Heinz History Center
1212 Smallman St
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Parking at the Heinz
Free on-street parking surrounding the museum is available. Parking lots within walking distance to the History Center:
Please note: these lots are not owned by the Heinz History Center and the cost of parking varies based on demand & special events.
PIE 2025 poster by Hannibal Gerald
Special Guests
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Bill Boichel is the owner and operator of the beloved Copacetic Comics. With over 48 years in comics retail Bill Boichel has witnessed the evolution of comics from disposable newsstand entertainment to a recognized art form featured in galleries, museums, and universities.
Bill has organized countless comics experiences, because just “convention” or “store” doesn’t capture the magnitude of his work in the community! As early as Cosmic Con (1979 -1981) to BEM from 1984 to 1995 (first as a monthly convention called Transfer) then a store (BEM: The Store) and a small publishing arm from 1985 to 2000 (Transformer, No Comics - which had Frank Santoro's first published comics,) followed by The Copacetic Comics Company (a legendary store that carries oh so much more than just comics, including hosting a year of Bill’s daily drawings called The Daily Davis) from 2000 to the present, and the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo (PIX) from 2011 to 2017.
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instagram.com/misterbananawoman
Hannibal Gerald is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Pittsburgh, and a member of the National Cartoonists Society. Her work has been featured in The Baffler, Freaky Magazine various other indie zines. She is currently working on her comic short series CEO Joe.
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John Kelly is the Pittsburgh-based publisher of dummy, a comics history publication. He is a longtime contributor to The Comics Journal and the former Executive Director of The ToonSeum, Pittsburgh’s small comic art museum.
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Christina Lee is a Korean-American cartoonist and illustrator based in Brooklyn, NY by way of San Jose, CA and Pittsburgh, PA. She holds a BFA in Fine Art from Carnegie Mellon University and MFA in Illustration from FIT.
She is a co-founder of Pullproof Studio, a community screenprinting studio, and Alright Editions, a small press. Energetic mark making, concise compositions, and colorful subjects define her prints, zines, animations, and comics. Her work has been featured by Hyperallergic, i-D Magazine, The Fader, Public Books, The Comics Journal, and Solrad, and recognized by the Society of Illustrators and American Illustration. She has exhibited at LUSTR Festival, Comic Arts Brooklyn, Small Press Expo, and Short Run. Recently, she was a Designer at Vice, producing editorial creative for Refinery29, and currently teaches in the Illustration undergraduate department at FIT.
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instagram.com/nowwhatanimation
Now What?! is a media nonprofit that uses animation and comedy to demystify issues around democracy and civics.
Panels in the 6th floor Library
Schedule to be announced
Hands-on Workshops
Schedule to be announced
Exhibitors!
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80 Proof Comix
Mini comics since the mid 1980's crossing a variety of topics. Lately been focusing on love of low budget movie making with producer character. Completed a run of comics based on working as a house manager/QIDP for a group home. Also do one panel toons(generally at work).
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A Small Frog Art
Bob has been making art since they were tiny, and telling sequential stories for about as long, with a special love for animals, odd little creatures, and some magic. They love comics and hope to make some really fun ones that mean a lot to the people who read them!
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A. T. Pratt
A. T. Pratt is a cartoonist, self-publisher, professor and paper engineer from NYC. His comics often include special features like pop-ups, foldouts, and innovative binding techniques.
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Adam Bell Games
bsky.app/profile/adambell.games
I make tabletop roleplaying and storytelling games that aim to let any group of people tell a great story they'll remember. My games include Grasping Nettles, a worldbuilding game; Legend Has It, an anthology creation game where you pull sentences from your favorite books and turn them into new stories; My Brain is a Stick of Butter, a single player ADHD simulator; and No Stone Unturned, a post-post-apocalyptic roleplaying game with a focus on environmentalism.
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Alex Lupp
Alex Lupp writes comics. Born in Bucharest, Romania, he found himself flung across the ocean at the tender age of thirteen. Landing in the Washington, DC area, he has since come to call the city his home. Along the way came comics, and a life long interest in experiencing and telling stories.
Sand is a series of fantasy comics set on a desert world. The story begins in a realm of myth where twin gods accidentally create a world due to their rivalry. Future issues tell of life on that young planet, from unlikely animal friendships, to the tragedy of the first human explorer, and even swashbuckling adventure! -
Altargokart
Altargokart is a print project by Ash Rudolph, featuring colorful illustrations, comics, zines, and risograph prints.
I began my artistic career as a pyrographer, creating unique woodburnings through a slow and intense physical process, and my printed work stems from those designs. My work explores queerness, connection to nature, religious deconstruction, and homemaking with chosen family. -
Alyssa Van Hulle Illustration
I am an illustrator and comics creator based in Central PA. I enjoy making stories featuring characters of the silly variety. When I'm not drawing, I'm reading, knitting, or hanging out with my husband and silly little dog.
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Angela Fanche and Katie Lane
Angela Fanche is a cartoonist based in New York. Fanche's debut book “Me&Night” is a collection of autobiographical comics from 2018-2020 which was published by Cram Books in 2021. Since then, she has transitioned from diaristic to surreal, dreamlike narrative drawings in works such as “Performance of a Love Note” published by Entropy Editions in 2022, "This Valentine's Day" self published in 2023 and “Gateway to a Miracle” featured in Smoke Signal 42 published by Desert Island in 2024.
Katie Lane is a cartoonist and collage artist. Her work depicts the emotional and material intensities of relationships, and work: navigating the boundaries of philosophy, personal hardship and self criticism. Lane's collage webcomic single camera sitcom ran from 2018-2022, and is being published in a forthcoming volume by comicsblogger. Her recent pen and ink work in the collections sine qua non, perception through a gqp, and blue idea orbit sexual experiences and iterations of argumentative moments in romantic partnerships. -
Angela Oddling
angelao.gumroad.com/l/unfinished-biz1
I'm Angela, a visual artist based in the woody hills of Western Pennsylvania. I gravitate toward illustration work where I can create designs for comics, graphic novels, games, and other publications. I also facilitate workshops focusing on creative processes such as storytelling through comics and zines, working through creative block and imposter syndrome, and other traditional and digital methods of creating such as drawing, painting, bookbinding, and typesetting.
My personal work weaves monsters and magic into the tales of everyday characters. I often create art which explores the not-so-fun and complicated parts of being a person and how they affect our journeys to self-love and acceptance. I aim to create a place of belonging and comfort within my work, and hope to make my readers feel a little less alone. -
Annah Feinberg
ANNAH FEINBERG writes and draws, often at the very same time. Her "effervescent[ly] humor[ous]"debut graphic novel "Goodbye, Dolly!" "...deftly strikes the tone of dumb people who think they're smart", while her previous comics and humor writing have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Bon Appétit, Awry, Mutha Magazine, The Hairpin, the collection Notes from the Bathroom Line, and in her zines "The Shapelies", "Food Source", and "Me Myselves And". Annah has developed adult animated shows for Showtime and AMC, wrote and produced short films "Fetus Monster" and "The Workplace", and is currently developing another adult animated show, writing two live-action features and working on another graphic novel. Formerly a playwright, dramaturg, and Hollywood assistant, Annah has an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University and was a founding member of theater activist group The Kilroys. Before that, she was a child who wrote and drew, often at the very same time.
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Apollo Baltazar
bsky.app/profile/apollocored.bsky.social
Apollo Baltazar is a Filipino-American cartoonist from Southern California currently residing in New York City. Apollo received his BFA in Comics from the School of Visual Arts in 2023. He primarily makes autobio comics, and has previously done work for the Washington Post and the Nib.
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Audra Stang
Audra Stang is a cartoonist from Lebanon, PA, raised in Greensboro, NC. Her anthology, The Audra Show, features autobiographical comics set in the fictional Star Valley. She has also contributed to publications like Poison Pill, CRAM, and Megillah Sunday Funnies. Her book Tunnel Vision, a collection of a five-part serial from Rust Belt Review, was nominated for the 2024 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Short-Form Comic.
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Bacterium Bug
Mortimer “Morty” Foster is a butch zinester and craftsman from Columbus, Ohio who sees a creature in everything. He’s passionate about bookmaking, storytelling, and touching mud.
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BELLRINGER
BellRinger is a graphic novel series following bell-headed dolls in a dark fantasy world.
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Bill White
I'm a game designer and game studies scholar who's written about the tabletop role-playing game "indie scene." I am currently working on a book about the GM role in TRPGs. I've also done freelance work for small-press RPG publishers. The games I write are experiments with the experience of fantasy world-building and world-playing.
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Back Porch Comics / Bob Corby / Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE)
Bob Corby is a 70 year old who runs SPACE (Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo) in Columbus. He is a retired structural engineer who has been a part-time cartoonist publishing his own work and the work of others since 1986. He publishes Oh,Comics! an annual themed anthology comic which has been published since 1988. His other publications include Plans, Leaves, Amazing Tales of Entropy, Test!, and numerous minicomics and zines including his latest, Paris 2025. All are available at www.backporchcomics.com
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BREADZONED
Carleigh Ross ("breadzoned") is an illustrator and designer fueled by caffeine and her love of creepy, funny comics. When she’s not creating, you can find her tending to her small army of plants or at carleighross.com! -
Brian Canini
Brian Canini is a cartoonist born from the bosom of the Midwest - Columbus, Ohio. There he lives with his wife, Amy, and their three kiddos. Through his efforts in self-publishing, he has created the award-winning autobio graphic novels Fear of Flying and The Big Year, the critically acclaimed sci-fi comic Plastic People, the award-winning solo anthology Airbag, and is part of the team that produces the Eisner-nominated comics newspaper The Columbus Scribbler.
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C. A. P. Ward
C. A. P. Ward is a queer black cartoonist and illustrator working on heartfelt genre stories. They like vibrant colors, unusual paneling, and overburdening their characters. When they aren’t drawing they can be found longboarding around the illustrious east coast potholes.
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Cameron Arthur
bubbleszine.com/product/hidden-islands-by-cameron-arthur
Cameron Arthur is a cartoonist from Texas now based in Pittsburgh, PA. He has recently made his publishing debut with “Hidden Islands” a short story collection out from Bubbles Fanzine as well as put out the comic series Broken Wires with Phantoro Press.
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Cameron Mukwa
Cameron Mukwa (they/them) is an Anishinaabe graphic novelist and illustrator creating stories with a focus on transgender life and magical realism. They want to create stories where kids of all ages can see themselves represented.
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Chloe Kittredge
Chloe Kittredge is a Pittsburgh-based illustrator with a focus on playful storytelling and tactile construction. Her work includes a variety of independently-published comics, art prints, hand-made merchandise, and a series of murals in local small businesses.
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Christopher Goblin Press
instagram.com/christophergoblin
We are a small press based in chicago who make absurd, yet sentimental mini comics and zines. At the moment we’re focusing on printing up and coming queer cartoonists, and we’re mostly focused on RISO printing.
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Circle Puppy Comix Collective
Circle Puppy is Erin Andrews (Knoxville, TN), Max Barnewitz (Washington DC), Elana Finkelstein (Portland, OR), Sara McGrath (Los Angeles, CA), and Jamie Straw (Pittsburgh, PA). We met in grad school, stayed in touch, and have been keeping one another accountable and representing one another's work at comics and zine fairs around the country since 2023! We make autiobio, fantasy, autofiction, infographic, and more!
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Comix Clubhouse
We are an independent publisher of comic books for all-ages. Each of our stories features fun characters stuck in hilarious situations and going on exciting adventures. Whether they’re teaming up to save the multiverse or just looking for some salad, we hope our characters will capture the imaginations of readers young and old. So come on in and join the club.
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Coffeehouse Comix with Shawn Atkins
Shawn Atkins is a cartoonist of webcomics, illustrator, lover of oatmeal raisin cookies, aspiring art teacher, and dad. I’ve been drawing comics all my life. I also dabble in drawing sticker, ceramics and photography I'm always excited to share my love of all things creative and Illustrations.
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Conor Stechschulte
Conor Stechschulte is a cartoonist and screenwriter. He is the author of the graphic novel Ultrasound, published by Fantagraphics, along with dozens of self-published comics including the most recent, “Crepusucline #2.” He adapted Ultrasound into the screenplay for a feature film directed by Rob Schroeder and released by Magnolia Films in March of 2022. He has exhibited his work internationally and published with Breakdown Press in London, Colorama Press in Berlin and Coconino Press in Rome, among others. He lives in Berwyn, IL and teaches classes in comics, printmaking and self-publishing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Crablegs Comics
Hi! I make comics about biking, nature, and social change+organizing. I love making RISO zines, posters, and bigger comics. I also do 1 minute portraits for $1. Nearly all of my prices are sliding scale with a varying base price, this is out of the want to make sure my work is accessible to people while also fair to the time I put into it.
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CRAM books
CRAM books is a Risograph publisher started in 2021 based in Brooklyn, run by Andrew Alexander, making fun, sad and honest art books. All CRAM books are made by hand with the hope that they will decay from loving use. All CRAM books are made by hand with the hope that they will decay from loving use. CRAM books has won MoCCA Award of Excellence for “Big Gamble Rainbow Highway” by Connie Myers and has been nominated for two Ignatz Awards for our anthology, CRAM Comics.
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Crunche Art
bsky.app/profile/chromacrunch.bsky.social
Hi! I'm an independent creator, artist, musician, and game designer from Pittsburgh. I have created several works and products across several different kinds of media; my personal highlights include the award-winning monster battling card game Big Boy Throwdown, the cryptid-hunting web series Hill Horrors, and a colossal amount of illustrations, prints, and stickers for various projects for passion and/or profit.
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Couples Therapy
Jeff and Brittan are Couples Therapy. Art is our therapy and we're a couple. We both work on art that is deeply rooted in real life. Real life is magical in a way so let's say there is a little magic in there too. Occasionally he'll make an appearance in her things and occasionally she'll make an appearance in his stuff. Our zines are about people living their every day lives. His zines are comics, drawn with pencils, brush pens, the iPad, and whatever we have laying around. Her zines are photos, screen prints, and collages. We're just having fun and love to be part of the community!
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CyPhono4
CyPhono4 is the illustration/music alter ego of Mike Madsen, an illustrator who has lived in the greater Pittsburgh area for 10+ years. Mike's work centers on themes of queerness, liminality, dreams, mythology, and science fiction. Mike has been making zines and small print run comics since 2010.
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Dani Diaz / memoryfuel
Dani Diaz is a transfeminine Filipino-Argentinian American comic artist born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. Their debut graphic novel, Dreamover (2025), which follows a teenage couple magically escaping their lives through a shared lucid dream, received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and BookPage. Dani has also spent a decade working in the environmental sector in various science, technology, and public health roles.
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Diskette Press
Diskette Press publishes trans & queer comics and zines. We print all of our books on our Riso GR3770 & GR3750 in Detroit, MI.
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Doug McNamara
Doug McNamara, founder of the Minicomix Coop (for free artist trading), makes DIY minicomics, art pamphlets, and hand-made blockprints sold off a 25-yard roll; recent works include the world's largest (300-page) minicomic, still small enough to fit in your pocket! Also, new comics about mental obsessions and pathologies--fun for the whole family!
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drawphildraw
I am a cartoonist living in Lancaster, Pa. My main project is my comic "Mestizo", which is a spirited memoir about my childhood living abroad in the Philippines. I have also contributed a few short stories to anthologies for the Comix Accountability Club, Milk & Honey, and the Xomikbük Comic Cult.
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Duncan Bryk
Duncan Bryk is an Ohio-based comics creator. His two major comics projects are Click (2025), a 29-page single-issue comic, and Archives (2022), an almost-wordless graphic novel. He spends a lot of time drawing backgrounds.
He's currently working on his next comic, which will be released later in 2026. -
E.G. Perez
I am a cartoonist and illustrator from the Bronx, focusing a lot on autobio comics.
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Edanur Kuntman
Edanur Kuntman is an Eisner-nominated Turkish cartoonist based in New York City. Her work explores grief and uncanny emotions through experimentation and by embedding narrative into both physical and visual structure. Her recent graphic novel The Big Bang uses cosmology and torn pages as metaphors for personal loss. Eda shares her work at comics expos and continues to develop both traditional and hybrid approaches to sequential art.
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Emilie Kelly (Viewfinder Comics)
instagram.com/viewfindercomics
Emilie Kelly (she/they) is an indie comics creator currently based in Portland, OR. She started making webcomics in middle school and fell in love with the medium and community. Her work is playful, sentimental, and curious genre fiction - often inspired by history and cultural studies. Her current project is Things Are Afoot! (2024-present), a mystery/horror graphic novel about the 'Most Isolated Town in America'.
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Emily Zullo
@emilyzullo
emilyzullo.art
Emily Zullo is a multidisciplinary artist based out of NYC who animates by day and does comics by night. Her comics often drift between our stark, anxious realities and the lovely things we dream of often. -
Erika J, the creative scientist
erikajthecreativescientist.com
instagram.com/erikaj_thecreativescientist
threads.com/@erikaj_thecreativescientist
I am a queer black woman oceanographer and I make autobio science comics. Common themes in my comics include a fascination with the awesomeness of the universe and the joys and difficulties of scientific discovery. I also enjoy creating science themed coloring pages for kids and adults.
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Ethan Young
bsky.app/profile/popmyth.bsky.social
Ethan Young is an award-winning cartoonist and prolific cover artist. His graphic novels include NANJING: The Burning City (winner of the 2016 Reuben Award for Best Graphic Novel, along with Eisner and Harvey nominations), The Dragon Path, Space Bear, Life Between Panels, and an adaptation of The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by NYT Bestseller Rick Riordan. He is currently a Character Designer for Marvel Animation.
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Finnian Brooke & Mimi Chuang
Finnian Brooke and Mimi Chuang are cartoonists and printmakers who live and work together. Finnian works in abstract and autobio storytelling. Mimi creates work about understanding Climate change.
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Forrest Storrs
Forrest Storrs is a queer, agendered writer living in Pittsburgh. When they're not writing stories or making comics with their friends, they're probably playing tabletop RPGs, or saying hello to other people’s dogs.
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Francesca Magali
i am a pgh based illustrator, character designer, and animatoe.
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Full Tilt Comics
katemyersart.wordpress.com/comics
Full Tilt Comics is a comic-making duo based out of the Pittsburgh area by artist Kate Myers and author Maddie Smoyer.
We founded the business in high school after noticing a lack of LGBTQ+ characters in genre fiction. While romance and coming-out narratives are important, we found it frustrating that queer characters were being constantly relegated to stories about being queer. We tell stories that feature well-developed characters whose queer identities comprise only one small facet of who they are. Though our projects vary in length, tone, and subject, they all generally fall into the supernatural/horror genres. -
gilesdraws
Giles Crawford is a sequential artist and writer currently living in north east New Jersey. He makes gay romance comics about music and subculture.
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GillsTheFish
instagram.com/gillsthefish0808
Hi! My name is Gillian Gurney (pronounced Jillian), and I'm an Interactive and Graphic Designer, Illustrator, and Comic Artist. I'm constantly creating and designing characters, logos, and eye-catching pieces. I make comics, prints, stickers, and zines about my fishbowl object-head noir story and more!
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Good Luck Press
Good Luck Press is a collaboration between Seb Pines and Will Jobst to publish experimental, cool, and strange tabletop roleplaying games that push the form.
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Hannibal Gerald
Hannibal Gerald is a cartoonist based in Pittsburgh making illustrations, comics, and animations.
You can find her work in several indie zines, and thematically on the razor’s edge of politics and straight up silliness. Her main shtick is her ongoing minicomic series CEO Joe! -
Heather loase
Heather Loase is a cartoonist living in upstate New York with her husband and three dogs. She creates comics, self-publishes zines, and contributes to anthologies. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker and in anthologies from kuš and Colorama Clubhouse. She combines autobiographical storytelling and fantasy, exploring how reality TV and movies have influenced her personal growth and continue to shape her understanding of reality.
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higu rose
higu rose is an illustrator, cartoonist, quilter, ethnographer, and local terror living in pittsburgh, PA. based in fiction and autobiography, higu’s work focuses on experiences of being black, queer/trans, and a little bonkers. higu's narratives are a constant endeavor to understand the self and society, with a snarling desire to love and live. one time higu made Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel wait five minutes for a 8oz cup of coffee.
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J. Marshall Smith
I'm an artist and writer from Baltimore, the author of critically acclaimed comics Testament, Good Girl Laika, and Solace County, and I've never been to Pittsburgh before.
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Jamie Kaye
I'm a watercolor illustrator and comic artists that sells prints, books, and does personalized commissions.
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Jamil Scalese
Jamil is a writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the curator of All-True Outlaw, a Western webcomic anthology. A critic for ten years, he is now carving out his own career in comic-making. Specializing in adventure fiction, he's been featured in publications from Alterna Comics, Negative Space Comics and Stache Publishing.
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Jed Haas
"Jed Haas" is an "artist" and "writer" who makes "comic books" which he "sells" for "money." He also has sustained several "injuries" on his "head" and "brain" throughout the course of his "life," which might explain all of the "quotation marks." It might also explain why he spends so much time drawing "comics" and referring to himself in the "third person," like he's doing here. Give it a rest, man.
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Jet Black Press
Jet Black Press is a collaborative zine publisher and distributor founded by Lauren Lowery and Doug Eberhardt. Together, they have been creating handmade art books, zines, and prints for over a decade.
Jet Black Press will debut its complete comic series Loam at this year's expo. Loam is a series of risograph-printed comics that explore growth, death, and magical frogs. It features the unique art style of its core collaborators, Doug Eberhardt, Lauren Lowery, Benjamin Rettig, and Jordan White. -
Joe John Cotton
instagram.com/joejohncottonmcballs
Purveyor of sumptuously-drawn genre cheese and sleaze, sieved through a fever-dream mesh! Fun for the whole family (IF your family is weird, and overly permissive of explicit media, like mine!)
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Jumpgate Games
bsky.app/profile/jumpgate.games
Jumpgate Games makes TTRPGs that are fiction-first, fashion-forward, and encourage everyone at the to shape the story. We specialize in scifi, space, sacrifice, and satire, but we make games in every setting where you can find lesbians.
Beis Lakish is a Pittsburgh-based, antizionist yeshiva and art distro. We believe that the transformative powers of translation and creation are the key to a long-lasting and liberatory Judaism. All you need is your Alef Bet to learn Jewish texts with us in their original Hebrew & Aramaic! -
Jordan Jeffries
Jordan Jeffries is a cartoonist currently living in the Hudson Valley. His publications include the movie journal memoir The Complete Matinee Junkie (Birdcage Bottom Books) and the Ignatz-award nominated comics Love, or the Axe (Ley Lines) and Lullaby (Cosmic Dog House Press). Under the banner of his micropress Compulsive Press he has self-published many works including Seeds in Ash, Goodnight Mush, and Complex Machines. He grew up in Western PA and is looking forward to a Sheetz run.
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Kelci D Crawford
Kelci Crawford is a comic artist, illustrator, and zinester based in Toledo, Ohio. They have been making comics since 2013, and running Fantasyville Productions, LLC since 2018. They have drawn a lot of webcomics over the years, including the LGBTQ+ fantasy adventure The Legend of Jamie Roberts. When not making comics and zines, they play tabletop roleplaying games with friends.
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Kelsey Suit
Kelsey Suit is a NY based Butch sequential artist residing in NYC. The stories she creates revolve around women, their relationships to each other, and their cats. The zines she creates are printed in riso as well as her prints, but not her stickers.
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Kyle Kerezsi
I'm a cartoonist and writer who makes comics and a satirical magazine. I'm working on a graphic novel set for release at the end of 2026!
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Masha Zhdanova
Masha Zhdanova is a cartoonist and writer born in Russia and raised in New Jersey, USA. She studied sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design and the Center for Cartoon Studies, and writes about comics and manga for Comics Beat and Publisher's Weekly. When she's not drawing comics, she's organizing community meetups and events for cartoonists and artists in central New Jersey.
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MewzieArt
Hi! I’m Kelli and I’m a Pittsburgh-based comic artist and illustrator. I specialize in character-driven narratives with lots of personality and heart at their core. Currently working on my debut graphic novel, The Trail of Dead Leaves, a YA mystery that takes place in the mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania. I’m also looking to debut my mini comic series, Dahntahn - my true stories from working at a cafe in downtown Pittsburgh.
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Michelle Duni
I create confessional and real life storied cartoons with a bit of comic relief amid the nostalgia and drama of growing up in a right wing family as the quer black sheep.
I love the flow and depth of watercolor as my medium for creating short graphic novels or zines. The nature of the duality of trying to control the paint and sometimes only being able to shape the emotions once it hits the paper feels right in relation to the chaotic and evocative coming of age true stories. -
Mike Freiheit
I’ve made three graphic novels, Monkey Chef, WOODS and Go Fuck Myself. I am working on a fourth very slowly.
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Moody
Moody is a zine and small (sometimes riso) press made up of contributions by queer and/or BIPOC creatives. Since its fruition in 2020, Moody has shifted from monthly issues to periodic special issues and now serves as a publisher. Original issues featured multiple new creatives paid to share not only images of work, but stories, poems, notes, QR codes to media, and anything else put onto a page. Now, Moody offers design, publishing, and printing assistance to this same population of creatives in order to create and release their own zines via the platform Moody continues to tend and grow.
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Mosiah Ballard
I'm a comic + zine artist who draws traditionally. I use narrative to explore themes of identity, spiritually, and connection. My goal is to create stories as vessels for readers to explore their own thoughts and feelings within!
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Neve M.A.
Mastodon @neevspoilsbees
Hi all! I'm Neve M.A. a queer cartoonist based in Pittsburgh. My comics range from campy, to philosophical, to experimental and sweet. The majority of my work is risograph printed in my little attic studio.
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Nick Stellanova
I am a comic artist and illustrator from the midwest! I like to create queer/trans themed comics about relationships, nature, and sometimes horror!
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Pamela Acosta
Pamela Acosta is a Mexican artist from the borderlands along the Rio Grande Valley. She creates visual narratives about a myriad of beings, quests and the symbiotic relationships formed between beings and their environments, exploring how we construct, transform and are transmuted by our surroundings.
She’ll have zines, artist books, prints, & stickers. -
Possible Worlds Games
Possible Worlds Games is an independent, Pittsburgh-based publisher of unique, engaging tabletop roleplaying games.
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Quietly
Yumi Yamaguchi is a half-Japanese, half-Mexican cartoonist from Los Angeles. She self-publishes a comic series, Quietly, that has two primary storylines. The first is a surreal, semi-autobiographical exploration of the main character’s anxiety, cultural identity, and sexuality. The second is a dark comedy about a librarian frustrated with patrons who don’t respect the library.
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RaiZArts
RaiZArts is a Digital Freelance Illustrator based in Pittsburgh, who specializes in Anime Style art and design. He's worked with Anime YouTube Group, RDCWorld, Wild N' Out's Leonard Robinson. Locally he's even done artwork for the Chef N'A Box and Street Fries food trucks, the restaurant, What the Pho and even did the art for the Floyd Mayweather Boxing Gym. For the last 5 years, he's been teaching comics and illustration at various organizations and schools in Pittsburgh, including Sarah Heinz House and The Neighborhood Academy. He's vended at DreamCon, BlerDCon, AnimeNYC, Kamehacon and plenty more!
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RAS the Artist
Beck is a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator who makes comics, zines, and more. From graphic novels to art collections, their books reflect their love of fairy tales, creatures, magic, and the queer community.
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RHEN!
sites.google.com/view/rhen-rollins/portfolio
Rhen is a Columbus, Ohio based illustrator and comic artist with a particular fondness for the absurd stories of real life, from his own experience to fascinating historical tales. His work can be found in the Columbus Scribbler, Spitball XI, and on Webtoon. He’s going to make it big some day, and eat a whole lot of sandwiches along the way.
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Rose Ghostly
Rose Ghostly is a queer anarchist dreamer & scheme-er, drawing comics about the mystical power of friendship, PTSD / codependency recovery, and monster girls. She loves a good metaphor, and zines that are equally informative and FUN!
Her most recent zine is a silly field guide to perversely named East Coast native plants, with a little gay history, cruising culture and dyke-drama alongside botanical facts. -
Saba Sabaton (Our Unending Journey)
linktr.ee/our_unending_journey
Saba Sabaton is drawing Our Unending Journey, a 6-year running doujinshi webcomic following the adventures of four heroes as they travel through the world of FFXIV. Saba's work draws inspiration from drama and adventure manga, videogames, and D&D. They distribute physical copies of their comic via their online store, but have recently started attending events locally in Pittsburgh!
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Specktoons
I'm a 90's kid who never grew up! And the expressive, high-octane cartoons from my childhood are a big influence on the art I make today. I like to think of my work as "gross-out cartoons for the girls, gays and theys!" This is perhaps most apparent in my self-published, passion project series "Witchaboos" - which is about 3 middle school girls who are so obsessed with anime, they dabble in witchcraft and the dark arts to become "magical girls" themselves. Witchaboos is a love-letter to my own awkward middle school years, and a celebration of the more embarrassing, cringe-filled and sometimes gross parts of girlhood and fandom culture.
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Steve Stelling
instagram.com/steven.m.stelling
Steve Stelling is an artist from Pittsburgh, PA. His comics are light on narrative and heavy on poetry. He spent a number of years exhibiting abstract paintings, reading, and experimenting with with home-recorded music. Those interests have left their mark on the image-text combinations found in his work. Steve has an MFA from Ohio State University and his self-published booklets are/have been available at Atomic Books (Baltimore), Copacetic Comics (Pittsburgh), Quimby’s (Chicago), Howling Pages (Chicago), Eye Level Gallery (Halifax), and Printed Matter (New York).
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Super Cool and Stuff
Ricky Vigil is an artist and educator from Salt Lake City, UT. He has been making the autobiographical comic zine Super Cool and Stuff since 2011. His art is informed by the energy of punk rock and the silliness of Saturday morning cartoons, combining heart, humor and just a little bit of chaos. His comics have appeared in Razorcake, SLUG Magazine, and Salt Lake City Weekly, and he has created work for bands and record labels such as Murder By Death, The Slackers, Red Scare Industries and Devon Kay & The Solutions.
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Taxonomy Press
Taxonomy press is a risograph micropress based in Detroit, founded by Rachel Hays. We print the quarterly Floral Observer, a seasonal newspaper about interacting with nature.
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Teo Suzuki
Teo Suzuki is an independent cartoonist based in New York City. He is the co-founder of the collective Epic Wayne Press, a distributor for the work of both him and his friends. His ongoing comic CULTURAL RESET was nominated for a 2025 Minicomic Award, with the second issue recently released.
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Tia Wilson Art
I am an illustrator, printmaker, and cartoonist. I make Black-centric work about culture, the everyday, and queerness. I work in screen printing and other analog artistic mediums. I enjoy making autobiographical zines and comics, but run a web-comic titled 1-800-DYKE. The web comic highlights sapphic story submissions in a newsletter format.
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Tidal Wave Games
Tidal Wave Games creates independent tabletop roleplaying games and supplements for other popular systems, such as our old school megadungeon Ruins of Castle Gygar, our solo journaling queer anime dating sim Heartbeat Highschool, and our flagship space bounty hunting game SEE YOU, SPACE COWBOY...
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Tom Williams
Tom is a Harvey nominated creator based out of Columbus, Ohio. His work has been published by Oni Press, Z2 Comics, Dark Horse, IDW and Image Comics.
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Travis Head
Travis Head explores personal narrative through drawing and writing. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States. He has been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Ox-Bow, Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and he was 2025 Short Run Dash Grant Runner Up for his self-published mini-comic "Hold Your Applause." Head teaches drawing, comics, and printmaking at Virginia Tech.
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Vin Mugavero
Vin Mugavero is a queer cartoonist from Ohio. Find him for cowboys, punk rock, and all things pink.
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Xena Lopez Art
I work with pen, colored pencils, acrylic, or watercolor to make original illustrations and paintings. I blend personal vulnerability with humor to create terribly relatable scenes on paper. In addition to my self-published comics and zines, I also sell my work in the form of prints, vinyl stickers, apparel and small accessories.
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Zach Rios
Zach Rios is a comics artists who likes to make silly little guys just for you! They have hand folded zines and slick high quality prints for you to gaze at.
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Zachary Morphew
My name is Zachary Morphew, and I'm a cartoonist from West Virginia. I studied painting in college and now spend my time working as a freelance illustrator. My work is often in conversation with the aesthetics of children's books, indie comics, American folk art, and the landscapes of Appalachia. You're welcome to follow me on my Instagram @surrealstation.
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