“Dress the male rats in pink shorts with small whales embroidered on them” and “Encourage male rats to recount the plot of Dune and Dune: Part Two on first dates.” Both were helpful suggestions put forth by Meg Richardson in “Ideas for the New York City Officials Implementing Rat Birth Control,” a 2024 comic published in the New Yorker. Richardson is one of 35 exhibitors at TWIST, a comics and zine fair that takes over Junction Arts & Media in White River Junction on Friday, October 2. Thanks in part to the Center for Cartoon Studies, the Upper Valley has become a hotbed of comics creation and home to a diverse bunch of artists and illustrators. TWIST, now in its fifth year, doesn’t charge an exhibition fee, allowing visitors to find works they mightn’t otherwise. Those could include Allison Wong’s “Come, Sit, Stay,” a memoir with musings on pet funerals; Syne Mitchell’s “My Ex, Vlad,” a vampire-werewolf rom-com; and Sierra Edwards’ “Vantage Point,” a thoroughly abstract yet somehow still narrative story of squares in a grid. The point is to encourage diversity and discovery, according to organizers: That’s why the event is free for attendees, too.
TWIST: Twin State Comic and Zine Fair, Friday, October 2, 4-8 p.m., at Junction Arts and Media in White River Junction.
This article appears in September 30 • 2026.
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