The 12th Annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) landed at the Zhou B. Art Center, 1029 W. 35th St., on Aug. 24-25.
This edition of the free Expo hosted well over 150 exhibitors [including 40 identifying as LGBTQ+] and featured panels, workshops, demonstrations and networking opportunities. Special guests this year included Keith Knight, Trung Le Nguyen, Ronald Wemberly, Karen Czap, Beth Hettland and Sam Szabo.
While millions the world over have plunked down fistfuls of cash to make Wolverine and Deadpool the biggest couple on movie screens this summer, the idea that comic books are now big business hasn’t dimmed the appeal of alternative artists and their works either. Where DC and Marvel have seemed to flood the market, the alternative comics universe has kept on thriving with imagination, non-binary perspectives, gender non-conformity and non-existent boundaries with no end in sight.
What makes CAKE so exciting is the wealth of queer artists displaying their highly varied work and the many multi-faceted personalities in these works. There were so many queer artist at this year’s CAKE Expo that I could only meet a few, even as I was pretty much overwhelmed by everyone and everything I saw. Among those artists was San Francisco artist DesignNurd (Hard Femme EX-Men, Hell Babes and Daddy Issues) who made his CAKE debut this year.
Also in attendance were Tony Breed, known for his assorted queer mini-memoirs, Finn and Charlie are Hitched; Trung Le Nguyen, an award-winning author/illustrator of The Magic Fish; tommi parrish, an Australian trans artist whose debut publication, The Lie and How We Told It won a 2019 Lambda Literary Award; and trans artist Sam Szabo; creator of Enlightened Transexual Comix and Girl Hell. New and emerging artists included Ree Artemisa, a self-taught Latina artist whose subjects focus on community, heritage and LGBTQ+ representation; Xiomar Luna, who co-created Collision Course; Lily (Basil) Maclachlan; Robin Cornilius; and Ina Parsons.
