
ComicArtFans.com (CAF), the global hub for everything related to collecting comic book and other narrative art, announced today that it has secured its first equity round of funding with private investors.
The site not only features images of artwork owned by collectors around the globe, including British comic art, but offers a wide range of other services, too.
The funds will be primarily used to recruit and hire key personnel, as well as to support the further development of new products and multiple future updates to the CAF app, which will have its version one launch in August 2024. The funds will also allow for the expansion of our twice annual Comic Art LIVE virtual art convention, as well as the annual Original Art Expo (OAX), the second of which is being held 24th – 26th January 2025 in Orlando, Florida at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton (at Universal Entrance).
OAX 2025 has expanded to cover the hotel’s entire 60,000 square foot convention center, with announcements on the majority of attending artists, exhibitors, special galleries, and more coming in August 2024.
“Our team’s hard work over the last year has positioned us to enter an exciting growth phase that will see the expansion of our current offerings and events while introducing a suite of new tools and products that will further assist and enable artists, art collectors, art dealers, auction houses, and artist representatives globally,” said Kasra Ghanbari, CEO of ComicArtFans.com. “At this stage, I’m especially interested in identifying potential partnerships and co-development opportunities that expedite our global reach and marketing goals to help bring the collecting and appreciation of original comic art, and more broadly narrative art, to as many people as possible.”
Comic Art Fans (CAF) is the premiere website in the world serving comic book and narrative art collectors, artists, auction houses, art dealers, and artist representatives.
Every month, CAF has 15,000+ active users and 400,000+ visits from nearly 200,000 visitors that generate 3,000,000+ page views. Collectors may easily set up either free or premium galleries on CAF, where they’ll find well over 1,000,000 pieces of art posted by collectors in their galleries and personal classifieds, which is additionally supplemented by 100,000s of art pieces from art dealers and representative websites. CAF is proud to be a truly global hub, with more than half of our traffic coming from outside the United States, most notably from France, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain.
CAF operates interconnected divisions including Comic Art Live (CAL), the premiere virtual comic art convention in the world, which is held twice annually in May and November, as well as its Original Art Expo (OAX), which has immediately established itself as the premiere visual storytelling art event in the United States, if not the world. OAX is being developed as an annual platform to exclusively showcase the narrative arts, most especially comic book, comic strip, illustration, and Marvel/other collectible card art. Year two of OAX is 24th – 26th January 2025.
CAF also operates the highly active CAL YouTube channel, a community resource that produces a regular slate of weekly content including interviews with prominent creators and art collectors; previews of major auction house events; the popular Dueling Dealers and Amateur Dealers of Comic Art programs pitting professional and/or amateur comic art dealers against one another; and art sale shows directly conducted with artists, artist reps, non-profits, and other fundraising groups.
Between the CAF web site, twice annual CAL virtual convention, CAL YouTube channel, and now the annual OAX show, CAF has in place the central 24/7 hub, networking tools, educational materials, and events to assist and enable everyone from the first-time art collector to the most seasoned professional art dealer.
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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