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Boise Comic Arts Festival

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Boise Comic Arts Festival returns for its 14th year September 5 & 6, 2026. It will include all the features you know and love including a two-day Artist's Alley, cosplay, panels, performances, and workshops at Boise Centre.

BCAF XIV Location & Hours:
Saturday, September 5 | 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. | Boise Centre

Sunday, September 6 | 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. | Boise Centre

Free to Attend | No Registration Required

Event Info

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This year we will be hosting a two-day Artists’ Alley on Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6. The application for table space in Artists’ Alley is now closed. 

For those who missed the application deadline, we have opened a waitlist. If and when space becomes available, we’ll offer it to those on the waitlist. To be added to the waitlist, fill out the Waitlist Application.

Please send questions aabout exhibiting at BCAF XIV to boisecomicartsfestival@cityofboise.org.

BCAF only accepts payments through SmartPAY. If you receive suspicious requests for payment related to BCAF, please email boisecomicartsfestival@cityofboise.org to confirm legitimacy prior to transmitting payment.

The Original Comic Creation Contest is a chance for kids to show off their comic crafting skills by creating a single page of comics to express an idea, set a scene or mood, introduce a character, or tell a story. The contest is open to ages 4-14 and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes will be awarded in two categories: Younger Kids (4-9) and Older Kids (9-14). 

Contest submissions accompanied by a completed entry form can be turned in at any Boise Public Library location. Entry forms are available at all Library locations or can be downloaded and printed. The contest ends July 31. 

Comic Creation Contest Rules

Comic Creation Contest Entry Form

The Cosplay Contests are your chance to show off your costume making skills and creativity. Your costume could win you fame, glory and of course - prizes. We'll have live Cosplay Contests for kids, teens, adults!

Cosplay contests will take place at Boise Centre’s Junior Ballroom (Room 130) on Saturday, September 5. The contests will take place at the following times:

  • 11:30 a.m. - Youth Cosplay Contest
  • 12:30 p.m. – Cosplay Parade
  • 1:30 p.m. - Teen Cosplay Contest
  • 3:30 p.m. - Adult Cosplay Contest

Registration is now open for the cosplay contests and closes on September 4. Participants can also register onsite on Saturday, September 5.

Read the full cosplay contest rules, And learn more by visiting the Cosplay Contest FAQs.

This year’s BCAF poster was created by Boise artist Julius Bridgeforth. Bridgeforth has designed album artwork, Treefort windows, and has several short comics forthcoming later this year.

BCAF XIV Poster by Julius Bridgeforth.

2024 saw the launch of Boise Comic Arts Festival Presents…an exciting new limited edition annual publication produced by Boise Public Library in partnership with local Idaho cartoonist Vannotes. Last year's creator was Alieha Dryden, with the original comic Marion and the Goathead. 

For this year’s edition of Boise Comic Arts Festival Presents… we’re doing an open call for creators to submit a pitch for the 8-page comic and cover. The selected creator or creative team will be paid a page rate for their work at a rate of $125.00 per page, including the cover. They will also be given a table at BCAF XIV and provided with copies of the completed publication.

The call for pitches is open now and closes on April 13.

For more information, and to submit a proposal, visit the submission page.

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Emerging Artist Mentorship (formerly the Teen Comics Mentorship program) was created to support and inspire teens interested in pursuing a career in comic arts or related fields. The program provides information, training, and opportunities to aspiring creators and will culminate with the mentees tabling at the Boise Comic Arts Festival.

Applications to participate in the BCAF XIV Emerging Artist Mentorship are now closed.

For more information, visit the Emerging Artist Mentorship FAQ

Love BCAF? Be part of the action by volunteering! This year there are multiple days and times to help, including after-hours options. All volunteers will get a BCAF XIV shirt!

Volunteers must be a minimum of 14 years old on the first day of BCAF. Volunteers of minor age must have a legal parent or guardian over 18 sign their Volunteer Waiver.

The deadline to respond is August 1, 2026. To sign-up for volunteering, fill out the BCAF XIV Volunteer Sign-Up.

If you have any questions, please contact us at boisecomicartsfestival@cityofboise.org.

For more information, see our BCAF FAQ or email boisecomicartsfestival@cityofboise.org. 

Guest Creators

David Brother's Headshot.
David Brothers was born in Georgia, found a new home in Oakland, edits Japanese manga for a living and American comics for a change of pace, and writes fiction for fun when he's not sitting by the dock of the Bay. He cut his teeth doing comics criticism at 4thletter! and ComicsAlliance before co-creating Good Devils with Nick Dragotta, Time Waits with Chip Zdarsky & Marcus To, and Apollo KIDz with Caleb Goellner. He has played millions of hours of Tekken, but is still barely Fujin on a good day.

 

 

Jamie Rich headshot.
Jamie S. Rich is an author and editor. In addition to being the Editor-in-Chief of Oni Press in its formative years, he was Group Editor at DC Comics from 2015 to 2021, during which time he edited the acclaimed series Mister Miracle, Shade the Changing Girl, Far Sector, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and, alongside Sarah Gaydos and Marc Andreyko, the Eisner-winning Love is Love anthology, among others. The comics he has written include several collaborations with artist Joëlle Jones, such as 12 Reasons Why I Love Her (romance) and You Have Killed Me (crime), and the Archer Coe series with Dan Christensen (more crime!). He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Ignition Press, who is releasing his latest series, the romantic-comedy The Dogsitter.

 

 

Jeremy Lawson's headshot.
Jeremy Lawson is a queer cartoonist from Texas currently hangin' around Denver, Colorado. He spends most of his time drawing cute sword boys and monsters, tinkering with retro gaming handhelds, and spoiling his miniature dachshund, Hector (a heckin' good boy). Jeremy's comic's work includes Minecraft: Heart of Cobblestone, Imp King, and more.

 

 

Jeremy Whitley's headshot.
Jeremy Whitley is the writer/creator of Princeless, The Dog Knight, Navigating with You, and School for Extraterrestrial Girls. He is also the writer of Marvel's award-winning Unstoppable Wasp series and the author of sixty issues of My Little Pony.

 

 

Leila del Duca's headshot.
Bursting with style and imagination, Leila del Duca's comics play across genres, exploring everything from emotional complexity to undiscovered worlds. After growing up in Montana and studying at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, Leila followed her passion for storytelling to Portland, Oregon, where she co-created the long-running series Shutter and wrote the fan-favorite graphic novel Afar. Her art has defined some of the most celebrated comics of the past decade: Once Upon a Time at the End of the World, The Wicked + The Divine, Sleepless, Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed, The House of Lost Horizons, Future State, Wonder Girl, and Scarlet Witch.

 

 

Megan Levens' headshot.
Megan Levens is a cartoonist best known for her work on comics such as Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel City, and Madame Frankenstein. She most recently completed interior art duties for the upcoming IDW Publishing miniseries, Star Trek: Red Shirts, with crewmates Christopher Cantwell, Charlie Kirchoff, and Jodie Troutman. Currently she is working on The Dogsitter for Ignition Press. Megan is owned by two rescue dogs, who reside with her in Kansas City.

 

 

Mimi Pond's headshot.
Mimi Pond is a cartoonist and author of five humor books as well as the first episode of The Simpsons. She has contributed to periodicals too numerous to mention as well as online at newyorker.com, topic.com, medium.com, the parisreview.com, popula.com, and more. She is also the creator of two graphic novels, 2014's Over Easy, and 2017's The Customer is Always Wrong, which garnered dozens of positive reviews, were on the New York Times Best Seller List, and won a 2014 PEN America Award. In 2025 her 440-page graphic biography of Britain's Mitford sisters, Do Admit! The Mitford Sisters and Me was published by Drawn & Quarterly to great acclaim. Mimi is recipient of the 2014 Pen Center USA award for graphic literature, Outstanding Body of Work, a Comic-Con Inkpot Award in 2014, as well as an Eisner Award for best short story in 2021, and an Eisner Hall of Fame nominee in 2026.

 

 

Pornsak Pichetshote's headshot.
Pornsak Pichetshote is a Thai-American award-winning writer of comics and TV. He began his career as a rising star editor at DC's Vertigo imprint before overseeing DC Entertainment's TV department, helping spearhead what would become the CW's Arrowverse of shows. As a comics writer, his work includes Infidel which was selected for NPR's 100 Favorite Horror Stories of all Time, the Eisner- and Harvey-winning The Good Asian, Dead Boy Detectives, Man's Best, and Exquisite Corpses. He also wrote and curated The Horizon Experiment anthology. As a TV writer, he's worked on Marvel's Cloak & Dagger, Light as a Feather, and Two Sentence Horror Stories. Most recently, he is the writer of Absolute Green Arrow for DC Comics and the upcoming Exquisite Corpses: Lone Gunman for Tiny Onion and Image Comics.

 

 

Rye Hickman's headshot.
Rye Hickman is a visual storyteller based out of Denver. Past work includes The Harrowing, Bad Dream, Buzzing, and more. They get really excited about dystopian fiction, good coffee, and drawing hands.

 

 

Tadd Galusha's headshot.
Tadd Galusha is an Alaska-based professional comic creator and illustrator. He's worked with major publishers on properties such as Godzilla, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, GI Joe, and King Kong. 2019 marked a breakout year with the release of his creator owned dinosaur epic, Cretaceous. Since, he's embraced the independent and small press comic scenes, while still illustrating commercially for publishers and production studios with recent projects such as the Paleo-American series The First Americans, Casey Jones, and the soon to be released documentary film The Bear Kid. His newest limited series is Showdown from Ignition Press. Through the Anchorage Museum, Tadd also coordinates and hosts "Panel Breaks," a monthly workshop geared toward educating and curating a local community of Alaskan comic creators.

 

 

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