Fourteenth edition of the independent comics festival featuring professional comic artists, collectors and rare comic publications in a DIY gathering.
Short Run Comix Festival returns to the Seattle Design Center on Saturday, November 7, 2026. This is the festival's fourteenth year, and it's still the same DIY gathering it started as: professional comic artists and casual hobbyists coming together in one room. It's kept deliberately separate from the corporate comic-con scene, framed more as a DIY takeover than a convention. It draws independent comic artists, collectors of rare comics, and fans of weird comic art, all of whom get to meet the artists in person. The festival usually brings in over 3,500 people and more than 200 alternative comic book artists, and around here, a lot of people call it Seattle's 'comics Christmas.'
What started as a one-day comics festival back in 2011 has grown into the main program of Short Run Seattle, which is now a year-round nonprofit arts organization. Beyond the festival, they run a week-long comics residency for women, a youth apprenticeship program, workshops, artist talks, and art shows. They also operate a micropress and provide online resources for artists. The festival is the biggest part of that work, and it's been consistently supported by 4Culture, The Washington State Arts Commission (artsWA), and The Norcliffe Foundation.
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The festival takes place at the Seattle Design Center, 5701 6th Ave S, in the Georgetown neighborhood. If you're coming from outside the city, the organizers put together a page with hotel discounts and table advice for artists. It's a one-day event on Saturday, November 7, so you can get your comics fix and be home by dinner.
