ABOUT DCAF

The Dublin Comic Arts Festival is a series of small press comic book events celebrating its 5th year running with events in 2023 in April, July, October and December.

DCAF was founded by Matthew Melis & The Comics Lab of the Stray Lines comic collective.

DCAF is organized by a committee of local comic creators and illustrators:

Matthew Melis
Debbie Jenkinson
Sarah Bowie
Elida Maiques
Charlot Kristensen
Jacek Matysiak
Dearbhla Kelly
Clara Dudley
Clare Foley
Katherine Foyle
Kate Escolin

Past DCAF committee members include:

Katie Fleming
Iuli Niculescu

OUR PANDEMIC YEAR(S)

From 2020-2021, during the global Covid-19 pandemic, The Dublin Comic Arts Festival became the DCAF Artists Fund and raised and distributed €5000 to 50 artists to help them weather the crisis. We hope to do more with the Artists Fund concept in the future but for now we're attempting to resume events, prioritising masking and ventilation to keep our community safe.

FOUNDING PRINCIPLES

DCAF was founded with four guiding principles: affordability, openness, inclusivity and safety.

Affordability: tables will be as cheap as possible. Most artists struggle financially and DCAF should be a place where artists come to make money, not lose it. Similarly, DCAF is free admission, so there will be as few barriers as possible for both exhibitors and attendees.

Openness: DCAF does not curate. Exhibitors, so long as they are creating original comics and art, can apply on a first-come, first-serve basis. Curation would be in conflict with the desire to have as few barriers as possible. Currently, the DCAF application process opens and closes within 24-48 hours from which we book a full show of exhibitors plus a small waitlist. We do everything we can to accommodate everyone on the waitlist. For artists having difficulty booking during the year there is the 2-day Christmas Market to relieve the pressure.

Inclusivity: DCAF will never be all white-straight-cis-thin-abled-male. Comic creators are women, POC, queer, non-binary, transgender, fat, disabled and DCAF will always reflect that.

Safety: DCAF needs to be a safe space. Sharing art is a vulnerable act and people need to be supported in that and our audience needs to feel comfortable in the space we create for them.

SMALL PRESS COMICS

Small press comics can be a nebulous term in the comic book world. They can be as small as a photocopied zine and as big as Raina Telgemeier's Smile. We generally use the term to mean creator-owned, independent comics. They can be handmade, self-published or released by small press publishers.

DCAF is a small press comic book event, created to showcase local comic creators and celebrate the spectrum of Irish sequential art. The small press comic scene has been growing in Ireland for years, but Irish comic creators often travel across the globe to find Comic Arts Festivals to exhibit their work. We feel it's time for some Comic Arts Festivals closer to home!

POSTERS

April 2023 poster by Annie Mar
December 2022 poster by Conor Nolan
September 2022 poster by Sadhbh Elliott
May 2022 poster by Sarah Cunningham
April 2020 (Cancelled Event) poster by Nadia Cardoso
December 2019 poster by DrawBoySeanie
October 2019 poster by Dearbhla Kelly
July 2019 poster by allozalaura
April 2019 poster by Crayolina
December 2018 poster by Holly Pereira
October 2018 poster by Stasele Jakunskaite
July 2018 poster by Claire Prouvost
April 2018 poster by Giovana Medeiros
December 2017 poster by Ashwin Chacko
October 2017 poster by Helene Pertl
July 2017 poster by Tara O Brien
April 2017 poster by Charlot Kristensen

    

                  

                   

                   

                   

OUR SPONSORS

December 2019 DCAF sponsored by Damn Fine Print
October 2019 DCAF sponsored by Damn Fine Print & Artmines
July 2019 DCAF sponsored by Damn Fine Print
April 2019 DCAF sponsored by Bean and Goose & Damn Fine Print
December 2018 DCAF sponsored by Illustrators Ireland
October 2018 DCAF sponsored by Damn Fine Print
April 2018 DCAF sponsored by Avery Hill Publishing
April 2017 DECAF sponsored by Damn Fine Print

If you would like to sponsor a future DCAF event please email dublincomicarts@gmail.com

Become a Patron of DCAF on Patreon!

HARASSMENT POLICY

DCAF does not condone or tolerate any form of intimidation or harassment on behalf of its exhibitors, attendees or organisers and does all it can to foster an inclusive event. As managers of the event we reserve the right to refuse admission to anyone. Please contact Matt, Debbie, Sarah or anyone at the Stray Lines table straight away if someone makes you feel unwelcome.

Comics are for everyone!

AI / NFT POLICY

NFT art and art generated by AI algorithms are not allowed at DCAF. DCAF was founded to support artists creating original art and hopefully give them an opportunity to make money, the ponzi-scheme that is NFT and the theft of AI algorithms stand in opposition to that goal. Artists selling those wares will be asked to remove them from their table and will not be invited to future DCAF events. There will be no exceptions.

PRESS

With Good Morning Dublin on 103.2 Dublin City FM, 2017
Photos from DECAF, April 23 2017 by Comix Ireland
Episode 46: Dublin Eight Comic Arts Festival by Dublin Creative Review

CONTACT

Exhibitors! Sponsors! Venues! Press! Please send all enquiries to dublincomicarts@gmail.com

Find DCAF around the internet @dublincomicarts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.