Being an independent comics creator doesn’t mean you have to labor alone.

That’s one of the central ideas behind Comic Arts Maine Portland, a festival focused on indie comics and aspiring artists and writers. While some mainstream comics festivals focus on big-name creators and their fans, CAMP strives to create community.

“The mission is to grow the indie comics community in Maine and give our Maine artists something to look foward to, a reason to make comics,” said cartoonist and illustrator Isabella Rotman, one of the festival’s founders who teaches animation and game art at Maine College of Art and Design in Portland. “Comics are a lot of hard work, so we wanted an event where people could meet each other and form a community that’s going to help them.”

The second annual Comic Arts Maine Portland will be held Saturday at the Portland Public Library from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. The free festival features more than 90 artists and other exhibitors from Maine and around the country, as well as workshops and panels. Last year’s event at the library drew more than 1,300 people.

There are also two festival-related events as well. On Friday at 7 p.m. there’ll be a book launch party at Back Cove Books in Portland for mini comics by Dajia Zhou and Alvi Slocumb, who were the festival’s 2025 S’Mores Award winners. Then on Saturday at 7 p.m., there’ll be a festival after-party at Space in Portland.

Comics creators will be set up in the Lewis Gallery and Rines Auditorium of the library, where people can meet them, see and buy their work and ask questions.

There are more than a dozen panels and workshops scheduled throughout the day, ranging in topics from drawing cute animal characters, storytelling and fantasy worlds to queer stories, the use of color and writing.

There will also be events for kids, including a draw-along, a creature creation workshop and a draw-off between several cartoonists. People can sign up for panels and workshops at the festival website.

Court Normandin, an illustrator and painter from Portland, is one of the festival’s special guests and will be participating in a panel discussion with other artists about queer stories.

Normandin loves the fact that the festival is free to everyone, including aspiring creators. The festival helps reinforce the idea that comics are a very accessible medium, and makes it easy for creators to see other work and meet other artists and writers, Normandin said.

“It’s energizing to meet all types of people and see all the different types of work,” said Normandin. “At some festivals the work shown is what publishers want to sell. Here it’s whatever people want to make.”

Colleen AF Venable, a comics writer and designer from North Adams, Massachusetts, will be part of a panel discussion titled “How Do You Write Comics?” Venable’s resume includes working on the “Katie the Catsitter” series and graphic novel adaptions of the “Junie B. Jones” children’s books.

Venable, who is one of the special guests at the festival, likes the idea that the workshops and panels might take some of the mystery out of how comics and graphic novels are made.

“It’s great they’re having workshops on things like how to write comics, because most people don’t know exactly how it’s done,” said Venable.