sam Marx
–
5:30: Genre Through the Indie Lens
Malachi Ward
Sera Stanton
Zack Soto
Ian MacEwan
Moderated by Tom Spurgeon
–
6:30: The Intersection of Creativity – Balancing Comics/Illustration with Other Outlets
Ben Sears
Joseph Bergin III
Bwana Spoons
Jay Howell 
Moderated by Sam Marx
–

• Sunday April 19 •

12:30: Collectives and Collaborations
Luke Ramsey
Sindre Goksøyr
Sean Christensen
Marc Palm
Seth Goodkind
Tom Van Deusen
–
1:30: Queering Up Comics
Michael Horwitz
Melanie Gillman
Virginia Paine
Genue Revuelta
Moderated by Taneka Stotts
–
2:30: Lisa Congdon Spotlight
moderated by Jason Strugill
–
3:30: Daniel Clowes Spotlight
moderated by Tom Spurgeon
–
4:30: The Modern Reality of Fundraising for Artists
Lucy Bellwood
Kory Bing
Taneka Stotts
Hazel Newlevant
moderated by Tristan Tarwater

While the mainstream comics world was getting reaquainted and dusting off their drinking pants at Emerald City this weekend, the year in CAFS also kicked off in Providence, RI with RIPE, the Rhode Island Independent Publishing Expo. Now in it’s second year, this is a show in a town with a solid comics history and within driving distance of lots of other scenes. Robyn Chapman, cartoonist, First Second editor, and Tiny Report mastermind, has a report on the show, and she had me w2ith the first photo above. Was this expo held in a Greek temple to the sun god Apollo??? No, just the Providence Public Library. But if going to a comics show in a sun drenched Greek temple full of books turns you on, this was the place! Here’s Chapman’s thoughts:

In general, this show felt intense: densely packed, young, hip, technicolored, and very queer friendly. There were plenty of locals in attendance, and the community here seems pretty close knit. But there was a healthy portion of out-of-towners on the exhibitor list too. In the room I was tabling, I didn’t even have to turn my head to spot half a dozen cartoonists I recognized from Brooklyn. A group from New Orleans also made the trip, and a gaggle of CCSers from Vermont.

It was a bit slow on Saturday, but by the end of Sunday I had covered my table, which was a small victory.

Anyway if you’re itching to hit the road to a CAF, here’s a very incomplete list. 

The can-do spirit of Bay Area comics folks has come together for the San Francisco Comics Fest, which just launched a website and announced plans for a full week of comics-related activities kicking off on Sunday May 3 and going all week with what will most likely be a CAF-type event May 9-10. The brainstorming started with some Facebook chat, went on with a town hall meeting and it’s all birthed what looks to be an impressive event, with the steering committee led by Matt Silady of the California College of Arts.   Given all the logistical and economic hurdles unique to the Bay Area, this is an ambitious plan.

The event is something of a fill in for APE and WonderCon, both of which have moved on to other cities. Given San Francisco’s storied comics heritage—and the institutional support of the Cartoon Art Museum—having a local event seems quite appropriate.

Of course, the insanely packed CAF schedule being what it is, the event is launching the same week as TCAF—however there’s plenty of talent to go around, especially with the local cartooning community.

 

“San Francisco has the unique opportunity to imagine a new comics-centric festival from the ground up,” said SFCF Steering Committee Organizer Matt Silady, Chair of MFA in Comics Program at California College of the Arts. “From tech to tradition, leveraging the city’s strengths will be at the heart of this event as we continue to make San Francisco a destination for comics professionals and enthusiasts alike.”San Francisco Comics Fest is a celebration of comics culture – past, present and future – with festival events highlighting four core aspects of the vibrant community:

• Rich history of artistic rebellion and comics innovation
• Unique intersection of cultural influences shared among creators
• Commitment to comics education
• Responsibility to shape the future of comics through technology in a positive, equitable way

Scheduled events include workshops, signings, and talks at the Cartoon Art Museum, SF Public Library, and comics retailers on both sides of the Bay. The San Francisco Comics Fest continues to encourage and accept applications for official SFCF events from its local community through the end of the month. All event participants will be promoted through official SFCF channels and promotional materials.

Event applications and volunteer applications are open, and you can follow along with the fest on Twitter.

There’s a CAF (comic arts festival) born every minute! Here’s a new one, the New South Fest in Austin. They have a tumblr and a FB page, and some art…and exhibitor applications are now open. The plan is an outdoor books and comics event to be held June 6th, 2015 at the French Legation Museum in Austin, Texas. “Our goal is to celebrate independent literature, alternative comics, small presses, and print culture. New South will be highly curated, focused, fresh, and irreverent.”

UPDATE: Oops should have dug a little more. This event seems to be run by Danithan Mejia of the Foxing Review, website under construction. And more information is available in this Kickstarter that didn’t make it.

Here’s the three Ws:

WHAT: New South Festival of Literary Arts & Cartooning is seeking exhibitors for its inaugural year. Its goal is to celebrate the best in independent literature, alternative comics, small presses, and print culture. New South is seeking individual illustrators/cartoonists, writers, indie book publishers, alternative comics publishers, literary magazines, and more! To apply, please visit newsouthfest.tumblr.com/apply

New South is a curated event. Due to space limitations, New South’s 2015 exhibitor list will be decided by a committee of organizers. More information for potential exhibitors:

• Exhibitor applications will be open from February 2, 2015 – March 2, 2015.

• Accepted exhibitors will be notified no later than March 16, 2015.

• Remaining applicants will be put on a waiting list for possible dropouts.

• Exhibitor Tables are $80 for a half-table (3’) and $120 for a full table (6’).

WHEN: Exhibitor applications will be open from February 2, 2015 – March 2, 2015.

WHERE: Applications can be submitted at newsouthfest.tumblr.com/apply

The website doesn’t indicate who’se behind this fest, but the logo indicates a little bit of a SXSW feel, and the art by Jim Rugg and someone whose style i don’t recognize suggest that it is already well on its way.

Austin is currently the home of a Wizard World in October and STAPLE, which is coming up on March 6-8.  Staple has good indie cred, and hopefully Austin’s strong maker and literary scene can support two shows.

More to come!

Whew the comics arts festival circuit news is flowing thick and fast; we’re in the middle of application season and hearts and minds are turning to tabling. And the CAFs are answering back with news.

§ First off, the revamped APE (Alternative Press Expo) has revealed its dates and location: October 3-4 2015 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose. This is by all accounts a fine spot for a show, and the new San Jose-based APE sounds like its off to a good start. There is a one day overlap with CXC in Columbus, but what are ya gonna do—even the CAF circuit is busting out these days.

§ Short Run, the indie themed event held in Seattle, has announced its dates: Saturday, October 31st at the Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center.

WHAT?! That’s right: get ready for a “scary” good time with Short Run as we take over Halloween afternoon with comix, zines, art books, mask-making, experimental animation, and much more. There will be both tricks and treats with 250 exhibitors under the Space Needle.

WHERE??!! Yes, it’s true: our beloved Washington Hall will be under construction this entire year as they make much needed renovations. In 2015, we’ll be returning to Seattle Center (site of the very first Short Run festival), and this time, we’ll be in the grand, expansive Fisher Pavilion. We are excited to offer both exhibitors and attendees wider aisle space in this new venue!
WHO?… Well, stay tuned! We’ll be announcing our 2015 special guests soon, as well as opening applications for this year’s exhibitors. We had such an incredible experience with our international guests last year, that we will continue to bring comix artists from around the world to Seattle.

Sounds like a good time.

§ ELCAF (The East London Comics Festival) has announced it’s expanding to two days this year, June 20-21, at a venue to be named later. This show has been getting a strong reputation for indies and it’s doubling in size. Applications are also open. (h/t Zainab)

§ Finally, April’s Lineworks NW, the Portland, OR based indie fest has announced its first four guests: Daniel Clowes, Lisa Hanawalt, Lisa Congdon and Jay Howell. Clowes and Hanawalt are best known for their comics; Congdon is afire artist and Howell does animation designs for such things as Bob’s Burgers. All four have heavy multi-media portfolio, and mixing up a CAF with guests from allied arts and animation is a very smart move and probably something we’ll see a lot more of.

More CAF news coming! If you have info on a show you would like to pass long, please email The Beat at comicsbeat at gmail dot com.

Some details on the logistics of the new venue for this year’s MoCCA Festival have been announced. The show itself is moving to Center 548 on West 22nd Street, and programming will be held two blocks away at the Highline Hotel on 20th and 10th Avenue, a converted 1865 building that was once Clement Clarke Moore’s (Twas the night before Christmas) 17th century apple orchard. Programming will take place in the Rusack Room and the Matthews Room.

From the map it looks pretty close, certainly no father than any of the CAB/BCGF venues, which were also separate in days past.

It’s confirmed that Bill Kartalopoulos will be handling the programming again, great news as he is a great programmer whose panels have significantly enhanced our knowledge of comics past and present.

In addition, this year’s program will be sponsored by PrintNinja and be included with a membership. (Last year the program was a separate $5 fee.) 6000 copies are expected to be distributed and advertising opportunities are still available.

All in all, it sounds like the savings from moving from the historic and expensive Lexington Armory and other moves are being passed along to the attendee and that’s awesome.

Ellen Lindner delivers a “how to table” clinic at the 2014 show.

The Small Press Expo, to be held this year Sept. 19-20, isn’t a fully curated show. About half the booths are grandfathered in, but the rest are open in a “lottery” that is nerve-wracking but ultimately fair. While curated shows like TCAF and CAB present a sleek line-up, it’s good to have some element of the random for one premiere CAF. REgistration is open from February 1-15 and the rest of the process is laid out in an announcement. “What to expect when you’re expecting to table.”

SPX 2015 TABLE REGISTRATION
As many of you know, last year we made the move to a split registration system for SPX, whereby half of our tables are awarded by open lottery and the other half by invitation. The process will be the same for 2015.
By late January we will notify all 2015 SPX invitees so everyone will be clear on whether or not they should register for the Lottery.  Just like last year, the lottery will have a simple sign-up and a generous registration period.
WHAT TO EXPECT OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS
1. SPX 2015 invitees will hear from us before the end of January. Tables associated with any invitations not accepted will be rolled over into the lottery pool.
2. The SPX 2015 table lottery will run from February 1 to February 15, 2015 (at midnight eastern time). We’ll widely advertise the lottery opening and, at that time, provide access to an online form to enter the lottery.
3. After entering the lottery, you’ll receive your lottery number.  Don’t lose it!  Just kidding.  We’ll keep a copy and notify you either way if you win.
4. All lottery entries will be reviewed by SPX. What are we reviewing them for?  SPX is a showcase for independent comics. If it will not be clear to us that you make such things we reserve the right to remove your lottery entry. If we contact you to follow up with your registration, we appreciate your help in letting us know more about your work.
5. Upon conclusion of our review, we’ll notify the lottery winners for 2015 (yay!).  You’ll have a reasonable window of time to pay for your requested table space.

6. We’ll also maintain a wait list (based on the next 50 potential lottery winners). Tables that are not paid for in a timely manner or are subsequently cancelled will be offered to members of the wait list in turn.

THE LOTTERY PROCESS!

There are just a few steps to the process, and if you did this last year it should be familiar to you! If you’re new to the lottery this year, it takes just a few minutes.

- Beginning February 1, go to the Lottery Registration Form and submit your info (we will post this form on the SPX site, social media, Tumblr, and anywhere else we can!). There will be a full set of FAQ, rules, and other information about your registration available with this form.
- An e-mail will be sent back confirming your registration application immediately after you submit your info. Please check your spam folder if you don’t see it within a few minutes!
- Within 48 hours we will send you another e-mail with a 6 digit random number provided by Random.org.
- We will sort the lottery entrant list by random number in either ascending or order descending based on a computer generated coin flip.
- We’ll apportion tables in the order dictated until we run out.
- Remaining lottery registrants will be preserved in their lottery order as the 2015 Wait List.
- Lottery winners will be announced by mid-March 2015.
- Information about the process for paying for the tables will be made available when the lottery winners are announced, with payment processing to begin the end of the month.
- Winners will be given until April 15, 2015 to pay for their tables. Payment not received in that time frame will result in those tables in being forfeited and used for the Wait List.

Last fall, we here at The Beat teamed up with the awesome folks at The Devastator to put together a survey for convention exhibitors. With all the controversy over who is spending and what cans are can game, it seemed like time to seriously upgrade this survey. And you responded, with more than 100 people taking the survey, giving results on the top cons and CAFs that revealed average sales and average amount of satisfaction with each show.

In case you’v never heard of them, The Devastator is a humor/comic magazine based in LA that features sharp satire and art by founders Geoffrey Golden and Amanda Meadows as weel as people from The Onion, the Daily Show, Adult Swim, Marvel and more.

The result, as crunched by the Devastator’s staff, has some eye-opening statistics. You can read the entire report right here, and see some of the Devastator team’s own comments below, but here are a few of my own eye-openers:

• 6-9 years is the sweet spot. Exhibitors who were in this experience range did better than newbs or veterans. I’ve never seen this quite laid out in such a visual fashion but it does tend to back up our intuitive grasp of the rise and fall of an artist’s career, and also rampant ageism of the comics industry,
• People with bigger booths made a lot more money, but they may have needed bigger booths because they made a lot of money. So not sure what that one means.
• PR to other outlets, meaning TV and radio probably, leads to bigger sales than just social and The Usual Comics Suspects
• This was a bit of a shock: Average sales for APE, which most people thing of as not being the top show on the CAF circuit, were actually higher than SPX and MoCCA and right behind TCAF. I understand that APE has a lot of maker booths, however, and these do better than comics only booths overall.
• Just about all the major cons on the circuit are mentioned, and some get very low ratings…while having high sales, reinforcing the idea that comics people often value mood over moolah.
• Despite widely reported “con burnout” more people are doing more shows in 2015. Only 1% are going home for good.

Anyway that’s me done. Read on and discuss!!!

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Huge thanks to Amanda Meadows and Geoffrey Golden for putting this resource together.

Festival poster by Tim Lane

Whitney Taylor continues to be my favorite investigative comics journalist—well, maybe investigative is too strong a word, but if “talking to a lot of people and painting a picture” is the criterion, Whit is it, as her report on Comic Arts Brooklyn shows. This was a strong show but one that experienced an unexpected glitch: a lot of people thought it was a two day show and didn’t come to the exhibits on Saturday. This resulted in a smaller crowd and, for some, lower sales. On the day there was a lot of anxiety—it’s like basing your business plan on Christmas sales and then there’s a big blizzard the day of the big sale—but everyone seems to have survived intact.

And yet, is a financial model this precarious one that is “sustainable”? I predict sustainable will be THE word of 2015, as a the last few days of posts here have been exploring. Taylor talks about the model with many publishers and creators and key behind the scenes people like publishing rep Tony Shenton, and while everyone is optimistic, there is no real consensus on whether things are working, improving or just providing a false illusion of hope:

Sustainability is a word that I hear floating around the small-press comics world. This is an industry people choose to get into primarily because they love the medium of comics, not because of the money, but that doesn’t mean that financial concerns aren’t real, albeit complicated and often frustrating. “Art and commerce is always a troubled combination,” says Fowler. “It’s a contradiction. I’m an idealist, and I like to see artists making work apart from considerations of the marketplace, but I’m involved in a commercial enterprise related to the sale of artwork. These issues are larger than comics, but they’re predicated by living under the dominant economic model of capitalism. Artists shouldn’t think about commerce when they’re making work, but in America people vote with their pocketbooks, and it feels good when a stranger gives you money for your art. It’s important.”

The piece is full of great pull quotes, like Kevin Czapiewski:

Czapiewski also emphasized the dynamic nature of the industry. “I get the sense that the landscape is the middle of a transition, like our ideas about comics shows are evolving, largely in response to this question of whether or not they can be sustainable. I’m optimistic,” he says. “That said, I have to recognize that even my role models need to supplement their publishing operations with one or more other sources of income. We may not be able to completely sustain ourselves on selling comics, but maybe there are ways to make money from the infrastructure of comics, like printing and distribution (those webcomics guys were trying to make a business as Kickstarter campaign consultants… did that go anywhere?). Also, it may sound counter-intuitive, but I feel like the continuing diversification of the playing field, with more and more different people making and selling comics, is a good thing overall.”

I’m not going to give updates on this every time there’s a post, but just to keep up with various developments, that indie comics show in San Francisco that a bunch of volunteers have begun exploring has some pretty ambitious plans as reported by Matt Silady.

SF is currently without a major comics show, as APE and Wondercon have moved. But the dream is still alive:

SF Comics Fest Advisory Committee Update

With representatives from comics retail, publishers, professionals, education and more, we held the first committee meeting tonight. We’ve initiated a two-prong attack to bringing a comics-centric festival to San Francisco.

2015: The committee is developing a plan for a 1-2 week city-wide spring comics festival involving events at retailers, libraries, schools, bookstores and other organizations. The first step in that process is creating a master list of businesses and organizations who are interested in being involved. The point person for collecting this information is the amazing Casey Gilly. If you know of a business or organization who might like to participate, be sure to send that information her way! The tentative launch date for the festival would be Free Comics Day – Saturday, May 2nd (offering an ideal avenue for promoting city-wide festival events). EDIT: To clarify, there would be NO competing Festival events on Free Comics Day. That day is for retailers. It would just be an opportunity to spread the word about events taking place over the following week and weekend.

2016: Our goal is to merge the events and programing developed for the city-wide festival with a big hall, exhibitor-centric show in 2016 (date to be determined). Whether internally organized or through a partnership with an external organization, this show would appeal to a large audience with programing and satellite events centered around the rich and diverse comics culture of San Francisco.

The committee is scheduled to reconvene in early January to firm up a general outline for the festival. Our second town hall meeting is tentatively scheduled for early February for community feedback on the plan.

If committee members have anything to add to this summary, please do so in the comments. And if anyone has any question at this point in the process, please feel free to ask. We’ll do our best to answer. As always, we encourage and welcome your feedback!

SIMPSONS creator @mattgroening4 just popped into #thinktankgallery for the @ComicArtsLA event. Only 3 HOURS LEFT! pic.twitter.com/1AjbgP7VEy

— Think Tank Gallery (@ThinkTankDTLA) December 6, 2014

…or that’s what I get from the social media reports, which are brief but positive.

Packed house for Comics in Animation panel with @natazilla, @lisadraws, @ryanpequin! Right now! pic.twitter.com/QvLmoDnT06

— Comic Arts LA (@ComicArtsLA) December 6, 2014

CALA is hopping! Holy Crap.

— Tom Spurgeon (@comicsreporter) December 6, 2014

My review of @comicartsla: a lot of positivity and excitement in a nice, but warm, space. Much diversity among those tabling.

— Janelle Asselin (@gimpnelly) December 7, 2014

Everyone seemed really stoked to be there and to talk about their comics. Heard multiple people compare it to early MoCCAfests. @ComicArtsLA

— Janelle Asselin (@gimpnelly) December 7, 2014

Sorry to have only a vague “I quoted some tweets” report, but I didn’t find any more detailed accounts. Did you go? Was it fun? Does LA have a comics show that befits it status at last?

The jury for next year’s MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence — a prize for cartoonists has been announced and it’s stellar:  Charles Burns, Annie Koyama, David Plunkert, Andrea Tsurumi, and Alexandra Zsigmond. The awards recognize the most outstanding work on view at the festival and will be the subject of a show at the Society of Illustrators from May 12 – June 13, 2015. The  rest of the announcement below:

Society of Illustrators Executive Director Anelle Miller says, “The exhibitors at the MoCCA Arts Festival are among the most daring and inventive voices in comics and illustration working today, and we are pleased to celebrate their importantwork and advance the Society’s long heritage of recognizing the finest artists in all fields of illustration with the MoCCA.

Judging of the MoCCA Arts Festival will happen Saturday, April 11th in the afternoon. Judges will convene and discuss each of their favorites based on submissions they will have received in February, ultimately deciding on 5 “Awards of Excellence” to be named that evening. All materials chosen in the jury’s initial survey will be acquired by Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library for a newly-established MoCCA Arts Festival collection, to be expanded Guidelines for submitting work will be posted on the Society’s website after applications are approved and tables are confirmed in mid December. The deadline to apply to the MoCCA Arts Festival is December 5th, and applications are available to download from the website at www.societyillustrators.org.

Charles Burns is an American cartoonist and illustrator whose dark and thrilling comics have received wide praise and multiple awards. Burns came to prominence in the 1980s with his work for RAW, and later went on to publish several books through Fantagraphics including El Borbah (1999), Big Baby (2000), and Skin Deep (2001). In 2005, Burns published  a single volume of his hit Black Hole (Pantheon).

Annie Koyama is the publisher behind Toronto-based Koyama Press. Founded in 2007, Koyama Press is known for their  alternative edge and diverse range of titles including Michael DeForge’s Very Casual, Julia Wertz’s The Infinite Wait and  Other Stories, Walter Scott’s Wendy, and many more.

David Plunkert’s client list includes Capitol Records, Gatorade, NPR, Nickelodeon, Nike, Rolling Stone, The New York  Times, to name a few. In 1995, he co-founded Spur Design, a design studio located in Baltimore, MD. He has been  recognized by numerous organizations including Communication Arts, Graphis, and the Society of Illustrators. In 2014,  he premiered his self-published comic Heroical, which received a 2014 MoCCA Arts Festival Award of Excellence.

Andrea Tsurumi is an illustrator and cartoonist whose comic Andrew Jackson Throws a Punch won the 2013 MoCCA  Arts Festival Award of Excellence. She earned her BA from Harvard and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and her  notable client list includes The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Ballantine Books, The New York Academy of Medicine,  and many more. Her work also appears in several anthologies including Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream (Locust

Alexandra Zsigmond is the Deputy Art Director for The Opinion Section at The New York Times where she curates illustration and comics. Since graduating from Stanford University in 2004, she has worked as program coordinator and designer for several organizations including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Speaking of CAFS, a couple of other newsy notes for the burgeoning crop of events next year,

• Exhibitor applications are due by this Friday, December 5th for MoCCA:, which moves to a new venue for the 2015 Show. 2015’s event will be held April 11-12th.

• Tom Spurgeon has a thorough report on 2015’s Linework, which will be held in Portland, OR April 18-19. The show is expanding to two days for 2015, and the week after MoCCA timeframe may open up touring possibilities. The event has a new framework—shifting exhibitors and guests for each day—an innovative approach:

LWNW co-founder François Vigneault elaborates: “Our hope is that changing our exhibitor lineup for each day will make Linework NW even more fun for our exhibitors. I know from personal experience one of the frustrations of exhibiting is that you get so little time to check out the show you are at, because you’ve got to stay at your table. With this new format, an artist could table on Saturday and have plenty of time to participate in a panel or visit with friends on Sunday, or vice versa.”  An expanded slate of programming will take place both days in the Norse Hall’s Lodge Room, a much larger venue than last year’s event.

TCAF—The Toronto Comic Arts Festival—is expanding with a holiday pop-up shop at the Toronto Reference Library, home of the yearly comic festival. The shop will kick off with an event for “Just The Tips” the Sex Criminals spin off book by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky this Wednesday, December 3rd at 6 pm. Home town hero Zdarsky will be present to sign.

The shop is described as a seasonal boutique selling comics and graphic novels by Canadian authors, with purchases benefitting the TCAF non-profit.

It’s a nice idea for the festival, an d a great expansion of the retail portion of the show. TCAF 2015 will be held May 8-10.

BTW: Zdarsky—the pen name of Steve Murray—was profiled in the Globe and Mail, whicvh chronicles his off-kilter career, which has just announced its latest triumph writing a Howard the Duck revival.

Last Friday, Marvel announced that Murray had inked a deal to resurrect Howard the Duck, the much-maligned mallard last seen sipping a martini in a postcredit sequence in the summer blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy. The first issue, illustrated by Joe Quinones, will be published next March. The news caps off a spectacularly successful year for Murray, who has emerged as one of Canada’s funniest – and weirdest – voices thanks to the combination ofSex Criminals (his breakout New York Times bestselling comic series), his irreverent and frequently profane Twitter persona, and an atypical résumé that includes a stint as an intentionally bad advice columnist, a requited Facebook love affair with Applebee’s and a quixotic Toronto mayoral campaign. But Howard the Duck presents an entirely new challenge: Can Murray add punch to a character who’s become a punchline?

And here’s the official word on that new comic arts festival that people were alluding to at ICAF: Cartoon Crossroads Columbus or CXC, which will be a lot more than a CAF, really. The event will debut in 2015 as a two-day event (held October 2-3) and then grow into a four day festival in 2016. The show has a four person executive committee consisting of Cartoon Books’ Jeff Smith and Vijaya Iyer, Comics Reporter’s Tom Spurgeon and Billy Ireland Library founder Lucy Caswell. Smith is the Artistic Director, while Spurgeon will be the Festival Director. Can you say heavy hitters?

You can read more about the event in the PR below. Obviously using the Billy Ireland library for a CAF-type event is a no brainer and given the muscle behind the show, it sounds like it will quickly move into a pre-eminent spot on the calendar. But, there is still the crowded calendar to contend with. There’s an existing show in Columbus, SPACE, which, while small, has roots that go back to the birth of the CAF with the Spirits of Independence tour. SPACE has staked out the spring slot, leaving October for CXC. While that’s a very crowded time slot, CXC is well placed to take advantage of cartoonists who may want to continue their tour after SPX, and perhaps on to the revamped APE.

At any rate, given the massive comics related resources located in Columbus, this is an exciting development, and another step on the growing importance of the CAF circuit for comics.

A tumblr has been set up here.

The Columbus, Ohio based Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) has announced its formation and intention to stage a four-day, yearly comics festival beginning in Fall 2016.

The group also announced the CXC Launch Event for October 2-3, 2015. The CXC Launch Event will be a two-day show split between the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (October 2) and the Columbus Cultural Arts Center (October 3). 

The October 3 portion of the event will be a one-day comics expo featuring up to 35 exhibitors.

The four-person Executive Committee for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus is:

* Lucy Caswell, Founder, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
* Vijaya Iyer, President and Co-Publisher, Cartoon Books
* Jeff Smith, Award-Winning Cartoonist and Co-Publisher, Cartoon Books
* Tom Spurgeon, Editor and Co-Publisher, The Comics Reporter

Smith will further assume the title of President and Artistic Director. Spurgeon will serve as Festival Director, and will relocate to Columbus in early 2015.

”We’re extremely excited to try and bring a first-class comics festival to Columbus, Ohio,” said Jeff Smith. “I’ve attended and enjoyed so many great shows over the years, and hope that CXC can take its place alongside them.”

”I share with the council members a belief in the comics art form and a love for the American Midwest as a great place for comics,” said Tom Spurgeon. “We also share a passion for the professional development and infrastructure issues facing so many cartoonists. We hope that CXC can become a positive force for a better community and more effective industry.”

The group’s organizational status, its advisory council members, its initial sponsorships, details on the 2015 Launch Event including exhibitor application information and initial plans for the 2016 Festival and beyond will be announced in early 2015.

A placeholder site can be found at cxcfestival.tumblr.com

A twitter account can be followed @cxcfestival.