Comic art dealers Sal Abbinanti and Steve Morger are launching the ICON Festival of Comic & Narrative Art, a new two-day event in Los Angeles designed to present comic book art as a serious, high-end art form rather than a niche convention pastime. The inaugural festival, taking place on 7-8 November at the historic Biltmore Hotel, comes as comic art gains fresh cultural prestige following its prominence at the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts, with organisers positioning today's comic artists as heirs to figures such as Basquiat and Warhol.

The event will feature acclaimed artists including Nick Dragotta, Daniel Warren Johnson and Ryan Ottley, alongside a major exhibition of more than 100 original works by celebrated painter Alex Ross. Unlike sprawling comic conventions focused on cosplay and celebrity autographs, ICON will cap attendance with limited VIP, two-day and one-day tickets, plus an opening-night VIP reception for guests to meet artists directly; the VIP package includes a signed giclee print by Ross. The festival follows a similar event the organisers previously ran in Italy, where they found comic artists treated with greater reverence than in the US.