We at Comic Artists of San Diego believe that comics are a valuable art form for communicating a wide range of ideas and viewpoints and that local comic artists deserve a supportive community to foster artistic growth and showcase their stories. We are building this community by connecting like-minded artists with each other and their audiences. Our ultimate goal is to build a strong, diverse, supportive, and creative community of local artists in Southern California. We believe this is beneficial not only for the artists but for our entire community and culture.
We support artistic growth via shared resources, encouragement and emotional support, artistic criticism and feedback, and shared learning experiences such as group trips to museums and cultural events. We encourage each other to push boundaries and move out of comfort zones to explore new ideas, formats, and mediums. We help connect artists and audiences via shared promotional efforts including our annual printed anthology, cross-promotional social media efforts, and in-person appearances at local conventions and artists events.
Our future goals are to continue expanding our artistic resources and promotional efforts, including collaborating with local arts and culture groups to enrich our work as artists and broaden our understanding. We will continue to expand our promotional efforts to larger venues and a broader audience and bring together artists of all levels who love visual storytelling and have something to say.
Comics sit on the bridge connecting fine art with pop culture, we want to expand that connection and bring better art to more people.
Our History
CASD was founded in 2021 as an informal art group by Mario Torres, Chey deMesa Diehl, and Heather Davis, friends and artists who connected via comic creation classes at the Little Fish Comic Book Studio. We all recognized the need for a local hub of comic book creators to learn and grow in a like-minded community. We recognized that San Diego had a large independent artist population but no real sense of community and nothing to bring them together. Joined by fellow artist Jacob Meyers, we organized to connect these independent artists and grow our community, our industry, our audience, and ourselves.
Special Thanks to…
Little Fish Comic Book Studio is a nonprofit educational corporation serving the San Diego region, Little Fish Comic Book Studio is dedicated to developing an appreciation of the comic art form through classes and camps directed to students of all ages and creeds, while through community partnerships and local events making an impact on the education of the public at large.
Through their support (and awesome classes) we’ve been able to thrive, and have an awesome place to meet up and draw!
