ComicArtFans.com Announces Successful Production of 3rd Annual Original Art Expo (OAX) in Orlando, Florida

Orlando, FL – March 23, 2026 – Collectors Network Holdings, PBC (CNHP), a Public Benefit Corporation that owns ComicArtFans.com (CAF), the global hub for everything related to original art from comic books and other narrative or visual storytelling art, announces its successful production of the 3rd Annual Original Art Expo (OAX) in Orlando, Florida from February 20 to 22, 2026, as well as dates for next year’s show.

OAX is the premier narrative art-focused event in the world that exclusively showcases original comic book, illustration, animation, collector card, comic strip, game, and other visual storytelling art. The show is an intimate, intense, and immersive three-day art fair and trade show hybrid focused entirely on this emerging and important art collecting category. View the OAX 2026 Program HERE.

The 4th Annual OAX will be held March 19 to 21, 2027 in Orlando, Florida at the DoubleTree by Hilton (Entrance to Universal Studios) and will launch publicly on June 1, 2026. Sign up for the OAX Newsletter to be notified when tickets and hotel rooms become available and for all major OAX announcements.

“OAX has become the most impactful meeting place for art collectors, artists, art dealers, auction houses, artist reps, and industry-wide professionals to discover art, broadly network, and make deals while readily surveying the entire narrative art landscape,” said Kasra Ghanbari, CEO of CNHP. “Whether you’re new to collecting art or a seasoned pro, CAF and OAX are designed to be tremendous assets and inclusive environments to all, as well as a positive engines to promote the narrative arts. We wish to especially thank the OAX attending artists and show sponsors, as well as the growing community supporting the narrative arts and our efforts. As a Public Benefit Corporation, we’re ready and dedicated to working with you to develop fundamental tools, provide educational content, and continue building highly interconnected in-person and web-based platforms that bring more attention to this important and growing art category.”

Key results from OAX 2026 include:

• >1050 total attendance, an increase of >25%
• 91 attending artists, an increase of >20%
• Exhibitor space expansion including new second show floor with 63 exhibitor booths
• 104 total exhibitor booths, an increase of >50% over last year, supplemented by 42 artist tables
• >$200,000 sold at Saturday eveningAuction & Fundraiser Event benefiting attending artists, OAX, and four non-profit organizations
• Nearly $40,000 raised and donated to the following six non-profits: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, The Hero Initiative, The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, Project Pinball, Walt’s Secret Closet, and Ringling College of Art & Design
• >800 Pre-OAX artist commissions directly facilitated and secured by OAX/CAF with total sales of over $750,000
• Event and event space expansion including addition of 1000+ person capacity outdoor pavilion and all-hours meeting and event rooms; view the Events Schedule in the OAX 2026 Program HERE
• Ceremony produced for the first Jack & Roz Kirby Awards, which will be conducted each year at OAX; view the Kirby Award ceremony on our CAF+ YouTube channel HEREand our press release with the award recipients HERE
• Addition of a Friday VIP-only Preview Night with VIP tickets selling out for third year in a row
• 56 artists participated in OAX’s extremely popular hour-long Free Sketch & Signature Event on the Sunday of the show
• Expansion of narrative art categories at OAX with launch of Animation Art Expo (A2X@OAX), Game Art Expo (GAX@OAX), and inclusion of our Indie Comics Creator Con (IC3) as part of OAX (IC3@OAX)
• 7 museum-style Special Gallery presentations of world-class comic book, manga, illustration, animation, and Marvel card art

OAX 2026 featured many new initiatives, production upgrades, special gallery presentations, and free to attend events. Here are some highlights.

• A Friday VIP-ticket only Preview Night was added, extending the show into a third day and giving VIP ticket holders exclusive access to the entire show floor for two hours.
• The OAX Events Schedule was hugely expanded covering many art communities and interests, all of which were included as part of a OAX ticket. View the Events Schedule in the OAX 2026 Program HERE.
• The venue added an outdoor pavilion, allowing the show to utilize the convention center’s entire indoor space to nearly double the show floor size. The pavilion housed both important after-show events on Saturday, the Jack & Roz Kirby Awards and the OAX Auction & Fundraiser Event, which benefited from the setting and much improved production with the stage, sound, and LED screen.
• CAF in partnership with the Kirby Estate and The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, created the Jack & Roz Kirby Awards and produced the first award ceremony at OAX 2026. The annual award recognizes innovation, excellence, and humanity in narrative communication. The seven awards were presented in a brisk 40-minute ceremony co-hosted by Kasra Ghanbari and Rob Salkowitz that was attended by more than 600 people. View the Kirby Award ceremony on our CAF+ YouTube channel HERE and our press release with the award recipients HERE.
• The OAX Saturday night Auction & Fundraiser Event was co-hosted by CAF’s own Tatiana Dykes and Matt DiTullio. 98 lots were auctioned off, and all sold, with the auction sales totaling over $200,000. The pieces were created or provided by attending artists, with each piece having a percentage of the sales going to four non-profit organizations: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, The Hero Initiative, The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, and Project Pinball.
• Sunday at OAX was highlighted by the show’s extremely popular 60-minute Free Sketch & Signature Event where 56 participating artists provided free sketches and signatures to attendees.
• Attendance at OAX by executives, art directors, and other professionals was markedly increased.

Special Gallery presentations at OAX 2026 included:

• SELECTIONS FROM THE RICHARD GARRISON COLLECTION – Featuring artworks by Roy Krenkel, Jeff Jones, Bernie Wrightson, Frank Frazetta, Kelly Freas, and Vaughn Bodé, among others (presented by Shasta/Phoenix Art) – view gallery tour HERE starting at 21:10 mark
• KAMANDI #7 – Complete 20 interior pages plus cover by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Mike Royer (inks), as well as most pieces being paired with Kirby’s studio pencil photocopies (presented in cooperation with Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center) – view gallery tour HERE starting at 34:05 mark
• X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE #2 – Complete 20 interior pages, as well as a selection of covers by Simone Di Meo, with each page coupled with a print of Di Meo’s coloring work (presented in cooperation with DiTullio Art Collective) – view gallery tour HERE starting at 36:15 mark
• MICRO COMPUTER DETECTIVE – Complete 38-page chapter of manga by Yoshiaki Shimojou that featured a mix of standard and large format two-tone pages (presented in cooperation with The Artist Bullpen) – view gallery tour HERE starting at 38:50 mark
• SELECTION OF SIGNIFICANT MANGA ART – Hand-selected assembly showcasing the diverse excellence of Japanese sequential art (presented in cooperation with The Artist Bullpen)
• CAX ART GALLERY: X-MEN UNITE– Over a dozen Marvel card art collectors come together to display a selection of their favorite card artworks with more than two dozen heroes and villains from a variety of artists and sets represented in the gallery (curated by The Marvel Card Archive and OCDMarvelSketchCards) – view gallery tour HERE and HERE
• WALT’S SECRET CLOSET – Non-profit animation and entertainment museum showcasing original concept and pre-production sketches, as well as production sketches, paintings, model sheets, storyboards, historical documents, and studio artifacts

The Animation Art Expo (A2X) was launched and housed within OAX presenting original artworks from the amazing and diverse world of animation and cartoons, predominantly from Japan and the United States. These artworks include cels, backgrounds, storyboards, model sheets, production drawings, and other production art. Watch the 11/16/25 A2X launch announcement HERE starting at the 58 minute mark.

The Game Art Expo (GAX) was launched and housed within OAX presenting original artworks created for video games, pinball machines, board games, and other gaming categories including conceptual, box, cartridge, backglass, playfield, promotional, and advertising art. Watch the 11/16/25 GAX launch show HERE.

Indie Comics Creator Con (IC3) is our growing national platform of both in-person and virtual indie shows. OAX 2026 permanently added IC3@OAX, which will focus on showcasing established and legendary independent comic book creators, as well as up-and-coming indie talent.

These join the previously added Illustration Art Expo (IAX) and Card Art Expo (CAX). Read more HERE.

ABOUT Collectors Network Holdings, PBC

Collectors Network Holdings, PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation that owns ComicArtFans.com (CAF), the global hub for everything related to original art from comic books and other narrative or visual storytelling art, as well as several other brands including the Original Art Expo(OAX), the Jack & Roz Kirby Awards, the Comic Art LIVE virtual art con (CAL), Indie Comics Creator Con (IC3), the CAF+ YouTube channel, and the deCAF mobile app (Apple App Store/Google Play), now powered by ArtScout, the world’s best narrative art web crawler servicing artists, collectors, and art dealers.

CAF is the premier website in the world serving comic book and narrative art collectors, artists, auction houses, art dealers, and artist representatives. CAF’s deCAF mobile app is now available globally for iOS and Android devices under “Comic Art Fans” through Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Make sure to subscribe to the CAF newsletters, OAX newsletter, and CAF+ YouTube channel, as well as our Instagram and Facebookpages. Find all of our links at Linktree.

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 over 1,200,000 pieces of art posted by collectors and artists in their galleries and personal classifieds, which is additionally supplemented by 100,000s of art pieces from art dealers and artist 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’s event division includes Comic Art LIVE (CAL), the biggest virtual comic art convention in the world, which is held twice annually in May and November, as well as its Original Art Expo (OAX) in Orlando, Florida, which has immediately established itself as the premier visual storytelling art event in the world. OAX is an art fair and trade show hybrid being developed as an annual platform to exclusively showcase the narrative arts, most especially comic book, comic strip, illustration, and collectible card art. Year three of OAX was held from February 20-22, 2026 and included the award ceremony for the first Jack & Roz Kirby Awards, an annual award recognizing innovation, excellence, and humanity in narrative communication. CAF’s event division also includes Indie Comics Creator Con (IC3), a national platform of both in-person and virtual shows committed to providing an affordable, dynamic, and inclusive platform that brings together independent comic book creators, artists, publishers, art collectors, and fans to celebrate and support unique and diverse creators in comics.

CAF also operates the highly active CAF+ 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; info and announcements for our CAL, OAX, and IC3 shows; 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.