More than 100 independent artists and small-press publishers from Chicago and around the world will descend on the Loop this Saturday for the second annual Pretty Good Fest, a free comics and zine fair running from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Chicago Athletic Association. The festival's biggest draw may be cartoonist Chris Ware, who is set to debut his new book, The Acme Novelty Library #21.
According to WGN-TV, which previewed the event ahead of the weekend, the fair takes place at 12 S Michigan Avenue and is free and open to the public. Broken Frontier also says Ware will debut the new book at the festival. Ware, whose past work includes Jimmy Corrigan — the Smartest Kid on Earth and Building Stories, is also scheduled to appear onstage from noon to 1 p.m. in conversation with independent film director Joe Swanberg, with a public signing to follow from 1 to 2 p.m., per the festival's own programming.
A Guest List Stretching From Toronto to The New Yorker
Ware isn't the only marquee name on the exhibitor floor. Eisner and Ignatz Award-winning cartoonist Tara Booth will present her new book, Sometimes All the Time, while Toronto illustrator Michael DeForge will have All The Cameras In My Room available at the festival — both artists have had work featured in outlets like The New York Times and The New Yorker, the same Broken Frontier report notes. Alongside those international names, the exhibitor list includes Project Onward, a Chicago nonprofit studio that supports visual artists with mental health conditions and developmental disabilities and operates out of the Bridgeport Art Center on the South Side.
WGN-TV's Sarah Jindra and Ji Suk Yi authored the station's preview of the event, which featured Matt and Bianca previewing the fair, as part of the station's Spotlight Chicago segment, which airs weekdays from 1 to 2 p.m. The station's report frames the festival as a showcase for both local talent and visiting creators, with free comics and other works available throughout the day.
Built on the Bones of a Beloved Reading Series
Pretty Good Fest is organized by Perfectly Acceptable Press, a Chicago Risograph print studio and independent publishing house founded by printmaker Matt Davis in 2013, according to Fenwick Gallery. The press publishes short-run narrative artist books and provides contract Risograph printing for independent creators across North America. Risograph printing itself is a high-speed, soy-ink stencil duplication process developed in Japan that has become a staple medium for Chicago's independent comics and zine scene, as detailed by The COMP Magazine. Fenwick Gallery also says Davis co-directs the biennial North American Risograph Conference with George Wietor, a meeting held in Chicago.
The fair positions itself as the spiritual successor to Zine Not Dead, per LVL3. Fenwick Gallery describes the series as a quarterly experimental comics reading series co-hosted by Davis and Brad Rohloff.
From First-Year Fair to a Landmark Venue
The 2025 Pretty Good Fest took place at the Chicago Athletic Association on October 4, drawing more than 100 independent artists and publishers to a single-day fair, which organizers created as a free public gathering to support local and international self-publishers. Hoodline has previously covered dining additions inside the same building, including Boka's new spot, The Ives.
Following Saturday's daytime vendor exhibition, the festival plans an evening after-party and live comics reading called Garden of Readin', held inside the Chicago Athletic Association's Stagg Court, with performative readings co-hosted by local literary collective SLOP, per Pretty Good Fest's own event listing for the prior year's program. Between the daytime exhibitor floor and the evening reading series, organizers are betting that Chicago's appetite for comics, zines, and small-press culture has room to grow well beyond its first year.
