More news from the comic arts festival circuit. CXC (Cartoon Crossroads Columbus), the second year show in Columbus, has just announced their guest list and it’s super stellar from Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau on. The show is held in conjunction with the Billy Ireland Library and after a successful launch last year is gearing up to be one of the premiere stops on the CAF circuit. More guests will be announced in September.
Jeff Smith, CXC’s President and Artistic Director, says “With last year’s inaugural CXC festival proving to be such a success, we wanted to make the second year something even more memorable. This is a deep, diverse line-up of extraordinary talent, sure to make this year’s festival an unforgettable experience for cartoon art fans and we can’t wait to share it with Columbus and the world.”
CXC 2016 will be held October 13–16.
The list:
Lalo Alcaraz
The multi-talented Lalo Alcaraz has worked in syndicated comics (La Cucaracha) and political cartooning, branching out in recent years into radio commentary, arts education and television writing. Alacaraz will be sponsored by SÕL-CON: The Brown and Black Comix Expo 2016.
Sergio Aragones
The cartoonist behind thousands of doodles in the margins of MAD Magazine and the creator of Groo The Barbarian, Sergio Aragones is one of comics’ grandest personalities and among the medium’s greatest craftsmen.
Charles Burns
Charles Burns is one of the most visually powerful cartoonists of all time. His masterpiece is Black Hole, a study of a disfiguring disease released amongst 1970s teenagers and perhaps the best work of art ever made about alienation and body horror. Burns will be sponsored by Columbus College Of Art & Design.
John Canemaker
Award-winning animator and educator John Canemaker’s resume includes an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and the seminal written works on the Disney’s Nine Old Men, Mary Blair and Winsor McCay. Canemaker will be sponsored by Wexner Center for the Arts.
Julia Gfrörer
Julia Gfrörer’s comics confront the dark side of human existence, weaving in and out of mystical archetypes in its exploration of extreme behavior and historical atrocity. Her second major collection, Laid Waste (Fantagraphics), debuts at CXC 2016. Gfrörer will be sponsored by The Comics Reporter.
Brandon Graham
Brandon Graham is the editor of the electrifying anthology Island (Image Comics) and the creator of the lauded science fiction series Multiple Warheads and King City. One of comics most fertile imaginations and prodigious drawers, Graham was a driving force behind the recent revival of Rob Liefeld’s character Prophet.
Jay Hosler
A full professor of biology at Juniata College, cartoonist Jay Hosler is an award-winning teacher and who is best known for his groundbreaking work in science comics, including Clan Apis, The Sandwalk Adventures, Optical Allusions, Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth and Last Of The Sandwalkers. Hosler will be sponsored by Laughing Ogre.
Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor is best known for his long-running alt-weekly comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He is also an accomplished graphic novelist and educator. Katchor will appear at CXC 2016 in support of a 25th anniversary re-release of his groundbreaking comics collection Cheap Novelties.
Keith Knight
Keith Knight has worked across multiple comics platforms for clients as varied as DailyKos, United Media and MAD Magazine. He is one of the country’s most astute commentators on issues of political, social and racial importance. Knight will be sponsored by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
Ed Koren
A former cartoonist laureate of Vermont and a unique, decades-long presence within the hallowed ground of The New Yorker, Ed Koren is also a world class printmaker.
Sacha Mardou
Sacha Mardou is the creator of The Sky In Stereo, a critically-lauded memoir about her teenage years in Manchester, the music she listened to and the choices she made. Mardou will be sponsored by Comics Workbook.
Stan Sakai
Stan Sakai is the creator of the all-ages series Usagi Yojimbo, an historically-informed adventure saga of a masterless samurai more than three decades in the telling thus far. Sakai will be sponsored by Laughing Ogre.
Seth
A lauded designer (The Complete Peanuts), gallery artist (Dominion) and comics historian (40 Books Of Interest), Seth is best known as the cartoonist behind the series Palooka-Ville and such well-regarded graphic novels such as It’s A Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, George Sprott, (1894-1975) and Wimbledon Green.
Raina Telgemeier
Raina Telgemeier is a book-publishing phenomenon. Her book Smile has sold several million copies since its release in 2010, establishing for all time the legitimacy of book-length comics for younger readers. Telgemeier’s appeareance will be supported by Scholastic Books and Columbus Metropolitan Library.
Ann Telnaes
Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes brings her unique perspective and skill set to CXC 2016, including her work in animated editorial cartooning. Telnaes will be sponsored by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau is one of our greatest living cartoonists and his Doonesbury a major cultural and political touchstone in addition to its staggering artistic achievement. Trudeau will be sponsored by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
Carol Tyler
Carol Tyler is a legend of underground comix. Her 2015 masterwork A Soldier’s Heart explored the issue of undiagnosed PTSD sufferers among the World War 2 generation.
David Walker
David Walker is a filmmaker and journalist who has enjoyed significant recent success writing comic books: Shaft (Dynamite), Cyborg (DC Comics) and Power Man & Iron Fist (Marvel). Walker will be sponsored by SÕL-CON: The Brown and Black Comix Expo 2016.
Ronald Wimberly
Ronald Wimberly is a comics stylist for the ages. His range allows for full-blown graphic novels (The Prince Of Cats), stand-alone illustration or piercing comics essays (Lighten Up). Wimberly will appear courtesy of the Columbus Museum of Art/Thurber House Graphic Novelist Residency.
Skottie Young
Skottie Young’s unique, energetic style of comics art has allowed him an array of high-profile opportunities: illustrating for Neil Gaiman, illuminating the Land Of Oz with Eric Shanower, hitting the bookstore and comics shop sales charts for Marvel Comics and launching his own successful Image Comics series, I Hate Fairyland.
