Helsinki Comics Festival 2011

From www.sarjakuvafestivaalit.fi comes news of the Hel­sinki Com­ics Fest­ival 2011. This prom­ises to be a very excit­ing couple of days! Book your plane tick­ets now!

The 26th Hel­sinki Com­ics Fest­ival will take place on the 16th — 18th of Septem­ber 2011 at Lasip­al­atsi Square and nearby ven­ues in Cent­ral Hel­sinki. This year’s spe­cial themes are Brit­ish com­ics and 100 years of Finnish comics.

Hel­sinki Com­ics Fest­ival is the largest comic-related event in Fin­land and North­ern Europe, organ­ised by the Finnish Com­ics Soci­ety since 1979. The fest­ival is free of charge and the pro­gramme con­sists of a com­ics fair, inter­views, lec­tures, dis­cus­sions, exhib­i­tions, work­shops, per­form­ances, com­pet­i­tions, sign­ings and even­ing events. The event keeps grow­ing and last year we coun­ted 100 pro­gramme slots, 25 exhib­i­tions, 15,000 visitors…

THEMES

Brit­ish com­ics are known for ground­break­ing under­ground artists from the 1970s as well as sev­eral main­stream names that have sur­faced since the 1980s. Much inter­est­ing move­ment is hap­pen­ing right now, with a new wave of dis­tinct­ive mod­ern com­ics. The Brit­ish com­ics pro­gramme is pro­duced by London-based com­ics journ­al­ist and author Paul Gravett (Graphic Nov­els — Stor­ies to Change Your Life, 2005).

100 years of Finnish com­ics has been a theme for cel­eb­ra­tion and spe­cial events in Fin­land through­out 2011. The first full-length comic book in the coun­try was Ilmari Vainio’s Pro­fessori Itikaisen tutkimus­retki, pub­lished in 1911.

JOIN US

Hel­sinki Com­ics Fest­ival includes a fair for pub­lish­ers and com­merce from Fin­land and abroad. This will be arranged for the second year in a large scale tent at Lasip­al­atsi square at the heart of the city. Small Press Heaven is an altern­at­ive fair of zines, smal­ler pub­lic­a­tions and young artists at a sep­ar­ate spot near the main tent.

Booths of 3 x 3 meters are avail­able for pub­lish­ers and exhib­it­ors at the comic fair. The space is open and tables and fur­niture can be reserved through organ­isers. To book a booth or share one with other exhib­it­ors, please con­tact the Finnish Com­ics Soci­ety at info@sarjakuvaseura.fi.

Tables at Small Press Heaven are free or charge, but need to be reserved in advance. You can book a table at mari.ahokoivu@sarjakuvaseura.fi.

If you wish to take part in the fest­ival or have any ques­tions, please con­tact us at mari.ahokoivu@sarjakuvaseura.fi. We will provide you more inform­a­tion about the fest­ival and Helsinki.