Short Run Comix & Arts Festival

Our 2020 festival is postponed due to the pandemic.

“In virtually no time flat, Short Run has gone from ‘let’s put on a show’ to ‘this is the heart and soul of Seattle’s creative community.’ Imagining a Seattle without a Short Run is as unthinkable as a Seattle skyline without a Space Needle.”  – The Seattle Review of Books

Festival postponement :(

Board members folding promo zines for the 2019 festival
Some board members folding promo zines for the 2019 festival

In the spirit of collective well-being and care, we are postponing the festival until we can meet again safely. With this year being our 10th anniversary, this announcement is truly tough to make. Short Run has always been more than just a festival; it is a community made up of all of us weirdo artists and readers who found each other through our shared love of comix and zines. We will miss seeing you in person—crowded together in Fisher Pavilion, behind and in front of tables filled with the best books. We hope to announce a 2021 date as soon as we possibly can. 

In the meantime, we’re not going away! We know we have a community to support—whom we need just as much! The festival has always served as a deadline for us artists to make new work. For the time being, we have to find new ways to get motivated and feel connected—new ways to celebrate printed work and to share the stories that are piling up inside of us. The pandemic has exposed how broken our systems are. It has revealed truths about suffering that we have known all along. Comix and comix artists help us heal by expressing solidarity in both our shared and unshared experiences. They are a critical eye on these broken systems. They envision a better tomorrow by helping us process our thoughts and realities. 

We can’t wait to surprise you with upcoming print and publication projects, offbeat summer school workshops and discussions, and revamped grant and residency opportunities. Keep a look out—and let us know what you’re up to, even if it’s just staring into space (we’re doing a lot of that, too). Stay safe—and, more than ever, STAY WEIRD! 

The Short Run Board of Directors

(Kelly, Mita, Emilie, Jessica, Otts, Lyli, and Meredith)

Coronavirus-related comics

Comic page by Jamaica Dyer

 

Are you stuck at home? Are your anxieties through the roof? We’d like to collect 1-page comics about what your daily life looks like now, whether it be good or bad. We’d like to share what this experience LOOKS like. Pages will be reprinted in a quick & dirty old-school photocopied zine (once we feel safe going out to print it), in the meantime, we’ll post the comics on our tumblr page and share the link widely. Stick to 5.5″ x 8.5″ digest mini-comic format so that we can easily put it together. No deadline, comics will be loaded as they are received.

Email your comic page to short.run.info@gmail.com

Posted on by kelly
Categories: News

The DASH GRANT! (temporarily on hold)

UPDATE: Short Run’s Dash Grant is temporarily on hold! All applications received will be held until further notice, and the applicants will have a chance to refresh their application before judging. 

This micro-grant is for self-publishers who could use the help to finish their comic. Because of our fundraising efforts, we are able to double the cash amount previously offered. Guidelines are below.  Read more…

Trailer Blaze 2020 Residents

***UPDATE: Trailer Blaze Comics Residency postponed 1 year due to safety concerns regarding COVID-19 and our state’s mandated quarantine. All residents will be welcomed back next year with no additional application.***

We are honored that so many artists took the time to share their work with us. We received almost 60 applications for 6 open slots! Receiving this much interest in the time, space, and company that Trailer Blaze offers has solidified what we already knew: this kind of opportunity away from home to focus on a project with the support of your creative peers is so important.  Read more…

Dash Grant winner 2019 Rumi Hara

We’re so thrilled that our Dash Grant winner Rumi Hara was able to come to Seattle a few days early and screen print her covers for her gorgeous new mini-comic, The Peanut Butter Sisters. She had this to say, “I had a wonderful time in Seattle! It was amazing being part of the Short Run community, meeting new friends through comics and being inspired to keep making more books. I’m so grateful for the time and space and all the encouragement I was given to make the new comic.”

Read more…