This year the family and I attended the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival (also known as A2CAF) at the Ann Arbor District Library and it was great! We’ve been going for a few years now. It’s a free comics convention at the library aimed towards children but they get some big guests every year and it’s nice to have an event focused completely on comics. There’s some comic conventions in my area that I haven’t gone to in a long time, partially because they’re incredibly crowded and covid, but also because they’re all just focused on pop culture stuff now. Whenever I leave A2CAF, I feel excited about comics as a medium again. It’s the same energy I get when I go to my local zine fests and I think it’s because all of these events are very focused on how anyone can make comics. I think it’s also good for my kids to be exposed to that DIY attitude, although I would strongly recommend the event to local folks even if they aren’t parents.

We also signed up for the Summer Games challenge that the Ann Arbor District Library also does. I’ll probably do a big post about this later this year since it’s really interesting. I’ve never done it before but it’s been fun so far. You do NOT need to be an Ann Arbor resident to play.

Also shout out to my five year old who I thought had a more nuanced question planned for Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud at the Q&A but instead yelled “HOW DO YOU DO THAT?” into a microphone at the Michigan Theatre.

Libraries are the best. Go support them. I think I’m turning into someone who is getting shirts from all their local libraries.