It was just a couple of weekends ago that history was made right here in Portland. Maybe you missed it if you didn’t happen to be out wandering down the quiet end of Commercial Street, before you get to the Narrow Gauge, but there was a festival going on! On Sunday, May 17th, . . . → Read More: We Went To The Maine Comics Arts Festival]]>

It was just a couple of weekends ago that history was made right here in Portland. Maybe you missed it if you didn’t happen to be out wandering down the quiet end of Commercial Street, before you get to the Narrow Gauge, but there was a festival going on! On Sunday, May 17th, Casablanca Comics hosted the first ever Maine Comics Arts Festival at the Ocean Gateway. It was an appropriate venue for the event, providing a lecture room for panels and then a long ascent via walkway to the main hall, filled with over 70 artists selling and signing their goods.

Cap’n Eli was representing via free soda samples and the namesake comics (bonus: lifesize cardboard “standees!”), and the Center For Cartoon Studies in Vermont was out in full force showing off the work of their students (including a bunch of Ignatz winners). Unfortunately our timing meant that we showed up just as Gabrielle Bell (who I’d wanted to meet) was speaking on a panel, and we couldn’t stick around to wait for her to get out. Maybe next year?

Check out the full photo gallery from the Maine Comics Arts Festival right here!