Comic book

Logo of the Comiciade

The Comiciade (proper spelling: COMICIADE) is an overall concept that deals with the topic of comics . The highlight is the international and interactive comic festival in Aachen , which has taken place every two years since 2014 and consists of a three-day comic fair with specialist lectures, film screenings and hands-on activities, as well as street art projects, permanent installations and workshop series spread over the year. The event is part of the Socially Integrative City concept for the Aachen-Nord district and is funded by the Aachen-Nord Disposal Fund of the City of Aachen and several renowned sponsors. Eupen in Belgium has also been included as an event location since 2019 and, according to plans, is to be retained permanently in alternation with Aachen.

prehistory

In 2013, the Ludwig Forum for International Art and the City of Aachen received funding from the Social City Aachen-Nord Disposal Fund as well as many other sponsors and the Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp as patron as the central exhibition location and cooperation partner .

For the first Comiciade in April 2014, advertising campaigns ran in the public media as early as September 2013 and the event was listed over four pages in the yearbook of the comics association (ICOM). A Comiciade trailer was staged by Harald Schröder and included in the opening program for the main films in the Apollo cinema in Aachen. A few weeks before the first fair, the Comiciade-Depeche appeared as a 36-page program booklet.

See also : List of Comiciade participants

a selection of renowned artists and their projects as part of the event

Comiciade 2014

Disney artist Ulrich Schröder at the 2014 Comiciade

The kick-off event finally took place on April 4th and 5th, 2014 and was carried out by the IG Aachener Portal eV in cooperation with an advertising agency and in cooperation with the Ludwig Forum for International Art. More than 70 international artists and several publishers, including Salleck Publications , Panini Comics , dani books and TheNextArt , as well as regional and national dealers were guests. The festival program consisted of exhibitions and publications by international artists, such as the exhibition Druckworks by Donald Duck draftsman Ulrich Schröder , as well as workshops and a supporting and lecture program for which, among others, the Romanist Wolf Steinsieck could be won as a guest speaker. In addition, with the support of Stawag, several art events from the field of street art took place in public spaces and the cosplay scene was represented with its own program and competition. A total of more than 3000 visitors came to the main event and the supporting program on the two days.

The agency nonplusultra was awarded the Aachen Marketing Prize of the Marketing Club Aachen for the 2014 Comiciade.

The bakery Nobis gave both to Comiciade 2014 and for 2016 Comiciade own Karl-the-Kleine- Printe out.

Comiciade 2016

François Walthéry at the 2016 Comiciade

The second event was carried out in 2016 by the advertising agency nonplusultra in cooperation with the Ludwig Forum and the new main sponsor AkzoNobel, and this time it was under the patronage of the city council, Helmut Etschenberg . The festival program was primarily aimed at young people and those interested in comics, cosplay, manga , urban art and street art and consisted of the exhibition In three days through the comic universe with the works of the peanuts , father and son , rustling knight and captain 'n Sharky could be seen. Several publishers presented their publishing program on the exhibition space and young draftsmen were able to present themselves. There were workshops with star guest Vicki Scott as well as with Ulrich Schröder, Martina Peters and Enis Čišić. Kai Havaii and Stefan Kleinkrieg from EXTRABREIT and FIL performed in the supporting program and there were readings with Nils Oskamp and Jörg Hilbert. In addition, the exhibition Three Stones on Right- Wing Radicalism by Nils Oskamp took place in cooperation with the Aachen City Library . The cosplay supporting program took place in the former and profane St. Elisabeth Church , which had been temporarily converted into Hotel Total .

Comiciade 2018

Comiciade 2018 in hall 60 of the old slaughterhouse

The third Comiciade took place from April 14 to April 15, 2018 again under the patronage of Helmut Etschenberg. Instead of the Ludwig Forum, this time P3 communications GmbH took over the cooperation partnership and the central event location was relocated to Hall 60 of the former historic slaughterhouse in Aachen . More than 20 publishers and dealers as well as more than 50 artists were on site, including the now 80-year-old translator of Asterix books Gudrun Penndorf and the youngest comic artist of the event with his 6th edition of the Mr. Twityboy series .

This time the city library presented the exhibition Graphic Novel - Literature in Pictures , a term for sophisticated comics in book form that has been adopted from the USA since the 1980s. It is dedicated to the connection between image and text in classical and contemporary literature. Before the opening of the Comiciade, several workshops were offered for school classes and the general public, led by Vicki Scott, Ulrich Schröder and Ronja Wugk, some of which were carried out in cooperation with the Ludwig Forum. The results of these courses were partially presented at the Comiciade or appear in the Aachen-Nord newspaper.

Comiciade 2019

Comiciade 2019 in the old slaughterhouse in Eupen (Belgium)

The fourth, unscheduled Comiciade took place on September 29, 2019 for the first time in the motherland of comics in Belgium. It was organized by the IG Aachener Portal e. V. together with the advertising agency nonplusultra-event in the old slaughterhouse in Eupen . The motto of the Comiciade was feminism , which was given as the annual theme of the neighboring and included IKOB - Museum for Contemporary Art , where the opening event was also held with an international panel. Artists from many countries, including some from the greater Eupen area and the neighboring regions, were represented at the well-attended event. Due to the positive response, the organization management is considering allowing the Comiciade in Eupen to alternate with Aachen every two years.

Due to the current situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany , the 2020 Comiciade, which should have taken place from April 25th to 26th, has been completely canceled for 2020.

Working beyond the Comiciade event

In addition to the actual exhibition, the Comiciade was integrated in the long-term program of the extracurricular learning locations in the Aachen city region by offering workshops on drawing mangas and comics as well as the production of animated films and cosplay costumes. The offer was accepted by many schools in Aachen. In the time between the festivals, there are also regular Comiciade workshops in the Ludwig Forum and other locations.

The organizers have set themselves the goal of anchoring Comiciade artworks permanently in the cityscape. For example, in 2014, with the support of Stawag Graffities, the artists Lake13 , Alfred Neuwald, Willi Blöß , Harald Schröder and FeliX were realized on several Stawag transformer houses and, in cooperation with the main sponsor AkzoNobel, a peanuts mural in Robensstraße 17 in Aachen with approx 270 m² area based on a design by Vicki Scott.