Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, aka CXC for short, is one of my favorite comics events of all time. Taking place in Columbus, Ohio, it’s one of the only comic events in the United States, possibly the world, that combines the elements of a comics art festival with academic lectures and interviews to create a wonderfully unique celebration of comics and cartoons. Collaborations with establishments in Columbus like The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), Columbus Museum of Art and more help make this all possible.
I usually would attend as just a guest, but last year (2025) was the first time I was invited to present at CXC.
The presentation I ended up doing was titled Diggin’ The Details Researching 101 for Biography Comics, where I dig into the best practices of researching for biography comics. Along with my making my presentation, I also made a little over 100 ashcan previews for my upcoming biography comic project Miyazaki & Mœbius: The Making of Nausicaä to pass out while at CXC. The comic was the primary reason for me presenting at CXC to begin with, and tied in well with the themes of CXC’s programing for 2025. Once I was all set to go, it was time to head off to Ohio.
DAY 1 – Wednesday
My CXC 2025 adventure began first with visiting my friend Bryan Moss in Yellow Springs. Bryan has been instrumental in helping build Power to the Panel, which has been helping build a new community of cartoonists that truly celebrate comics. So what better way to kick things off than hanging out with another comic head, chop it up about Hip Hop, go digging for some comics, and in general spend time with good company. We ended up exploring a local nature preserve before going to Yellow Springs for lunch and digging for comics. Super-Fly Comics & Games was our first stop for digging through the long boxes before shifting gears to Dark Star Books & Comics. I was definitely in my element while digging in the bins. We wrapped things up with me giving a copy of the ashcan to Bryan and signing his copy of Skeme Richard’s Tava Tava Rare cassette tape. After that, I went to the CXC animation showcase at the Gateway Film Center before calling it a night.
DAY 2 – Thursday
Then came the big day of the presentation. It started with going to The Billy Ireland, which is always a joy for me because of all the wonders it has. It is absolutely one of the most spectacular places for comics on the entire planet, and I’m fortunate to live only 3 hours away. It’s filled to the brim with the history of comics and cartoons, something that blew me away when visited in 2022 when I attended CXC for the first time. Though this morning was special because today I was there as a speaker to give a talk and teach presentation about the best practices when researching for biography comics. Once I had arrived and got myself an attendee badge, which I really appreciated, I proceeded to go upstairs to wait for when I would need to do my talk. It was really something to see my name listed as part of programming on the sign outside of the Eisner Room.
I was in good spirits, trying my best not to get worked up about being a couple minutes away from getting the ball rolling, but something was nagging me the whole time. When I sent my presentation a few weeks prior to Ben Towle, the person who initially reached out to me about doing my talk, everything seemed to be just fine. I had converted it from one Keynote to Powerpoint, thinking “nothing could possibly go wrong.” Oh boy, was I wrong. I had done a preliminary test of my presentation through Powerpoint online, and many elements were formatted wrong, which was a byproduct of the file conversion. Of course, this was exactly what I ran into with just about 10 minutes to go before my presentation was meant to start. Thankfully though, I was able to get all the necessary changes made just in time and so I began my presentation.
It might not show, but once I started talking, it sunk in that I was in fact presenting at CXC 2025. Not only that, but my initial thought that picking a time slot at 11am on a Thursday would probably have meant the room would be mostly empty with a handful of essential people being around. Again, I was wrong with an assumption for the day. The room was pretty much packed except for a handful of chairs. I did my best to stay composed, trying not to rush myself, but when I suddenly realized I got to the Q&A within 25 minutes as apposed to +35 minutes, I started to panic a bit inside. Thankfully I was saved by a familiar face because who other than good ‘ol Bryan Moss was in the crowd to ask a question. From there I was in my element, jumping from one question to the next, and before I knew it, it was 11:50 am and my presentation was over. People still tell me I did a great job, but I was absolutely terrified that I had royally messed up. Although I’m still not completely convinced, I do feel much better about the experience overall.
After that, I was able to freely enjoy CXC to the fullest.
Having filled up on some food, I proceeded to check out the first floor library reading room for The Billy Ireland where they had an assortment of Japanese manga publications and some original pages of Lupin III by Monkey Punch. Being able to sit with those pages by Monkey Punch brought me to tears because I never would have imagined I would be fortunate enough to see original Lupin III artwork in person. That continued when I went upstairs to the museum portion of The Billy Ireland where they had yet another original page of Lupin III by Monkey Punch. There were plenty more original comic pages and animated key frames to check out, including a piece by none other than Mœbius (Jean Giraud). At the time I had entered that space, Ben Towle was giving a guided tour for that room’s exhibition, Motion Lines.
Festivities then moved from The Billy Ireland to the Wexner Center where John Canemaker did a presentation about The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, which happened to be the title of his book about Mary Blair. It definitely made me appreciate Mary Blair a whole lot more after recognizing how much she contributed to the success of Disney. Afterwards, I ended up getting a copy of the book signed by John, who was accompanied by John Musker who I got to chat with about my book. Thank you Lauren Sparks for capturing that moment I had with John. The night wrapped up with watching the movie Hercules on 35mm film and eating some burgers with friends afterwards, like Devon Daniel who I met at CXC back in 2022.
DAY 3 – Friday
Back again at The Billy Ireland, things were really starting to ramp up in excitement. Unbeknownst to me, Eli Schwab and Rick Lopez were going to be tabling at CXC that weekend. So it definitely came as a shock when I bumped into that morning on Friday while checking out the library reading room, now with every table covered in original comic art. This was their first time at The Billy Ireland, so there was plenty to take in just with that room alone. At a certain point, two staff members of The Billy, Susan and Michelle, helped guide Eli and Rick through the process of how anyone can request to have materials in The Billy Ireland archive to be taken out and shown in the reading room. It’s easily one of my favorite aspects of The Billy Ireland because they encourage people to experience the Billy Ireland beyond just the museum, but also with original art and books gathered and donated for the collection. I was even told that some of the books that I had donated to The Billy Ireland had already been used in Ohio State University classes.
I then proceeded upstairs to check out the exhibits again, including a comic strip I made for an interactive part of the Motion Lines exhibit. In the other room was an exhibit for Carol Tyler, which was astonishing in its own right. The depth of emotions that ran through that space was palpable, and rewarded those who stuck with every moment of it all. Once I was done getting my fill of the exhibits, I sat down to enjoy the Creating COPRA Crash Course talk by Michel Fiffe, followed up by the Crafting and Conveying Emotion talk by Marco Kohinata. Marco was one of the Japanese guests, along with Keita Katsushika, who were brought to CXC by the Manga International Network Team (MINT) which “aims to support early career manga artists and their editors in Japan who are working to achieve a global presence, and to increase the recognition and value of manga’s diversity overseas.” I was able to share my ashcan with them as well.
Talks wrapped up with a keynote with Charles Burns, which provided an interesting deep dive into his history I wasn’t familiar with. Something that caught my attention was when Burns mentioned having a 8mm film reel of Varan the Unbelievable, which I had never heard of. While everyone sprinted for the door after the talk was over, I ended up talking to Burns for a bit about Toho monsters movies and their influence on him growing up. Always fun to find someone else who digs on that stuff. Then I proceeded over to the CXC reception at the Billy Ireland where I got to catch up with Christopher Williams, and bumped into some other familiar faces. Later on in the reception, they started to give out awards, including the Transformative Work Award which was given to none other than a local legend, Matt Feazell, for his work on The Amazing Cynicalman. I yelled extra loud when that was announced because I was not expecting it. Bud Plant also was awarded the Tom Spurgeon Award.
The evening wrapped up with me taking a pit stop at the Laughing Ogre before grabbing some pizza at Seventh Son Brewing where I hung out with John G and others for a bit before kicking it with Eli, Rick, Eric Mengel, and Scott Gerard Ruhl.
DAY 4 – Saturday
Saturday was when I got to really enjoy myself, whether checking out everyone who was tabling, or hitting up a couple of talks. It all kicked off at Columbus Metropolitan Library. Some of the talks included Writing Cartoonist Biographies with Caitlin McGurk and Dan Nadel, Michel Fiffe spotlight moderated by Brian Canini, and Global Manga with Keita Katsushika and Gigi Murakami. I also made sure to pass out my ashcan to creators here and there I bumped into. After things wrapped up at the library, I wen’t over to the Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) for the Manga Beyond The Mainstream gallery show and talk. Someone who I was excited to catch up with was none other than Frederik L Schodt, who has helped me immensely with Miyazaki & Mœbius: The Making of Nausicaä. It was an absolute joy getting to catch up with him. I also had the pleasure to get better acquainted with many of the others who were part of the entourage of Japanese guests and talked to them about my project.
I was planning to stay for the Jhonen Vasquez chat, but after seeing the line, I opted to just go to the after party held at the Walrus.
There I got to chop it up with Gigi Murakami, Christopher Williams, and Chet Reams before kicking it with Eli, Rick, Eric and Scott. I still have yet to partake in the karaoke, but maybe one day. When the night was wrapping up, I ended up taking Eric and Scott back to their hotel. Right as I was about to head back to where I was staying I got a call from Rick saying that Eli’s rental car got towed. And so started a new CXC adventure. I ended up scooping Eli and Rick from The Walrus and proceeded to the impound lot where Eli and Rick were able to get their stuff out of the car. Needless to say this wasn’t a great way to end the night, especially since Eli and Rick were planning to check out the behind the scenes tour at The Billy Ireland. I had been hyping up CXC to people like Eli and Rick for years since I first went in 2022, and didn’t want them to miss out on checking it out. So when I dropped them off at their hotel, I told them I would see them in the morning to take them to The Billy Ireland so they could still be part of the tour.
DAY 5 – Sunday
I’m not a morning person, but this morning I was on a mission.
Sunday started off with me picking up Eli and Rick from the hotel and driving over to The Billy Ireland. It was pretty toasty that morning in Columbus that I felt like I was going to melt into the sidewalk by the time we actually got inside. Thankfully things were a bit cooler inside of the lobby area as we waited for the tour to begin. Interestingly enough, Christopher Williams ended up being part of this tour group, so it was fun to chop it up a bit. Eventually our guide showed up, that being none other than Caitlin McGurk. Although I wasn’t scheduled to be on that tour, Caitlin was understanding of the situation that Eli was in and let me tag along. Granted I’ve been on the behind the scenes tours a few times, it’s always a lot of fun to see all the amazing things in the collection. Also, the storage area is temperature controlled and pretty chilly, which I welcomed after almost being burnt to a crisp outside.
After the tour, I drove Eli and Rick to the library to get setup for Sunday. Though we quickly realized that the library wasn’t open just yet, so we ended up waiting outside. Before the doors opened to the library, Eric and Scott joined us and we got to chat a bit about the adventures from the other night. Once we got inside, I ended up wandering around checking everyone’s table, and passing out the rest of my ashcans so I didn’t bring any home with me. There was only one last talk I went to for the weekend, The MINT Project talk where they got a chance to speak more on the what the initiative is all about.
Eventually CXC was coming to an end, and before things wrapped up, I made sure to drop by to say goodbye to Rick before he left. I was worried that his experience wasn’t as good as it could have been, but thankfully he said that by the time he was wrapping up, he really enjoyed himself. I was also able to get a chance to catch up with Aaron Z Lee, Tom Kelly of Dummy Zine, Tom Fellrath of FANzine Live, and many others. Eventually things came to an end, and I helped Eli pack up and get back to the hotel. He treated me to some ramen for dinner before I said goodbye and headed back home.
CXC 2025 was a blast, filled with all sorts of adventures and experiences that helped make it another great event. Thank you again Ben Towle for the opportunity to present, all The Billy Ireland staff for the hard work you put into such a national treasure, and all the CXC staff and volunteers who helped bring the whole experience together.
