The Angouleme International Comics Festival 2012
The Angouleme International Comics Festival – A ‘pulsating’ start to the year.
The quaint little town of Angouleme in the Bordeaux region of France is a delightful place to visit any time of the year, but no more so than in the month of January.
Whilst many towns, villages and even cities across Europe aren’t ‘at their best’ during January, for the last thirty years, Angouleme has celebrated the Angouleme International Comics Festival, a festival celebrated with such verve and pulsation, that comics have become a local speciality.
Since it was launched in 1972, the Angouleme International Comics Festival has attracted comic enthusiasts, artists, publishers, writers and cartoonists to gather in this quirky French town during the last week of January.
Talking about the festival’s roots, Dominique Brecheteau , the current director of the Angouleme International Comics Festival, said:
“It all began in 1972 when Francis Groux, a comic’s enthusiast, decided to organise a two-week celebration of comics in the town of Angouleme, and invited artists from Paris. From the onset, the festival received the support of artists from around the world and the town’s inhabitants, and was an immediate success.”
This year’s festival will start on January 26 and will run for three days. It will be the 39th International Comic Festival and is expected to attract more than 6,000 professional exhibitors and up to 200,000 visitors from around the world. Famous guests to this year’s event will include the legendary comic author Art Spiegelman.
Asides attending one of Europe’s leading international comics’ festivals, Angouleme is a truly inspiring town to visit any month of the year. With its cobbled quarter, awash with restaurants, galleries and boutiques, encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, and with its Romanesque style cathedral, dedicated to Saint Peter, one rarely has time to visit all the interesting sights of this magnificent French town in a single visit.
But it is January, when many places are experiencing a depressing post-Christmas lull, that is the best time to visit Angouleme, particularly if you are a comic’s enthusiast.
For more information on what promises to be an enlightening event, visit: bdangouleme.com.
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