The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events



By Tom Spurgeon

* here's Michael Cavna on the under-sung female cartoonists and illustrators exhibit at Library of Congress, soon to be a well-illustrated book. I think I may have run that once already, but it's not a bad thing for more attention to be driven in that direction!

* this week is Angouleme, of course, and I'm sure we'll start to get stories and feedback about the show, the awards and the general state of French-language comics.

* Richard Corben's Grand Prix win is kind of an amazing thing. He's had a mighty career, but it's not one that's generally appreciated in the US in the way that you'd expect him to be honored with one of the three great prizes in world cartooning. I do wonder after his desire to participate as next year's president -- my understanding is that he's reluctant to take the spotlight -- and don't know the man or those in his immediate circle to suss out how he might take on helping put together next year's show. Complete mystery! It'll be fun to see an exhibit focusing on Corben himself, if done up to their usual standard.

* I admire Angouleme in general for changing their awards over the years and trying to find the right formula that works. As much as the grand prix changes have been a struggle, they do address very real problems that the winners were being selected by a narrow slice of world comics culture, and that this was being reinforced with every new winner. One thing I miss is that I liked that it was announced at the end of the festival, as a kind of capper to the weekend. I always liked thinking of people at home Sunday morning in the US, people still at the show, people still en route from the show, everyone kind of perking up and paying attention to that one last bit of news. I wonder if the idea is to focus greater attention on the album-focused awards.

* finally: there are still people entering the comics convention space.
 
posted 3:25 pm PST | Permalink
 

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