Kenosha Festival of Cartooning 2014, September 25th – 27th.

The Kenosha Festival of Cartooning, founded and directed by Anne Morse Hambrock, will return for a fourth year! Festival 2014 is slated to kick off on Thursday, September 25th and wrap up Saturday, September 27th.

Events will take place at the Kenosha Public Museum, The University of Wisconsin Parkside, and Carthage College with the possibility of other Kenosha venues becoming involved.

Once again the festival will feature presentations by internationally acclaimed cartoonists, panel discussions, youth outreach, a charity auction, and, not one, but two, gallery shows of original comic art. The first show at the University of Wisconsin Parkside’s Fine Arts Gallery will feature the work of Denis Kitchen as well as the work of several important underground cartoonists. It will also showcase work by Will Eisner and Al Capp, both the subjects of biographies by Kenosha author Michael Schumacher. The second show, at the Kenosha Public Museum, will feature work by all the guest speakers as well as several cartoonists with ties to Wisconsin and some gems from the past (think George Herriman, Walt Kelly and Frank Frazetta, please) from the collection of George Hagenaner.

For 2014 the festival will also collaborate with Left of The Lake on a comic jam event. And discussions are underway to include a small artist’s alley and a program booklet featuring work by independent comic artists.

The guest speaker line up for 2014:
• Jeff Keane (Family Circus)
• Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate books)
• Denis Kitchen (Kitchen Sink Press and co-author of “Al Capp: A Life To The Contrary”)
• Todd Clark (Lola)
• Scott Stantis (Prickly City and Staff Editorial Cartoonist with The Chicago Tribune)
• Terri Libenson (The Pajama Diaries)
• Rick Stromoski (Soup to Nutz)
• Michael Schumacher (Author of “Al Capp A Life To The Contrary” and Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life In Comics”)

To keep the festival free and open to the public, fundraising will be conducted using an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign, which is planned for February of 2014. This campaign will have terrific “one of a kind” backer rewards. The more unique rewards tend to sell out fast to members of the cartooning community from all over the country, so don’t miss your chance to snag a piece of cartooning history!

An important request to cartoonists: at this time the festival is in need of original artwork to include in the charity auction. The auction is made possible by the generous support of by the NCS Foundation and the money raised will be given to both the local children’s hospital clinic and a new Kenosha school serving children with autism and other learning challenges.

Original cartoon artwork of any kind is welcome but the festival is especially interested in vintage comics. One of the pieces that generated the most interest in the last auction was an original Brenda Starr, by Dale Messick, which was generously donated by NCS member Richard Pietrzyk. Please contact festival director Anne Morse Hambrock at kenoshacartoonfest@gmail.com if you are interested in donating artwork to this worthy cause.

All details regarding the festival and the Indiegogo drive can be found at www.kenoshacartoonfest.com. Folks can also stay current on festival details by following it on Twitter (@KenoshaFestival) or “liking” the official Facebook page.