Activities

Julia Davis Park – Rotary Plaza & Surrounding Area

10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Park Games & Superhero Training Camp. Enjoy giant games and our Superhero Training Camp for kids! Make and don a superhero mask while you leap over tall buildings, take down supervillains, and walk through lava!

10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. LEGO Display. Join the Idaho LEGO® Users Group for a display of talent, patience, and precision engineering. LEGO creations from around the Treasure Valley will be exhibited.

10:00 a.m.-4:00p.m. Cyanotype Comics. Celebrate World Cyanotype Day by making your own cyanotype comic with local artist Jessie Swimeley! The cyanotype is a historic photographic process, created by coating paper with a chemical solution that reacts with sunlight to form vivid blue images.

10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. 501st Legion Appearance - Timberline Garrison. Since 1997, the 501st Legion has been dedicated to recreating film-quality costumes of the “villainous” characters of the Star Wars galaxy and entertaining Star Wars fans with their public appearances and has become a leading force in fan-based charity events around the world. The Timberline Garrison serves as the local "Chapter" of the 501st for Idaho and Montana. Rebel Legion. Serving members of the Rebel Legion in Idaho and Montana Takodana Base features costumes of the heroes of Star Wars. We’re thrilled to participate in the Boise Comic Arts Festival.

Julia Davis Park – Agricultural Pavilion

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Fandom Meetup: Superheroes. Meet up with other fans and enthusiasts to show off your costume and share your love of Superheroes.

12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. Fandom Meetup: Anime. Meet up with other fans and enthusiasts to show off your costume and share your love of Anime and Manga.

3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Fandom Meetup: Lord of the Rings/Fantasy. Meet up with other fans and enthusiasts to show off your costume and share your love of Lord of the Rings and Fantasy.

4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Fandom Meetup: Sci-Fi. Meet up with other fans and enthusiasts to show off your costume and share your love of Sci-Fi.

Julia Davis Park – Across from the Idaho State Museum

2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Wrestle Club. Wrestle Club is the first and only professional wrestling company in the state of Idaho. Established in September 2015, Wrestle Club has performed in over 133 events and has many partnerships with local non-profits such as The Special Olympics, Boise Rescue Mission, Make a Wish, Idaho Food Bank, and Idaho Military Branches. All events are nearly free, as Wrestle Club's motto is: pro wrestling entertainment that is geared towards strengthening our community. If you are not a believer in magic, attend a local wrestling event and become a believer again.

Julia Davis Park - Bandshell

1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Treasure Valley Studios Performance. Founded in 2017, Treasure Valley Studios is a group of cosplayers, actors, and performers who enjoy portraying characters from all fandoms and pop culture. They are most well-known for their Marvel superhero group: The Treasure Valley Avengers. Watch a fully scripted performance with superheroes and derring-do in the Julia Davis Bandshell.

5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Improv Performance: Clever Hans and the Singing Swans. A selection of never before seen and never-to-be-repeated improvised scenes and spontaneous songs. With musical accompaniment.

Zoo Boise – African Schoolhouse

10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Button Making and Crafts. Join library staff and Zoo volunteers to make comics buttons, contribute to our community comics scroll, and create your own pair of superhero cuffs!

Zoo Boise – Gorongosa Story Space

10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Treasure Valley Ghostbusters. Visit with the Treasure Valley’s own Ghostbusters to hear stories about how they train, learn about their adventures capturing ghosts, and get a close up look at a Proton Pack and other tools of the trade.

Book Signings

Zoo Boise – Conservation Plaza - Rediscovered Books Booth

10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Purchase books and get them signed by guest creators.

10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Dani Colman (The Unfinished Corner)

11:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Aaron McConnell (The Comic Book Story of Beer)

11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Alex Graudins (Improve, History Comics – The Great Chicago Fire)

12:00 p.m.-12:30 p.m. Rose Bousamra (Frizzy)

12:30 p.m.-1:00 p.m. Shing Yin Khor (The Legend of Auntie Po)

1:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Madeline McGrane (The Accursed Vampire)

Portfolio Reviews

Zoo Boise – Conservation Plaza - Library Information Booth

12:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Interested in getting feedback and advice from professional comic creators? Bring your original artwork and head over to the Portfolio Review Table! Some of our Guest Creators will be on-hand offering art critiques and insights on how to break into the comics industry.

12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. Norman Shurtliff

1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Shing Yin Khor & Bones Leopard

2:00 p.m-3:00 p.m. Morgan Beem & Jorge Corona

3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Benjamin Dewey

Creators, Exhibitors & Vendors

Zoo Boise and Julia Davis Park

10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Artists’ Alley. Over 100 creators, vendors and exhibitors are slated to appear all around Zoo Boise and in Julia Davis Park, including our guest creators, and more. This is a great opportunity to meet comic creators and purchase original artwork and comics!

Learn more about our Guest Creators.

Learn more about our Exhibitors.

Panels & Workshops

Zoo Boise – Multipurpose Room

 

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Life Drawing. Join creator and model Sugar May and artist Vannotes for a life drawing session. Bring your own art supplies or borrow paper and charcoal from our session sponsor Catalyst Arts Collaborative.

1:00 p.m.-1:45 p.m. Guest Creator Spotlight: Muriel Fahrion. After graduating from the Cooper School of Art, Muriel Fahrion began a life-long career in design, illustration, and art management in Cleveland, Ohio, working at American Greetings as a humorous card designer. While a staff illustrator there she created the first drawings of Strawberry Shortcake in 1977 as a greeting card. Fahrion then joined Those Characters from Cleveland, a toy think tank composed of artists, writers, and marketers. What followed was 39 characters in the Shortcake line, the first 12 Care Bears, and the following year, the Get-Along-Gang characters.

In 2019 Fahrion rebranded her studio as Outta Thin Air Studio, where she continued to create fresh designs that were produced as art merchandise from her home in Beggs, Oklahoma. Fahrion spends her time holding Creative Retreats at her #tinystudio, regularly appearing at meet & greets and toy and comic conventions and has accumulated followers on social media from all corners of the world for her art and her #kitchendance videos.

2:00 p.m.-2:45 p.m. Teen Comics Creator Panel. Meet the names behind some of your favorite graphic novels and get great new reading recommendations! Library staff will moderate a panel of teen graphic novel authors and illustrators talking about their books and the creative process. Featuring Jeremy Whitley (Princeless, Raven Pirate Princess), Bones Leopard (Save Yourself!), and Terry Blas (Hotel Dare, Lifetime Passes).

3:00 p.m.-3:45 p.m. Kids, Let’s Draw Comics! Creators Jess Smart Smiley (Let’s Make Comics!, Talent Show Troubles) and Norman Shurtliff (Skull Cat) will walk kids through creating their own comic in this interactive workshop.

Idaho State Museum - Classroom

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Oh, the Horror! Take a journey into the dark with creators Jim Terry ( West of Sundown ), Madeline McGrane (The Accursed Vampire), and Rye Hickman (Lonely Receiver). Learn about their work crafting horror, their love of vampires, werewolves & ghouls, and how embracing the spooky things in life can be a whole lotta fun…and terrifying!

1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. How to Make Comics the Greg and Fake Way. Local cartoonist Vannotes will interview Greg and Fake about the process of making an issue of Santos Sisters from beginning to end. After gaining valuable insights into the creative process, attendees will collaborate with all three cartoonists as they draw a live jam comic featuring the Santos Sisters.

2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. What Makes the Doomsday Clock Tick? Join Hugo Award-winning artist, game designer, and comics illustrator Lee Moyer for a deep dive into the construction and storytelling in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Hugo Award-winning comics classic, Watchmen. Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, Watchmen chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes. Attendees who have a copy of Watchmen are encouraged to bring it with them so they can follow along.

4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. The Trial of Lore Olympus. Starring mythic icons like Hades, Persephone, Eros, and Artemis, Lore Olympus claims to reveal “what the gods do…after dark.” Too bad the series gets everything wrong! Boise-based podcast Muses of Mythology puts the world’s favorite webcomic on trial for its crimes against Greek mythology. In this humorous and enlightening tribunal, they’ll ask the tough questions like “What truly happened to Persephone?”, “What makes a strong retelling?”, and “Does being accurate really matter?”

Gaming

Idaho State Museum – Idaho Room

Role Playing Games

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Intro to Dungeons and Dragons. Registration required. Learn the basics and create your character before leaping in to battle deadly foes, uncover secrets, find treasure, and (of course) roll lots of dice in this introduction to the world’s most famous role-playing game.

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monster of the Week. Registration required. Something bad has come to the town of Inkrock, Idaho. Something that goes bump in the night. Now it’s up to you and your team of paranormal investigators to solve the mystery and save the town. We’re playing the action-horror tabletop game Monster of the Week. Appropriate for ages 12+.

1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. 13th Age — The Warlocks of September. Registration required. Journey to the mystical moon of September — where dragons swim through lakes of silver, nomadic forests roam under the stars, and foolish wizards go meddling in things they don’t understand. In the fantasy tabletop game 13th Age, you’ll choose a hero and go on a quest to save this strange and wondrous place. Appropriate for ages 12+.

1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Intro to Dungeons and Dragons. Registration required. Learn the basics and create your character before leaping in to battle deadly foes, uncover secrets, find treasure, and (of course) roll lots of dice in this introduction to the world’s most famous role-playing game.

2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Intro to DMing – How to Improvise as a DM. Registration required. One of the most unique things about TTRPGs is the freedom of choice. As a DM, this can feel impossibly daunting to prepare for! During this session, we will go over some tips and tricks to allow players to choose and not have to throw out hours upon hours of prep work.

3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. The Quiet Year. Registration required. Help a small community rebuild in the wake of a terrible calamity. Over the course of one year we’ll build, make discoveries, and work together to make something good.

Join us for the map-drawing tabletop game The Quiet Year. Over the course of the game, we’ll draw and add detail to a map of our community. This is a cooperative game, and no drawing skills are necessary! Appropriate for ages 12+.

Boise Monopoly Madness Tournament Qualifier

1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Boise Monopoly Madness Tournament Qualifier - Sponsored by Phoenix Fire Games. With the upcoming release of Monopoly: Boise Edition, we are hosting a Monopoly Madness Tournament! This is your chance to win your very own copy of the new game, plus other fabulous prizes from our event sponsors, Idaho Pizza Company, Phoenix Fire Games, and Section 37 Axe Room!

Here's how it works: read the complete rules, then sign up for ONE Monopoly Qualifier here: https://www.phoenixfiregames.com/.../boise-monopoly.../

Tournament fees will be donated to Extra Life and go directly to St. Luke's Children's Hospital in Boise! The winner at each Qualifier table will go on to the Semi-Finals, and the high scorer of each of the 4 Qualifier events also wins $50 gift certificates from Idaho Pizza Company, Phoenix Fire Games, and Section 37 Axe Room.

The Semi-Finals will be held at the Extra Life event on Nov 5. Semi-Finalist winners will go on to the Final on the same day, and each will be awarded a copy of Monopoly: Boise Edition. The player who wins the Final will also receive free pizza for a year from Idaho Pizza Company, a free 10-person Axe Throwing Party from Section 37 Axe Room, and a $100 gift certificate from Phoenix Fire Games. (see respective Sponsor businesses for details).

Board Game Swap

10:00am-5:00 p.m. Board Game Swap Meet at BCAF, Sponsored by Phoenix Fire Games. Looking to downsize your board game collection? This is the best way to get something out of board games you don't play anymore! Buy, sell, and trade used and new board games.

Bring in any board game you'd like to trade off, and put a sticky note or removable painter’s tape on it, filled out with:

1. Your name.
2. The name of the board game.
3. The price you'd like to sell the game for.

If someone decides to buy your game, it will be deposited on your Phoenix Fire Games account as store credit that you can use to purchase anything new from the store or buy games from other people at the swap meet!

You can drop off your games with us at the Idaho State Museum beginning at 10am on Saturday Sept 30, and any time during the duration of the event. If it doesn't get purchased, return by 5pm the same day to collect it.

Any unclaimed board games remaining by 6:00 p.m. will be donated.

Please make sure your games are complete. We are not responsible for missing components from any used game that you purchase. While we do our best to keep an eye on everything, you assume a level of risk by dropping off your games. In the unlikely event that your game goes missing, Phoenix Fire Games and the Boise Library cannot be held responsible.

Board Game Library

10:00 a.m-5:00 p.m. Board Game Library, provided by Phoenix Fire Games. Check out a game and play something new! Space will be available to play in the ballroom at the Idaho State Museum (ISM).

Live Cosplay Contests & Parade

Calling all cosplayers! This cosplay competition is for participants of all ages and experience. Your cosplay could win fame, glory, and of course— prizes. Register before the big day by visiting www.boisepubliclibrary.org/bcaf.

Julia Davis Park – Agricultural Pavilion

10:30 a.m. Dog Cosplay Contest. Bring your canine companions in their best superhero costumes and show them off for all to see! Julia Davis Park near the Agriculture Pavilion. Pets not allowed in Zoo Boise. Registration here.

Zoo Boise – Conservation Plaza Stage

11:30 a.m. Kids Cosplay Contest. Kids, show off your costumes and win prizes! Registration here.

12:30 p.m. Cosplay Parade. A Costume Parade through the Boise Zoo will begin at 12:30pm. Anyone in costume may join the parade anywhere along the route. Spectators may line the spaces along the route to support our cosplay superstars, but please be respectful of other attendees making their way beyond the parade line and keep the pathways clear. Participation in the parade is not part of cosplay judging. The parade will begin near the stage in the Conservation Plaza and loop through Gorongosa.

1:30 p.m. Adult Cosplay Contest. Adults, show off your costumes and win prizes! Registration here.

3:30 p.m. Teen Cosplay Contest. Teens, show off your costumes and win prizes! Registration here.

After-hours Activities

Hayman House

7:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Feature Panel: Creating and Publishing Comics for Underrepresented Communities. With Tony Weaver, Jr., Joamette Gil, and Rose Bousamra.

Comics provide a potent avenue for educating and raising awareness about various cultures, histories, and social issues, especially among younger generations. The importance of diversity in comics cannot be overstated. It has the capacity to shape narratives, influence individuals and communities, and drive positive change in society. Embracing diversity in the industry leads to the creation of more vibrant, inclusive, and impactful experiences for everyone. Join us for this enlightening discussion as we explore the transformative power of comics in underrepresented communities and the broader world.

Tony Weaver, Jr. is a multi-hyphenate creator that uses manga to help people believe in themselves. He is the creator of The UnCommons, an award-winning manga series with over 2.5 million readers. Its success led to him being the first comic writer ever selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30, a national partnership with WEBTOON, a partnership with Warner Media, and an anime produced by an NBA Champion which is in development. In addition to The UnCommons, his two other manga series have been acquired by Macmillan, the third largest publisher in the world.

He’s the founder of Weird Enough Productions, a national nonprofit that uses diverse comics to improve social emotional wellness for over 400,000 students annually. His writing has been so impactful, he was named a Global Barrier Breaker by Marriott International, a History Shaker by Coca-Cola, and CNN selected him as a Champion for Change.

Joamette Gil is an Afro-Cuban cartoonist, editor, and letterer for hire. Her client list includes Wieden+Kennedy, Abrams ComicArts, Dark Horse, Oni-Lion Forge, and Macmillan, among others. She’s best known for her independent comics imprint centering LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC creatives, Power & Magic Press, publisher of such award-winning titles as Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology and Heartwood: Non-binary Tales of Sylvan Fantasy.

Rose Bousamra is a queer, Arab-American comic artist and illustrator exploring identity through a fantasy lens. They are currently working on their solo debut fantasy YA graphic novel Gutless with First Second Books. They are the illustrator of the indie bestselling graphic novel Frizzy, written by Claribel A. Ortega, which won the Pura Belpré award and the 2023 Eisner award for Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12).

Food & Drink

Zoo Boise

10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Expedition Grill. Offering a variety of menu options, from fun snacks to healthy food choices. Learn more

10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Ramen House

10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Kajiji Market

Julia Davis Park

10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Walking Sombrero Tacos. Our food truck serves up authentic Mexican street food. We pride ourselves on providing quality food at a low cost.

10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Coned Pizza. We turn pizza dough into a cone and create Coned Pizza!