More than one hundred authors and professionals and four exhibitions will represent the talent of Spanish comics at the Angoulême festival (France), the most important festival of the ninth art in Europe, for an edition in which Spain, where this industry has a turnover of 130 million annually, is the guest of honor.
“Being a Focus Country in Angoulême is fulfilling a collective ground and marks a path for us to In public policies, comics have the weight they deserve“said the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, this Wednesday at the presentation of the program at the headquarters of the French Institute.
Located at the same level as the Cannes festival for cinema or the Avignon festival for theatre, as Aymeric Chuzeville, chargé d’affaires of the French Embassy, recalled, this festival celebrates its 52nd edition from January 29 to February 2, 2025. with a forecast of more than 200,000 visitors.
With a poster illustrated by Max and the motto “Spain, talent in cartoons“, the country will have its own pavilion where you can follow round tables, workshops, live drawings, author battles, and book signings, among other activities organized by the Ministry together with Acción Cultural Española and the collaboration of the Comic Sector.
The minister has placed this quote as a milestone on the path that began a year ago with the presentation of the White Book of Comicswhich states that in Spain 4,600 novelties are published a year, with a turnover of 130 million euros, 7% of the total publishing market, without textbooks.
A “thriving industry that needs administrations to support and let’s recognize comic book authors,” said Urtasun, who also recalled the aid lines for comic creation that will be launched in 2025.
The program revolves around four axes: creative wealth with the great variety of Spanish comic markets; bibliodiversity; linguistic plurality; and gender equality, addressing the role of women and the vision of the sector from a feminist perspective.
The Spanish delegation will have authors of national and international prestige, among them, some of the winners of the National Comic Awards convened by the Ministry of Culture since 2007.
In fact, they will be both first winner and author of the poster, Maxlike the winner of the last edition, Bea Lema. Also mentioned are Spanish authors who have won the prestigious Will Eisner Awards for the Comics Industry, such as Salvador Larroca, David Aja, Bruno Redondo or Juanjo Guarnido, among others.
In addition, both artists with a long career such as Marika Vila or Albert Monteys and young creators such as Nadia Hafid, Yeyei and Alba Chan will participate. Experts and researchers from the world of comics such as Elisa McAusland and Ana Merino will also participate.
The cartoonist Aneke will also be present, who at this Wednesday’s event spoke on behalf of the delegation and highlighted the importance of overcome the “individualistic nature of the comic author” and organize as a collective to fight, for example, to prevent artificial intelligence from “taking over our work,” he stressed.
“Everything in life has to be fought and it is difficult for us to see ourselves united. This festival is a good time to get away from the table,” he said.
For his part, the president of the Comics Sector, Alejandro Casasola, has highlighted the strength of the comics ecosystem in Spain, where managers, editors and authors make a living from an industry that combines “culture, history and art”. “In Spain, the Government is beginning to understand it, and will understand it more when it returns from Angoulême,” he proclaimed.
Other exhibitions
The general director of Books, Comics and Reading of the Ministry of Culture, María José Gálvez, and the programming director of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Inmaculada Ballesteros, have spoken about other projects such as the exhibitions that will be held in the French city.
So, Graphic constellationproduced in collaboration with the Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), presents a journey through the universes of nine Spanish authors.
For its part, the Spanish Pavilion – a 245-meter space created by the Jesús Moreno y Asociados studio – will host, among other activities, an exhibition of the works that have been awarded the National Comic Award.
The ‘Espace Jeneusse’ will give visibility to three collections of Spanish authors with a presence in the French market: Hooky by Miriam Bonastre Tur; The hericornias by Kid Toussant and Verónica Álvarez; and Atlas and Axis, written and drawn by Pau, while in another space the exhibition will be seen Spain talent in cartoons: a historical vision, present and future of Spanish comics.
There will also be more than twenty round tables on the most varied topics: Genealogies and comics, Comics and memory, Writing with drawings, The boom of the 80’s, Popular pop and folklore, Creating readers, Cartoons and feminism, History of Spanish comics: tribute to Ibáñez, The times of TBO: tribute to Josep Coll either social comicamong others.
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