Fifth annual independent comics convention held at Industry City

Now in its fifth year, the Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase took place over two days, across five convention halls, Fort Hamilton Distillery and St. Mark’s Comics in Industry City during the weekend of April 18 and 19.

The convention featured more than 400 artists showing their work, as well as classes in life drawing, comics making and zine making, live comic readings, and a talk from twice Academy Award-nominated animator Bill Plympton, who signed a postcard for every attendee of his talk.

Around the showcase floors, artists sold comics, zines (small handmade booklets about any topic, comic-related or not), prints of fine art, original art, homemade roleplaying games, and even did portraits of attendees for a few dollars each.

A comic by ROM, an artist who tabled at BICS, about the experience of tabling at BICS.

Every year since its inception in 2022, the showcase has grown in size, and now has more of the feel of a comic book convention than its roots as a gathering of artists in an Industry City courtyard.

Still, despite its expansion from its humble roots, artists at the showcase said it has retained its focus on real, human artists and shunned the cheap items that often crowd larger conventions.

“There’s no 3D printed slop, there’s no AI slop, no drop shippers,” shared JJ Ortega, an artist from Long Island who was selling art and comics of his original character Broke A$ Beagle, about a genetically modified beagle who can walk and talk like a human, but who has no money.

“There’s all these big conventions that have so much of that stuff and that kind of stuff harms all conventions. BICS has none of that,” Ortega continued.

Ortega tabled (artist-speak for showing their work) with his friend Leah Bernstein, for whom it was her first convention.

It was also the first convention for Nick Hill, a Gowanus-based artist who recently began his comics career after a career focused on fine art.

“I was disappointed in my art career after being rejected from residencies and feeling like an outsider in the art world for a while. But I’ve wanted to make comics my whole life. After some coworkers helped me figure out how to do that, I started making comics and my network has expanded quickly.”

Since beginning his career in comics, Hill has written, illustrated and independently published his first comic, Werewolves in Brooklyn, which sold out its original run of 120 comics. He brought more copies to sell at BICS.

“BICS couldn’t be happening at a better time. I’m tabling with a coworker and it feels like we’re going places,” Hill said.

This camaraderie and upward momentum for artists is exactly what Aynsley Leonardis, founder of the showcase, set out to foster when she created BICS with the help of her former employer, Mitch Cutler, owner of St. Mark’s Comics.

“I wanted a show for my friends, that basically anyone could get into. I didn’t want it to be focused on keeping people out based on their portfolio and writing credits. And I made it as cheap as humanly possible.”

Now, although the convention is many times the size it was at the beginning and is attracting artists like Bill Plympton, Leonardis still keeps the cost to participate as inexpensive as she can ($125 to $215 depending on what room an artist tables in) and encourages anyone, no matter how early they are in their comics-making journey, to participate.

“A few years ago there was this one high schooler who told me he wanted to make comics but hadn’t made any at all. I told him to just pencil two pages, make copies of it and a few stickers, and table at BICS. That way, when he started making more stuff, he would already have a network of people to send his stuff to,” Leonardis shared.

For Leonardis, BICS is not only about the comics, but about what comics can do.

“I miss working in comic book stores because people who love comics are the best and being in the same space as them is the best,” she said. “We need more of that. We need people who are passionate about storytelling. We need good stories and fiction during bleak times like the ones we’re living through right now.”

Asked if there were plans to move BICS out of Industry City now that it is effectively at capacity there, Leonardis emphatically stated she would not.

“We want the convention to not only just be about us, but also bring other business to the area. It’s not just about space and how big BICS is, it’s about the surrounding community as well.”