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Infusing the sacred art of comics creation with the flippant irreverence of improv comedy and the swaggering bravado of professional wrestling, the “Comic Art Battle” is a live art spectacle that pits the comic book world's most talented creators, writers and artists against each other in a clash of lightning-quick wits and spontaneous draftsmanship!

Often even more eccentric and dynamic than the spandex-clad mutants, aliens, vigilantes and mad scientists they helped make into household names, the cast of characters behind the scenes of the American comic book industry is full of personalities tired of being confined to the space between the panels!

But a successful team of battlers will have to deploy talent and strategy as well as natural charisma in order to win over the audience during a series of timed matches, all of which are heavy on audience participation and ultimately judged by audience applause. The menagerie of challenges ranges from one-on-one cage matches where two artists must sketch a volunteer from the audience in an audience-suggested setting, to an all-out brawl where every team member must get up on stage at once and put their heads together to create a six-panel comic based on an audience-suggested theme in under five minutes.

Created in 2004 by indie comics creator and entrepreneur Ezra Claytan Daniels (The Changers, Loaded Blanks Greetings), and headlining conventions and events across the country ever since, the “Comic Art Battle” aims to finally resolve the debates that have raged amongst fans for decades: Which publisher really has the most capable stable of creators: Marvel or DC? Which city has the most talented comics community: Chicago or Portland? Which camp tells a better story: Indie or Mainstream? Or the age-old question, who makes the best comics: Boys or Girls?

With an ever-revolving roster of contenders, dynamic team line-ups, and a growing assortment of bone-crushing challenges, these unpredictably uninhibited events are never the same and always full of surprises!

Photo by Joshin Yamada