Comic Zone 2026: Where panels meet people half-way

13 June 2026

A comic meeting zone

The Comic Zone at Pyrkon 2026 will be one of those spaces you don’t just pop into “for a moment.” It’s rather a place where it’s easy to lose track of time—between creator booths, chats about favorite titles, lectures, meetings with authors, and the queue for a custom sketch that, years later, will remind you not only of a specific comic book but also of the encounter with the person who created it.

Because comics work best when you can see them up close. Not just as a finished album, but as a process, a conversation, and a community. That’s why the Comic Zone won’t just be a sales area. It will be a space for people who read, collect, draw, write scripts, who are just starting out, or simply want to hear how an idea turns into a finished page.

The Pyrkon Comic Zine – A community in panels

One of the most unique highlights of this year’s zone will be the Pyrkon comic zine. It’s a project that perfectly matches the convention’s spirit- diverse, fan-driven, independent, and open to short comics, mini-stories, illustrations, and graphic experiments. After all, a zine is not just about the final result, but the gesture itself: giving a piece of the convention space to people who want to tell a story in their own language.

And Pyrkon has been proving for years that the fandom is not limited to just consuming culture. The fandom co-creates it. The zine can therefore become not just a souvenir from the event, but a chronicle of perspectives – a little funny, a little personal, sometimes weird, sometimes completely unpredictable. Exactly like a good convention night, where someone in line for a late-night snack comes up with a three-panel story idea.

An exhibition of Polish comics – Boards, covers, and strong accents

A significant part of the program will also be an exhibition of Polish comics. Attendees can expect a cross-section of works showcasing the diversity of the domestic scene: covers, original boards, illustrations, atmosphere-building panels, and characters capable of stepping right off the paper and into the audience’s imagination. The exhibition will be located on the mezzanine of Hall 5—the natural neighbourhood of the Comic Zone and its creative buzz.

Two elements of this exhibition deserve special attention:

• NOLANDS: A project by Przemysław Wideł and Jerzy Łanuszewski. This is an experience suspended between comic book, illustration, text, atmosphere, and an almost gallery-like exhibition. Instead of simply “looking at boards,” we enter a separate, unsettling realm—a world that eludes clear-cut categories and shows how broadly one can think about comic narration.
• Ćmernisaż: An exhibition dedicated to The Moth (Ćma)—a non-superhero superhero from a retro-futuristic, interwar Warsaw, where noir aesthetics meet mafia gangs, corrupt bureaucrats, and the city’s dark secrets.

Portfolio reviews – works come out of the drawers

The Comic Zone will also be a place for those looking to take their next step as creators. The portfolio review is one of those program points that can prove to be the most practical – participants will be able to show their works, discuss them with more experienced professionals, and get concrete feedback.

This is a much-needed element of the convention’s comic section. Lectures inspire, exhibitions showcase the final effect, but a portfolio review touches upon the craft itself: composition, narration, panel rhythm, scene readability, and how to tell a story through images. For someone who has been keeping sketches in a folder entitled “final_version_3” for months, this might be the push they need to finally show them to the world.

Guests, panels, Q&As, autographs, and custom sketches

Pyrkon’s comic program also heavily relies on its guests. Among the names and creative teams associated with the Comic Zone are Kieron Gillen, Goran Sudžuka, Tommaso Bennato, Katarzyna “Panna N” Witerscheim, Aga “TUTU” Szymańska, OttoIch, Tomasz Kontny, Jerzy Łanuszewski, Tomasz Kołodziejczak, Przemek “Graphos” Świszcz, Robert Siwek, Paulina “Kiriesława” Obutelewicz, and the Ćma Komiks team. This lineup perfectly showcases the broad spectrum of the medium – from the international market and superhero mainstream, through webtoons and fantasy, to the Polish indie scene, and grotesque, history, folklore, and original experiments.

It is during these meetings that you truly feel that behind every comic is a real person, a process, and a ton of decisions invisible at first glance. Q&As and panels let you ask about the craft, inspirations, publishing, the writer-artist collaboration, selling your art on foreign markets, or how not to abandon a project after the tenth revision of page one. Custom sketches and autographs add a personal touch – because a signed comic with a mini-sketch becomes more than just a copy; it becomes a memento of an encounter.

Live drawing and the comic reading room

The schedule also features live drawing on the cosplay stage. This format works wonderfully at the convention, showcasing comics as a here-and-now activity: the stroke, the decision, the pacing, the mistake, the correction, a joke thrown from the stage, and the final effect emerging right before the audience’s eyes. Combined with cosplay, this can create a very “Pyrkon” moment – somewhere between performance, illustration, and fan energy.

For those who just want to sit down and read after a series of intense meetings, the Nova Comic Reading Room (part of the Fantastic AMU) will be a vital spot. It’s a place for fans of picture stories in various forms—from Polish, European, and American comics, through manga, to indie comics. Such a breather amidst the convention rush can be priceless. Sometimes, the best way to discover a new title is to read a few quiet pages between lectures.

Creators at your fingertips

Most importantly, however, the Comic Zone will be a clearly designated place for people who make comics and sell their own work. Attendees will find booths of Polish independent comic creators, unique editions, opportunities to chat with authors, and the chance to get autographs directly at their booths.

This creates an atmosphere that no online premiere can replace. You can walk up, check out the edition, ask about a character, buy the comic directly from the person who worked on it, and walk away with something truly personal.

The Comic Zone at Pyrkon 2026 is shaping up to be a fully-fledged comic ecosystem. It will be a place for viewing, reading, buying, listening, drawing, consulting, and meeting people. From the zine to NOLANDS, from portfolio reviews to custom sketches, from the reading room to the stage – everything points to the fact that comics won’t just be an “add-on” to Pyrkon this year. They will be one of those stories that guide attendees from panel to panel.