Beware! The biggest, best ever 24 hour comic day kicks off tomorrow, with lots of workshops and minicomics on offer.
What is a 24 hour comic? Well, it is just that: a comic (ideally 24 pages) made in 24 hours. Scott McCloud has bragging rights on its invention. Twenty-four hour comics days now exist all over the world. It's not quite a benchmark of civilisation, but it is as close as you can get to a celebration of comics.
I guess technically you could start at midnight tonight, but if you get lonesome, you might like to join some of Ireland's finest comics creators at the Central Hotel, Dublin, for lots of laughs (and coffee probably.)
Ronan Kennedy's Mindpuss #1 launches next Thursday (2 April), at Toners pub on Baggot St, Dublin.
The launch kicks off at 8 and it should be a good opportunity to meet some Irish comics creators.
Of course there are loads of comics conventions in the US - San Diego and New York etc - and quite a few in France, but after reading (and especially seeing) so much about it, this year, Angoulême Comics Festival is the one I'd go out of my way to visit.
Now I just have to talk my fiancée into a holiday in the beautiful South-East of France... but how?
Here are some of the tastiest-looking festivals in Ireland, the UK and a little further afield, over the next few months:
- 27-29 March: Phoenix Convention (P-Con), Dublin, Ireland.
- 9-10 May: Bristol International Comic Expo, Bristol, England.
- 4-6 June: 2D in Derry, Northern Ireland.
- 18-19 July: London Film and Comic Con, London, England .
- 3-4 October: British International Comics Show, Birmingham, England.
- 13-15 November: Dublin City Comic Con, Dublin, Ireland.
- 28-30 January, 2010: Angoulême International Comics Festival, Angoulême, France.
Inconveniently, there is a fixtures pile-up next weekend, 28 March, as P-Con and the UK Web and Minicomix Thing coincide with an anime festival, at the Irish Film Institute.
