COMICA FESTIVAL
Since 2003 the Comica Festival has been dedicated to showcasing the best of the comics medium through a series of comics-related events centered around the ICA and other London venues. The Comica Festival is held during the months of October and/or November each year.
COMICA EVENTS
In addition to the main annual Comica Festival programme, a series of special one-off Comica events are held regularly throughout the year to highlight significant comic creators and new books.
COMICA DIRECTOR: PAUL GRAVETT
The Comica Festival and related events are organised by Paul Gravett. Paul is a London-based freelance journalist, curator, lecturer, writer and broadcaster, who has been working in comics publishing and promotion since 1981.
Between 5 and 26 November London is bubbling over with international comics during the Comica Festival's annual three-week season of exhibitions, events, talks, performances, workshops, films, a conference and publishers' fair at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in The Mall and other venues.
THE PROGRAM
Friday 6 November 2009
Little Pencil with Sarah McIntyre
Workshop: 4.30-6pm. The illustrator of Vern & Lettuce and
Morris the Mankiest Monster joins the drawing-to-music
children’s workshop.
ICA Reading Room, Tickets: £4. Free to Westminster Residents.
Children must be accompanied by an adult. Ages 4-11.
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Comica Comiket: Small Press Comics Fair
Free entry to this fair: 1-6pm. Meet, greet and buy selfpublished
comics from dozens of storytellers and collectives.
Plus live drawing and launches by Solipsistic Pop, Nobrow,
Spandex and Savage Messiah. ICA Theatre.
Real-Fi: Ctrl.Alt.Shift Workshop
Free workshop: 12.30-6.30pm. Drop in to see the Student
Forum create comics on today’s corruption scandals, with
Bryan Talbot, Pat Mills and others.
ICA Reading Room.
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption:
Music and Comics Night
Performance: 7pm-1am. Live music and djs celebrate the
release of the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption comic
book. Featuring a live gig from Dev Hynes (aka Lightspeed
Champion / Test Icicles) of songs from his newest project,
Blood Orange. Plus a dj set by Woodrow Phoenix, and more.
ICA Theatre. Tickets: £9.00, £8.00 ICA Members (+ £1 booking fee).
020 7930 3647
Tuesday 17 November 2009
The Uncle Hans-Peter Party
Performance: 7.45pm.
The Uncle Hans-Peter Party is a hybrid event, a ‘live’ comic
strip where the audience dons plastic masks and collectively
assumes the persona of Uncle Hans-Peter. All guests receive
a mask and a complimentary copy of Das Familienoberhaupt.
Dress code: Smart casual, Lederhosen optional
ICA Nash Room. Tickets: £10, £9 concs, £8 ICA members.
Wednesday 18th November 2009
Ctrl.Alt.Shift: Political Poster-Making
Workshop: 7.00pm. Explore slogan-based political
posters and create your own in reaction to current
examples of corruption.
Tickets £5 on the door to cover materials, and a glass of wine.
The Book Club, 100 Leonard St, EC2A 4RH.
EXHIBITIONS
Now showing
Black Powers
Free entry to this exhibiton. Until 6 November 2009
An exhibition on black representations in comics.
Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Road, NW3 3HA.
Stories for Humans: Contemporary Comics
Free entry to this exhibition. Until 22 November 2009
Comics Artist in Residence Karen Rubins selects works from
the Rakoff Collection in the National Art Library of the V&A.
Room 220, V&A Museum, Sackler Centre, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL
Thursday 5 November 2009
Manga in the Museum: Professor Munakata’s
British Museum Adventure
Free entry to this exhibition. Until 3 January 2010.
Hoshino Yukinobu’s manga originals for his investigator’s
latest case set in the Museum, plus a manga café recreation.
Room 3, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG.
30 Years of Viz
Exhibition. Until 24 January 2010.
All your Viz favourites at this 30th birthday bash.
The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, WC1A 2HH. Tickets:
£5.50/£4 concs./£3 students/under-18s free.
True Stories by Philip Marsden
Free entry to this exhibition. Until 28 November 2009.
Retrospective including Clam & Elgar and Aesop’s Fables.
Riverside Gallery, Old Town Hall, Whittaker Avenue , Richmond.
Evolution of the American Comic Book: 1894-1956
Free entry to this exhibition. Until 18 November 2009.
Rare art and artifacts trace the origins of the comic book.
Shaking Street Gallery at Orbital, 8 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JA
Friday 6 November 2009
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption
Free entry to this exhibition. Until 30 November 2009.
Feel the power of comic art propaganda, from May ’68
and The Black Panthers to today’s comix, including art by
contributors to Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s international anthology.
Shop at Lazarides, 8 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 4DG.
Thursday 12 November 2009
R. Crumb: Uncovered
Free entry to this exhibition. Until 12 December 2009.
Selected originals by the underground comix maestro.
Scream Gallery, 34 Bruton Street, Mayfair, W1J 6QX.
Sunday 15 November 2009
Babel by John Miers
Free entry to this exhibition. Until 13 December 2009.
Digital artist Miers’ wordless comic on the Babel legend.
The Fleapit, 49 Columbia Road, E2 7RG.
Conversations
Friday 6 November 2009
Black Powers
Free talk: 6.30-8pm. Last day of this exhibition.
Paul Peart-Smith & George Nelson, the curators, talk with
artists John and Patrice Aggs and Woodrow Phoenix about
black representations in comics.
Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Road, NW3 3HA.
Saturday 7 November 2009
Dark We Were and Golden Eyed
Talk 1: 2.30pm. Superstar artists Brian Bolland and Dave
Gibbons and comics retailers Phil Clarke and Derek ‘Bram’
Stokes do the ‘timewarp’ with Mike Lake, co‑founder of
Forbidden Planet, to evoke the story of how comic-book
fandom exploded in Britain in the Sixties.
Grandville & The Anthropomorphic Tradition
Talk 2: 4.30pm. Bryan Talbot, author of Alice in Sunderland,
gives his only London performance of his illustrated lecture
on his dazzling steampunk thriller Grandville (Jonathan
Cape). Followed by signing.
Eddie Campbell
Talk 3: 7pm. Award-winning graphic novelist, Eddie
Campbell, of From Hell fame, unveils the landmark 640-page
compilation of his autobiographical epic Alec: The Years Have
Pants. Followed by signing.
All three talks in the ICA Nash Room.
Tickets: Each talk £6, £5 concs, £4 ICA members.
All three talks: £15, £12 concs, £9 ICA members.
Sunday 8 November 2009
Getting Graphic: Starting Out in Graphic Novels
Talk and presentation: 2.30pm. What come first, words or
images? Learn from Bryan Talbot, Julian Hanshaw and others
in conversation with The Observer’s Rachel Cooke. Followed by
a presentation to the winners of the 2009 Observer/Jonathan
Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize.
ICA Nash Room. Tickets: £6, £5 concs, £4 ICA members.
God of Manga and Anime: Osamu Tezuka
Talk: 4.30pm. Tezuka remains the genius of manga and anime
20 years after his death. Helen McCarthy, author of The Art of
Osamu Tezuka (Ilex), celebrates his dual careers.
ICA Nash Room. Tickets: £6, £5 concs, £4 ICA members.
Comic Art Propaganda: Ctrl.Alt.Shift Panel
Free talk: 6.30pm. Fredrik Strömberg, author of Comic Art
Propaganda (Ilex), discusses political messages in cartoon
form with Pat Mills, Asia Alfasi, Polyp, author of eco-fable
Speechless, and Sean Duffield of Paper Tiger. With signings.
Sponsored by Ctrl.Alt.Shift.
ICA Nash Room. Tickets: booking required on 020 7930 3647.
Monday, 9 November 2009
Kevin O’Neill: Extraordinary Gentleman
Free talk: 6-8pm. Part of London Libraries’ pan-London
Graphic Novels promotion. Artist Kevin O’Neill discusses
co‑creating The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Islington Central Library, 2 Fieldway Crescent, N5 1PF.
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Manga in the Museum:
Solving Myths and Mysteries
Free talk: 1.15-2pm. Paul Gravett, Comica director,
introduces the works of manga master Hoshino Yukinobu
Room 3, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG.
Logicomix: Apostolos Doxiadis in conversation
with Marcus du Sautoy
Talk: 7pm. Maths meets comics! Greek novelist Apostolos
Doxiadis, confides the secrets within Logicomix: An
Epic Search for Truth to Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of
Mathematics at Oxford University and presenter of BBC4 TV
series The Story of Maths. Followed by signing.
ICA Nash Room. Tickets: £8, £7 concs, £6 ICA members.
Friday 13 November 2009
Fabulous: James Jean and Tara McPherson
Talk: 7pm. James Jean is known for his inventive covers
for the Vertigo series Fables. Tara McPherson has also
contributed covers and comics to Vertigo, such as Witching
Hour and Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall. With signings.
In association with Offset 2009, Dublin and Orbital Comics, London.
ICA Nash Room. Tickets: £8, £7 concs, £6 ICA members.
Saturday 14 November 2009
Comics and Graphic Novels for Young People
Conference: 9.30am-5pm.
David Fickling, Emma Vieceli, Mel Gibson, Marcia Williams,
Ariel Kahn and Paul Gravett are among the speakers at the
16th Annual British IBBY/NCRCL Conference.
Roehampton University, Froebel College, SW15 5PH.
Tickets £75/£50 concs.
Create Your True Stories
Free workshop: 1-4pm. Draw scenes from your life, which
become part of a giant comic-book, with Philip Marsden.
Riverside Gallery, Old Town Hall, Whittaker Avenue Richmond, TW9 1TP.
All ages welcome. Booking required: 020 8831 6000.
Sunday 15 November 2009
The Arts Foundation
Graphic Novelist Fellowship Finalists
Free Talk: 7.30pm. Who will win The Arts Foundation’s first
£10,000 fellowship to a UK-based graphic novelist? Tonight,
judges Pat Mills, Posy Simmonds and Paul Gravett announce
the finalists, who will each present their shortlisted work.
ICA Nash Room, followed by Reception in Brandon Room.
Booking required on 020 7930 3647
Monday 16 November 2009
The Superhuman Condition
Talk: 7.30pm. American artists Cameron Stewart (Seaguy),
Karl Kerschl (Teen Titans), and Ramon Perez (NYX), share the
pros and cons of drawing for American majors Marvel and
DC, and developing their independent digital webcomics.
In association with Orbital Comics.
ICA Nash Room . Tickets: £8, £7 concs, £6 ICA members
Saturday 21 November 2009
From Hokkaido To Infinity: Hoshino Yukinobu
Free talk: 1-15-2pm. Anime expert Helen McCarthy explores
2001 Nights, Professor Munakata and his other manga.
Room 3, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG.
cover image by Sarah McIntyre, promoting (clockwise from the top) our guests Richard Squires, James Jean, Laura Oldfield Ford, Tara McPherson and Bryan Talbot
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