The Exhibition Hall, Kiosco-Alfonso.
La Coruña is a northern coastal town in an area of Spain known as Galicia.
Last year I spent a week
not far from Coruña in a town called Avilés. I had a wonderful
time there and met a lot of very nice
people, many whom I would meet again in La Coruña. At the festival
in Avilés I finally got to meet
Miguelanxo Prado (the "x" in Galicia is pronounced "ch"
like channel.) one of my comic heroes.
While waiting to enter the show the crowd outside is entertained by traditional
music and dancing.
Miguelanxo Prado (left) and the Mayor of La Coruña opening the exhibition.
His work is
just fantastic and I was pleased to find that he was as warm and friendly
as his work led
me to believe he would be. Miguel's work is available in America, in English,
unfortunately to a small
audience. His stories are usually interesting slices of every day life. There
is quite a lot of humor in his
work and you find yourself smiling, if not outright laughing.
My work was on the second floor of the hall.
Miguel and I
hit it off during that last show. I also got to meet his wife, Uzi, and daughter,
Aldana, there.
His son, Adrian, Meredith and I got to meet on this trip. It was in Avilés
that Miguel invited me to come
to the La Coruña festival. He explained to me that it was a very quiet
festival where the creators can
relax and take in the scenery and the local foods. They would have an exhibition
of my work as well as
other creators and it would be a great experience. I couldn't wait!
I sent almost 90 pieces of works on paper. They did all the matting and framing.
A note about
festivals in Europe. In America we have comic book conventions. They're pretty
crazy
events, lots of dealers selling books, comics, original art, posters, photographs,
you name it. It's basically
about commerce. In the early days the conventions were a little bit more about
the love of the thing, but
the buying and selling has sort of taken over. A festival in Europe, though,
is a very different animal in
all respects.
What I have
found in my travels to these festivals is that the average European is much
more versed with
and understanding, interest and respect for art. They can discuss the history
of art in an intelligent way. It's
incredibly refreshing. They want to know why you do what you do, what your
motivations are. Why have
you chosen comics as a vehicle for expression? They are moved emotionally
by the work. And as you can see by
some of the photographs the ages ofthose coming to enjoy are very diverse.
It's not considered a child's
medium in Europe. In fact it's called the Ninth Art. They look fairly bemusedly
at American comics because
it's so overloaded with superheroes, of which they have very few.
The viewers begin to arrive.
Avilés was a year ago and I was pleasantly surprised to find an email invitation to La Coruña from Miguel in my In Box.
Hi, George!
You're invited at the La Coruña's Comic Festival, do you remember?
It will take place from 15 to 21 august.
This link is not updated, but you can see something about the festival: http://www.aytolacoruna.es/comic
You can choose how many days you want to stay with us, of course. Thursday
18 we'll go to Santiago de
Compostela, a wonderfull Middle Age town near A Coruña. Friday or saturday
night we have an official
dinner with the Major (a fan and a comics collector). For all of this, if
you cannot stay full week,
wednesday is a good day to arrive.
We will do an exhibition of your work (40 to 80 originals). You can choose,
of course, what do you want to
show to the public (we have about 70.000 visitors in a week). It will take
place in a very beautiful Art
Déco exhibition room (Kiosco Alfonso), and it will be managed by a
very proffesional team, experts in Art
exhibitions. The originals you send to us will be under a full risk insurance
police, of course (you will
fix the amount).
The plane (Busns. class), the hotel (****) and the meals will be payed by
the organisation for you and,
optional, your companion.
It's a half-holidays experience. The spirit of this convention is to have
the possibility to meet european
and american comic artists and to develope a non-commercial festival, where
the most important is the
artistic and cultural side, in a very wide conception. You can rest, relax,
take a walk, drink a beer,
talk with other artists...
Say "yes", please.
I'm looking forward to know your answer...
Take care.
Miguelanxo Prado
This is looking over the railing where they've got large prints of various
comics art.
Well, you can
imagine how excited I was about this. And what's more, Meredith would be able
to
come as well! She's never been to any of my comic thingies and this would
be the best way for her
to see what it's truly about. She's been threatening to come to San Diego,
which would be fun, but
I also wonder if she wouldn't divorce me when she sees what a madhouse that
place is.
Meredith wants me to get these images up so I'll try and amend the commentary later. Enjoy the shots!
Yet more of my stuff.
And still more...
I sent panels from various books I've worked on,
...as well as the Solo book I'm doing for DC Comics right now.
I had everything grouped according to story, and in sequential order.
This and the next shot are two views of the outside of the staircase leading
to the second floor.
This is the work of Javier Olivares. He occupied the second floor with me.
Really nice work. I love that he's able to play with reality so much. And
his color work! I love it.
This is the work of Raquel Azaté. She does the drawings in pencil,
then scans them in and does the
finishes digitally in Photoshop.
This was one of the images on the stairwell. Don't know the name of the
creator, but it's a neat piece of work.
The image at the top is the "Tower of Hercules." A lighthouse that
is the symbol
for La Coruña, as well as the festival.
This piece is by Enrique Breccia, son of Alberto Breccia, one of the giants
of European comics.
Enrique's work is fantastically graphic.