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Destination: Comics – 2017
Love comics and graphic novels or want to fall in love? Make Destination: Comics your go-to spot. Destination Comics features comics exhibitors, publishers, indie artists, and a brand-new Artists’ Cove booth where authors will be selling their wares, doing some on-the-fly illustrating, and chatting with fans about all things comics! Be sure not to miss panels with creators, including Nate Powell, Mariko Tamaki, Mark Evanier, Trina Robbins, Jason Shiga, George O’Connor, Victor LaValle, Shannon Wheeler and so many others – most taking place in the MAGIC Screening Room (first floor of building 8). Check out this year’s lineup below! Big thanks to our committee of comics industry professionals, Joan Hilty and Conor McCreery, for their programming support.
Past Events
November 2017
The Politics of YA
Young adult fiction is more popular — and more controversial — than ever. Once there were taboos and book bans; now there’s YA Twitter. How do authors cope with the fine line between being too SJW (Social Justice Warrior) or not SJW enough, especially in the already-opinionated comics world? Matt Holm (Swing It, Sunny), Mariko Tamaki (Lumberjanes), Cecil Castelluci (Soupy Leaves Home) and Molly Ostertag (The Witch Boy) talk about the balancing act and challenging the definition of all-ages.…
Fantasy: Youth’s Portal to Reality
Get a glimpse at surreal tales where children grow up to be robots, toys come alive, and a surfboard carries friends into a supernatural mystery, and gods struggle with real desires. These top creators share insight about why fantasy can be the best tool to teach kids about reality, with Janet Lee and Jim McCann (Return of the Dapper Men), Liniers (Good Night, Planet), George O’Connor (Olympians) and Kim Dwinell (Surfside Girls).…
Living in History
How does the comics medium make living, breathing characters of history? How do creators balance navigating the importance of accuracy with the awesome power of visual imagination? Talk history in illustrated form with Nathan Hale (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales), Khalil Bendib (Verax: The True History of Whistleblowers, Drone Warfare, and Mass Surveillance) art historian and web writer Mark Fertig (Take That, Adolf) and Nate Powell (March trilogy,…
Old Heroes, New Powers
As superheroes surge from the standard avenues of comic stores and blockbuster theaters onto the small screen and bookstore shelf, there’s a new hunger for fresh perspectives on what makes heroes super. Faith Erin Hicks (The Adventures of Superhero Girl), Barry Lyga (The Flash: Hocus Pocus) and Jo Whittemore (Supergirl: Age of Atlantis) discuss what they’re doing to deliver that! Moderated by Joan Hilty. Sponsored by…
Women Wanderers
Skating, driving West, discovering a family homeland inside a pashmina shawl, living Jane Eyre’s life in modern NYC — these are stories of women looking for home and identity and discovering, against all expectations, the things that create it for them. With Nidhi Chanani (Pashmina), Nicole Georges (Fetch) and Tillie Walden (Spinning). Moderated by Andrea Askowitz. Sponsored by…
Robert Sikoryak presents Carousel: Comics Performances and Picture Shows
For the first time ever, cartoonist Robert Sikoryak brings his famed Carousel event to the Miami Book Fair! What began in NYC in 1997 and has made its home at NYC’s Dixon Place has become a comics cult favorite, popping-up at comics festivals all over the U.S. like TCAF, S.D.C.C. MECAF, MICE and more. Carousel turns the regular ol’ comics presentation on its head using live narration, music, or sound effects combined with stick figures, lush illustrations, live painting or even dance,…
Horror, Noir, Immortality
Terror, death, and rebirth find new life with three authors who all buck genre conventions in their work to explore and explode these terrifying, yet weirdly empowering themes. Start your morning with a little noir alongside Victor LaValle (Destroyer), Jason Shiga (Demon), Conor McCreery (Kill Shakespeare series) and Eric Grissom (Gregory Suicide). Moderated by Alex Segura. Sponsored by…
Summers of Love & War
In today’s hyper-charged political climate, two new works look at the last era of major social upheaval in the U.S. – the 1960s and 70s – for clues on where to go from here. Talk through memoirs of waitressing for art, and travelling from sci-fi to the Sunset Strip, with Mimi Pond (The Customer Is Always Wrong), and Trina Robbins (Last Girl Standing). Moderated by Joan Hilty. Sponsored by…
Future Shock
From Ray Bradbury to H.G. Wells, Science Fiction writers have been predicting our future for decades. Join our own panel of visionaries as they tell us what they see when they look ahead. (Spoiler Alert: It’s not all good.) with Mike Cavallaro (Decelerate Blue), Michel Fiffe (Zegas), Mr.Fish (And Then the World Blew Up). Moderated by George O’Connor. Sponsored by…
SPOTLIGHT: Kirby’s Moral Universe
Jack Kirby’s personal and public beliefs drove the creation of an unforgettable range of iconic heroes – and helped shape a propaganda tide. Former assistant to Kirby himself, Mark Evanier (Kirby: King of Comics) joins Editorial Director at Abrams ComicArts Charlie Kochman for a conversation about the life, work and legend of the man who changed comics forever, Jack Kirby. Sponsored by…
Best American Comics 2017
Guest-edited by Ben Katchor, the twelfth annual volume of the New York Times bestselling series returns with a collection where “every last page is worth a look” (Bustle). Join Katchor as he talks with some of this year’s contributors to Best American Comics including Matthew Thurber and Lale Westvind. Sponsored by…
SPOTLIGHT: The Trump Presidential Library
The Los Angeles Times called it a “must-see panel of Comic-Con 2017”, and now it’s coming to Miami! Political satire has reached new heights since the election of President Trump; Shannon Wheeler (Shit My President Says) and Robert Sikoryak (The Unquotable Trump) promise laughter and tears (and a presentation with slides) as they work through the nation’s current political reality. Sponsored by…
