Last weekend, the Minneapolis art comics community welcomed some of the country’s finest cartoonists for MIX, the Minneapolis Indie Xpo. Show organizer Sarah Morean and her volunteer team provided a generous platform for the Fund, helping the organization raise over $2,100 at the event.
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein represented the organization with the assistance of local cartoonists George Folz and Carl Thompson. On Sunday afternoon he delivered Censorship Then & Now, the CBLDF’s history of comics censorship, to a full house that included the Fund’s co-founder Greg Ketter.
Held at local arts space The Soap Factory, MIX provided a small festival environment where nationally recognized cartoonists shared the stage with local talent. The show was free to the public, and attracted a diverse crowd that ranged from loyal comics fans to curious readers who came to the show through buzz in the local press. The exhibit floor provided a solid survey of the current art comics climate, and included debuts from Zak Sally, Ursula Murray Husted, Noah van Sciver, and others. Tom Neely, Kevin Huizenga, Julia Wertz, Sarah Glidden, Jon Lewis, Dustin Harbin, and Robert Kirby, were also on hand signing recent work.
Morean and her team developed a full schedule of events that included a welcome party at Pink Hobo where a show of art from Yo Gabba Gabba was on display. Saturday night’s MIX Mixer benefited the organization to a tune of $705, thanks in part to 2D Cloud, whose graphic novel Yearbooks was given away to the first 50 attendees. Sunday night after the show closed, Minneapolis’ incredible comics institution Big Brain Comics invited out of town cartoonists to stop by the shop to sell their work, and show organizers hosted a wind-down party at Red Stag, a local food & craft beer bistro. The cumulative effect of the exhibit time and night life made MIX feel more like a creative retreat than a mere marketplace to sell comics.
The CBLDF thanks our volunteers George & Carl, Ursula Husted, as well as show organizer Sarah Morean; MCAD faculty Zak Sally, Frenchy Lunning, Diana Greene, Barbara Schulz, the MCBA, Anime Twin Cities, and all of the donors who ensured we were able to raise awareness and funds for our current casework.
