Special Guests and Featured Creators

  • Gemma Correll

    2026 Opening Speaker

    Gemma Correll (she/her) is a British illustrator and cartoonist currently based in Southern California, where she lives with her husband and beloved pugs. She studied Graphic Design and Illustration at the Norwich School of Art and Design, graduating in 2006 and later moved to the USA in 2015. Gemma imbues her simple line drawings with narrative and humour to create illustrations that catch the eye and tell a story. Her unique style has gained her work for clients ranging from Amazon to The Washington Post on projects as varied as animated online advertisements and autobiographical comics. Gemma has also illustrated numerous children’s books and has worked extensively in publishing, editorial and on social media projects. She also licences her art for use on merchandise and homeware and fashion products. Her debut graphic novel, Anxietyland, was published in April 2026.

    www.gemmacorrell.com

  • Caitlin McGurk

    Caitlin McGurk (she/her) is the Curator of Comics and Cartoon Art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and Associate Professor at The Ohio State University. She leads the education and outreach efforts at the library, organizes community events, curates exhibitions, works with artists, and mentors students who are inspired to study the rich history of comics. McGurk’s scholarship and exhibitions center around the work of women in comics, alternative and underground comics, and early American comic strips.

    Her bestselling book, Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, was published by Fantagraphics Books in November 2024 and received the 2025 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book, and the 2025 Broken Frontier Award for Best Book On Comics.

    https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/tell-me-a-story-where-the-bad-girl-wins-the-life-and-art-of-barbara-shermund

  • Camila Kerwin

    Camila Kerwin (she/her) is a journalist who makes comics and radio. She’s a regular cartoons contributor to the Boston Globe. Her comics and illustrations have appeared in the Washington Post, MoMA Magazine, the Miami Herald and WLRN, where she illustrated the Murrow Award-winner Class of COVID-19. Her work has been supported by the MacDowell Fellowship and the Vermont Studio Center. Previously, she was a producer at Marketplace’s This Is Uncomfortable, StoryCorps, and NPR’s On Point. Her debut non-fiction graphic novel is Soft Targets: Guns in America and the Kids Caught in the Crossfire (Street Noise). She lives in Brooklyn.

    https://www.camilakerwin.com/

  • Daryl Seitchik

    Daryl (she/they) is a cartoonist and teacher. She is the author of EXITS (Koyama Press, 2016), Now and Other Dreams (Fieldmouse Press, 2022), and How We Read: a Graphic Guide to Literacy (Center for Cartoon Studies, 2021). Her comics have been nominated for Ignatz and Eisner awards, and her semi-autobiographical comic Missy has been published in The New Yorker. She is currently working on two graphic novels: Follow the Doll, inspired by Slavic folklore, and Moon Bunnies, a fantastical space adventure for kids. Daryl teaches comics workshops at schools, libraries, and museums throughout New England. She is a site coordinator for the literacy program Everybody Wins!, and a presenter for the Children's Literacy Foundation. She has two adorable cats and co-runs the micro-press Parsifal Press with her partner in Vermont.

    www.darylseitchik.com

  • Hazel Newlevant

    Hazel (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist whose works include graphic novels Queer and How We Got Here and No Ivy League, and the graphic novellas Sugar Town and If This Be Sin. They have served as an editor for many comics anthologies, including the Ignatz-award-winning Comics for Choice and the GLAAD-award-winning Becoming Who We Are: Real Stories About Growing Up Trans.

    www.newlevant.com

  • Jonathan Todd

    Jonathan Todd (he/him) is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Timid (Scholastic/Graphix Spring 2024), which was inspired by his struggle to overcome shyness as a tween following his family’s move from South Florida to a Boston suburb in the 1980s. In addition to writing and drawing graphic novels, Jonathan Todd teaches children how to create their own comics.

    For glimpses into my life as a cartoonist and family man, follow me on Instagram @jonathanjtodd.

    https://www.jtstories.com/

  • Katy Doughty

    Katy Doughty (she/her) is a cartoonist, writer, and public health researcher. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology. Katy's work often focuses on the intersection of history and health, but she has a soft spot for language and literature as well. Her work has been featured in The Nib, Lily Magazine, and in graphic medicine anthologies. Her debut graphic novel, How To Survive the End of the World, was written during her residency with the Associates of the Boston Public Library. Originally from Texas, she now lives in Boston with her family.

    www.katydoughty.com

  • Mike Dawson

    Mike Dawson (he/him) is the Ignatz-awards winning author of The Fifth Quarter middle-grade graphic novel series and the recently published Hidden Dominion of Geordie James. Mike’s thoughtful and funny cartoon essays have appeared in a wide-range of national publications including Slate, Romper, The New Yorker, The Nib, and in the pages of The New York Times. He lives near the Jersey Shore with his wife, children and a number of dogs.

    www.mikedawsoncomics.com

  • Stephanie Stalvey

    Stephanie Stalvey (she/her) is a critically acclaimed, bestselling graphic novelist, author, and illustrator. Her debut graphic memoir, Everything in Color: A Love Story (Macmillan/First Second), earned a prestigious Starred Review from Publishers Weekly and widespread critical acclaim for its breathtaking artistic depth and emotional vulnerability.

    Stalvey graduated from the Memphis College of Art with a degree in Fine Art and Painting, and spent over a decade teaching visual arts in the public education system before transitioning to a full-time career as an author and illustrator. When she isn’t painting, Stalvey enjoys connecting with her global community of readers, spending quality time with her husband and son, and reading books snuggled up with her cats. She lives with her family in North Carolina.

    www.stephaniestalvey.com

  • Sanika Phawde

    Sanika Phawde (she/they) is an illustrator, educator, cartoonist and reportage artist, born and raised in India, and based in Boston. Through autobiographical comics, drawings on location, and illustrated interviews their work strives to capture and communicate instances of emotional connection, queerness, immigrant culture, familial tension and the deeper sentiments hiding in the heart of it. Issue 1 of their comic series “Wedding Juice and Other Melodramas” won the 2025 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series, and issues 2 and 3 are currently nominated for the 2026 Ignatz Award in the same category.

    www.sanikap.com

  • Tillie Walden

    Tillie Walden (she/her) is a cartoonist and illustrator originally from Austin, Texas. She is a creator of a number of award winning graphic novels, including her latest historical comic Charity and Sylvia. She lives in the Upper Valley with her family.

    www.tilliewalden.com

  • Vivian Li

    Vivian (she/her) is a comics artist and illustrator based in Seattle, Washington. She makes lots of zines and an operator of an old risograph (GR3750). She was the 2023 SDOT Bridge Artist-in-Residence and the 2025 Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress.

    www.vivianlikesfruit.com

Exhibitors