Herceg Novi will host the twentieth, jubilee edition of the Herceg Novi Comic Festival (HSF) in September 2026, one of the most renowned events dedicated to the ninth art in Europe. Two full decades of continuous organization and the hosting of more than one thousand artists from 50 countries around the world set a new challenge before the organizers of the 20th anniversary HSF, which this year takes place from September 4 to 9 at multiple locations across Herceg Novi and the Bay of Kotor.
As befits a major юбilee, this edition of HSF will feature stellar special guests, along with the return of some of the biggest names who have visited the festival over the past two decades. We are especially proud to announce, as our first guests, three monumental global stars from the United States: Terry Moore, Shawn Crystal, and Jim Mahfood.
Terry Moore began his career with the timeless series Strangers in Paradise, a love story about three friends bound by a shared past. Translated into 21 languages and just as popular today as during its original publication, the series won the prestigious Eisner Award, the highest honor in the comics world. Alongside Strangers in Paradise, Terry has written and illustrated numerous acclaimed series such as Motor Girl, Rachel Rising, Echo, Five Years, as well as the acclaimed Paper Girls. He is also the author of a comprehensive drawing guide covering tools and techniques for creating comics. In addition to the hit titles published through his own company Abstract Studio, Terry has collaborated with major publishers such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, working on titles from the universes of Spider-Man, Batman, Fables, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Star Trek. Immediately following this year’s Herceg Novi Comic Festival, in October 2026, Terry Moore will begin a new chapter of his creative work with the major American publisher Dark Horse Comics.
Joining Moore at the twentieth edition of HSF will be the outstanding Shawn Crystal, an artist inspired by hip-hop culture, the street, and street art. He fulfilled his dream of becoming a comic book artist in the best possible way, illustrating titles such as Batman, X-Men, Spawn, Deadpool, Mother Panic, and Guardians of the Galaxy for the world’s leading publishers Marvel and DC. He is the host of the popular podcasts Inkpulp and Inkpulp Live, as well as the creator of the educational online platform Inkpulp Instruction for those seeking to advance their drawing and writing skills in comics. Together with Jake Parker, he lectures at “Graphic Novel Pro,” a popular ten-week course on comic creation. His latest creative venture is entering the world of tattoo art under the mentorship of Eddie Stacey.
The third giant in this first announcement is Jim Mahfood, also known as Food One, an artist who has achieved cult global status over the course of his three-decade career. Best known for the comic book series Clerks, created in collaboration with the legendary Kevin Smith, Mahfood is a visual genius who has lent his talent to the music, film, and television industries, to major marketing campaigns, and to one of the world’s most popular video games, Fortnite. He designed characters for the Academy Award–winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and, together with Ziggy Marley, the son of the legendary Bob Marley, created the graphic novel Marijuana Man. He is also the co-creator of the comic series Big Rig with the well-known American rapper Post Malone. His latest original project, Defective Comics Presents: The Arachnid Enforcer, is currently featured on Kickstarter. Mahfood also hosts several genre-spanning podcasts, including Skull Funk Radio on Spotify, as well as Trash Movie Bonanza and Inkpulp Live on YouTube.
With this announcement in the year of its great jubilee, as it marks its nineteenth edition, the Herceg Novi Comic Festival once again confirms the epithet of a cultural phenomenon—bestowed upon it by world-renowned artists during their stay in Herceg Novi—while also expressing hope that it will finally receive official recognition as an Event of National Significance, a status it has unquestionably deserved for many years.
