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Annual Comic Arts Brooklyn Festival Returns Bigger, Better, Nerdier

The 11th annual Comic Arts Brooklyn Festival features close to 200 artists, cartoonists, zine-makers and publishers, as well as full program of panels, talks and other cartoon-related spectacles Comic Arts Brooklyn ( CAB ), the borough's largest fest

The 11th annual Comic Arts Brooklyn Festival features close to 200 artists, cartoonists, zine-makers and publishers, as well as full program of panels, talks and other cartoon-related spectacles

Comic Arts Brooklyn (CAB), the borough's largest festival of its kind, returns on Saturday, November 11 with its most ambitious program yet. This year, CAB takes over Pratt Institute's campus where close to 200 artists, cartoonists, zine-makers and small presses will set up shop.

For more than a decade the Brooklyn comic and zine shop Desert Island has organized the annual comic fair. For this year's festival, founder Gabe Fowler teams up with Pratt Institute to expand the scale of the event with nearly twice as many participants.

The 11th annual festival includes a market space, with rows after rows of cartoon art presented by artists and publishers, where comic lovers surely can spend some serious money. Additionally, a range of cartoon-related spectacles is set to unfold at Pratt's Activities Resource Center which will host a playable video arcade installation created by video game art gallery Babycastles, and a studio where fine artist Steve Keene will be painting live all day.

Cartoon art, comic art, comics, Brooklyn comics
New Yorker Cover art by Chris Ware, credit: New Yorker

CAB also boasts a robust lineup of panels and talks, curated by Fowler and Matthew James-Wilson of FORGE Art Magazine.

One festival highlight will be the conversation with acclaimed cartoonist Chris Ware who, known for his The New Yorker magazine covers, has been hailed as a master of the comic art form. He will present his new collection Monograph. Another special treat: a talk with cartoonist, writer and designer Emil Farris, who will discuss her debut book My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, which among comic experts is considered one of the most heralded and ambitious works of all time.

Some of Pratt's most acclaimed cartoonists - Jules Feiffer, Bill Griffith and Peter Kuper - will take the stage to discuss and reflect on their careers in comics. Other panels feature Richie Pope, Jane Mai and Kelsey Wroten, among others, who will examine the different ways that comics can explore issues of personal history, identity and autobiography.

The festival will come to its grand finale with a talk featuring biographer Michael Tisserand who will discuss the legacy of comics artist George Herriman; his legendary strip Krazy Kat has been long esteemed by artists, critics, scholars and fans as one of the most significant contributions to American popular culture.

Cartoon art, comic art, comics, Brooklyn comics

Aside from the main event at Pratt Institute on Saturday, CAB is going to feature lots of additional programming, including Chris Ware's Monograph exhibition at Adam Baumgold Gallery. For the full slate of events, go here.

Comic Arts Brooklyn 2017

When: Saturday, November 11, 11:00am - 7:00pm

Where: Pratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205, USA




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