Submitted by The Olympia Comics Festival
The 2015 Olympia Comics Festival will take place on Saturday, June 6. This festival represents Olympia celebrating the creativity of comics and graphic literature in its own oddball way. The Olympia Comics Festival brings together cartoonists and comics aficionados from all over the Pacific Northwest to focus on the art of comics. This event is not about Hollywood, corporate merchandising, or how much cash some old (but lousy) comic magazine is going for. The Olympia Comics Festival is about creators making comics that are as good or better than work found in any other medium.
The Olympia Comics Festival is also unusual in the access it creates for readers to creators. It’s a very social event, and accessible to those casually interested, as well as those deeply involved with the medium. This event is all about meeting both local cartoonists as well as the more famous guests. The expo portion in particular is a great introduction to alternative comics and is completely free to the public.
Our fifteenth annual festival will include a stage-show at The Capitol Theater, a Cartoonists Expo at The Olympia Center, and a signing with the Guests of Honor at Danger Room Comics.
The Comix Stage-show:
The festival kicks off with a stage presentation at the Capitol Theater downtown (206 E. 5th Ave.). This event will include a round-table interview with the Guests of Honor, dramatic interpretations of terrible comics, various short presentations, and stand-up comedy. The stage-show tends to be very goofy and entertaining for all comics fans. Attendance cost for the stage-show is $6 at the door or folks may purchase the tickets in advance at Danger Room Comics (201 W 4th Ave.). This event will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with doors opening at 10:30 a.m.
The Cartoonists Expo:
Following the stage presentation will be a Cartooning Expo. This will take place at The Olympia Center (222 Columbia N) just a few blocks from the theater. The expo will last from 1:30 PM to 6:30 PM. The expo is an informal event where cartoonists from near and far will display their work and chat with members of the public. The public will also be invited to vote on which comic they think is the Best in Show. This portion of the festival is free to the public and is perfect for anyone the least bit curious about comics to come on down and check it out.
Various panels and other events will run concurrently with the expo and will also take place at The Olympia Center.
Our Guests of Honor this year are Eric Shanower, Farel Dalrymple, and Jason Little. The guests will be participating in the stage show, taking part in panels during the expo, and signing books at Danger Room Comics. The signing will begin at 6:00 PM and last until 8:00 p.m. Danger Room Comics is at 201 W. 4th Avenue, on the corner of 4th and Columbia.
Guest Of Honor bios:
Farel Dalrymple is an eerily talented artist and writer, known for his work on his creator-owned comics titles The Wrenchies, It Will All Hurt, and Pop Gun War, the Image Comics series Prophet, Omega The Unknown (with writer Jonathan Lethem), and his rugged fashion sense. He has won the Xeric Grant and a Society Of Illustrators Gold Medal, and been nominated for the Eisner and Russ Manning Awards. We are very pleased to host him as a Guest Of Honor!
- Website: http://fareldalrymple.com/
- Tumblr: http://popgunwar.tumblr.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fareldalrymple
Jason Little is a delightful cartoonist known his comics Motel Art Improvement Service, Shutterbug Follies, Jack’s Luck Runs Out, and the upcoming Borb. His work is pure sugar for the mind. Little teaches at the School Of Visual Arts, and is a recipient of the Ignatz Award and the Xeric Grant. We are delighted to be able to bring him in all the way from New York to be a Guest Of Honor.
- Website: http://www.beecomix.com/
- Tumblr: http://littlebeecomix.tumblr.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/beecomix
Eric Shanower is a wonderful writer and illustrator and veteran of the comics industry. His work includes a wide swath of genre and subject matter, with highlights including Age Of Bronze, his various Oz books, The Fall (with writer Ed Brubaker), Little Nemo in Slumberland, and his work in Fantagraphics’ LGBT anthology No Straight Lines. Shanower has won the Eisner Award and been nominated for the Ignatz. Shanower may be the only cartoonist to ever get a glowing review in Archaeology Magazine. We’ve wanted to nab Eric as a guest for a few years now, so we are delighted that he’ll be joining us as a Guest Of Honor!
Website: http://ericshanower.com/bio.shtml
The fifteenth annual Olympia Comics Festival will take place on Saturday, June 6 in Olympia, Washington. Attendance cost for the stage-show is $6 at the door. There is no attendance cost for the expo, the panels, or the signings at Danger Room Comics. Please check our website at www.olympiacomicsfestival.org or send an email to olympiacomicsfestival@gmail.com for more information.
