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Description: COMIX is an innovative, creative cultural and professional exchange project that enables a broad range of artists from different disciplines, including visual arts, literature, design, applied arts and cultural heritage, to undertake training from high-profile industry professionals in comic writing and illustration and to then train and support emerging new talent from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds to develop their skills and produce new comic art, in the UK, Greece, Spain and Bulgaria.
Hunt Emerson talks COMIX.
In the UK, Comix is supported by the Arts Council of England. The project overall is supported by the Culture Programme 2007-2013.
There are four European partner organisations, Hi8us Midlands (UK www.hi8us.co.uk), Documenta (Spain www.documenta.es), The Red House Sofia Bulgaria www.redhouse-sofia.org) and Arsis (Greece www.arsis.gr). All are all not-for-profit, culturally based companies/NGOs who are experienced in transnational working, but are coming together for the first time for this unique programme, following a period of project development that has taken place through internet and face to face contact. All partners specialise in delivering participatory arts and media projects, implementing programmes and activities to support emerging artists as well as involving into creative processes socially challenged groups. COMIX aims to:
- Support the transnational mobility of new and established comic writers and illustrators;
- Encourage the transnational circulation of cultural products and access to International markets;
- Encourage intercultural dialogue by enabling professional artists to collaborate and work together;
- Promote intercultural competence in the comics-industry, amongst established arts professionals and newly emerging talent;
- To establish new audiences for comics and graphic novels by using the medium to combat stereotypes and tell new stories that could engage a wider readership than the current mainstream comic industry reaches.
The COMIX partnership is co-ordinated by Hi8us Midlands Ltd, based in Birmingham in the UK.
Hi8us is one of the pioneers for nurturing talent by using processes that allow established creative professionals to work intensively with non-professionals, accelerating their advancement in fields including film, animation and comic art. Hi8us’ successful comic art schemes in the UK (www.stripsearch.org.uk) have resulted in producing new talent that has excelled in comic publishing: As a direct result of the schemes, successes include: 3 trainees becoming winners of the International Anime Festival Award — all women, who are currently under-represented in the industry; 1 trainee, Asia Alfasi, has a two book deal with Bloomsbury to write and illustrate semi-autobiographical novels charting her life from Libya to the UK via Scotland; and 1 trainee, Laura Howell, who has become the first female ever to have her own page in the UK’s longest established comic, the Beano. One of the main purposes of the Train the Trainer workshops is to share these processes, and develop them further in the partnership to enable all partners to gain long-term benefit.
There is a huge gap in training or education provision for Comics Art in all the partner countries, although the demand is high across diverse groups. Comic Art has an international market but the mobility of artists is rarely supported, and peer-support across Europe, other than at International comic festivals, is very rare. Although new comic art talent is continually emerging in Bulgaria, there is no industry festival there; this project would support the delivery of its first ever Comic Art festival.
COMIX consists of the following activities:
- Training sessions, for the exchange of best practice between professional artists who are specialist comic artists, writers and artists from other related disciplines;
- Appx. 22 professional artists from the partner countries will receive Train the Trainer sessions, led by world class comic artists, John McCrea (www.johnmccrea.com) and Hunt Emerson (largecow.com), who have led all Hi8us’ Comic Art schemes), and supported by Asia Alfasi, enabling them to devise and deliver a supportive comic art and writing scheme to the aspiring new talent;
- Different professional artists residing in each country will provide training sessions for new and emerging talent in comic writing and illustration in each of the partner countries, who are from marginalised or disadvantaged communities;
- All participants will be supported by a business professionals to advance their careers;
- The production of a collaboratively produced comic book anthology. Borrowing from Asia’s example of her (soon to be) published work amongst others, such as Maus, participants may explore the use of personal semi-autobiographical stories as Comic Art, which already provide social and cultural insights into very different lives;:
- All 80 participants and 22 professional artists will attend 2 of the largest International conventions in the partnership in the UK and Spain, plus smaller one’s in their own countries. A smaller number of participants will attend all the festivals across the partnership. At the festivals, the lead artists will facilitate portfolio reviews, meetings with editors and publishers. Professionals will provide a form of “hand-holding” at the festivals, enabling participants to have their work reviewed by the most influential people in the industry;
- New technologies will be used to: create comic art; facilitate co-production of the new artistic works between partners; and showcasing and promoting the artworks through the online portfolio dedicated website.
COMIX will then result in:
- A collaboration across Europe to create new graphic stories;
- Up to 80 budding comic artists and writers across the partnership will get their work to the international market of comics;
- The same 80 people from socially excluded and diverse backgrounds having been fast-tracked into the industry;
- A unique comic book anthology translated into all 4 partner languages, available in print and online as a PDF — the same work will exist in four different languages making it accessible to wide audiences across all four countries.
- A comic anthology that challenges cultural stereotypes and helps to foster greater understanding between different cultures while addressing the gap in the market for diverse voices;
- The same 80 participants together with 22 professional artists having successfully collaborated to produce and showcase their work together at 2 of the biggest International Comic Festivals in the UK and Spain across the web.
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