Cardiff Comics Carnival took place under glorious Welsh sunshine in the heart of the capital at 10 Feet Tall on Sunday 24th March. The event was launched by a local group of comics’ creators including Ioan Morris and Josh Hicks along with fellow Cardiffian and local musician Andrew Rhys Lewis.

With no Cardiff Comics Expo this year, the Cardiff Comics Carnival was a great way to showcase some of the fantastic small press talent living and working on Cardoff. The event had been well promoted throughout the city with posters and flyers seen everywhere as well as a strong presence on social media.

The carnival was hosted across two floors in the confines of a bar and local music venue. The space was dedicated to comics’ creators, illustrators and zines. It attracted exhibitors from Wales and the nearby southwest of England.

The first floor, by the bar, had a mixture of illustrators from the University of South Wales and comics’ producers. On the first floor we were able to catch up with three comics’ creators from South Wales: Benjamin John Cooper was exhibiting his wonderfully whacky Ron Dangerous series. Ron Dangerous was first launched back in August 2018 and he was there promoting his latest release, Ron Dangerous 2, which came out in November 2018.

While next to him was Joe Glass. He was there presenting his wonderful series The Pride. An LGBT superhero themed series of comics. Further along was Peter James Maggs. Peter is based in Swansea and produces a comics series called The Many Strange Cases of Ghost Jones.

Peter Maggs was joined from Swansea by John Tucker upstairs. Also upstairs were the familiar names of Good Comics and The Awesome Comics Podcast.

Raechel Leigh Carter, from Bath, was also on the second floor. She was promoting her interesting Tiny Noggin comics, one of which had an interesting focus on an unconventional way of learning French through familiar phrases and words that you know in English.

Unfortunately, as is ever the case, I didn’t get chance to speak with everyone but it was great to see Little Hero Comics present and many others too. A full list can be found via the Cardiff Comics Carnival twitter and Facebook pages.

Morris, Hicks, Lewis and 10 Feet Tall hosted a friendly and well-attended event in Cardiff. Hopefully the second one will be able to attract more creators – especially Welsh ones – and more visitors too.