We welcome creators of all kinds who make narrative, story-driven, and creator-owned work. This can be indie comics, zines, art books, tabletop or RPG games, animation, and more. If you make stories in any form, we’d love for you to apply!

Individual artists, collectives/groups/clubs, small press publishers, distros, all are welcome.

We aim for a mix of Pittsburgh-area and out-of-town creators, balancing experienced exhibitors with those new to the indie scene.

Anything handmade or originally designed and created by you.

Handmade examples:

• Self-printed comics and zines
• Original artwork
• Hand-printed shirts, totes, and art prints
• Stickers and buttons you pressed yourself

Not handmade but allowed:

• Commercially printed books or prints of your own original art
• Merch (for example: totes, shirts, buttons etc) you designed but ordered from a manufacturer

To keep PIE centered on indie creativity, original work should make up most of your table. It’s totally fine to have fan art and fan merch but your table should feature mostly original creations.

AI-generated content may be declined. We’re open to creative, transparent use of generative tools, but not when they replace human creators or rely on unlicensed use of others’ work.

Absolutely! Just mark any 18+ material so attendees know what to expect. If your work is mostly adult-only, we’ll seat you near other creators with similar content.

Table options are $50 half (4ft table + 1 chair) or $100 full (8ft table + 2 chairs.) Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania residents and first-time or new exhibitors may be offered a discounted table.

The application will ask for:

• Your preferred name and creator/display name

• A photo, image or logo

• A bio or description

• Website and/or social media presence

• Examples of what you do/make

• Option to propose a workshop, panel or other programming