Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) is an annual, free, four-day celebration of cartooning and graphic novels held in Columbus, Ohio. Venues for the festival include

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library and the Cartoon Library ...

, Hale Hall, and the

Wexner Center for the Arts The Wexner Center for the Arts is the Ohio State University's "multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art". The Wexner Center opened in November 1989, named in honor of the father of Limite ...

; and downtown Columbus'

Columbus Metropolitan Library The Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) is a public library system in Franklin County, Ohio, in the Columbus metropolitan area. The library serves an area of 872,000 residents, has a collection of 1,483,433 volumes, and circulates 17,262,267 it ...

, the

Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...

, and the

Columbus College of Art and Design Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) is a private art school in Columbus, Ohio. It was founded in 1879 as the Columbus Art School and is one of the oldest private art and design colleges in the United States. Located in downtown Columbus, CCAD ...

. CXC is held in the spirit of European conventions like the

Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after ...

. As such, it is focused on the art and literature of the comics form, and only minimally on related pop-culture expression and merchandising. The show tends to highlight the "

alternative comics Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which ...

" genre, as opposed to the work of "mainstream" publishers like

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

and

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

Cosplaying Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

is rarely if ever a feature of CXC. In addition to the "CXC Expo and Marketplace" (held in the Columbus Metropolitan Library),McIntosh, Justin
"The List: Five events worth scoping out at CXC,"
''Columbus Alive'' (Sep 24, 2019). CXC features art exhibits, animation screenings, panel discussions, and workshops. Cartoon Crossroads Columbus gives out an annual Emerging Artist Prize; the CXC has also distributed Master Cartoonist awards and a Transformative Work Award, and since 2021 the Tom Spurgeon Award. Cartoon Crossroads Columbus was founded in 2015 by, among others, Columbus-based cartoonist Jeff Smith.Arrant, Chris
"JEFF SMITH Hopes To Make Columbus, Ohio a Comic Book ‘Destination’ With New Convention,"
''Newsarama'' (June 18, 2015). Smith serves as the festival's president and artistic director.Cavna, Michael
"‘Bone’ cartoonist aims to help create the South by Southwest of comics,"
''Washington Post'' (Oct. 14, 2016).

Tom Spurgeon Thomas Martin Spurgeon (December 16, 1968 – November 13, 2019) was an American writer, historian, critic, and editor in the field of comics, notable for his five-year run as editor of ''The Comics Journal'' and his blog ''The Comics Reporter'' ...

served as executive director until his death in November 2019. The current executive director is Jay Kalagayan. CXC is held in conjunction each year with SÕL-CON: The Brown And Black Comics Expo, also held in Columbus, founded in 2015 by comics scholars Frederick Aldama, John Jennings, and Ricardo Padilla.

History

The CXC website details the origins of the convention: Katie Skelly was awarded the inaugural Emerging Artist Prize at the 2015 Cartoon Crossroads Columbus.

Carol Tyler Carol Tyler (born November 20, 1951) is an American painter, educator, comedian, and eleven-time Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist known for her autobiographical comics. She has received multiple honors for her work including the Cartoonist Studi ...

was declared a Master Cartoonist at the 2016 CXC; that same year the festival expanded to four days. In 2017, Kat Fajardo was the recipient of the Emerging Talent Award, and Laura Park was the recipient of Columbus Museum of Art Columbus Comics Residency.Fischer, Jim
"Fall Arts Guide: 25 can’t-miss events,"
''Columbus Alive'' (Aug 30, 2017). The 2019 show featured a keynote event conversation between

Mike Mignola Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...

and Jeff Smith. It also featured a history of British animation (selected by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

) and a panel discussion on the impact of the

presidency of Donald Trump Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory ...

on political cartooning. The 2020 show was held entirely online due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

pandemic.Press release
"Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Announces Move to Online Show for 2020,"
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus website (May 26, 2020). The 2021 show was a mixture of live and virtual events; that year also saw the introduction of the Tom Spurgeon Award, "to honor an individual who has made substantial contributions to the field but is not primarily a cartoonist."

Dates and locations

Awards

Emerging Artist Prize

* 2015 Katie Skelly * 2016 Kevin Czapiewski * 2017 Kat Fajardo * 2018 Keren Katz * 2019 Carta Monir * 2021 Robyn Smith * 2022 Victoria Douglas

Master Cartoonist

* 2016

* 2019

P. Craig Russell Philip Craig Russell (born October 30, 1951) is an American comics artist, writer, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. Russell was the first mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay. Biography ...

Press release
"CARTOON CROSSROADS COLUMBUS GIVES OUT TWO OF THREE MAJOR AWARDS TO P. CRAIG RUSELL AND NIB FOUNDER MATT BORS,"
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus website. Accessed Dec. 26, 2019. * 2021

Shary Flenniken Shary Flenniken (born 1950) is an American editor-writer-illustrator and underground cartoonist. After joining the burgeoning underground comics movement in the early 1970s, she became a prominent contributor to '' National Lampoon'' and was on ...

Transformative Work Award

* 2019 Matt Bors * 2021

Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel ( ; born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally known for the long-running comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For'', she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir ''Fun Home'', whi ...

's ''

Fun Home ''Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic'' is a 2006 Graphic novel, graphic memoir by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For''. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, Uni ...

Tom Spurgeon Award

* 2021Parkin, JK
"CXC recognizes first recipients of the Tom Spurgeon Award,"
SmashPages.net (October 2, 2021). **

Mollie Slott Mollie Slott (April 19, 1893 – January 24, 1967) was an American journalist, who became one of the nation's best known figures in the newspaper syndicate industry. In 1946, Slott was chosen as Chicago-Tribune New York Daily news syndicate ma ...

** Orrin C. Evans **

Kim Thompson Kim Thompson (September 25, 1956 – June 19, 2013) was an American comic book editor, translator, and publisher, best known as vice president and co-publisher of Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books. Along with co-publisher Gary Groth, Thomps ...

References

External links

* {{Comic festivals and alternative comics conventions Comics conventions in the United States Recurring events established in 2015 Conventions in Ohio Comics awards