Trailer Blaze 2023 Residents Announced

Night time photo booth pic by Lydia Fu, 2022

After a very hard decision process, we’ve chosen our 14-person cohort for this year’s residency. The applications expressed a real urgency for time, space, and nourishment for our projects (and ourselves!) We know that a week on Long Beach Peninsula will deliver! Read more…

Join us for the 7th annual Trailer Blaze comics residency! 

 

Photo by Lydia Fu, 2022

The Trailer Blaze Residency takes place at The Sou’Wester Lodge and Vintage Trailer Park in Seaview, WA, April 2 – 7th, 2023. The Sou’Wester has a rich tradition of supporting artists and musicians and we are excited to bring the next group of trailer blazers! 

Applications will be accepted from January 16th to February 28th, with residents announced on March 3rd. Read more…

Year In Review (so long 2022!)

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!!! 

Read more…

Categories: News

DASH GRANT recipient 2022 – Julia Wald

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…

Exhibitor List

We’re excited to welcome exhibitors from 20 different states, and 6 countries. 40% of the exhibitors are from Washington State, and many are tabling with us for the first time. (Listed below alphabetical by first name/business name and their main websites are hyperlinked. Special Guests names in BOLD.) Read more…

Health & Safety Information

Why Short Run Comix & Arts Festival is coming back

Our festival has been on hiatus through the last two years of the pandemic. Building a community of comix and small press artists and enthusiasts is core to our mission, and it’s been tough to do in the remote existence we’ve been living. The risks of COVID-19 weigh heavily on our minds, as does the isolation of so many in our community and the hardships of the pandemic on artists. We made the decision to hold the festival this fall as the past few years have offered little for artists in the way of book tours and ways to engage with a new audience. As an organization, it has been difficult to sustain the level of volunteer engagement needed without a festival to plan and execute. And finally, the continuation of Short Run (the organization, as a whole) depends on the festival this year, because financially, our infrastructure will not survive another postponement. Read more…

Trailer Blaze 2022

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…

SHOW UP – monthly artist talks

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! 

Read more…

Categories: News

2021 Year In Review

(L-R) Kelly Froh, Jessica Hoffman, Robyn Jordan, and Meredith Li-Vollmer at Decade book release party 

Hi Everybody – 

Well, we’re still trying to hang on until we can all be together again in a large public space! We even set a date and rented a venue, but we will continue to wait to see how the world adapts, moves forward, or declines further (anything can happen). Read more…

Categories: News

Short Run Comix & Arts Festival Catalog

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…

Where to get our new book

Pick up a copy of our new book Decade: 10 Years of Short Run Comix & Arts Festival at Fantagraphics Bookstore & GalleryElliott Bay Book Company, Push/PullFloating 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).