Our Mission
We hope to provide an international showcase for the best of cartoon art in all its forms, including comics, animation, editorial cartoons, newspaper strips, and beyond, in a city that is a growing center of importance to comics and cartooning. We also focus on helping the next generation of young cartooning talent develop thriving careers that invigorate the industry for years to come.
To do that, we strive to create an atmosphere of communication and shared enthusiasm between creators and audiences of cartoon storytelling so they can have serious (and fun) discussions on it as art, with the respect their creators deserve, as well as help an emerging generation of young cartooning talent develop careers that are both artistically and economically rewarding.
The Story Behind CXC
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) is all about making connections between people with a passion for the art of cartoons, and that’s exactly how it all started: a conversation between friends.
As a founder and world-renowned curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Lucy Shelton Caswell had already helped organize a triennial Cartoon Arts Festival in Columbus for many years. She knew it could become more, because she knew so many influential people throughout the city and the industry that shares her passion. But two in particular knew how much support Columbus institutions offered for the cartoon arts: the husband and wife team behind Cartoon Books, Columbus native Jeff Smith and his wife Vijaya Iyer.
The three of them talked about how some cities in Europe would turn themselves over to their comics festivals, and how much each festival would spend a week showing people the best of each city offers the cartoon community, and how first-class treatment of cartooning talent not only brought in industry greats, but created an atmosphere where connections between the creators and fans could be had.
They believed Columbus was a place they could create a truly unique festival experience that could rival anything that had overseas. Being in the heart of the country, it could be the crossroads where museums and art centers, learning institutions and cultural landmarks, industry legends and aspiring creators, as well as professionals and fans could meet to celebrate cartoon storytelling like no other place on Earth.
That day, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus was drawn into existence
As CXC began to grow, we quickly drew the support of numerous Columbus comics and arts community luminaries, such as Jenny Robb, Jared Gardner, David Filipi, and Caitlin McGurk. Tom Spurgeon joined his friends at CXC as Executive Director, and he quickly began to gather world-class talent and cultivate the programming that would resonate throughout the cartoon world.
Today, CxC is an annual festival that spans 4 entire days—and stretches throughout the city. With each year, thousands more people attend the festival events— drawing even more friends and colleagues in the field to come together in support of this one-of-a-kind cartoon festival. CXC continues to do what it originally set out to do: make genuine connections between people who share a love, a passion, and a personal reason to believe in the future of cartoon art.