CAKE 2015 Special Guest Announcement: Jillian Tamaki!

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CAKE is thrilled to announce that Jillian Tamaki will be a Special Guest for CAKE 2015. Jillian is a Canadian illustrator and cartoonist. Her illustrations have won gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and the Society of Publication Designers. Jillian is the co-creator of the graphic novel SKIM (with Mariko Tamaki), which was listed as one of the New York Times' Best Illustrated Books of 2008 and was nominated for four Eisner Awards and a Governor General's Literary Award. Her second collaborative work with Mariko Tamaki, the graphic novel This One Summer, was a New York Times Bestseller and won the 2014 Governor General's Award. Jillian's three books of personal work are Gilded Lilies (2006), Indoor Voice (2010), and SuperMutant Magic Academy, which will debut at CAKE 2015. The hilarious SuperMutant Magic Academy draws from Jillian's Ignatz Award-winning webcomic and concludes the story of life at the academy. You can learn more about Jillian at her website and on Twitter.

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CAKE’s organizers have long been in awe of Jillian’s illustration talent, which brings an astoundingly beautiful naturalism to the environments and characters in her comics. The graphic novels she has created with her cousin Mariko Tamaki feature some of the best examples of well-defined young female characters in contemporary literature (either graphic or prose), and her solo work on SuperMutant Magic Academy is not only a hilarious take on the tropes of teenagers with superpowers, but also contains plenty of sharp cultural commentary and fascinating explorations of adolescent emotions. We’re incredibly proud to have Jillian join us for CAKE 2015, and we’re excited to share her amazing work with her present and future fans in Chicago.

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The Fourth Annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo will take place on Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7, 2015 at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted Ave. Applications for CAKE 2015 exhibitors are now open: http://www.cakechicago.com/2015-cake-exhibitor-application The deadline for applying is December 15, 2014. If you have any questions about CAKE, please contact us at cakexpo@gmail.com.