VENDORS 2023
Concklin Comics (Chicago, IL)
Sam Concklin is an animator and comic artist based in Chicago. After studying animation in college, she found her footing in the world of webcomics. Sam made her graphic novel debut in 2021 with Now and Forever Nia, and her work continues to delight audiences young and old with silly humor, solid pacing, and themes that hit home. Catch up with her ongoing webcomic Blue Witch Malazu, available to read for free online via Webtoon Canvas
Dane Georges (Evanston, IL)
Dane Georges lives in Evanston with his wife and cat, working as a designer by day and a cartoonist by night. His self-published comics and zines are available at comic shops all throughout Chicago. Visit his website, danegeorges.com, or follow him on social media at @DaneGeorges to view his work.
Jessi Zabarsky (Chicago, IL)
Jessi Zabarsky is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Chicago. She makes comics about small journeys and big feelings, with queer themes and folksy environments. Her first two graphic novels, 'Witchlight' and 'Coming Back', were published by Random House Graphic, and she’s previously worked with Czap Books, Iron Circus Comics, and Shortbox. She has stopped counting her house plants, because there are now far too many.
Knights-a-crafting and Katriena Knights, author (Urbana, IL)
Tag team parent child crafting duo with mother author Katriena Knights bring you handmade items like mugs, candles, screen printed tshirts, and zines. Author Katriena Knights is a science fiction fantasy paranormal romance author. The tag team will bring you tons of fun books and crafts!
Ren S.K. Studio (Indianapolis, IN)
Hello! My name is Ren. I'm an independent artist, designer and activist inspired by the interconnectedness of Nature. I create artwork in my studio as my reverence to all beings, to communicate that all of us are worthy of compassion and total liberation! My two zine publications, ‘Non-Human Neighbors’ and ‘A More-Than-Human Society’, focus directly on our relationships with our Earth kin. ‘Non-Human Neighbors’ is a mini art risograph zine that honors beings among us who are often overlooked. It features individuals I’ve been vibing with for the season; anyone from animals, plants, fungi, bodies of water, to places. ‘A More-Than-Human Society’ is a collaboration with my partner, Mark, combing art, sociology and activism to take a dive into highlighted topics.
Sean Dempsey (Chicago, IL)
Sean Dempsey is a Chicago based sequential artist. His independent comics focus on curiosity and adventure through traveling or misfit characters. Whether in a comic, illustration, or cartoon, Sean’s stories embrace a balance of innocent and cynical protagonists. He hopes to create diverse, relatable characters that the audience can witness their inner growth, discovery, and individuality.
THE END Press (St. Paul, MN)
THE END Press is based in St. Paul, MN is the brain baby of @murryklumps and @codytriplett. THE END combines words and images to make humorous, deep works that explore our big beautiful world as it circles the drain. Mary Climes is a visual artist who uses allegory, sequencing, and narrative to explore loneliness, complacency, and intimacy. She uses humor and cartooning in her compositions to explore Catholicism and mysticism in suburban America. Cody Triplett is a writer of short fiction, poetry, and hybrids of the two. The work itself deals with dream-reality problems, technocracy, and showing the world (almost) as it is. His work exists across multiple online publications, and in physical form as self-published, homemade chapbooks.
VGVS Vanguard (Springfield, IL)
The Venturous Guild of Visionary Storysmiths (VGVS) is an international creative collective committed to growing a diverse, inclusive, and collaborative arts community of empowered innovators. We are a nonprofit organization that provides free resources, workshops, and safe spaces for creators to hone their skills, build their confidence, and share their stories. Vanguard is our collaborative zine!
Agoraphobic Alien (Columbus, Ohio)
AgoraphobicAlien creates Comix and Art centered around the black queer experience and mental health through surreal, ethreal and afrofuturistic/sci-fi lenses! Their work focuses on Black Queer and Neurodiverse community and uses ethereal space motifs and bright colors along with more complicated themes to both relate and uplift these communities.
Baby Teeth (Evansville, Indiana)
Thieves Collective is comprised of Chloe Gonzales and Maren Logan. Their work focuses on a multitude of the self--the words spoken, the images seen, the voices heard, and the rhythm felt. Their mediums of choice include literary zines, multimedia, photography, and performance art. Their project Baby Teeth, is the result of blood, sweat, spit and vomit. It's body horror about being a young woman, because life can be body horror.
D.A.S.H. (Champaign, IL)
D.A.S.H. with Daisy Liu, Angie Ordonez, Sebastian Holt and Huy Nguyen! D.A.S.H. is a collective group of graphic design students at UIUC aiming to set the world ablaze with their passion for creating and telling unique stories through art and comics. From epic adventures to slice of life, there's a dash of something for everyone!
Elaine C. Oldham (Champaign, IL)
Hi, I’m Elaine the author/illustrator of A Tale of Winter, a fantasy short about a fairy family telling a fairy tale, and Shadow Dance, A Dark Telling, a horror short about why we shouldn’t look too closely at what lurks in the shadows. I am also the author of The Low Sodium Lifestyle health book series available on Amazon, and Minstrel Fair, my self-published comic. As Fantasy Art by Elaine C. Oldham, I sell original drawings, prints, cards, and bookmarks of fairies, dragons, and other fantastical creatures, as well as custom art drawn onsite to order using photos or online images as models. Visit my website, www.dreamlightgraphics.com, to see galleries of my work, my books, comics, and more.
FLUSH Publishing (Urbana, IL)
Mark L Mathews the owner of FLUSH Promotions Est 2018 a gifted brand ambassador with extensive cross-functional and time-intensive experience in all facets of brand management. My entrepreneur mindset learning to envisions change in each community with art and live music. FLUSH Promotions has created and organized events in major cities such as Detroit, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Indiana, Chicago. Owner of FLUSH Publishing and Owner KEEP PACE non-profit
Grant Thomas (Champaign, IL)
Grant Thomas is a cartoonist, printmaker, and art teacher. A few of his comics appeared in the Eisner-nominated Abstract Comics: The Anthology. He earned a BFA and Master of Art Education at the University of Illinois. His master's thesis on how comic books help us learn was published in Visual Arts Research in 2012.
Jenny Butor (Lexington, KY)
Jenny is a visual artist based in Lexington, Kentucky, whose work is focused primarily on drawing and painting and loves nothing better than a fresh sketchbook page. Jenny’s collection of work is mostly based around the female experience associated with nature. She is always trying to understand herself a little better, abhors a straight line, loves her two kitties too death, and as a library employee is always promoting the services the local library can provide to artists.
Kamila Glowacki (Champaign, IL)
Kamila Glowacki is an artist, musician, and museum educator based in Champaign, Illinois. She holds a Master of Arts in Art Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is the Education Coordinator at Krannert Art Museum (KAM). Her prints, paintings, and drawings have been featured at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago and in publications including Ninth Letter and Quickest Flippest. She is currently continuing work on her comic, Bunny Splint, which documents her experiences of injury, healing, and seeking meaning through nature. Kamila’s indie punk band, Nectar, released their sophomore album via Lauren Records in 2022 and captures a "wonderfully infectious sense of breezy, distorted joy…where blissful harmonies meet pealing riffs and major-chord sweetness" (The AV Club).
Late Night Copies Press (Minneapolis, MN)
Late Night Copies Press is a is a queer and trans run micro press based in Minneapolis, MN. We publish non-fiction, erotica, and informal research-based writing with an emphasis on local queer and trans history, community libraries, community archives, queer archival collections, queer textiles, and queer artists. Our main series Queer Materials is an invitation to experience a snippet of LGBTQ archival materials found throughout the Midwest. Curated from archives within the region, the goal of Queer Materials is to place a folder of archival materials into the hands of those who care to learn, know, and hold onto the Midwest's queer past.
Nathan Pearce and Matthew David Crowther (Fairfield, IL)
Nathan Pearce (born 1986) is an artist based in Southern Illinois. Pearce works in book and zine making and photography. Pearce’s publications are held in several artists' book and library collections including those at MoMA, The Met, Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the Center for Creative Photography. His work has been exhibited in solo shows at the PhotoNola festival, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Nizhniy Tagil Museum of Fine Arts and The Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago. He has been published in over 200 books, zines and exhibition catalogs; as well as online in The Huffington Post, The British Journal of Photography, and Juxtapoz.
Queer River Spirit (Urbana, IL)
River is a local genderqueer white and indigenous (Mashpee Wampanoag and Pequot) poet, gardener, artivist, abolitionist, anarchist, cat parent and physician assistant. Their poetry tends to center around playful interpretations of big scientific (biology/biochemistry, physics) concepts as well as the big, heavy subjects of our times, including white supremacist delusion, anti-trans hate, settler colonialism, slavery and genocide. River hopes that through receiving their poetry, you feel your feelings, you feel empowered, and you recognize your own sovereign belonging in this universe.
Rachel Bard (Chicago, IL)
I create unusual zines in a variety of formats and styles. I print and assemble all of them by hand. I like to experiment with unconventional book formats and materials that really add something to the content of the story. I write about monsters, robots, animals, and other strange creatures who are equal parts funny, sad, cute, and maybe secretly evil. My books are short, all-ages, and can usually fit in the palm of your hand.
Sabrina Longo (Romeoville, IL)
Sabrina Longo is a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying Comparative Literature with a concentration in studio arts. Her art is inspired by marine life, the color pink, children's books, political cartoons, graffiti, and maximalism to just name a few inspirations. She hopes her art brings you a little joy.
Skeuomorph Press & BookLab (Champaign, IL)
Skeuomorph Press & BookLab is an experiential studio for teaching and researching the history and art of the book at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We are housed in the Champaign-Urbana Community FabLab and sponsored by the School of Information Sciences, with support from the Department of English.
The Lavender Newsletter (Urbana, IL)
The Lavender is Champaign-Urbana's premier queer newsletter! Inspired by CU's own Lavender Prairie, a trailblazing lesbian publication from the 1970s, The Lavender aims to become another central location for local queer folks to find community and safe spaces in central Illinois.
Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center Zine Library (Urbana-Champaign, IL)
The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (IMC) Zine Library operates as a donation-based, volunteer-run zine library in Urbana, Illinois. The IMC Zine Library acts as a midwest nexus for zine making, zine collecting, and community art. Over the last decade, thousands of zine makers sent us their precious words and illustrations, which are available for browsing. Our wonderful volunteers also make zines and host community events in the space. As a donation-based library, we would love to add your zine/print/sticker/reallycoolart to our collection. Stop by the IMC during open hours or mail us at 202 S. Broadway Ave Suite 100 Urbana, Illinois 61801. We can’t wait to see you soon!
Work Press & Publication (Champaign, IL)
Will Arnold received his MFA in Photography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he manages the student labs and studios at the School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Will is the co-founder Work Press & Publication, a Risograph-based zine and artist book self-publishing venture, and an organizer for the CU Small Press Fest and the St. Louis Independent Comics Expo. In recent years, Will’s practice has primarily focused on zines, comics, and artist books.