Pipeline and Sundry: Europeans at Comic-Con Edition (and more!)
San Diego Comic-Con 2018
ComicsBeat has a write-up on the European Comics panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018. I don’t know that we’ll ever see a whole video of it, so this might just have to be our best summary. To sum it up: European comics will add more diversity to the North American comics landscape, and that’s why more needs to be translated and published here.
Seems like it would be a good idea for someone to maintain a website to review all those great translated comics, too. Hmmmm….
Bleeding Cool has a write-up on Statix Press’ panel, where they talked some more about what it takes to get European comics out there. (The image above is from their upcoming series, “Under,” which has been optioned for a movie. Of course.)
The EuropeComics.com website has a list of 100 Must-Read books for this summer. It’s tied into the San Diego show and has every book on sale for half off through August 6th. You can find reviews for some of the series on sale — such as “Drones,” “Ken Games,” “Alter Ego,” “Human Stock Exchange” — elsewhere on this site. (I would add “Glorious Summers” to that list, too, but it’s not one of the series on sale.)
Cosplay at (European) Comic Con
They do cosplay at European comic conventions, too, you know. I’m not a cosplay fan, but I thought it would be nice to see some European characters show up to a convention for once. No such luck. Every video I found was 99% the usual Harley Quinn/Deadpool/anime character stuff. Take this video, for example. It starts with a good Lucky Luke guy, and then becomes more of the usual stuff…. sigh
And Now for Some Beautiful Art
Matthieu Bonhomme takes you on a tour of a double page spread he drew for his latest book. It’s — got some detail to it.
New New Releases
Cinebook published their latest catalog this past week, detailing all their upcoming releases for the rest of 2018. That includes a few good ones that are already available digitally, like “IAN” and “Mermaid Project.” It also includes new volumes of “Gomer the Goof,” “Lucky Luke,” and “Largo Winch.”
Also, check out the new Cinebook website. They’ve re-organized the beast to give you the best chance possible to find one of the 500 books they’ll have published by year’s end.
Five. Hundred.
I have a lot more reviews to write, don’t I?
Doesn’t Heidi remember you? She could give you a wee plug here and there…
There is hardly any Cosplay in Angoulême, not really in our culture, and having to pay for a pic (or for a signing/drawing for that matter) would outrage everyone here ; we’re talking about art here, not mercantilism!). I can’t vouch for many other European countries but I’ve been to BD festivals in France, Belgium, Switzerland, England and even the nerdiest of nerds are dressed in a relatively conservative fashion, considering that the audience of these events is family-oriented.
Heidi is good people and, yes, does remember me. She’s linked over to here a couple or three times now. And the Beat is covering more Franco-Belgian books lately, so it’s falling in line nicely. 😉
The Lucky Luke was cool. I attend the San Diego Comic-Con every year and occasionally you’ll see a Tintin, which i did (and took a picture of).
I like to think that people in San Diego are dressing up as really obscure European characters that I just don’t recognize and assume are anime or manga characters I’m likewise not familiar with. In other words, I lie to myself a lot. 😉
It’s true, there’s precious little cosplay at regular ‘Bande Dessinee festivals’ in France. In Angouleme, all I’ve ever seen were a few teenagers in the Manga pavillion. You’ll find a lot more cosplay, and pretty good cosplay, too, in more generic pop/geek culture cons or manga fests, but it hasn’t really permeated the BD culture.
I’ve tried a couple of Euro cosplays in other conventions outside France, but it’s a wee bit frustrating when no one recognises what character you’re portraying … :p
Thanks for the shout-out! Now get back to work, you’ve got reviews to write.
You’re lucky that there’s less cosplay. It’s really taken things over at these pop culture events masquerading as comic book conventions now. The worst part of it is that if you tell a non-comics person that you’re going to a comic show, the first thing they ask is what you’re dressing up as. UGH
And, yes, I’m working on those reviews! Sir, yessir! At least two more to come this week for this site. =)
Good!
I personally enjoy cosplay – or costuming, as some of my friends adamantly maintain and refuse to use ‘cosplay’. It’s fun and the creativity of some people is incredible …
That said, I also do enjoy a bit of connection between the costumes and the event. Don’t go manga if you’re at a Euro comic con, that sort of thing.
Beyond that, I think the problem lies more with the ‘bastardisation’ of events. If your thing is called ‘comic con’, perhaps making sure it’s about comics would be a good idea? Marvel’s crazy successful foray into movies has blurred the lines, and video games have added to the confusion, but still …
This mixed-bag approach has already ‘contaminated’, so to speak, many US-styles conventions here. The French Comic Con in Paris, the Japan Expo … They’re about everything and anything, really, and there’s cosplay on display everywhere. But the traditional BD Festivals (note the difference in name, too …) remain decidedly comic-centred.
And while I occasionally regret the lack of BD cosplay, I reckon this separation is a good thing, on the whole.