Running this year from May 18th to 21st, the Warsaw Comics Fest is one of the biggest comics festivals in Central Europe, gathering over 70,000 guests last year. This year’s 8th edition hosts artists from all across the world, including: Séverine Tréfouël, Jean-David Morvan, David Evrard, and Walter Pezzali (France); Dave McKean (Great Britain); Ingo Römling (Germany); Gradimir Smudja (Italy); Tony Sandoval (Mexico); and James Sturm (USA). The fair will also feature a number of prominent Polish guests, including Michał Śledziński, Rafał Skarżycki, Tomasz Leśniak, Wanda Hagedorn, Marcin Podolec, and Europe Comics authors Wojciech Stefaniec (author of the award-winning Come Back to Me Again) and Adam Święcki (author of Gaia).
However, the artists are only half the attraction! The program also includes workshops (for both youth interested in the art of comic making and those who want to start their professional career), exhibitions of Polish and foreign artists, and a rousing after-party in one of the city’s many clubs!
The festival began back in 2010, when a group of artists, publishers, and comic enthusiasts gathered together to form the Polish Comics Association and decided to revive the tradition of hosting annual comic festivals. Despite some rather hard beginnings, including a printing house that burned down, the eruption of an Icelandic volcano (blocking the arrival of international guests), and a few other unpleasant events, Komiksowa Warszawa was brought to life. A year later the festival established a partnership with the Warsaw Book Fair, and as a result, in 2013 it moved into its new home: the striking National Stadium. From its beginnings, the festival has been visited by thousands of fans from Poland and abroad, in addition to a vast number of guests from all around the world, including France, the USA, Germany, Spain, the UK, Italy, Hungary, Ukraine and Mexico!
So, let’s meet May 18th-21st at the National Stadium in Warsaw! Congratulations to our publishing partner Timof for its participation in organizing this great event. And through the end of the festival, some of our top Polish books in the Europe Comics catalog are 50% off, so you can discover these great titles wherever you may be!
