Pride In Panels: Queer Comics Festival Returns to San Francisco

🏳️‍🌈 Groundbreaking Gathering of LGBTQIA+ Comics Creators Returns to SF Main Library this coming February 2026! 🏳️‍🌈

🖋️ Applications for exhibitors open through September 15, 2025 🖋️

SAN FRANCISCO – Attention all lovers of indy comics, queer art, and original storytelling: the comics festival of your dreams is heading back to town! Pride in Panels: SF Queer Comics Festival, the premiere biennial showcase of LGBTQIA+ comics creators from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, is returning to the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library on Sunday, February 15th, 2026, 12–5 p.m. 

Check out the official video from Pride In Panels 2024 showcasing the fantastic exhibitors, panelists, and attendees. [High-Res MP4] [YouTube]

The inaugural Pride in Panels took place in February 2024, with over 100 exhibitors, including creators such as Maia Kobabe, Eddy Atoms, Ed Luce, Ajuan Mance, Lawrence Lindell, and Lee Marrs. It drew over 2,000 attendees to the library for the main festival as well as to satellite events through the weekend. All events were open to the public and entirely free for both exhibitors and attendees, a tradition we’ll continue in 2026. 

This coming Pride in Panels will be substantially larger than in 2024, with an expanded footprint in the library featuring even more wide-ranging panels, maker workshops, and exhibitor tables with queer comics creators selling and signing their work and engaging with their adoring fans and aspiring artists. Stay tuned for updates on our list of exhibitors, special guests, and satellite events leading up to the main festival!

“We thought it was really important to create a space where creators could come together and have their work celebrated, be inspired by each other, and build community with each other and their readers,” says Pride in Panels co-organizer Avi Ehrlich.

Ajuan Mance, a Professor of Comics at California College of the Arts and an exhibitor at the first Pride in Panels, says, “An event like Pride in Panels is important to me because so many artists with a national reputation live right here in the Bay Area, but we never have the chance to see each other and meet fans and other rising comics creators. This festival is a game-changer!”

“The Library is thrilled to showcase both the dynamic history of queer comics, which spans over 50 years, as well as the contemporary artists doing such remarkable work here in the SF Bay Area and beyond,” says Kevin Darling, librarian at the Main Library’s Hormel LGBTQIA Center. “With book challenges frequently targeting titles with queer content, it’s essential that we uplift stories about LGBTQIA+ experiences.” 

Join us at Pride in Panels 2026 and celebrate the remarkable vitality of the world of queer comics! 

This event is co-sponsored by Silver Sprocket, California College of the Arts MFA Comics and BFA Comics programs, and the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center of San Francisco Public Library. Thanks to the support of the Hormel LGBTQIA Center of the San Francisco Public Library, this event will be 100% free to both exhibitors and attendees. Pride in Panels is fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media.

For more information, please contact prideinpanels@gmail.com or visit https://www.prideinpanels.org or https://www.instagram.com/prideinpanels/.