CAF Celebrates Successful OAX + Announces Dates for 2025

Orlando, FL – February 13, 2024 – ComicArtFans.com (CAF), the global hub for everything related to collecting comic book and narrative art, announced today its successful production of the inaugural Original Art Expo (OAX), as well as dates for next year’s show.OAX exclusively showcases original comic book, illustration, and other narrative art and has immediately established itself as the premiere visual storytelling art event in the United States, if not the world. OAX is designed from the ground up to celebrate the attending artists while also honoring art collectors. The show is an immersive, intimate, and intense three-day can’t miss trade and gallery show hybrid focused entirely on this important art collecting genre. Tickets were capped at 200 for VIPs and 500 total overall, with both selling out.

“We’re excited to have launched OAX and to have already received wildly positive feedback from, artists, attendees, and exhibitors,” said Kasra Ghanbari, CEO of CAF and co-creator/showrunner of OAX. “OAX will be developed as an annual platform to showcase the narrative arts, most especially comic book, comic strip, illustration, and Marvel/other card art. We’re continuing to actively assemble a team of experts, curators, and point people for each of these art segments that fall under the OAX narrative art umbrella.”

OAX 2024 covered 36,000 square feet and featured 60 prominent artists and 30 exhibitors comprised of well-known art dealers, artist representatives, and auction houses. Six special gallery rooms presented select artworks from Adam Kubert’s personal collection; the complete art to Wolverine issue 90, as well as a number of significant covers and interior pages by Adam Kubert from the collection of Wolvie Fan; selections from the Korshak Collection, a world-class illustration collection; selections from the Metropolis Collection, one of the most important comic art collections in the world; and a full Marvel card art retrospective composed of pieces from the Marvel Card Archive and the Lakeview Collection.

Watch the OAX 2024 Intro Footage video here.

The Saturday night auction and pizza party was co-hosted by Jimmy Palmiotti and Nick Barrucci and was attended by more than 500 people. 91 lots were auctioned, with a majority of the pieces created by attending artists. All pieces in the auction had between 10-60% of the sales going to The Hero Initiative, with a number of pieces having 100% of sales being donated to Hero.

Sunday at OAX was highlighted by a much-anticipated 90 minute “Free Sketch & Signature Event” where more than 30 participating artists provided free sketches and signatures to attendees.

OAX thanks our VIP Sponsors, Heritage Auctions and ComicLink, as well as our Partner Sponsors, which included ComicConnect, DiTullio Art Collective, Dynamite, Next Comic Art, TDArt, and Hake’s Auctions.

“OAX is the culmination of 21 years of CAF helping to establish our wonderful and thriving global art collecting community,” said Bill Cox, Chief Creative Officer and co-creator/showrunner of OAX. “Between the CAF web site, our twice annual Comic Art Live virtual convention, our active Comic Art Live YouTube channel, and now OAX, we have in place the central 24/7 hub, networking tools, educational materials, and events to assist and enable everyone from the first-time art collector to the most seasoned professional art dealer.”

OAX year two will be held January 24-26, 2025 at the same venue, the DoubleTree by Hilton at the Entrance to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The show will once again feature special gallery presentations, as well as many exclusive pre-OAX offerings and events. OAX 2025 will expand its footprint by approximately 33%, allowing for an increase in attendance, as well as the number of artists and exhibitors. OAX 2025 is expected to feature an equal mix of returning and new artists.

Sign up for the OAX mailing list to be notified when tickets go on sale and for other major announcements.

About ComicArtFans.com (CAF)

CAF is the premiere website in the world serving comic book and narrative art collectors, artists, auction houses, art dealers, and artist representatives.

Every month, CAF has 15,000+ active users and 400,000+ visits from nearly 200,000 visitors that generate nearly 3,000,000+ page views. Collectors may easily set up either free or premium galleries on CAF, where they’ll find well over 1,000,000 pieces of art posted by collectors in their galleries and personal classifieds, which is additionally supplemented by 100,000s of art pieces from art dealers and representative websites. CAF is proud to be a truly global hub, with more than half of our traffic coming from outside the United States, most notably from France, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

CAF operates interconnected divisions including Comic Art Live (CAL), the premiere virtual comic art convention in the world, which is held twice annually, as well as its Original Art Expo (OAX), whose inaugural show was held in Orlando, FL on January 26-28, 2024. OAX exclusively showcases original comic, illustration, and other narrative art and has immediately established itself as the premiere visual storytelling art event in the United States, if not the world. CAF also operates the highly active CAL YouTube channel, a community resource that produces a regular slate of weekly content including interviews with prominent creators and art collectors; previews of major auction house events; the popular Dueling Dealers of Comic Art program pitting both professional and amateur comic art dealers against one another; and art sale shows directly conducted with artists, artist reps, non-profits, and other fundraising groups.