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Confessions & Convictions
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A Mini-History of Off-The-Cuff, Handmade Mini-Comics Talk: Digital Comics Workshop An Afternoon of Conversations First Persons Singular: 21st Century Escape: Same Sex, Different Stories: Fresh Faces, Inky Fingers: Film: The Mindscape Of Alan Moore Talk: Chris Ware & Seth
Film: Tintin Animations Talk: Family Secrets - Craig Thompson & David
B. Film: Halloween Shorts Talk:
Drawing Front Lines: Talk: Dupuy & Berberian With Posy Simmonds Live Drawings: Comics Break Free Talk: David B., Zograf & Andrzel Klimowski - Drawing Dreams Film: Corto Maltese Comic Factory: Getting Your Hands Dirty |
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| In addition to the annual Comica Festival, additional one-off events take place throughout the year. Visit the Events listings for details of the next Comica event. The following Comica events were held during 2004. | |
Manga Live! Manga Live! Manga Masterclass
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BBC Online | Karl Pell | Dominique Le Duc | Garen Ewing | Ninth Art |
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BBC Online |
The following review written by Michael Williams appeared in issue #289 of the BBC Online magazine, the Collective, on 4 June 2004. Comics Come of Age at London's ICA. The veritable smorgasbord of tip-top talent on offer includes Chris Jimmy Corrigan Ware and the legendary comic artist Seth, in conversation for the launch of the Comic Edition of supercool US lit journal, McSweeneys. Steve Bell chews the fat with Bittercomix - whose radical strips were instrumental in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa - and the Serbian artist Aleksandar Zograf. Look out too, for talks featuring Sylvain Chomet (Belleville Rendez-Vous) and Craig Thompson, creator of the epic Blankets, set to be the biggest thing since Jimmy Corrigan. On film, there is the European premiere of The Mindscape Of Alan Moore, director DeZ Vylenzs audience with the fascinating creator of From Hell and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Halloween Shorts: Enchanted & Slanted - The World of Comics On Short Film features exclusive screenings from artists such as Collective regular David Shrigley, Dave Cooper and Tony Millionaire (check his Maakies and Sock Monkey sites), who use Flash sites to display their work. A mouth-watering prospect then, all in all. Oh, and theres also the chance to see Hergé's Adventures of Tintin on the big screen. It's enough to make a grown man cry. |
Karl Pell, |
Manga Live! Manga Masterclass Date: Saturday 4th September 2004 Venue: ICA This event showcased some of the great variety of manga art styles and artists working across languages, continents and cultures in the world today. As the title suggests, this event was focussed on short discussions of each of the seven artists work, combined with the simultaneous display via a large projected screen as well as explanations of the processes involved in manga production. Those dedicated anime and manga fans who attended were exposed to a wide variety of manga styles and content; from the playfulness of Makita Takashi's hilarious philosophical take on dinosaur life that uses a highly simplified series of coloured stencil shapes reminiscent of South Park, to the more orthodox, as seen in the accomplished drawing style of Takahama Kan, whose recently published erotically charged illustrated novel Mariko Parade, produced in collaboration with the French author Frederic Boilet. The main segment centred on manga artists and their highly idiosyncratic approaches to manga production. Highlights included a masterful display of technique from Sakurai Hisaki whose luxuriant, intense visual style lends itself to the manga adaptation of the Japanese hit film The Ring - to name but one publication. A screening and then discussion of work by Kubo Kiriko who is well known for her series Cynical Hysterie Hour among others. Kubo who both works from and bases at least part of her work on her own experiences as a Japanese living in the UK aims her work at the Japanese audience and discussed some of the problems associated with working internationally. From the margins of the anime marketplace, we heard from Misako Rocks, a young newcomer to the budding audience for manga in America, who is striving to overcome language and cultural barriers in order to establish herself there. The popularity of manga and other Japanese pop-cultural forms in East and South-East Asian countries, in particular Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan was also reflected at this event by the presence of the Taiwanese artist Puppetbear, who graphically demonstrated the visual impact made possible by the use of computer software in manga production. Indeed, out of the half dozen artists interviewed only two did not use any form of computer enhancement in their work. In terms of the position of Europe relative to Japan and the rest of Asia, manga in the UK may well be on the margins in terms of the size and type of audience it is able to attract, as well as geographically. But the very fact an event like this one at the Institute for Contemporary Art can attract such interest points to the extent to which manga and anime have successfully been able to transform the image of 'comics' and 'cartoons' from something simply 'just for kids' to the level of art forms in their own right. We may have been exposed to the bare bones and how-to of manga production, given a glimpse of the hard yards and the nitty-gritty that go hand in hand with becoming a commercially viable, even highly successful multi-million volume selling manga artist, but it took away none of its magic. Manga and anime will no doubt continue putting themselves forward across the world as attractive alternatives to established norms of communication well into the future.
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Comica 2004: Confessions & Convictions The events took place at "London's temple of cutting-edge culture" , the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), and at the French Institute in South Kensington. The National Maritime Museum located in Greenwich - which hosted an exhibition celebrating Tintin's 75th birthday, The Adventures of Tintin at Sea - was also the setting for a talk by Hergé's biographer, Benoît Peeters, whilst the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum was opening to the public Ian Rakoff's collection of graphic literature, featuring several thousand titles. The COMICA Festival's uniqueness resides in its selection of international comic artists, its presentation of cutting-edge themes, i.e. autobiography and political commentary, and its state-funding (from the British government through the ICA and from the French government through the French Institute). A range of events, featured in the national press, included talks, exhibitions, screenings of films (including UK premieres) and live drawing sessions.High-profile guests included:
The informal and friendly atmosphere of both venues provided a unique setting for the public to meet their stars. It was indeed possible to enjoy a strong coffee in the company of artists at the French Institute over the ten-day Festival. The book signings - a must and a very exciting part of attending such events - turned out to be even more enjoyable at COMICA. This was a totally new experience. Indeed, in its second year, the Festival is relatively new and has not yet attracted the large crowds of Angoulême. Thus, Chris Ware signed his books under the warm starry night outside the ICA after his talk. Later on in the week, I sat down in the bistro at the Institute with French cartoonist Charles Berberian for a lengthy chat about romantic Barcelona, the Dutch comics Festival in Harlem he had just attended, and his unique collaboration over the years with Phillipe Dupuy, while he demonstrated his artistry on my newly acquired Barcelone Carnets, using delicate brushstrokes with ostensible pleasure and dexterity. The live-drawing sessions offered the public a first-hand insight into the graphic style of each artist (with a twist in the case of French cartoonist Lewis Trondheim in his spontaneous collaboration with Joann Sfar). The Festival also opened its doors to lesser-known artists from India, South Africa and some new EU member-states. For ten days, COMICA fulfilled its dream of
bringing awareness to the public - and not only the coterie of comics
fans - that the comic art form is "no longer the runt of the arts" as
quoted in The Times,
but is indeed at the cutting-edge of political and social commentary
with highly innovative works. Its director, Paul Gravett, receives full
credit for his great skills as an interviewer and as a choreographer
for this issue of the Festival.
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Taking Comics seriously? My brother and I went to Greenwich to one of the last events of the Comica festival, a discussion by Paul Gravett and Benoit Peeters concerning the medium of comics and how, or if, it is taken seriously (or not). It was lovely to get into the cool of the National Maritime Museum's lecture theatre and to be greeted by Paul Gravett who, recognising me from Bristol, introduced me to Benoit Peeters. The first book I bought about Tintin, which introduced me to the man behind the comic (Herge), was Peeters' Tintin and the World of Herge, so it was a bit of thrill to meet him. The discussion was based around a series of slides that charted something
of a history of comic strips from Hogarth and Topfler, through McCay
and Frank King, up to Eisner, Spiegelman and Ware. Both Paul and Benoit
are hugely knowledgeable and interesting with their views, and we really
could have done with another hour of this. In fact the slides had to
be cut short due to time. The last half hour was taken up by the showing
(premiere, indeed) of Peeters' first 'Comix' documentary, this one focusing
on Art Speigelman and his In the Shadow of No Towers strip. It was
very good indeed, and I hope to see more. After that, Benoit stayed to
answer some questions... there were only 10 or 12 of us making up the
audience, and three questions were asked, one about Herge and Tchang,
one about new creators turning back to early comics for inspiration (me),
and one about America becoming more accepting of comics as a medium.
It was definitely worth the trip.
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| Ninth Art Lighthouse Awards 2004 In the last couple of years, Paul Gravett has snuck on to
the British convention scene to give London one of the most interesting
and high quality celebrations of comics the country has ever seen. Gravett
has happily embraced manga, anime, minicomics, bande dessinée,
and mainstream superhero books under one roof, and this September extended
the Comica brand
to a separate Manga week. He recently published Manga:
Sixty Years Of Japanese Comics, and he's hard at work on another
book, charting the history of the graphic novel. Gravett loves comics
- all comics - and it's fortunate for us that he does. |
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