Washington

Book fairs in Washington lean toward the comic and graphic novel side of the shelf, with a Pacific Northwest crowd of artists, small presses and readers who collect single issues as seriously as hardcovers. The tag gathers the state's convention-floor events, where signing lines, artist alley tables and dealer booths sit side by side.

Emerald City Comic Con is the listing filed under Washington, and it pulls a crowd that the California, Texas and Florida tags do not: readers who came up on Seattle's comics shops and the Pacific Northwest's own cartooning tradition. The floor mixes small press tables with artists selling prints and original pages, so you can walk out with a signed sketch and a stack of indie comics in the same hour. That mix of mainstream publishers and self-published creators is what separates it from the New York and Illinois tags, where the emphasis falls harder on traditional publishing.