On Saturday, April 11, 2026, UF’s Graduate Comics Organization will be hosting its 22nd annual comics event as part of the Gainesville Arts and Zine Expo in collaboration with the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW), located at 1314 S Main Street #2 Gainesville, FL 32601 (just south of Depot Park).
The one-day event will feature a panel on the history of newspaper comic strips and a special interview with groundbreaking newspaper cartoonist Barbara Brandon-Croft, as well as tabling from local zine and comics artists and hands-on workshops presented by SAW. This event brings award-winning comics scholars from across the country to Gainesville to talk about the changing landscape of comics and comic strips. We are pleased to put our invited guests in conversation with local cartoonists and zinesters.
Speakers
Barbara Brandon-Croft became the nation’s first Black woman cartoonist to cross the color line into the white press in 1989. “Where I’m Coming From,” debuted in the Detroit Free Press and was later distributed internationally by Universal Press Syndicate (1991- 2005). Currently, you find her social commentary online. @barbarabrandoncroft
Caitlin McGurk is the Curator of Comics and Cartoon Art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and Associate Professor at The Ohio State University. She leads the education and outreach efforts at the library, organizes community events, curates exhibitions, works with artists, and mentors students who are inspired to study the rich history of comics. McGurk’s scholarship and exhibitions center around the work of women in comics, alternative and underground comics, and early American comic strips. Her recent exhibitions include Ladies First: A Century of Women’s Innovations in Comics and Cartoon Art; and Man Saves Comics: Bill Blackbeard’s Treasure of 20th Century Newspapers, which was featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Her writing has appeared in publications including Journal of Lesbian Studies; Slate; The Comics Journal; Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society; and IDW Publishing’s Library of American Comics Essentials. Caitlin has also worked for The Center for Cartoon Studies’ Schulz Library, Marvel Comics, and serves on the council for the annual Cartoon Crossroads Columbus festival. Her bestselling book, Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, was published by Fantagraphics Books in November 2024 and received the 2025 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book, and the 2025 Broken Frontier Award for Best Book On Comics.
Rebecca Wanzo is the author of The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Storytelling (SUNY, 2009) and The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging (NYU, 2020). The Content of Our Caricature won the Katherine Singer Kovac Book Prize from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Charles Hatfield Book Prize from the Comics Studies Society, and the Best Scholarly/Academic Work from the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Her research interests include African American literature and culture, feminist theory, cultural studies, media studies, and cartoon and comic studies. She has published essays in venues such as American Literature, Camera Obscura, differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, Film Quarterly, as well as numerous other academic journals, edited collections, and popular media outlets.
Louise Kane is Associate Professor of Global Modernisms at the University of Central Florida. She has published widely on periodicals and has a special interest in the evolution of the comic strip as a global form. Recent publications include “In Dialogue and Debate: Comics, Little Magazines, World Literature” in Comics and Modernism, ed. Jonathan Najarian.
Programming
11 AM: GAZE Tabling begins.
12 PM: Literary Comics with Lauren Halderman
1 PM: Talking Newspaper Comics: Caitlin McGurk, Rebecca Wanzo, and Louise Kane
2 PM: Button-making workshop with Frankie D.
3 PM: Interview with Barbara Brandon-Croft.
4 PM: Comics workshop with Eric Wolfgang.
5 PM: End of event.
Parking
There is free street parking all along Main Street and surrounding streets, as well as free parking in the Aldi parking lot right next to the space. There is limited parking right next to the building, with one handicap spot. DO NOT park in the tow lot nearby, which is identified by signs.
Symposium Organizers
Chief Organizer – Thomas De Groff, President, Graduate Comics Organization
Co-Organizer – CR Dean, Vice President, Graduate Comics Organization
Co-Organizer – Adrienne Johnson, Treasurer, Graduate Comics Organization
Co-Organizer – Kajori Patra, Secretary, Graduate Comics Organization
Co-Organizer – Dr. Margaret Galvan, Advisor
Sponsors
UF English Department
The Dortort Foundation Fund for Comic Studies
Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)
This is a free event but has a $10 suggested fee. This donation supports the Sequential Artists Workshop. RSVP or donate at the door.