For its 2010 edition, the annual Sismics alternative comics and graphic art festival in Sierre, Switzerland, seems to have hit the jackpot. In the past, the festival focused on the less-than-mainstream, quite often quite obscure, self-published comic, but this year they’re playing in a major league. Legendary French comics cooperative L’association will be celebrating its 20th anniversary at the festival. At the Caves Tavelli, a special exibition will be organised featuring original work from the archives, for which all of L’Association’s artists past and present have been invited. Alongside these classic pages, the cartoonists will also provide a new, original page, reflecting on L’Association and their own older work.
The purpose of the whole event, however, is not a pompous celebration of past accomplishments, but a friendly and spontaneous get-together. I would like to see the art by Menu, Trondheim, David B and all the other greats hanging side by side. L’association started off as a manifesto publisher, an act of rebellion against what was perceived as an impenetrable and sclerotic traditional comics industry in France. As the fame of the cooperative grew, and some of the participants found themselves even with a mainstream following (Trondheim and David B, to name but two, but also Satrapi, who would conquer the world with Persépolis), the group fell apart, and those who remained continued to publish small-scale, beautiful comics for a public-in-the-know.
(poster for this year’s Sismics festival, art by Ben)
As yet, not a lot has been made public about the rest of the programme, but this will doubtlessly change soon as we’re halfway to April already. In any case, this year’s poster and promotional material was designed by Swiss illustrator Ben, best known for his regular contributions to the daily Le Matin. Sismics this year runs from the 2nd to the 6th of June.
Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium and sees a possible trip to Switzerland as not only a chance to see a great comics festival but to bootleg Toblerones across the border; you can read more of his comics musings on The Ephemerist blog
Thu, Mar 18, 2010
Comics and cartoons, Conventions and events, From our Continental Correspondent