
Welcome to Cartoon Crossroads Columbus
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, or CXC, is a comics, art, and animation festival where the greatest talent from the world of cartooning and comics descend at this annual celebration of the world’s most exciting art form.
Cartooning superstars headline a group of guests and 45 exhibitors appearing at the city-wide comics’ literary festival.
The group responsible is Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, aka “CXC”, a non-profit organization uniting a dozen Columbus arts organizations and bringing together individuals with over 250 collective years of experience in cartooning and comics-making.
“I love Columbus, and I love comics,” said Jeff Smith, creator of the popular BONE series of graphic novels and CXC’s Festival President and Artistic Director. “I want to bring the two together.”
The CXC approach differs from standard comics conventions by first concentrating on the comics-makers as authors and then focusing heavily on the cartooning itself as laudable art rather than as creative fodder for film, television, and toys. At CXC, comics and cartoon art are in the spotlight, and cartoonists are the stars.
CXC also welcomes practitioners that embody a variety of different approaches to cartooning, from graphic novels to gag panels to newspaper strips to webcomics to superhero comics to animated film. CXC features comics to read for audiences aged 2 to 102.
CXC’s city-wide approach — with a dozen partnership institutions and five major Columbus venues— seeks to transform Columbus into an every-year, world-class destination for several multi-billion dollar industries: a Sundance for comics; a Cannes for the cartoon arts.
“I’ve been attending comics shows all over the world for 25 years now,” says Smith. “I want to bring the best of what I’ve experienced to CXC.”
Please e-mail cxcfestival@mail.com or visit cartooncrossroadscolumbus.com for more information, including a full schedule, art as needed, and complete guest lists and programming.