Eurovisions: Comics Cordiale
On the 13th of March, six leading contemporary writers and artists from Belgium, Britain, France, Italy and Spain came to the Institute for a lively round table discussion.
You’re telling me! It’s a thorny issue to organise an European event in the current Brexit debate. But at the Institute we love taking risks and above all celebrating international talents! And they are, you’ll see.
Let me introduce our comic book stars. And of course, ladies first!
We’ll begin with Florence Cestac. She is one of the first French female comic artists. She takes her inspiration from her own life and tries to write about subjects everyone can relate to. You can recognise her thanks to her individual style: All her characters have big noses! During the event she introduced the British release of her artwork Midlife Crisis, a topos of women's lives.. Fancy finding out more? Listen to the interview here
You can even read Un amour exemplaire on Culturetheque… Lucky you!
Moving on from France to Italy. Let’s focus on Vanna Vinci’s work. This talented Italian cartoonist and illustrator came to the Institute to talk about her graphic book Casati The Selfish Muse. It depicts the life of the eccentric character Luisa Casati Amman - based on the true story of this Italian women who wanted to be a “living work of art”.
Over to the men!
We had the chance to interview "the godfather of British comics”. Guess who? Yeah, I mean Pat Mills. We talked about his upcoming productions and his relationship with the French comics market.This British comic artist and editor revitalised British comics for boys in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light ever since. His comics are notable for their violence and anti-authoritarianism.
Enjoy the podcast here!
Sylvain Runberg is one of the most talented writers of his generation. The productions of this Belgian artist are translated into 15 languages and have sold 1 million copies worldwide. Sylvain Runberg is inspired by the US comics scene. Most recently, he published a graphic book adapted from the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Have a look at his beautiful instagram.
Marcial Toledano is a young Spanish illustrator. He met his collaborator José Robledo in 2001 in Madrid. Since then they have produced several collective albums and also cartoons. In 2007, they began to work on their first Franco-Belgian series, The Ken Games trilogy for Dargaud. Here’s the link to the event: http://bit.ly/1ruJ72E. To find out more, take a look at Culturetheque where you can read a huge range of comics online!