Comic Arts Fest

Come meet some of the world's most celebrated graphic novelists and comic book artists across a full week-end of conversations, masterclasses, screenings, book signings, parties, and workshops featuring Barry Blitt, Aleksi Briclot, the Brizzi Brothers, Delaf, Anita Kunz, Loui, Françoise Mouly, Peter de Seve, Adrian Tomine, and more. Schedule of Events: 11:00 am: Little Nicholas - Happy As Can Be Attention: For school groups only. Not a public event. Dir. amandine Fredon, Benjamin Massoubre, 2022, France, 121min, DCP In French with English subtitles In a display of ingenuity and imagination, co-directors amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre craft an animated biopic of Jean-Jacques Sempe and Rene Goscinny. Sempe and Goscinny are the talented authors behind Le Petit Nicolas, the beloved character who was the subject of many illustrated children's books. Young audiences will appreciate the humor and mischief of Little Nicolas, while adults will treasure the creative retelling of Sempe's and Goscinny's post-war world, as well as the relationships they forged in the U.S.-Goscinny with MAD Magazine, and Sempe with The New Yorker. 7:30 pm: Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse Dir. Molly Bernstein, Philip Dolin, 2024, U.S., 98min. DCP In English While best-known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, serialized from 1980 to 1991 and voted by the New York Public Library as one of the 125 most important books of the last 125 years, Art Spiegelman's deeply personal body of work also includes In the Shadow of No Towers, Breakdowns, and The Wild Party. He also created 21 provocative covers for The New Yorker, where he was a staff artist and writer from 1993-2003. With his wife, Françoise Mouly, Spiegelman published and edited the acclaimed and influential comics magazine Raw from 1980-1991, where Maus was first serialized. When Maus was banned by a Tennessee school board in 2022, Art, a self-avowed "first amendment fundamentalist," stepped back into the spotlight as an ardent defender of free speech and opponent of book banning. The screening will be followed by a QandA with Special Guests-stay tuned for the announcement! After the screening and QandA, join us for the Opening Night Party in L'Alliance's Tinker Auditorium. Savor delicious food and drinks, enjoy music, and watch a Live Exquisite Corpse session where guest illustrators will create a unique piece of art. An Exquisite Corpse is a group drawing activity that gained popularity in 1920s artistic circles when it was adopted as a technique of the Surrealist movement to generate collaborative artworks. Click here to Buy Tickets