Short Run Comix Festival

Our next festival will take place on Saturday, November 1st, 2025 at Seattle Design Center. 11 am – 6 pm. FREE. Swag bags for the first 50 people through the door.

Add yourself to our mailing list for deadline reminders and updates on upcoming local programming.

Festival Schedule

(Fest poster designed by Special Guest Rahel Suesskind)

In an age of online living and digital social currency, the importance of up close and personal connections is greater than ever. Whether you’re an independent comic artist looking for like-minded peers, a collector of unique comic books you won’t find anywhere else, or a fan of weird comic art looking to meet your favorite artists from Instagram, it’s more than worth it to visit Short Run on Nov. 1st. For 13 years, Short Run Comix Festival has been a confluence of professional artists and casual hobbyists who look forward to a community gathering not watered down by corporatization (please do not call us a “comic-con”!!) Come join the DIY takeover of the Seattle Design Center in Georgetown! Read more…

2025 Exhibitors

We appreciate the huge amount of applications that we received this year, we are sorry we could not fit more exhibitors. This is our roster for 2025, with lots of first-time exhibitors! Special guests are in BOLD.  Read more…

Short Run Comics Festival Apprenticeship Program

Five paid apprenticeships are available, beginning in September and running through October (7 Saturday afternoon sessions, exact dates listed in the application). Students will learn about the history of the comics medium, practice drawing and writing through prompts and exercises, spend time on comics fundamentals, and then produce their own mini-comic. Students will have work time in the studio, but will also need to do some work at home. Students will display & sell their comics together at the festival taking place on Saturday, Nov. 1st, at the Seattle Design Center in Georgetown.

Students under age 18 will need parental/guardian permission.

The application window is now closed and we are contacting all applicants. Thank you to everyone who applied! Everyone will be notified by August 30th.

This program is generously sponsored by foundry10.

Posted on by kelly
Categories: Education

Exhibitor Information

Things to do in advance: 

Book your flight or train

You will be flying into Sea-Tac Airport, which is a 25 minute cab drive or a 45 minute light rail ride into downtown Seattle. Light Rail is accessed via a walkway from Baggage Claim, across a skybridge, follow signs to Link Light Rail. There is only 1 line that goes North to South, when you board, make sure you are going North towards the city center. 

The Amtrak station is located on the edge of Pioneer Square, also considered part of downtown.  Read more…

SHOW UP artist talks – 2025 schedule

SHOW UP – a series of show and tell with comic artists building IRL community

We want artists to get to know each other better, through their work and processes, and to invest in each other more fully as a year round community. Artists will stand up and stand by their work, and present it to other people, instead of working mostly in isolation with no feedback or support. What does being part of a community mean? That we all live in a geographical area, or that we are invested in the progress and success of our peers? Let’s inspire each other! Read more…

Posted on by kelly
Categories: News

Trailer Blaze 2024

Our 8th Trailer Blaze comics residency concluded on April 19th. We had an incredible week on the coast! We drew in our trailers and rooms and at picnic tables in the sun, spent many hours in the sauna, took long walks on the beach (and one plunge! A wave took Madeline’s glasses!), were visited often by Mr. Big (the tiniest dog) and Meatball (the campus cat).  Alex harvested velella velella from the beach and roasted them with salt as an appetizer. We had delectable group dinners on the top floor and balcony, and Julia built a fire for us in the outdoor fireplace. There were side trips to the Antique Mall and Cape Disappointment, but for the most part, work happened: comic pages of many sizes on many kinds of paper, ideas organized on Post-It notes, outlines typed up, and breakthroughs were made. Read more…

Trailer Blaze 2023

Another wonderful week at The Sou’Wester Lodge for our 7th annual Trailer Blaze Comics Residency, with 13 artists from all over – Seattle, Philadelphia, Hiroshima, Norfolk, Portland, Omaha, Haida Gwaii, Osoyoos! Read more…

DASH GRANT recipient 2022 – Julia Wald

Local artist and illustrator Julia Wald is this year’s DASH GRANT recipient! We were really excited about her story synapsis and hyper-color drawing style of her upcoming comic, Uncle Scam’s Army Navy Surplus, an autobiography of their first job out of school in Buffalo, working at an army navy surplus store where they sold military gear to doomsday preppers, zombie cosplayers, and neo Nazis. This first part of a much longer story will premiere at Short Run on Nov. 5th. Read more…

Trailer Blaze 2022

Trailer Blaze 2022 really, truly happened after a 2 year postponement, and it made the experience even more special. 

This year we welcomed new residents Veronika Muchitsch (UK), Melanie Stevens (OR), Krusty Wheatfield (CA), Lenora Yerkes (DC), Janna Morton (MD), Rachel Scheer (Seattle); invited artists Lydia Fu (IL), Katie Fricas (NY); alumni, local mentors Mita Mahato, E.T. Russian, Lauren Armstrong, Megan Kelso, and Kelly Froh.  Read more…