Cupcake Award Minicomic Release Party
May 1, 2026
6:30 - 8:00 PM
Skunk Cabbage Books
2826 N Milwaukee Ave
MASKS REQUIRED FOR ALL ATTENDEES
Join us for our inaugural comics reading event celebrating the 2025 Cupcake Award Winner: Mili St. John debuting, And Up!, They Sprung!
Featuring
Mili St. John
Mili St. John is the 2025 Cupcake Award winner. She’s an Ignatz Award nominated, self-taught comic artist and animator from Portland, ME who is deeply passionate about exploring human creativity, learning, and community building. She also helps organize CAMP (Comic arts Maine Portland).
Follow Mili: @milistjohn, milistjohn.com
Pidge
Pidge is an artist and educator who is the creator, illustrator, and letterer of her Ignatz Award nominated comic, Infinite Wheatpaste. When she isn’t drawing or teaching middle schoolers, she can be found knitting and snowboarding.
Follow Pidge: @pidgecomics, pidgecomics.com
Teddie Bernard
Teddie Bernard is a queer cartoonist, printmaker, and future time traveler. They spend their time refurbishing outdated printers and researching obscure lesbians. He currently draws his comics in Chicago, where he wishes for colder weather.
Follow Teddie: @tea-ddie, teddiebernard.net
Ana Two
Ana Two is an Ignatz-nominated cartoonist and vampire aficionado formerly living in Chicago and now hailing from Vermont. They spend their winters making comics and zines that explore paranormal romance and queer desire.
Follow Ana: @anatwocomics, anatwo.com
Take a Peek & pre-order!
Faced with eternal damnation after a familiar cabal of technocrat tycoons usurp heaven's throne, a once-righteous web warrior must atone for the sins of her past to make a final plea for salvation.
In this 40-page surrealist memoir mini-comic, author Mili St. John uses the media landscape of John Milton's Paradise Lost to trace the thread of today's pandemonium back to the politics of her upbringing in the wake of the dot-com crash. A satirical romp through a digital hellscape.
Created with the assistance of mentorship from Pidge and the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo Cupcake Award.