The jubilee 30th edition of the International Festival of Comics and Games will take place in a new location, in the Expo-Łódź hall, at 4 Politechniki Avenue in Łódź, on September 28-29. Among the guests there will be John Higgins, John Layman, Cyril Pedrosa, Grażyna and Zbigniew Kasprzak and Grzegorz Rosiński.
In total, the program will include over 100 artists from Poland and abroad, the autograph zone, workshops, tournaments, discussions, lectures and competitions. The organizers also took care of a number of jubilee surprises. – It will be a true celebration of comics on a European scale! – says Adam Radoń, festival director.
The festival will be inaugurated on Friday, September 27 at EC1 Łódź with the ceremonial opening of exhibitions. – The most important will be the opening of the exhibition “DC Art. Dawn of superheroes ” , prepared by EC1 Łódź and Art Loudique Le Musée – says Adam Radoń, director of the International Festival of Comics and Games in Łódź and head of the EC1 Łódź Center for Comics and Interactive Narration . – The exhibition, which includes, among others Original comic boards from the creators of DC Comics and props and costumes from Warner Bros films show the history and phenomenon of characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman , adds Radoń .
Location, location, location
Over 1000 m 2 of an organized fair zone, 4 conference rooms for 120 people each, the main hall for 460 people and a spacious foyer with surfaces, more than 100 guests – draftsmen, scriptwriters, over 20 thousand visitors a year, exhibitions, workshops – so on space 30 years the brand of the largest comic book event in Central and Eastern Europe has grown! – This year’s edition will be unique in many ways. First of all, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Festival and it is a great opportunity to summarize and reflect on the condition of global and Polish comics, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary! On this occasion, we will present an exhibition of 100 frames for the 100th anniversary of Polish comics. The exhibitions of Czech comics and The Lisbon Studio, a Portuguese artistic collective whose artists will also appear at the festival, will have an international character, says festival director Adam Radoń . – A completely new space that we have prepared this year will also be a pleasant surprise. This is the Expo hall located at al. University of Technology, and therefore a perfect location close to the city center and with convenient access from Kalisz and Fabryczna stations, which should please both the inhabitants of Łódź and our visiting guests. It will be a true celebration of comics on a European scale! – adds Radoń.
Festival guests
Festiwalowa publiczność spotkać będzie mogła gwiazdy polskiego i światowego komiksu. Wśród nich znajdzie się światowej sławy polski artysta Grzegorz Rosiński – rysownik między innymi kultowej serii komiksowej o przygodach Thorgala czy albumów Szninkiel i Zemsta Hrabiego Skarbka, Zbigniew Kasprzak, znany z serii Yans, Podróżnicy czy Halloween Blues, którego najnowszym dziełem, wydanym równocześnie w Belgii i Polsce w 2019 roku, jest rozgrywający się w czasach wojny 30-letniej Bez twarzy. Na Festiwalu zobaczymy także Grażynę Kasprzak (pseudonym Graza), the author of several dozen stage designs and costumes for theater, opera and ballet performances, and Katarzyna Niemczyk – a Polish cartoonist who draws the Mockingbird series for the Marvel publishing house , so far unreleased in Poland, having the premiere of her comics at this year’s festival. Foreign stars include John Higgins, the colorist of the iconic Guardians and Batman: A Killing Joke to Alan Moore’s screenplays and comic book artist such as Judge Dredd and Future Shock , John Layman, Chew screenwriter , Eternal Batman ,Detective Comics , Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens , Mick McMahon, cartoonist Judge Dredd: Complete Files, and Slaine or Cyril Pedrosa, cartoonist of Three Shadows , Equinoxes , Portugal , The Golden Age . The Lisbon Studio team will also visit Łódź: Marta Teives ( Returns ), Nuno Saraiva ( And all this is fado! ), Ricarda Cabral and João Tercio .– These are just selected points of the program, we have a few more surprises up our sleeves for the participants of the Festival, about which we will inform you successively. In total, during the two days, the audience will be able to see ten exhibitions and several special events, apart from meetings with artists and participation in workshops and panels. As every year, we will also award prizes – in a competition for a short comic book form, the Teddy Bears pop culture awards and the Papcia Chmiel for outstanding services for the Polish comic book, the award for the Best Polish Album and the award for the Best Publisher last year. The full program with a list of guests and a description of exhibitions will be announced in September – announces Piotr Kasiński, the festival’s artistic director.
Games are important
The International Festival of Comics and Games is the largest event of this type in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. In 2018, the festival was visited by over 20,000 people. participants. In 2009, the formula of the festival was expanded to include the electronic games zone, where tournaments, games and equipment presentations, and new titles premieres take place. Once again, the festival puts on free play for the public in such games, as Fortnite , League of Legends , thread , The Witcher 3 , Super Mario Maker2 and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awekening, as well as retro and VR games. For many years, the festival has also attracted fans of board, RPG, battle and card games. The festival has been taking place in Łódź since 1991, and its organizers are “EC1 Łódź – City of Culture” in Łódź and the Association of Artists “Contur”. Tickets priced from PLN 10 to PLN 40 can be purchased at https://bilety.ec1lodz.pl or directly on site during the Festival .
More at www.komiksfestiwal.com , www.facebook.com/festiwalkomiksu