NCS Announces NCSFest

The National Cartoonists Society is delighted to announce that we have confirmed that the city of Huntington Beach, California, will host the inaugural NCSFest, a celebration of comics and cartoon art from all over the world. Based on the comic art festivals that are hugely popular in Europe, the festival will be held over the weekend of May 17-19, 2019. Hundreds of the world’s most celebrated creators are expected to attend the three-day event, participating in seminars, exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions and signing sessions, the vast majority of which will be free to the public. Downtown Huntington Beach will be the setting, with all events staged beachside, on the iconic pier, at the city’s Arts Center and library and in local hotels and businesses, all within easy walking distance.

The city of Huntington Beach has given us use of the pier and we will have marquees and tents just yards from the beach and the Pacific ocean. They are closing off three blocks of Main Street, at the Pier, to traffic and that is where we will have our “Artists Alley.” We will be staging extensive programming aimed at families in the City library, with artists conducting “how to” classes in one room, while renowned children’s book creators read excerpts from their books in the other. Across the street from the library, we are staging four world class exhibitions at the huge Arts Center, and local businesses will feature art displays in their windows. At the beach we will be staging free seminars and signings open to the public, there will be a marketplace and we will be enlisting an army of artists to create a giant mural along one side of the famous pier. There are plans to involve local schools and we anticipate that there will be many, many thousands of people congregating at the beach to celebrate all things comics and cartoon related.

Photo credit: @SurfCityUSA

More Info:

NCSFest 2019 – 17th – 19th May 2019 | Huntington Beach, California, United States: The National Cartoonists Society is online at reuben.org

Lakes International Comic Art Festival (12th – 14th October 2018): www.comicartfestival.com

Lyon BD Festival (June 2019): www.lyonbd.com