From May 6th to May 9th this year, the 28th edition of Ficomic, the Salón Internacional del Comic will take place in the Feria de Barcelona. Not a lot is known as yet about the programme: a recent press release only revealed that among the confirmed guests were Gilbert Shelton, Jeff Smith, Liberatore, Lewis Trondheim, Gene Ha, Andy Diggle and Jock. The official website for the moment only tells where to go and how much to pay, but the respected Flemish comic news blog Stripgids announced earlier this week that the Netherlands will be the guest country at this year’s edition.
The Dutch Fund for the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture has announced that during this renowned festival, which is the third largest in Europe, Dutch cartoonists Floor de Goede, Barbara Stok, Gerard Leever, Joost Swarte and Peter Pontiac will receive the lion’s share of the attention.
(some art from the one and only Joost Swarte, borrowed from the official website and (c) the artist)
On a special Dutch booth, the autobiographical comic will be the central theme and, in the city, the Lamelos collective and cartoonist Typex will have exhibitions in local galleries. From April onwards, a special exhibition of work by Joost Swarte and Javier Mariscal will be held in the FAD arts centre.
(pages from Sketches by and (c) Javier Mariscal; there’s an online preview of the collection you can enjoy here)
Finally, on April 23rd, the national Catalan holiday, a special edition of Dutch gag comics, such as Dirk-Jan and Sigmund, will be distributed for free to promote Dutch comic arts.
(recent Sigmund strip by and (c) Peter de Wit)
Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium but wouldn’t say no to a trip to lovely Barcelona; you can read more of his comics musings on The Ephemerist blog
Tue, Feb 16, 2010
Comics and cartoons, Conventions and events, From our Continental Correspondent