Fall Comics Festivals & Classes

Our fall lineup is live. And it's a little too busy.

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Crucial Comix
September 12, 2025

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» Birds of Los Angeles: My city is beautiful because of migration—human and otherwise.

 Fall Classes and Workshops

We just finalized our workshop and class lineup for the fall! All of our classes are sliding-scale and we have free spots available for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

Editing Comics with Shay Mirk

This hands-on class focuses on editing other peoples’ nonfiction work while also improving your own. Over five sessions, we’ll focus on both practical editing skills and reflect on personal topics such as dealing with conflict and communicating well with collaborators. Tuesdays, Sept 30-Oct. 28 from 4-5:30pm PST/7-8:30pm EST

Caregivers of young children are invited to learn the fundamentals of comics creation while drawing our family stories. This class is designed for us to reflect, release, and illustrate our solidarity with families across the world who are oppressed and being silenced for speaking the truth about ongoing forms of colonialism. Wednesdays, Oct. 22 - Nov. 19, 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-9pm EST

Fall workshops:

• How to Get an Agent: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will cover the basics of how to get an agent for a graphic novel project: preparing your pitch, querying agents, and how to know when you’ve found an agent that’s right for you. Thursday September 18, 4-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Do you have an iPad but feel intimidated by drawing on it? This workshop led by Audra McNamee will support you in learning tips and tricks to illustrate in the app Procreate. Wednesday, September 24 from 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

• Teaching Comics: How to Design Your Own Comics Workshop - Get support in designing a one-hour comic workshop that you can teach online or in person. Artist Sarah Maloney will go over warm ups, writing prompts and exercises, timing, and writing a workshop outline. Sunday, October 12 at 11am-1pm PST/2pm-4pm EST

 Fall Festivals!

Our bags are packed full of comics for the Small Press Expo this weekend, kicking off three months of independent comics festivals. We’re excited to bring the work of many creators to the Crucial Comix table at all these festivals:

• Small Press Expo, September 13-14 — Bethesda, MD
• Comic Arts Festival of Eugene, October 4 — Eugene, OR
• Short Run Comix Festival, November 1 — Seattle, WA
• Portland Zine Symposium, November 9 (Sunday only) — Portland, OR
• Nonfiction Comics Fest, November 15, Burlington, VT
• MICE, December 6-7, Boston, MA

News: What’s Going on in Washington, D.C.?

A massive protest against the deployment of the National Guard in D.C. on Sept 6th, 2025. Photo by Geoff Livingston (CC)

The nation’s biggest independent comics festival, the Small Press Expo, will bring hundreds of cartoonists to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. this weekend. This is a particularly dicey time to be in D.C., writes comics journalist Josh Kramer in a dispatch from his home city. Since Trump deployed National Guard squads across the city, “Common, everyday stuff, like not paying the bus fare—which kind of became the norm in the pandemic—might be enough reason for you to end up in jail now if you’re Black or brown.” Josh has lived in D.C. for the past twenty years and writes in his newsletter:

“Every day we find out a little more, just how bad it can be. When the police pull someone over now, it is indeed the same policemen, but now there might be an ICE agent riding in the back seat, pulling the immigration status of the resident they pulled over and detaining them on the spot. Or, a half dozen masked, plainclothes agents might leap out of a van and pull someone off a moped. After detaining someone, they sometimes leave their truck running, door ajar, in the middle of the street, as if they have been raptured up to heaven.”

Read Josh’s whole essay here.

$$ Opportunities for Artists $$

• Wild Ramp publishing is offering $250 grants to people who want to make zines about disability justice! The deadline to apply is September 12. 

• Are you making a comic about anything medieval? The Newberry Library is offering $250 grants to cartoonists working on minicomics about medieval culture. A great opportunity for anyone obsessed with knights. Applications close October 17.

• Artists in Los Angeles County! Check out the Lightning Fund, which offers $6,000 to visual artists producing work outside of museums and traditional galleries. That sounds like a comics project for sure! Applications close October 5th.

• Artists in Oregon! A $5,000 Community Storytelling Fellowship from Oregon Humanities supports writers and artists working in any medium who want to create a story about a community they’re a part of. Applications close October 1.

Crucial Comix is supported by the Sequential Artists Workshop. Thanks friends!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at [email protected]. 💌