The Comics Arts Conference is an academic conference that meets every year at WonderCon Anaheim and the San Diego Comic-Con International.  Our mission is to bring professionals and academics together with the public to discuss all aspects of the medium of sequential art.

The CAC was founded in 1992, when Peter Coogan and Randy Duncan were first inspired to hold an academic conference focusing on the study of comic books.  Rather than associate the CAC with a university or an academic professional organization, they decided to hold the conference in conjunction with a major comic book convention: Comic-Con.  The idea was to involve not only scholars, but professionals in the industry as well as the fans themselves.

Since that first meeting, the CAC has been integrated into the programming schedule of Comic-Con International and, starting in 2007, WonderCon.  Presenters have included comics scholars such as Thomas Andrae, John Lent, Robert Harvey, and Scott McCloud as well as professionals such as Denny O’Neil, David F. Walker, Trina Robbins, and Gail Simone.