Seattle's Short Run Is Free: Some Mini-Comics Start at $3
Some 200 indie cartoonists print, fold and staple their own comics, then stand behind them for a day. Entry is free, and prices are set table by table: some mini-comics start at $3.
🖨️ 200+ Tables of Handmade Comics
🎟️ Free Entry, Then the Tables
Admission is free, and swag bags go to the first 50 people through the entrance. Inside, more than 200 indie comic artists and small-press publishers from 27 states and five countries stand behind work they printed themselves. You buy from the person who drew it, so ask how a page was made before you decide. No one sets a fair-wide price: in this year's exhibitor shops, some mini-comics start at $3, single zines run $5 to $12 and full books $18 to $30. El Pirata parks its food truck out front.
🧒 Youth Zone: Fold a Zine, Pull a Print
The family stop is upstairs on the second-floor balcony, where the Youth Zone is built for younger visitors: fold and staple a zine of your own, pull a screen print, print on a letterpress. It is included with free admission. Downstairs, the Strange Library manga pop-up keeps almost 2,000 titles out to read on site, and the 40-minute Short Talks run hourly on the skybridge.
🕕 11 to 9: How the Day Runs
The atrium runs 11 AM to 6 PM, and Metro 131 or 132 from the SODO light-rail station drops you at 4th Ave S and Mead St; street parking and the venue's 90-car lot are both free, and Seattle Artist League next door opens its studio 12 to 3. At 6 the fair moves rather than ends: Night Two at Fantagraphics on S Vale St is free, 6 to 8 PM, open to all ages, with Roberta Gregory and Raquelle Jac interviewed by Katie Fricas at 7. At 8 the evening changes shape — Pencil Test, underground animation at Jules Maes on Airport Way S, is free but 21 and over only, 8 to 9 PM, so it is not a family stop; the Bacon Strip drag show after it needs a ticket.
