Fresh Meat is the School of Visual Art’s annual in-house comics fair and it’s a place where many a comics star has been spotted in nascent form. This year’s event will be held April 29th, from 6 to 9 pm at the SVA Student Center located at 217 East 23rd Street.
The event is organized by Cartoon Allies, a student-run organization at SVA, and it has a pretty storied history, i’m told. The first one was organizaed as the SVA COmics Festival by Raina Telgemeier, then only an ambitious student body president and now one of the bestselling comics artists of the century. The first event featured exhibitors such as Dash Shaw (BodyWorld) and Tintin Pantoja (Who is AC?). Notable cartoonists who got their first exposure at smiling behind a table since then include: Jess Fink (Chester 5000, We Can Fix It!), Liz Baillie (Freewheel), David McGuire (Gastrophobia), Edwin Huang (Skullkickers), Allison Strejlau (Regular Show), Laura Knetzger (Bug Boys), Gus Storms (EGOs), and Molly Ostertag (Strong Female Protagonist). This year’s president is Alex Graudins and incoming president is Linnea Kataja, two more talented youngsters.
Here’s the event posters, above by Sally Jingmei Han (SVA BFA Cartooning 2016) and below by Brigitte Woltjen (SVA BFA Illustration 2016).
