Awesome Con 2025

Curls Studio will be at the 12th year of Awesome Con in Artist Alley Table C-38 at the DC Convention Center April 4-6, 2025. Say hi and peruse our original comics, stickers, prints, enamel pins, magnets, and more! We will have the debut of issue 22 of Magic Bullet, a large format comics newspaper featuring Washington, DC based creators.

Awesome Con Short Film Festival presented by Joe Carabeo with Astray Productions will have three days of programming (see schedule below) as well as an award show and filmmaker meet-up on Saturday at 4:45PM in Room 204 (with cake to celebrate). Check out the wrestling belts the winners receive! Hope to see you at Awesome Con.

Friday, April 4 | Action, Horror, Sci Fi | 2:00-4:30 pm
Saturday, April 5 | Comedy, Drama | 2:00-4:30 pm
Saturday, April 5 | Awards Celebration | 4:45-5:45 pm
Sunday, April 6 | And Beyond! | 2:15-4:45 pm

VOTE FOR 2025 AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
astrayproductions.com/vote

Awesome Con 2024 #SpringIntoAwesome

Curls Studio will be at the 11th year of Awesome Con at Table JR-05 from March 8-10, 2024 at the DC Convention Center. Please view the map above to locate us.

On Saturday "The Other Side of The Table: Lessons From Creators" will be taking place from 7:45-8:30PM in Room 206 featuring Maria Laura Sanapo, Jamar Nicholas, Marc Gaffen, and Carolyn Belefski. This is your in-person opportunity to ask us anything about the creative process and what it is like to be a comic creator.

Awesome Con Short Film Festival presented by Joe Carabeo with Astray Productions will have three days of programming as well as an award show and filmmaker meet-up on Saturday at 4:30PM in Room 202. Check out the wrestling belts the winners receive! Hope to see you at Awesome Con.

Awesome Con is June 16-18, 2023

The tenth edition of Awesome Con is June 16-18, 2023 at the DC Convention Center -- it is with great pride that Curls Studio has exhibited at every Awesome Con since 2013! This year Curls Studio will be located at Table G06 in Artist Alley all three days. View the map above where the purple pulse signal circles are so you'll know where to find us. 

Joe Carabeo will be presenting the Awesome Con Short Film Fest. Each year fans gather to watch specially selected short films in the categories of comedy, drama, horror, action, science fiction, documentaries, and more. 

Join us Sunday, June 18 from Noon to 12:45PM for The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators in Room 209 featuring Simon Bisley, Sean Gordon Murphy, Dan Parent, Emily Whitten, and Carolyn Belefski

You have an idea. You write, draw, and concept that idea into a comic book. But the work doesn't end there. You have to either find a publisher or self-publish your work. We will focus on starting out in the comics industry as a small press writer and/or artist. Once you have your first few books created and completed it is a good idea to get out and meet people and exhibiting is a great way to push yourself forward because creating your comic is only the first step. Are you a creator considering exhibiting at Artist Alley or Small Press comic conventions? This panel will give you tips and suggestions on how to create your professional appearances from the POV of being behind the table. We will discuss the metamorphosis from attendee to exhibitor, effective table display design, how to talk and interact with people at your table and how to generate sales with your table pitch.

Below is our schedule and the exhibit hall hours at very bottom. Hope to see you there! 

Awesome Con Short Film Festival: Horror, Sci Fi, Action
Friday, June 16
1:45 PM to 3:45 PM
Bot Stage - Room 202

 
Emoji Comics with Carolyn Belefski
Saturday, June 17
11:00 AM to 11:45 AM
Awesome Con Jr. Workshops - Hall C

10 Years of Awesome Con

Saturday, June 17  
2:15 PM to 3:00 PM
Room 201

Awesome Con Short Film Festival: Comedy and Drama

Saturday, June 17  
3:30 PM to 5:45 PM
Bot Stage - Room 202 

Filmmaker Meet Up

Saturday, June 17  
5:45 PM to 7:00 PM
Room 103

The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators 

Panel Guests: Simon Bisley, Sean Gordon Murphy, Dan Parent, Emily Whitten, Carolyn Belefski 

Sunday, June 18

Noon to 12:45 PM 

Room 206 

 

Awesome Con Short Film Festival: And Beyond! 

Sunday, June 18

1:45 PM to 3:45 PM 

Bot Stage - Room 202 

Exhibit Hall Hours 

Friday, June 16 | 1:00pm - 8:00pm 

Saturday, June 17 | 10:00am - 7:00pm 

Sunday, June 18 | 10:00am - 5:00pm

Netfins & Chill wins Best DC Film at YouFilmFest

On Saturday, April 2, 2022 "Netfins & Chill" (directed by Joe Carabeo) won "Best Local DC Film" during YouFilmFest shown at REACH Kennedy Center. I contributed to the film by designing the film titles. Congrats to the hard work of the cast and crew.

Netfins & Chill playing at at Kennedy Center

"Netfins & Chill" from film director Joe Carabeo will be shown at the Kennedy Center in Washington. DC during YouFilmFest. Each screening block is about 1 hour followed by a Q&A with filmmakers. "Netfins & Chill" is part of the 6:15 PM block called "Films from the US & Around the World: Part 1" on Saturday, April 2, 2022. Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/film/2021-2022/you-film-festival-r

I designed the film titles and am happy to be a part of the project. Excited for the cast and crew to receive recognition and some of them will be a part of the audience Q&A after the screening.

Awesome Con Short Film Festival (December 9-13, 2020)

Join us for the "at home" 2020 Awesome Con Short Film Festival! DELETE from director Joe Carabeo will be making the World Premiere and I designed the animated film titles for that film. It will be showing Friday, December 11, 2020 as the 5th film of the evening (the films start at 8PM EST).

DC’s pop culture convention Awesome Con (awesome-con.com) brings its annual Short Film Festival online for the first time beginning tomorrow. Fans from around the world can watch over 10 hours of free screenings spanning science-fiction, action, horror, documentary, comedy, and drama, from both independent filmmakers and Hollywood professionals. The lineup includes works from and featuring Rider Strong and Shiloh Strong, Ted Raimi, Larisa Oleynik, James Van Der Beek, Diablo Cody, Hailee Steinfeld, and J. K. Simmons. 

Awesome Con traditionally welcomes 70,000 fans to Washington, DC each year, but like most events in 2020, its physical edition could not take place because of coronavirus. Instead, the event presented an online edition earlier this year. And now, to wrap up 2020, Awesome Con brings one of its most popular features online for the first time too - the Awesome Con Short Film Festival.

Launched five years ago by Awesome Con in collaboration with Astray Productions, the event sought to shine a spotlight on Mid-Atlantic filmmakers and celebrate them in front of DC’s largest gathering of film and popular culture fans. Quickly growing to welcome filmmakers from around the world, the Awesome Con Short Film Festival blends the high-brow prestige of the film festival world with the excitement of a pop culture convention enjoyed by all ages, and Awesome Con and Astray Productions will present the largest Awesome Con Short Film Festival online from December 9 - 13 this year.

“This year’s Awesome Con Short Film Festival saw over 3,000 submissions from around the world,” said Astray Productions founder and Awesome Con Short Film Festival organizer Joe Carabeo. “It was a tremendously challenging process to draw all our submissions down into a week of events, and I know this year’s fest is our biggest and strongest yet!”

The Awesome Con Short Film Festival schedule, including film synopses and filmmaker biographies can be found at awesome-con.com/acshortfilmfest.

Opening Night - Wednesday, Dec 9 at 8 PM Eastern Hosted by actress Megan Caulfield. Film Festival overview, trailers, and interviews.

Sci-Fi, Action & Horror - Thursday, Dec 10 at 8 PM Eastern Over three hours of short films and filmmaker interviews.

Comedy & Drama - Friday, Dec 11 at 8 PM Eastern Over three hours of short films and filmmaker interviews including the World Premiere of Joe Carabeo’s newest film, DELETE.

Docs & Awesome Films - Saturday, Dec 12 at 8 PM Eastern Over three hours of short films and filmmaker interviews.

Full Festival Marathon - Sunday, Dec 13 at 12 PM Eastern Enjoy all the festival’s films presented in an all-day matinee.

Closing Night - Sunday, Dec 13 at 8 PM Eastern Hosted by actress Megan Caulfield. Award presentations and winner screenings.

Fans can watch all of the Awesome Con Short Film Festival’s films for free at Awesome Con’s Facebook page facebook.com/AwesomeConDC. All of this year’s films will be available to view globally through Sunday, December 20, 2020.

As another first, in addition to juried Best Cinematography and Best in Show awards, the Awesome Con Short Film Festival will present its inaugural Audience Award, with fans encouraged to vote for their favorite of the festival’s entries. All awards will be announced on Sunday, December 13.

Entries will open soon for the 2021 edition of the Awesome Con Short Film Festival, returning to take place in person again in Washington, DC at the next Awesome Con - Friday, August 20 - Sunday, August 22, 2021.

For more information, please visit the Awesome Con Short Film Festival website and follow the event on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

ABOUT AWESOME CON

Awesome Con is Washington DC’s Comic Con! Awesome Con is a celebration of geek culture, bringing over 70,000 fans together with their favorite stars from across comics, movies, television, toys, games, and more! And just like DC, we’re smart, family-friendly, and inclusive - and we’ll return August 20 - 22, 2021. For more, visit awesome-con.com.

ABOUT JOE CARABEO

Joe Carabeo is an award-winning cross platform artist based out of Northern Virginia. Armed with a Photography and Film undergraduate degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, Joe created Astray Productions (a metaphor for Fearless Creative Direction) as an creation umbrella where he can produce his own films, photography, music, comics, and commercial work, some which have been seen around the world in film festivals, conventions, magazines, and even charting more than 1 millions views online. Also, Joe might have been one of the first podcasters ever in the DC area as the co-host for the 450+ weekly episodes of the Carolyn and Joe Show. Besides his own productions, Joe has also had the opportunity to use his Directing and Camera talent to work with amazing national entities, such as The Beach Boys, NBC, ABC, FOX, Showtime , Epix, TLC, Bravo, Awesome Con, Intel, The National Guard, DC Lottery, Papa Johns, NASA, Under Armour, Red Cross, and more. For more, visit joecarabeo.com and astrayproductions.com.

Designing Film Titles: Process, Rough, Daisy

Last Tuesday, October 16, 2018 we celebrated two award nominations for the Joe Carabeo film "Process" during Pitch To Screen at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. I had a great time hanging out with true creatives and storytellers from screen and stage.

So far this year I've designed the film titles for three short films: Process, Rough, and Daisy. I've worked on designing prop items for films in the past as well, but film titles is new for me this year -- I've been having a blast with typography and handwritten elements. It so fun to experiment with the short film's message and style and show that through the title design.

You can see "Process" for a limited time here: http://www.joecarabeo.com/process

Below are examples of the title designs I've created. You can view more of my work at www.CarolynBelefski.com.