It’s time for one of my favorite yearly autumn activities: browsing the ShortBox Comics Fair! After checking in on artist announcements since January and having scrolled through the entire site catalog, I’ve made my final (at least for now) selections. I have to say, we got some fantastic comics this year.
Starting with:
“On Love and Lepidoptery” by Simone Stehouwer
My second pick, but the one I’m most excited to read! The court wizard Iris decides to pursue her bug-watching hobby up in the mountains. Larkspur, of the crown guard, also decides to accompany her. For strictly professional reasons and not because she’ll be alone with her crush.
“A Teacher’s Anguish” by Barbara Mazzi
And my first pick! School teacher Ange Takayama just wants to escape from her soul-crushing job and focus on what’s really important in life: the super famous idol, Reen! She just has to make sure her students don’t find out!
“Fashion Intervention” by Chereen Francis-Roberts
Due to the drain of her job (and life in general), Bertie lacks the energy to make an effort with her appearance like she used to when she was younger.
One day, Bertie comes home from work to an unwelcome guest – a thieving mouse who has decided to hide in her closet. Instead of a cornered mouse, she discovers that her closet has turned into a sparkling void, and an intimidating yet fashionable demon has decided to occupy it.
“Dream Loop” by Inkpangur
Caught in a strange loop of dreams and desperate to wake, a girl accepts help from a mysterious, faceless guide. Can she escape and unravel the truth of what’s keeping her inside this world of nightmares?
“Sweet Fanged” by Ari
Misguided by gothic romance novels, Opal, a vampire, attempts to seduce her human crush on Halloween. What could possibly go wrong?
“Exo” by Jaye Fabel
To continue his work in high society after the fall of the kingdom, the mage Heim joins an aristocrat and what’s left of her house in fleeing the country. Heim soon becomes captivated by the lady’s knight, who often needs the mage to piece him back together.
The fair is held the entire month of October, so there’s plenty of time to look through the works of a hundred plus artists. A word of advice, if there’s an artist you love, make sure you follow their socials or find where they can be found on the internet. The ShortBox Instagram page archives the posts once the fair is over, so they have a new slate to work with for the following year. (Learn from my mistakes!)
If you stuck around until the end of this haul, thanks for checking out the comics I’m excited for. But now, you can click over to the SBCF site and have a look yourself.
Until the next post! Go, go, go!
.chel
Reading Rites 