Since its inception in 2021, Pride Comic Art Festival, affectionately known as PrideCAF has come back each year, bigger and better than ever. Every year, the festival occurs at The Station in Bristol – a central youth hub offering support, advice and a creative environment to explore your interests and express yourself freely. PrideCAF’s yearly festival certainly fits with the building’s ethos, being Bristol’s first Comic Art Festival that promotes and celebrates LGBTQIA+ artists and writers. LGBTQIA+ relationships and themes have historically been hidden from literature, not least of all comics, due to censorship. But now, with more comic artists able to sell their work independently, queer narratives are finally getting their time to shine in the public eye. PrideCAF gives LGBTQIA+ creators a unique opportunity to exhibit and lead workshops and talks, and gives visitors a chance to check out their endless talents, from zines to prints to pins.
One of the lovely elements of PrideCAF is that it’s totally free, meaning that, while you can absolutely plan your comic festival visit down to a T. The event is also open and welcoming to those who may just stumble across it as they go about their day, and who may not necessarily have discovered an inclusive comics festival like this before. What an amazing opportunity to showcase the talents of the incredible LGBTQIA+ community.
As always with indie comic festivals (think Arthole’s Battle of the Wonk earlier this year), I was massively impressed with the sheer range of talent curated under one roof. With over forty different exhibitors and stalls, it was a joy to walk around the building, taking in all of the gorgeous artwork, chatting with creators and browsing their wares. Sometimes these events can get a little jammed and claustrophobic, but the organisers left plenty of space for a clear walkway around each of the stalls.
BF’s Lydia with the PrideCAF team
It’s always lovely at these kinds of events to chat to creators, some you’ve met at previous festivals, some you’ve only admired online and some you’re discovering for the very first time. Everyone was so sweet and friendly, and so excited to talk about their work; their inspirations, how long the project took and how they’ve grown as an artist. My first stop was meeting the lovely Toria McCallum, whose zines ranged from a Japan adventure to a compilation of their daily sketches for Frogtober in 2020 (of course I picked up both!). As I circled around the various stalls, I was thrilled to meet other LGBTQIA+ creators whose work I hadn’t come across before; Iliad Tea’s Ducktales zine, Chloe Starling’s gothic folklore, Cat Lilith’s Fangs (which is perfect as we move towards Halloween!), Sar Cousin’s intricate Dungeons and Dragons sketches, and Fukamai’s sweet little zines about their cat Ziggy, and another cat that hangs around their work place (also called Ziggy. I love it.).
Iliad Tea aka former BF team member Holly Raidl
Two really special interactions I had were with creators Amy Willis and Timothy Winchester. Amy’s glossy hardback’s Monster in the Woods and The Folks of Folklore immediately caught my attention, and Amy was sweet enough to offer to do a personal inscription for me! Timothy Winchester is one of the loveliest creators I’ve ever met and is so passionate about his range of sweet comics following ‘little friends’ (a frog, a dog, a frog-dog, etc) – so much so, that he gave me a bunch of freebies to donate to the library where I work! I also bought a particularly groovy ‘duck wizard’ hat from his stall, which I am currently wearing with pride.
Timothy Winchester
Another exciting moment was meeting creators that I’ve interacted with online, but hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting in person. It was so lovely to meet the sweet Kamila Krol (professionally known as Pigeon) and grab a copy of the gorgeous Boxes #2 anthology. Abs Bailey is also a creator I’ve been a longtime fan of, so purchasing some of their gorgeous zines and prints made me so happy! Twigs, Eyes, Pies is going straight on my TBR list; a zine in which Birch the bear, a baker at Appleblossom Bakery, discovers some weird happenings in the woods….
Kamila Krol aka Pigeon
A little different from the other stalls was ‘The Little Free Library’, which provides young people with access to quality LGBTQIA+ books. There was a lovely range from Queer: A Graphic History, to Welcome to St Hell to Be Gay, Do Comics. You could also buy a crocheted pride flag-coloured octopus, with all the proceeds going towards the running of the library.
Some of the comics I’m particularly excited to get going on from my (rather large) haul include Amy Willis’s Monster in the Woods, Timothy Winchester’s Ice Cream Party, Toria McCallum’s Strawberries and Honey, the Boxes Volume 2 anthology, Magic and Symbols in The Wicker Man from S Cousins, Blobby Horror from Erika Price and Reginald from Deadly Knitshade. There was such a range of zines and comics to choose from, and I’ve got an exciting variety of genres, including horror, fantasy and romance.
Amy Willis
All in all, this was such an inclusive, joyful, fun event, with so much effort clearly put into the running. Huge props to Nate, Chris, and the rest of the PrideCAF team, who were also absolutely lovely, and so happy to stop and chat. What a fantastic celebration of LGBTQIA+ creators. Want to find out a bit more about PrideCAF? Check out my mini-interview with the organisers below…
BROKEN FRONTIER: How and when did PrideCAF come about?
NATE (one of the organisers): I took heavy inspiration from The Rainbow Road which was originally created by Tab Kimpton. Basically a table map highlighting where LGBTQIA+ creators were sitting at larger events like Thought Bubble or MCM so you could go and support them. The map grew bigger each year to the point I knew you could definitely fill a space with that many creators. I originally pitched it as an alternative event to run alongside the fortnight activities during Bristol Pride. It was all booked for the 4th of July 2020 with creators signing up at the beginning of March. As you can guess, something quite big happened later that month that led to public gatherings being put on hold. We rescheduled for September 2021 and kept it fairly small with about 20 creators on the day.
Abs Bailey
I had never run an event like this before. Only small social meet-ups and a couple of club nights but not a whole day event. As the event got bigger and more people wanted to table, Chris joined me in running things and we started growing a reputation of being an event that really cares about the comfort and well-being of the exhibitors as well as providing a safe and inclusive space for everyone. We’ve now run four annual events with our fourth one just finished. We also run workshops and community tables selling other people’s comics throughout the year.
BF: Why do you think events like PrideCAF are so important to the comics scene at the moment?
NATE: So many people use comics, either drawing, writing, or reading, to explore and learn more about their identity. The comic scene is brimming with LGBTQIA+ people. However, despite a more growing acceptance for LGBTQIA+ creators and queer culture in the comics scene, I think some creators still feel a little weary about selling work that is openly queer or even just being more openly themselves. Equally, I think some LGBTQIA+ people attending comic events may be hesitant to buy queer content in a primarily straight setting. PrideCAF is a safe place to display, sell and buy stories and artwork that, once upon a time, would be censored or discriminated against. Also to meet others within the community who have similar interests. I think it’s equally important to highlight comics and zines in the LGBTQIA+ community. There is such a rich history of queer liberation and fighting for rights and freedoms in comics but it’s not highlighted or even talked about at the same level as other aspects of queer culture. I’m hoping we’re changing that, even just a little.
Toria McCallum
BF: How can we help keep events like PrideCAF running for years to come?
NATE: Our biggest struggle is getting the word out. It’s getting harder and harder to reach people when social media seems to only get you minimal reach and becoming more unreliable year after year. Flyering and postering are also hard when you’re trying to advertise a rather niche event. We need people to share the event as we still get so many people saying “I never knew this was a thing”. We don’t charge an entrance fee because we don’t want to be a financial barrier to those who may not be able to afford it but that does mean we also have to work extra hard on finding that funding to run. Which is difficult when you’re just two blokes with day jobs.
As anyone who has ever applied for funding knows those forms are a full-time job of their own. And we’re either too niche or too broad for some funding. Spaces and rentals are getting more expensive for us and accommodation and travel can be a real financial hit for exhibitors. We know PrideCAF is loved by a lot of exhibitors, but we also know we’re not the biggest profit-maker like bigger comic events. For smaller events like PrideCAF to thrive we need people to share the events and turn up if they can. Volunteering is also such a massive help and we’re so grateful for our amazing volunteers year after year.
SunKissedFox
Sar Cousins
Lucie Ebrey
LGBTQIA Little Library
Fukamai
Chloe Starling
Abbie B’s Arts and Cat Lilith
