Please do not apply to Shortbox Comic Fair.
I was among the participants that were going to exhibit my comic at Shortbox Comic Fair 2025. I applied to this fair due to its reputation and very few, almost no bad press about it. The only example I could find is the organizer's anti-competition statement here. Only during the course of participating in this fair, I learned why the Shortbox brand was so clean: the sole organizer, Zainab, would often send out emails to participants, scolding them and telling them to NOT say anything bad about their own Shortbox comics, or say anything against her decision throughout the fair. She was dictating our tone in both public and private spaces.
As for my case, I only communicated with Zainab via email. I tried to be as transparent with my progress as possible, though I was often met with a dismissive tone. One month prior to the deadline, I asked Zainab if my comic could have an 'extended' version, which I can link to Shortbox' customers after the fair so they can access it for free. She didn't comment or review my comic, but copy-pasted a statement from the participant guidebook about "exhibiting work post-Shortbox" (to summarize, we're not allowed to lower our prices or put up the comic for free immediately after the fair ends, an example can be seen here). Instead of a vendor fee, 2025 SBCF participants would have to deal with a 'drop out' fee, which applied to me later.
The five months after the Lunar New Year in March 2025, the comic for Shortbox was my entire priority. I took no breaks to finish the comic as fast as I can. During this period I didn’t have any income from commissions or freelance, I wanted to put my all into the comic even if the sales in October were close to nothing. All the risks were on the artists who couldn’t get any pay for the comic making period, while the organizer had little risk on it if there were only a few of us who couldn't make it to October.
I submitted my comic in 65 pages, all proofread and sent in at the end of July which was the deadline. My comic previews were even posted on Shortbox page. In mid August, Zainab got back to me to tell me that my comic is ineligible for submission because it's 'incomplete', and she demanded a drop out fee from me. It completely took me by surprise. It was incredibly frustrating because I had already brought up the extended version of my comic beforehand, and I had asked for the organizer's help in amending the ending to fit her 'completion' criteria. Therefore I told her she would have to wait for the 'drop out' fee that she demanded from me. During this period, she had proceeded to erase all of my involvement with SBCF'25. I believe this is a silencing PR tactic she had used with other artists with smaller voices.
As for my comic currently, it's already done and has been translated into Vietnamese, since I'm planning to sell the comic at my local conventions (Ho Chi Minh City). Please note that I had to abide by the Shortbox rule to not sell my comic anywhere during the fair period - October 2025 - that I had to skip participating in the only one artist alley we had in this city. Conventions in Vietnam are... very sparse especially for art and comics people, to put it lightly.
If this happened in gamedev, it'd be much easier for me to find outlets to speak out. I feel especially annoyed... and angry that artists have been such pushovers that we allow any level of micro or macro-aggressions to happen to us and just let the abuse continue. When I saw how much support and also pushback from the public when Horses gamedevs spoke out when their game wasn't allowed to be on Steam, I felt the same way: people turning a blind eye to Steam’s monopoly and their first reaction being "You'd have other vendors/publishers to pitch to". While SBCF is not a monopoly, it’s still the most well-known online comic fair in English. Artists have very little to no avenue to pitch their comic, especially if they’re new to the scene, and are not well informed on the existence of other online events if not already blacklisted by Zainab. She insists on claiming that others are plagiarizing her format, that they’re trying to become SBCF’s ‘competitors’ while in reality, these are organized by people who simply liked the idea of having more comics.
While sympathizing with Zainab's background - a brown Muslim woman who has experienced the worst parts of the comics industry - her mistreatment towards the artists who have built the reputation of the fair is, to me, intolerable.
I’m making this statement to warn other artists who are new to the comic scene, that if you also happen to get starstruck when being accepted to this seemingly prestigious fair. This is to remind long-time supporters of Shortbox the kind of behavior Zainab has behind the scenes, how she treats your favorite artists, and why so many of us decided to keep silent: it is to protect ourselves but also to protect the reputation of Shortbox.
Don’t apply to Shortbox. Support the artists directly when they post on their storefront. A lot of us posted our SBCF comics for free or at a discount after the fair was over. At the end of the day, we just want people to read our comics, and that’s good enough.
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