What Zainab Akhtar learned from taking a year away from ShortBox Comics Fair, and why she's excited for 2027's return

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The ShortBox Comics Fair has become one of the most exciting showcases for independent comics. Founded by critic/publisher Zainab Akhtar, the month-long digital event is essentially a pop-up shop of new comics from around the world, available to anyone around the world. In many ways, it's where the next comics talent gets their first spotlight, but also where the rising stars show off their next project. Names such as Victoria Ying (Diana & Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons), Hamish Steele (DeadEndia), Sas Milledge (The Ravel Cycle graphic novels), Theo Stultz (Maleficent), Laura Knetzger (Bug Boys), Ben Sears (Young Shadow), and David Lafuente (Ultimate Spider-Man).

 

The remarkable part is that the ShortBox Comics Fair is essentially a one-person operation. Founder Zainab Akhtar personally selects all the comics on exhibit, builds the site, manages the marketing, and connects readers to work they might never encounter at a traditional convention or fair. The fair has grown from roughly 40 comics exhibited in 2020 to 145 in its most recent outing, and despite taking a one-year hiatus for 2026, the 2027 ShortBox Comics Fair is already picking up steam to be bigger than ever before.

Because it is such a herculean task, Akhtar took a break after 2025's ShortBox Comics Fair, but the drumbeats of ShortBox Comics Fair 2027 are already starting. We spoke with Zainab about the event, how their break is going so far, and how comics is a hard thing to say 'no' to.

Popverse: Zainab, We’re talking here now in 2026, a year when you took a break from your annual ShortBox Comics Fair (although I see you’re already taking apps for 2027!). But what has the time off done for you as a person and a comics fan?

Zainab Akhtar: As a person, a lot of trying and failing and trying again.

Even before I actually took the break, I was split between doing absolutely nothing (and trying to claw back some burnout recovery) or using the time to work on personal projects. I ended up doing a bit of both.

I wanted to return to my writing practice, but I was doing it the way I used to over a decade ago, and it wasn’t going anywhere. I’ve stopped and started so many times it's embarrassing! But that’s part and parcel of the process, as trite as it may sound. You’ve got to keep going even when you’re writing rubbish; you have to keep at it, keep trying, keep working, and eventually something decent may emerge. Which is what I’m doing.

It’s actually only in the past couple of weeks I figured out the framework of how I want to connect and present the various things I want to write about, and it feels like a switch went off (or on?!) in my head. Now I just actually have to do the whole thing…

...And as a comics fan?

I’m pretty much the same as a comics reader. I read as much as I can!

Did you find any new perspective about the curation and business part of what you are doing with ShortBox Comics Fair in the time off?

The goal was not to think about work…!

You caught me. Maybe I need to think about taking a break from work.

But since you've started plans for the 2027 ShortBox Comics Fair, are you looking to change or experiment with any aspects of the event for next year?

There’s always some tweaking because it’s a unique idea, and when you create something new, inevitably you bump against what you never thought of; ways to refine and improve things.

Overall, the structure of the fair is very solid and doesn’t need any sweeping change. I think a great idea can survive for a long time, but that still requires you to be plugged in to what’s going on around you, whether there are ways you can evolve: push the idea forward and strengthen it (rather than change for the sake of it), and responding to needs and challenges if and when they arise.

The digital comics scene continues to grow and change, and you have a variety of platforms emerging in a post-ComiXology world, but then also what WEBTOON is doing among other places. Could you ever see ShortBox partnering with a platform, or are the current methods you have the best model for you currently?

The companies you mentioned are platforms/hosts, while ShortBox Comics Fair is unique in that it is a platform, but it’s an event, too. Which is a crucial difference. SBCF only takes place once a year, which means our structure is completely different to the demands of webcomic platforms - those aren’t something we’re trying to emulate or be. 

A gargantuan difference I’d note between such companies and ShortBox Comics Fair is one of scale and resources. Those are huge corporations with tonnes of money. SBCF is a small indie, run entirely by one person, and receives no investment, funding, or sponsorship of any kind. I ran it on my own goodwill and funds the first three years! Perhaps it's flattering to be compared to companies like that, but it can skew people’s expectations and the reality of what SBCF is and how it operates.

Fair!

I’m probably open to the point of detriment, but I used to feel frustrated and down about nobody being interested in funding or sponsoring ShortBox (in any of its iterations), but over the years I’ve learnt that it’s an advantage. Anybody who is giving you money is going to want something in exchange. And it’s usually a grim, grimy sort of exchange. For example, the one time a company reached out with interest in sponsoring SBCF, I bought up being able to express my beliefs and values, mentioning my support of Palestine, and was instantly ghosted. It’s fundamental to me that I’m not compromising who I am and what I stand for- I’ve been around the block enough times to know that that’s what’s most important.

 

On the other side of that, I’m able to run SBCF the way it is because it’s truly independent. That means artists own full rights to their work and have the complete freedom to make the comics they want. Every October, we debut all these brilliant new comics, and when the fair is over, artists are entirely free to do whatever they want with their own work.

What has ShortBox Comics Fair taught you about modern comics readers, in that you’re seeing the comments but also seeing how many people buy each book?

Audiences are intelligent. From my days of blogging, to editing and publishing, and now running the fair, I’ve always operated on that assumption. I’ve never been involved in anything that attempts to assume otherwise and don’t understand why you would. I know maybe that’s the antithesis of some feeling in terms of media literacy right now, but I’m a big believer that readers will meet you where you are.

Artists want to make meatier, messier, complex, diverse work- that ever-ongoing conversation about comics for adults - but comics have historically struggled to connect that work with an audience. I’ve always believed that that audience exists, but you have to make the work and then make an equal effort to market it in order to connect it to that audience. I’m very lucky that we’re able to do that within the fair microcosm, and I think that that’s partly due to having built this smart, engaged audience over the last decade or so. The ShortBox Comics Fair audience is central to what makes the fair successful.

In the 2025 edition, you had 1,975 applications, you offered 183 of those places, and you ended up with 145 final comics and exhibitors. I know the deadline for 2027 just closed… can you give us an idea of how many submissions you got this year, and what you think of that number and the make-up of it?

We had 2067 applications, from which 219 people were offered a place at the 2027 fair, and around 70% of those are new artists who have never previously been part of the fair. It’s the highest number of both applications and places we’ve offered to date.

That's huge!

The basis of the fair is that these all-new comics are released in one place via the fair for the duration of October only, so having an insane number of comics doesn’t work - the sheer volume would become overwhelming. So it’s about trying to find a number that’s right, giving people a tasty array, having it feel like a fair, but not overstretching.

"Tasty array"... I like that.

How would you describe your plans for the next 14 months building to the return of ShortBox Comics Fair in October 2027? What goes into it - are there stages?

Well, it’s supposed to be my year off...

.... Yes...

... but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to give artists even more time to make their comics, which is why I opened applications early for the 2027 fair. That means the first big stage is over - going through over 2000 applications, going through them again, and then one more time; longlisting, shortlisting. The quality is always so high.

Next on my list is having a new website built, something I know nothing about, so I’m sure that’ll be a whole process… I’m also starting to think about who to hire for next year’s poster and then new ways to market the fair - that’s always an area I really want to push.

But all that will begin in 2027- I’m forcing myself to actually do what I intended and use the time for my personal projects.

Before I let you get back to those personal comics, are there other aspects of comics you are working in that you can tell us about it - be it editing, creating, returning to criticism, or something else?

Not really. I’m working on a personal writing-slash-comics project. My aim is to complete it and maybe run a tiny self-publishing Kickstarter for anybody interested- I can’t imagine there are still a lot of people around who remember my writing days! Honestly, if I can finish it and it’s close to the thing I’m envisioning in my head, that will be more than enough for me. Mostly, I’m massively passionate about SBCF and running it for as long as I’m able.

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