CAC Comics Retreat 2026

For two years now, the Comix Accountability Club has run an annual retreat at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. It's a quaint little town in the mountains, full of whimsical shops and interesting artists, and this year I was able to join the excursion.

Shepherd University

Shepherd University is a beautiful campus, dotted with shag hickories (I've since learned you can make tea and syrup from the bark), quaint brick buildings, and one strikingly beautiful stray cat. We rented rooms in the Potomac dorms, which were mercifully air conditioned, and came with linens, towels, and complimentary hand soap. We cooked communal meals in the common area kitchen, and worked on our comics together in a classroom on the first floor of the building. Various other groups came and went over the course of our 5 day stay - a marching band camp, a volleyball camp, football players, and the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Even with such a range of guests on campus, we were able to work more or less undisturbed the whole weekend. Kudos to the university for so gracefully managing such a wide range of tenants.

Shepherdstown, WV

While we spent most of the retreat working in the classroom, we did make frequent excursions into Shepherdstown to explore. We had breakfast at MJs DeliCafe, coffee at the esoteric Lost Dog Coffee, and shopping breaks at Game Knights, Creative Procrastinations and Whimsical Fascinations, and Four Seasons Books. What I saw of Shepherdstown was wonderful, and I would love to go back some day and spend a little more time out and about.

Comix Accountability

Of course the main reason I went on the retreat was to work on comics. I had a loose idea of what I wanted to draw when I applied to the retreat, but since then life had really gotten in the way of my comics practice - I hardly drew anything between April and July (you may have noticed my silence on social media and in my email newsletter). Going in, I knew I wanted to work on a comic about cycling, but my initial attempts to start it hadn't panned out. Ultimately, I ended up refocusing to work on a sequel to my zine, Cycle of Lief, which collected cycling related comics from my webcomic (reworked to fit a standard style). I ended up penciling 10 pages over the course of the retreat, which is pretty good for not having anything really planned going in.

One thing I've attempted with this arc of diary comics is to maintain a narrative arc across multiple pages, without making a page that can't be read on it's own. Since I make these comics for my website and print them in zines, I have to balance my approach to make sure both reading experiences are rewarding. I think that I've done a pretty good job of that, but I'll let you all be the judges of that once they make it onto the website.

Of course, locking myself in a room to make comics is something I can do at home, without driving 6 hours across state lines. But I nevertheless feel that the retreat was very much worth it. Just because I can do that at home doesn't mean I will. Home is full of the everpresent distractions - work, the dishes, the vacuuming, weeding the garden, no one to tell me to stop scrolling on my phone. A college classroom in West Virginia on the other hand is a very focused environment. Me and my sketchbook and the social pressure of a dozen other artists also hard at work on their own comics was very motivating. And now coming out of that environment, I feel more motivated to work on my comics than I have been in months - I'm finishing up these comics, but I'm also working on another 8 page comic that's already fully scripted and thumbnailed, and I'm working on the next issue of The Orange Peel. I feel so artisitically rejuvenated by this experience.

Club

Not everything was "locking in" on comics or shopping. The retreat organizers also scheduled several related activities throughout the retreat. There was a writing workshop for critiquing mid-length scripts towards the beginning of the retreat, as well as a comic critique at the end of the retreat to get feedback on what we had completed during the event. That feedback was very valuable, and one of my favorite parts of the retreat.

In addition, our local host, Danielle Corsetto, invited us to tour their home studio (which gave me some great ideas on how to improve my own) and organized a figure drawing session for us. I think the figure drawing was very helpful for me because they gave us some cartooning specific figure drawing exercises. I took a figure drawing class in college, and i've been to a few community sessions since, but I feel like my eyes were really opened to how I could benefit from that type of practice as a cartoonist, not just as a fine artist. I especially appreciated the turnaround session. I've never drawn a turnaround before (a type of character reference drawing the character from four angles) since I normally just draw myself. But I"m working on several fictional comics that I've been sitting on because I've been struggling with consistent character design. I'm excited to take the figure drawing lessons I learned with me to my local figure drawing sessions and be able to get a little more out of it.

Back to Columbus, OH

I had a great time! The CAC Retreat is definitely a different animal from the little cabin in the woods retreat I do at Lake Hope every year. I feel like I got a lot out of it, especially from the figure drawing and critiques. I'm excited to share what I've cooked up with you all over on the comics side of this site. I'm also thinking I'll reach out to the figure drawing people here and see if we could organize a special comics figure drawing event locally. I'd love a chance to repeat that excercise and share it with my colleagues! failing that, maybe I'll reach out to the models directly and try to organize something that way? We'll see!

To anyone thinking of organizing or joining a cartoonist/artist retreat, I say go for it! It's a great way to develop and strengthen relationships with your fellow artists, and your relationship to your own art practice, whatever that may be. Art can be a lonely undertaking, and it is so rewarding to be able to work on your projects with the support and comraderie that only other artists can provide.

Happy creating!