After New York, it was hard for Horsens to follow. I did have a great time signing my books at the Fahrenheit stand and talking to fans. Yes, really! The Art-Bubble Festival ended this weekend, but if you’re in the area, the large exhibition of comic book originals is open until August 21. It features artwork from mainly French and Belgian artists, ranging from Cosey to Hergé, and even some Danish artists, like yours truly.
Although it was great to talk to comic legends like Hermann, I can’t help thinking the whole show seemed stuck in the past somehow. Even a large portion of thee visitors had retirement home written all over them. I often wish the Danish comics scene didn’t have that air of nostalgia about it.
By far the most interesting booth was newly formed comics collective “Octopulp” and Danish Manga magazine “Comic Party“. I hope to see more of their work in the future.
Below are some pics of the other dinosaurs…
Hermann signing at the Faraos Cigarer booth.
If the newer artists were better, then it wouldn't be a "dinosaur" festival. Though the dinosaurs are MUCH better than all the newer artist and their comics. We just have to wait for the new Hermann, Barks, Franquin, Giraud etc.
/Antaeus
You may have a point there.
However, inviting mostly dinosaurs will not help the media in recruiting new readers. I think I may be the youngest artist in the exhibition, and I'm 38! There's plenty of talent out there, believe me. But exposing it, that's another story.
At the opening of the festival, all the speakers talked about their childhood expiriences with comics, Donald Duck, Tintin, Lucky Luke. The most contemporary comic I remember mentioned, is Danish strip "Egoland", which stopped years ago…
Looking back is no way to move forward.
After several years getting my dayli fix throgh "basserne" and my private library, it was a plesant suprise to see a lot af new publichers, the danish scene was to small with allmost only Egmont, remembered the 70' and 80' with a wide varety of publichers and magazines – hopefully more "houses" leads to more magazines and room for more painters.
All in all a positive exhibition, and i'm looking forward to se a lot of new titles in the comming years.
For me personal it's hard to get the magazines living in vestern part of Denmark, and in general it's just to hard find stores with a desent selection of magazines outside Copenhagen
Give me the oppurtnity to watch and feel what i can buy and i will buy tons more of stuff than i do now.
Thanks for your comment, Ivan.
I remember the good times too! I was to late for the last wave – Hope to be in this one. It's seems things are picking up after a sloooow decade. Magazines and festivals like this help tremendously, but like you say, there's no where you can BUY the damn comics, unless you live in Copenhagen. I think the web and iPhone apps are the next big thing. Bookstores obviously don't give two shits for comics, placing them in the "humour" or kids book section. All three titles…
I'm sorry if I sound grumpy in this post, but it's how I am, so… 🙂 Seriously though, I was thrilled to be at Art-Bubble and I got a good feeling about new publishers and artists as well. The festival just seemed more interested in saluting the old guard of artists, which is fine. Except their guest list sends the message that nothing much has been going on in the past 20 years. And that's not true!
I found it nice to see the dino's irl ;o) but how i loved to look at Alexine, and her work too ;o), and even Thiery had found a nice person to handcolour hi's paintings.
Digital vs analog stripes/books, for me digital drawings will allways be an suppliment to the handdrawn paintings. take fx Ingemann stripes in "ekstra bladet" they are read by a lot of people on the net, and just look at the ammount of "yearbooks" beeing sold, it'll take dekades before the comicsbooks are outdated, if ever ;o)
I can only see manga distritubated digital, and at a low price, think a part of a solution could be subsription to "ordinary" comicsbooks.
Another suggestion could be a "new" version of books with several series/stripes introduced to the readers, with small intro-stories so that i could order what i like, instead of using several $$ in something that i migth like.
Btw at the next festival i hope too se some japanese and american painters too.