The comics camp and mini-con in Juneau, AK, is hosted and organized by Pat Race, Aaron Suring, about half a dozen very organized women, and plenty more of the good people of Juneau. It began ten years ago, and each year this event hosts a varying group of ~70 professional comic artists and writers. The actual camping part of the retreat takes place in the forest outside of Juneau for four nights. In the days leading up to camp, artists fly in from all over the country to convene in downtown Juneau where some do school visits, or presentations at the library, or a brief radio shoutout, or tours around town, culminating in a mini convention in the Alaska State Museum before heading into the campground.
I’ve heard of this retreat over the years of being a cartoonist in Portland, but I always thought about it as something that would be a “someday” event for me, some nebulous day when I was cool enough.
I found Pat first at CALA in 2024, and then he found me again in Toronto at TCAF 2025. I have a lovely drawing of me Pat made while I was on a panel, paired with something I had said: “No one is cooler than anyone else. We all make comics.”
I decided to make that my year to apply for comics camp.
Juneau Days
Courtney, En, and I got in on Wednesday to make the most of our time in Juneau. We explored downtown, hiked Perseverance Trail, and saw behind the scenes of the museum. Some of our fellow campers went on a cemetery tour, some went on a ghost tour. Local shops and businesses were also really involved! I had my own to-do list from Willis, which included stopping into High Tide Tattoo to give them Willis’s regards from Portland. I took Willis’s suggestions and went to Carillo’s (which was delicious) and Amalga Distillery (which had great N/A options). I also want to shout out V’s Cellar, which has the best Korean-Mexican fusion food I’ve ever had. I went back twice to order more of the ahi taco with kimchi aioli. The chef is from Tijuana?? All the way in Alaska??? Awesome.
As campers filtered in from flights, we began to familiarize ourselves with the folks we’d be spending the weekend with. Juneau is small, so in addition to the scheduled events, it’s easy to not only bump into a fellow cartoonist but identify them on sight. On Friday afternoon, I gave a talk at a high school for the first time ever, alongside Ryan Dunlavey, whose expertise and familiarity in presentation was a valuable guidance for me. Tay finally landed, and we watched her presentation at the library before taking her to the Mendenhall Glacier.
I want to emphatically thank the volunteers and organizers who shepherded us around town, driving shuttles from the airport, to the library, guiding us to schools for talks, opening up their homes, and ferrying our luggage to the campground. All of this is no small feat. It’s a marvel and a miracle and a testament to community, organization, patience, and dedication to the arts.
On Saturday, at the mini-con in Juneau, I got to put faces, names, and art together. My table and all my fellow campers' tables filled up the entrance of the Alaska State Museum. What a beautiful venue, and what a beautiful group of attendees! It was so great to be able to share my art with new people and connect with them. Juneau loves art!
After quickly breaking down our displays, our luggage got in a uhaul, we got on the bus, and everyone headed to camp.
Camp Days
I was nervous about camp. Comic artists are frequently awkward loners, and I’m no exception. Many have told me I’m quite good at masking that, but inside of me is a very loud voice that says, “Everyone wants you to shut up, and they think you’re cringe, so stop annoying everyone.” This feeling went away pretty quickly by day one, thanks to all the programming and organization and curation of people who were seeking genuine connection and skill share.
There were some unique challenges for 2026’s camping adventure, such as record breaking snow on the ground. As this was my first time visiting, I didn’t know any different, and it felt pretty normal to me. Due to forces beyond anyone’s control, there were no flush toilets and no showers. This was not a problem for me, personally, as I often camp in such conditions. Pat worked hard to try and get things up and running. Even without the bathhouse, he made sure the kitchen had access to water, which is a feat of engineering I don’t think I’m equipped to comprehend. The weather was also quite cold! With snow still on the ground paired with the spring rain, people spent a lot of time in the lodge and the cabins. I do a lot of off-season camping in the PNW. I’m no stranger to outhouses and cold, rainy weather. This was still the most comfortable camping experience I’ve had, and certainly the driest, apart from mid-summer trips.
Everyone collaborated to fill the weekend with talks and activities and workshops. The schedule mounted on the wall started off with just a few things here and there, but by the end of the weekend, it was flooded with sticky notes and ideas. I want to give a huge shoutout to Julie for being such a vocal organizer! We did a round table talk on NSFW comics and also on social media/blogs/newsletters, which I would not have done without her encouragement. I’m a very biddable dog. I didn’t need much goading, but it was easier to share my knowledge and invite others to share their perspectives with someone like Julie leading the charge.
Between Julie’s ability to get activities going, and Allison O’Toole’s talk on running anthologies, and witnessing the amount of effort the camp organizers put in, I came away from the weekend so grateful and in awe of this super power. I know a lot of really remarkable organizers in my life, but it’s still such a rare talent. Managing people and personalities is HARD WORK. It’s also such an important skill that is foreign to many an awkward loner comic artist, myself included. Thank you all for sharing your gifts.
I got to meet and reconnect with people who were there at the dawn of my comics career, like Shing and Liz Yerby. I got to spend time with people like Bones, who I only just met briefly at ECCC and really enjoyed getting to know over the weekend. I got to know June Dao, who is really funny and smart and knows a lot about clay work! I also met so many Portland people who are just loosely in my orbit, and I hope to see them again around town. And this only scratches the surface of all the people I shared dinner tables and conversations with.
I came away from the weekend recharged and inspired and full of new perspectives and ideas. I drew a lot with pen and paper this weekend, since I only draw on my Cintiq nowadays. I found I really liked inking with traditional media. Bones shared her watercolor pencils, and I found I REALLY liked using those. I gathered some speckled stones from the beach, which reminded me of the snow on the mountains, the smoke from the fire, birch trees, Appaloosas, clouds and shadows. I can’t wait to see what becomes of my art going forward.
Going Home
It all feels surreal. One minute, I’m in the forest away from the internet, wandering through the mossy trees to the rocky beach, surrounded by snowy mountains and ravens, thinking, “Yep, this is my life now. I live here.” Then I’m suddenly back to the grind in the print shop, or at my desk, or on social media… I will cherish the days spent focusing only on craft and getting to work collaboratively with absolute strangers. It’s a special type of vulnerability, to be camping and sharing cabin space, unshowered, with your professional colleagues and peers.
I’m happy to be home with my warm bed and my bidet, rewatching Sopranos and looking at Steel Ball Run fanart and drinking Celsius, with my baby cat on the couch. But that trip to Alaska will stay with me forever. I’ve since done a panel at PSU about breaking into comics, and I’ve had coffee meetings with friends to discuss marketing ideas. Each time, I say, “well, we actually just talked about this in Alaska…” The things I’ve learned in just that week are already shaping how I view my craft, and it’s given me more knowledge to share with others.
If you’re a comic artist or writer or adjacent person, and you’d like to visit a town in the far north surrounded by water and mountains and moss, a place full of the most generous people on earth, check out Alaska Robotics! Sign up for their newsletter, keep your eye out for applications this autumn.
I’m eternally grateful to Pat for inviting me to apply, and to all the people who made this event possible. There’s really nothing like this on earth. It’s truly special, and I would love to attend again, if the fates allow.