USA

Cartoonists Against Amazon is a group organizing in opposition to Amazon’s inhumane labour practices, and the company’s ongoing involvement in supplying tech to ICE (U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.) ComiXology, a digital distribution platform for comics, was purchased by Amazon in 2014, and the two sponsor numerous comics, literary and small press festivals across the world. In September 2019, Cartoonists Against Amazon penned an open letter to comics festivals calling on them to cease all partnerships with the the companies. The letter additionally demands complete transparency regarding sponsorships and money allocation in the future. The letter was signed by over 190 artists, writers, publishers, critics, organizations and industry professionals.

Alexandra Zsigmond is an award-winning art director and visual thinker working at the intersection of fine art, illustration and editorial design. From 2010-17, she was an art director for the New York Times Opinion section, commissioning original illustrations for articles, curating art-driven features, and designing for both print and digital. She has directed over 4000 editorial illustrations and collaborated with over 1000 artists worldwide. As an art director, she strives to push artists toward the creation of their best, most original work, and toward visual solutions that are at once striking, incisive and experimental.

Josh O’Neill is an American comics-worker who has won Eisner and Harvey Awards for editing, writing and publishing art books and graphic novels. As the co-founder of the Philadelphia-based small presses Locust Moon and Beehive Books, he explores the unique capacities of comics, graphic art and sequential storytelling through art history, creative collaboration and experimental publishing.