First-ever California Indigi-Con July 25 and 27 in San Diego! Indigenous comic authors and artists will share their rich traditions and storytelling through their comics at California’s first-ever INDIGI-CON, held Friday, July 25 and Sunday, July 27 at UC San Diego Park & Market in downtown San Diego, 1100 Market Street, San Diego, CA 92101. The event and its family-friendly programming are free and open to the public, but registration is required. For a complete list of artists and activities, and to register, please go to 2025 INDIGI-CON.The artists will also be panelists at the San Diego Comic-Con 2025 International (July 24 - 27). Indigi-Con is presented by the Indigenous Futures Institute - UC San Diego, in collaboration with the Eyaay Ahuun Foundation and the University of California Humanities Research Institute. The San Pasqual Band is also a title sponsor. “Comic book art is an important medium for Native people to creatively tell their stories,” said Chag Lowry (Yurok, Maidu and Achumawi), Executive Director of the Indigenous Futures Institute. “Sequential art has always been used by Native people to convey stories, tell histories, and share lessons for future generations. This first-ever California Indigi-Con is bringing together and showcasing the incredible talents of Native artists from a vast range of cultures. Our event honors them as the original storytellers from this region and throughout the country.” “Comics can tell any kind of story and offer Indigenous storytellers an ideal medium for telling their stories as they want them told,” said Mike Towry, co-founder of San Diego Comic-Con and long-time supporter of Indigenous Comics. “An important milestone for Indigenous comics creators is the recent publication in San Diego of the first comic from the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project (KSVP). Another this first-ever California Indigi-Con, which will present the works of multiple native storytellers to comic fans in San Diego. I am proud of comics for providing the medium to tell these stories that their creators need to tell and that we need to see and read – and that our City of San Diego, the birthplace of Comic-Con International, will be the inaugural site for this important – and fun – event.” “The Eyaay Ahuuyn Foundation is deeply honored to support and co-present the first-ever California Indigi-Con, celebrating the rich history of Native American heritage through comics,” said Johnny Bear Contreras (Kumeyaay), Sculptor & Cultural Bearer Johnny Bear Art, founder Eyaay Ahuun Foundation, and tribal member of the San Pasqual Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. “Supporting and uplifting the next generation of artists is what it is all about.” The foundation will also be revealing their upcoming comic and play “Shuuluk Wechuwvi - Where Lightening Was Born.” “It is very important to support these young Native artists who are putting in the work, learning from their elders and helping highlight our stories for generations to come,” said Chairman Stephen W. Cope of The San Pasqual Band. “When Native people are given less than 1% of representation in mainstream published media, gathering so many of these writers and artists to celebrate their contributions is something truly extraordinary,” said Weshoyot Alvitre (Tongva and Scottish), comic book artist, writer and illustrator. “I feel honored to be included in this roster of creatives whose work I support and admire and which inspires me.”
