Anniversaries are excellent opportunities for retrospective, so it was probably necessary that we remember, at our tenth event, that what had started as an ambitious effort of a small group of volunteers, managed to establish for national festivals of its type, the big guest lists, children’s programs, workshops, organized cosplay competitions, while also allowing publishers, comic stores, and artists, to communicate en masse, their products and creations.
International guests of Comicdom Con Athens 2015 included Eagle Award-winning Irish designer Declan Shalvey (MOON KNIGHT, INJECTION), French comics creator and co-founder of independent publisher L’Association, Patrice Killoffer, Danish artist Peter Snejbjerg, known for his work on big US publisher’s titles, such as THE BOOKS OF MAGIC and STARMAN, Dutch cartoonist Barbara Stok, creator of the graphic novel VINCENT about the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh, Spanish creator of the award-winning graphic novel MARIA AND I, Miguel Gallardo, American comics creator Ulises Farinas (JUDGE DREDD: CITY OF COURTS, GAMMA) and renowned Polish artists, Łukasz Mazur and Maciej Pałka.
The main exhibition of the festival, Great American Comics, was of the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco collection by the same name and featured original pages and reproductions of works by major artists, such as Milton Caniff, Mort Walker, Jules Feiffer, Patrick McDonnell, Mike Mignola and Sergio Aragones. At the same time, we hosted the solo exhibition of internationally renowned Greek artist Ilias Kyriazis (who illustrated the official artwork of this year’s event) and the Cosplay photo exhibition by Spyridon Kakouris.
Richer than ever, the program of the anniversary three-day weekend included, among others, screenings like the American documentary SHE MAKES COMICS (about the fascinating history of women in the comics industry) and a special extended preview of the dramatic super-heroic fantasy film MADE ORDINARY (in the presence of its director, Christian Kotey), panels on topics such as crowdfunding campaigns, censorship in comics and caricature, superhero movies & TV series, and the adaptation of literary works into comics, a sketch event, workshops by our international guests and Greek artists (with the highlight being the masterclass by veteran cartoonist Spyros Ornerakis) and the – now international – Comicdom Cosplay Competition.
Finally, taking the place of the Comicdom Awards, which have now completed their cycle, was the award ceremony of the first Greek Comics Awards, with an Academy of professionals, comprised by authors, publishers and journalists, awarding prizes to the best Greek comics and creators of the previous year.
With the number of visitors of the festival exceeding 12,000, Comicdom Con Athens 2015 was not only touching reminder of all the things that happened in ten years, but also a great challenge for our expansion and conversion of the festival to a greatest celebration of comics for the city of Athens.
- Dates: 24, 25 & 26 April
- International Guests: Declan Shalvey (MOON KNIGHT, INJECTION), Patrice Killoffer (SIX HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX APPARITIONS OF KILLOFFER), Peter Snejbjerg (THE BOOKS OF MAGIC, STARMAN), Barbara Stok (VINCENT), Miguel Gallardo (MARIA AND I), Ulises Farinas (JUDGE DREDD: CITY OF COURTS, GAMMA), Łukasz Mazur (OPOWIESCI NIESTWORZONE), Maciej Pałka (10 BOLESNYCH OPERACJI)
- Ilias Kyriazis created the official artwork for this year’s event