10 Years Of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus – Very Special Guests Announced Including Jeff Smith, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Art Spiegelman

Celebrating 10 years of another great comics show – it’s time for the CXC – Cartoon Crossroads Columbus guest announcements…

.

10 years ago, Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, and Lucy Shelton Caswell co-founded and held the first CXC show. Now much bigger and better, CXC celebrates it’s 10th anniversary in style, with a host of guests just announced this week including Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim, Seconds, Snotgirl), Jerry Craft (New Kid, Class Act), Art Spiegelman (MAUS, RAW), Françiose Mouly (TOON Books, The New Yorker, RAW), Kate Beaton (Ducks, Hark A Vagrant), and Jeff Smith (Bone, RASL) doing his only US festival appearance in 2024.

CXC is a city-wide, four-day arts festival and an international showcase for cartoon art, taking place 26-29 Sept 2024 across a variety of venues in Columbus, OH.

It’s ten years of bringing the best and brightest in comics, graphic novels, political cartoons, animation and comic strips right to our doorstep of Columbus, Ohio. This year promises to be even more special. Prepare to be dazzled by legendary creators, laugh alongside cartoonists, and be swept away by the power of visual storytelling in all its forms.
Jeff Smith, co-founder of CXC and creator of Bone

They also unveiled the 2024 CXC poster by cartoonist Evan Salazar, who joins an impressive list of poster alumni. Salazar also received the Emerging Talent Award at last year’s CXC. His main project is the self-published comic book Rodeo, which explores the secret passageways that connect memory, imagination, and family.

I am honored to have been asked to draw the poster for CXC’s tenth year. I wanted to highlight CXC’s dedication to the arts by visualizing a cartoonist’s world coming to life around them, a smorgasbord of colors and movement meant to inspire and comfort our intrepid artist and his pet pal. I also want to thank Jeff Smith for his trust with the assignment: “Draw whatever you want” were his words, proving the artist-first ethos of CXC aren’t just for show. They’re for real.
Evan Salazar

In addition to the tent-pole guests, there’s plenty of big names appearing and names you might not yet recognise but whose work you may just find yourself falling for – Chip Zdarsky, Ben Passmore, Ruper Kinnard, Ahn Jae-huun, Rafael Rosado, Alexandra Bowman, Léonie Bischoff, Ryan Holmberg, Tina Horn, Cole Pauls, L. Pidge, Nate Powell, David Rickert, Ed Steed, Lisa Sterle, Sam Szabo, Maggie Umber, and Bianca Xunise.

Incredibly, all of CXC is free to the public, which is just a great thing and one that encourages engagement and inclusivity for so many lovers of the medium – and better yet, those who haven’t fallen in love with comics, yet!

But to make CXC free it takes a hell of a lot of work and plenty of cash. And that’s where you can get involved and ensure CXC continues to be free. They depend on support, financial and otherwise, from the wider community, including from foundations, corporate sponsors, and individuals – and that’s you. They’ve announced a fundraising campaign to go along with the guest announcements, where, seeing as it’s the 10th year, board members have pooled resources to match donations up to $10,000!
To make a gift or for more information, click here!