The Staunton Underground Comics and Zine Fest (SUCZ Fest) returns Saturday, Jan. 18, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Gypsy Hill Park gymnasium.
Ryan Brosmer began organizing the fest a year ago and next weekend’s will be the third event.
“Staunton is a great art town,” Brosmer said. “There’s a lot of fine art and gallery art here, but we wanted to see if there was more of a crowd for the underground, independent stuff which is all the people who come to us.”
The first fest was held at SolArt Center in downtown Staunton last January, during which approximately 20 artists/vendors attended, was an experiment to gauge local interest.
A June fest, held at Ciders from Mars, attracted 30 artists/vendors.
Fifty independent, self-published artists will have their comics and other work on display and for sale next weekend.
“We’re highlighting the underground art and comics that you’re not going to see or find a lot of these people unless you come to an event like [SUCZ],” Brosmer said.
According to Brosmer, Staunton has not had a comics book shop since 1998, but shops are in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.
“We’ve gone from the smallest to what’s probably the largest [venue at Gypsy Hill Park],” Brosmer said of the fest’s growth.
Brosmer, who grew up in Loudoun County and Fredericksburg, has written and drawn comics for most of his life.
“I like to say I make weird comics for weird kids,” he said of his work which is in anthologies and graphic novels. Brosmer’s comics include robots and talking animals.
He said that graphic novels are longer comic collections bound with a spine and a story able to stand alone. Comic books are floppy and part of a bigger story or a collection of comics.
Each festival brings different opportunities. For the June festival, Brosmer raised $1,300 in local sponsorships and presented grant funding to all artists for travel expenses.
A pre-event will be held Friday, Jan. 17, from 5 to 9 p.m. at Ciders from Mars. A SUCZ Fest live comics reading will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with Richmond cartoonist and animator Dash Shaw, then two bands will perform.
“There’s going to be something for everyone,” Brosmer said of the Friday and Saturday events. Most content is for all ages, but some content will be for ages 18 and older.
The next SUCZ Fest will be in June at Ciders from Mars.
Gypsy Hill Park gymnasium is at 116th Regimental Rd., Staunton. Admission is free and open to the public.
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Rebecca Barnabi
