SAVE THE DATE: Our next festival will be on Saturday, November 4th, 2023. Exhibitor applications are now closed.
Add yourself to our mailing list for deadline reminders and updates on upcoming local programming.
Molly Colleen O’Connell from Berwyn, IL is our Dash Grant recipient this year, for her mini-comic “Pebbles #2” which will premiere at Short Run on Nov. 4th!
Pebbles 2: the next chapter in the story of an ornithophile who tries new meds. “It’s Total Recall meets Heathers” – Conor Stechschulte Read more…
We congratulate this year’s recipients of a Katie Kelso Travel Grant!
Thank you to everyone who applied, we got more applications than ever before! Please welcome this year’s roster of exhibitor artists.
Read more…
Students (ages 14-20) will learn how to put drawing and writing together into self-published comics or zines (an accessible, low-cost medium for storytelling and self-expression). Students will also grow their experience with long-term creative project planning.
The culmination of this program will involve youth participants exhibiting their books at the foundry10 table at Short Run Comix & Arts Festival on Nov. 4th, 2023.
RSVP & more details here.
Welcome our special guests for 2023! Their bios and more coming soon!
Simon Hanselmann @simon.hanselmann, Arantza Peña Popo @_ara_pena_
Anand Shenoy (India) @anandpagalkutta, Johanna Maierski (Germany) @coloramaprint
Léonie Bischoff (Belgium) @leonie_nevermind, Ron Regé, Jr. @ronregejr
Tim Root @dink_rinkle, Amanda Vähämäki (Finland) @amandavahamaki
[Updated for 2023] If you haven’t been to a previous Short Run festival, you should know that we are unlike a mainstream “comic-con” in many ways. We are a free, one day festival that takes place in a large, 12,000 sq. ft. space on the ground floor, with tall front windows and a high ceiling. There are no smaller break-out rooms. There will be a few hands-on activities like zine-making or screen printing, but the main focus will be on the exhibiting artists showcasing their work at tables on the festival floor. Approximately 250 artists will be there, and we expect attendance to be about 4,500 people spread out over 7 hours. Read more…
[UPDATED for 2023!] Here are details about travel, lodging, WiFi, food, etc.! We are looking forward to seeing you and providing you with a great festival experience! Read more…
[UPDATED for 2023!] We are happy to return to our festival venue Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. Read more…
Find all fest photos on our Flickr page! Also check out this fest report by our photographer Chris Anthony Diaz, for The Comics Journal. Read more…
Another wonderful week at The Sou’Wester Lodge for our 7th annual Trailer Blaze Comics Residency, with 13 artists from all over – Seattle, Philadelphia, Hiroshima, Norfolk, Portland, Omaha, Haida Gwaii, Osoyoos! Read more…
It happened! We successfully held our 10th anniversary Short Run Comix & Arts Festival after a 2-year postponement! 200 exhibitor-artists (from all over the US, and 6 other countries) filled Fisher Pavilion, and over 4,000 people attended over 7 hours. Despite it being a very rainy weekend, Saturday was mostly sunny and clear, and at one point there was a rainbow! Exhibitors reported record sales, which meant Seattle came out to support these artists that have been so isolated without the festival circuit. THANK YOU SEATTLE!!!
Local artist and illustrator Julia Wald is this year’s DASH GRANT recipient! We were really excited about her story synapsis and hyper-color drawing style of her upcoming comic, Uncle Scam’s Army Navy Surplus, an autobiography of their first job out of school in Buffalo, working at an army navy surplus store where they sold military gear to doomsday preppers, zombie cosplayers, and neo Nazis. This first part of a much longer story will premiere at Short Run on Nov. 5th. Read more…
Each of these incredible artists & festival exhibitors will receive $400 towards their travel to Seattle for Short Run on Nov. 5th! Read more…
Trailer Blaze 2022 really, truly happened after a 2 year postponement, and it made the experience even more special.
This year we welcomed new residents Veronika Muchitsch (UK), Melanie Stevens (OR), Krusty Wheatfield (CA), Lenora Yerkes (DC), Janna Morton (MD), Rachel Scheer (Seattle); invited artists Lydia Fu (IL), Katie Fricas (NY); alumni, local mentors Mita Mahato, E.T. Russian, Lauren Armstrong, Megan Kelso, and Kelly Froh. Read more…
We want artists to get to know each other better, through their work and processes, and to invest in each other more fully as a year round community. Artists will stand up and stand by their work, and present it to other people, instead of working mostly in isolation with no feedback or support. What does being part of a community mean? That we all live in a geographical area, or that we are invested in the progress and success of our peers? Let’s inspire each other!
As consolation for another year passing without a festival, Short Run has published The Short Run Comix & Arts Festival Catalog, which features 40 new releases from WA State comic artists, authors, and zinesters, ads for small print and publishing businesses, plus DIY projects and local stores. This free, 16-page newsprint catalog, designed by Jacob Covey, will be mailed all across the US. Read more…
Pick up a copy of our new book Decade: 10 Years of Short Run Comix & Arts Festival at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, Elliott Bay Book Company, Push/Pull, Floating World Comics in Portland, Silver Sprocket in San Francisco, and Spit and a Half online distro.
What a great idea! The “Comics Festival” has become such a crucial and integral part of the comics community over the past couple decades, and while there are plenty of social media posts and con-reports that surface online, the experience is pretty ephemeral. Seattle’s Short Run Fest has solved that by producing this gorgeous, full color year by year look back at their festivals and events over the past ten years. – John Porcellino
If you cannot pick it up in person, it’s also on our Etsy page for $27 (US shipping included).
Board Member McKenna Haley with our new book “Decade: 10 Years of Short Run Comix & Arts Festival” and with tote bag designed by Weng Pixin. Books and totes available on our etsy page.
