Enjoy a super-sized Boston Kids Comics Fest at Northeastern
After a pandemic hiatus, the BKCF returns June 3 to celebrate kids' comics and foster creativity among people of all ages.
With comics and graphic novels being among the most challenged books during the recent upswing in complaints about what’s on the shelves at school and public libraries, some might forget the role the medium has played in turning millions of kids onto reading — not to mention providing joy, fun, and excitement to generations of readers.
The Boston Kids Comics Fest is here to remind you.
Following a humble beginning at the Bethel Youth Center in Jamaica Plain in 2018, and doubling in size at Pine Manor College the following year, the fest took a pandemic-related break from 2020-2022. Now, the free event is back at its largest venue yet: the Curry Student Center at Northeastern University, where special guests, dozens of exhibitors, and presumably thousands of visitors will celebrate comics — and kids’ comics in particular.
“Both in terms of art and writing, I just think some of the best work that’s being done in comics today is being done in so-called kids’ graphic novels,” says Tony Davis, a fest co-founder (with graphic novelist Jonathan Todd) and owner of Harvard Square’s The Million Year Picnic, the oldest comic book store on the East Coast.
“I think they’re able to, particularly in the realm of fiction, to craft stories with these powerful messages that don’t seem forced, that don’t seem doctrinaire,” Davis says. “And that, I think, appeals not only to the groups that they’re representing, but [also to] the kids who want to connect with all sorts of different other kids, and the same with adults.”
Comics help kids connect
“Why Comics?” author Hillary Chute, a distinguished professor of English and Art + Design at Northeastern University — who was instrumental in securing the fest’s new location — concurs.
“I think there’s a really powerful aspect, with comics being a word-and-image medium, that helps to connect with kids in terms of thinking about stories about marginalization and identity,” she says. “Things that are happening right now that people are trying to work through their thinking about, and trying to work through their feelings about.”
In other words, kids are expanding their horizons through comics more and more, and their parents are starting to come along for the ride, says Meena Jain, the fest’s chief operating officer and the director of the Ashland Public Library.
“We still see educators and parents coming into the library, saying, ‘Oh, I want them to read a real book,’” Jain admits. “But my take on comics is that I think the genres have grown and expanded so dramatically in the last 10 years that there is something for every kid if they’re allowed to read it.
“So they’re learning. They’re reading biographies, and they’re reading history. They’re learning in so many ways,” she explains. “Some people are still holdouts on that … But I think the kids’ demand is so high that it’s making a change in that perception as well.”
One of the reasons that demand is there is because kids can literally see themselves in comics and graphic novels, says Chute. “I think there’s something so powerful about comics,” she says, “because kids can not only read the story, but they can also look at characters and look at drawings, and see people who look like them, and see people who look different from them.”
“It’s a topic I think you see running across a host of graphic novels for young readers and middle school readers,” Davis adds. “People from the Latinx communities, the Asian communities, Middle Eastern communities, Afro-centric communities — these questions of the struggle over generations to achieve equality in America, and how that struggle continues … I think we’ll see a lot of material at the show that talks about those topics.”
Tons of topics
And at the fest’s new location, there will be plenty of room to explore those topics and many others, say the organizers.
“We have lots of space for people to spread out and everything,” Jain says. “But we’re doing something a little bit different for the hands-on workshops. Instead of doing 12 or 15 small ones, we’re doing four really big ones. It’s going to be exciting and different and interesting.”
“Part of the reason the Kids Fest is such a great fit with Northeastern is because of these goals around expression, and teaching kids to think about creativity and diversity and community — it’s something that every professor and administrator at Northeastern can get behind,” Chute says. “So it’s been really exciting for me to have colleagues come up to me and say, ‘I’m bringing my kids.’”
In addition to meeting dozens of comic artists and taking part in the four mega-workshops on cartooning and making comics, visitors will meet a lineup of special guests on hand to offer their expertise, including:
- Cara Bean, “Draw 500 Faces and Features”
- Erica Henderson, “Danger and Other Unknown Risks,” “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” (with Ryan North)
- Marjorie Liu, “Wingbearer” (with Teny Issakhanian)
- Michelle Mee Nutter, “Allergic,” “Squished” (with Megan Wagner Lloyd)
- Chad Sell, “Cardboard Kingdom,” “Doodleville”
“It’s a diverse group of people,” says Davis, who also acts as the fest’s “creator liaison.” “We were trying to keep with people who are a little more local. I think next year we’ll cast the nets for a few people from across the country. But I think it’s a great group of folks.”
The artists and writers will all be doing their part to help the kids visiting feel at home while they explore their own creativity, say the organizers.
“Our tagline is, ‘Read comics, write stories, and make friends.’ Because we know that some of these kids are marginalized in their own spaces,” Jain explains. “So this is a space where they have a common interest, and they can create and be safe and make friends with people that have that same interest with them.”
The Boston Kids Comics Fest takes place Saturday, June 3, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Northeastern University’s Curry Student Center, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston. The center is accessible from both the Northeastern stop on the Green Line and the Ruggles stop on the Orange Line and Commuter Rail. Admission is free. For more information, visit bostonkidscomicsfest.org.
For the full conversation with Meena Jain, Tony Davis, and Hillary Chute, listen to their appearance on Strip Search: The Comic Strip Podcast, below:
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