KCU Pitchfest Showcase 2025 (Top 50)
Entire 2025 Gallery | List of Judges | 2023 Showcase
Comics creators from around the world have submitted their unpublished projects to be previewed online by editors and agents. A panel of judges have selected the top pitches. The projects are archived here so that industry pros may view them and discover new talent.
All Cats Are Artists
Baloney And Friends meets Cat And Cat Adventures and Catwad, plus a little Understanding Comics, in this collection of funny vignettes starring three cats and one catbot. Newly independent readers will love meeting happy-go-lucky Tusk, responsible (to a point) Yonth, mischief enthusiast Pig, and genially perplexed Tu-Bot. In this collection, the friends debate which of them REALLY made a painting, and then resolve the issue by eating it; attempt to draw a comic while being in one; take turns accidentally bringing a clay turtle to life; defy a factory boss by challenging a soccer-ball-hiding robot to a contest; and more. Great for kids with questions about who gets to make art and who gets to make rules.
Age Range:
Chapter Book (approx ages 7-9)Genre:
Animals, Fiction, Humor, Social-Emotional, Social IssuesPage Count Estimate:
128
My Why:
For seven great years, I did weekly storytimes at a preschool in East Oakland. The kids and I discussed anything we wanted to, from dinosaurs to Kehinde Wiley to having an incarcerated parent. At home, my similarly wide-ranging conversations with my own kid inevitably show up in the comics I draw for her lunchbox. These conversations have taught me something obvious but crucial: kids can sense when rules are unfair, in small ways and big ones.
All kids deserve media literacy tools to hone that sense, to help them fight for a fair world. The best tool I personally can provide is: these very goofy stories, in which some funny cats lowkey show off some tricks for making art and tweaking the rules. I hope my readers enjoy trying them out.
Channing Kennedy
Channing Kennedy is a writer and artist in Oakland, California. His essays and comics have appeared at NPR, Colorlines, Symbolia, Tomorrow Magazine, and KQED’s media educator program, and he’s taught writing workshops for activists at the Haas Institute’s Othering and Belonging Conference. He co-directed San Francisco Zine Fest, was head writer for a backyard talk show that got too popular, and ran a record label out of a costume shop. Every night, he draws a comic for his kid about their cats.