FEATURED EXHIBITORS

Adrianne Huang (hngyrn) is a painter and illustrator working in traditional media on paper. Stranger than life but more familiar than fantasy, dreamlike images of nature and animals alongside humans serve as wish fulfillment, dream diary, self-critique, and catalog of curiosity. Her hand-bound zines include sketchbook compilations and collections of drawings that explore the peculiarities of objects and chase down runaway trains of thought.

Andrew Neal was a comic retailer for 20 years. Now he writes, draws, and publishes his comic series, Meeting Comics, which is an ongoing comedy soap opera comic book for grownups.

The Chestnut Zine Collective aims to represent and promote the work of Asian American artists and zine-makers based across North Carolina. The collective's artists produce zines that are about a wide range of topics, including short personal essays, reflections on Asian American/queer identity and heritage, AAPI history, and simply random stuff that they find fun.

Cyber Nostalgia Studios is a multimedia creative studio founded by Aalyiah V. The projects they create are inspired by the media they grew up on, all rooted in a love for physical formats like Zines, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, Vinyl, and Cassettes. Their biannual comp-zine, Cyber Nostalgia, is a love letter to the past,featuring nostalgic deep dives, art, poetry, fashion, and photography inspired by their favorite eras. They also support small shops, artists, and creators who help keep that nostalgic feeling alive while building a community around shared memories and creativity. Additional work they create outside of zines includes stickers and earrings that are similar in theme to their other pieces.

Emily Wigglesworth is an artist and illustrator who loves monsters, mythology, and cheesecake. She has an ongoing comic strip titled Midnight Diner which follows Frederick, a Victorian empire who is also the best night shift cook at the local pancake castle. She takes inspiration primarily from shoujo manga and anything that happens to have piqued her interest.

Justice is an illustrator and designer based in Raleigh, NC. His art focuses on bright colors, bold imagery, and fun whimsy. He makes all sorts of items including notepads, printed illustrations, book ends, stickers, keychains, and even porcelain lamps!

Julia Gootzeitis a North Carolina-based cartoonist who creates long and short comics. For the past several years, she’s shared experimental diary comics on Instagram as @ohmyghoulia. In 2024, Fieldmouse Press published her debut graphic novel, Golem Pit 224, a queer horror story about a couple’s adventures in a constantly evolving natural environment. Currently she lives in Carrboro, NC with her husband and son.

M. Halstead is a zinemaker, printmaker, and sometimes a writer. M feels passionately about sharing and trading accessible art, especially encouraging people from all walks of life to collect unique and exclusive art at all price points.

Mysto (they/them) is a queer Latine comic artist and illustrator whose work focuses on telling queer horror stories. They are the creator of the ongoing horror anthology series Paroxysm, aiming to highlight marginalized voices in independent horror. Mysto’s work centers on themes of nature and transfiguration, the body, identity and sexuality, and mental health.

Niya Friday (she/they) is a mixed media artist from Charlotte, North Carolina. Their work centers Black femmes shaping the world, a focus that grounds both her creative practice and her perspective. They welcome collaboration and experimentation as a way to better understand herself and others. 

The Printed Yam is a collaborative art project consisting of Qufu Lee and Cam Ashford. Together, they produce informational zines, illustrated short stories, hand printed clothing, and art prints. From start to finish, everything is created and assembled by hand in a small home studio.

Wayward is “an undisciplined space for radical plotting”  -- a leftist arts and politics collective smuggling anti-capitalist & anti-fascist ideas into our community by doing fun shit like showing movies, publishing zines, playing games, and welcomes rad artists and organizers for short residencies. our long term goal is to rematriate the land that wayward is sitting on.

Yumeng Fu makes illustrations and comics inspired by personal experience and cultural contrasts. She loves exploring different genres and visual styles through her work.