Join us on 11, 12 and 13 September in the Gare Maritime at Tour & Taxis for the 11th edition of the Brussels Comic Strip Festival.
New this year: the event is moving to offer you an even better schedule of events and activities!
Balloons Day Parade, conferences, shows, signing sessions, discover the full programme of this unmissable comics trip event soon!
Useful info
Gare Maritime at Tour & Taxis – 1000 Brussels
Friday 11/09: 10:00 – 18:00
Saturday 12/09: 10:00 – 20:00
Sunday 13/09: 10:00 – 18:00
Members of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC Brussels) invite you to discover their comic strips through workshops, panel discussions, live drawing performances, signing sessions and a joint exhibition displaying comic strips from different countries in all their diversity.
The Hungarian Cultural Institute - Brussels invites Áron Kálmán and Gyula Németh comic artists to the festival, and creators of Királyok és Keresztek - Kings and Crosses, Levente Németh and János Mészáros will also join to our stand.
Áron Kálmán was born in the year of the regime Chanre, so he is classified to the so called ’Spider-Man generation’. This means that both Western and Eastern comics were available to him as a child. He could be influenced by Craig Thompson from America and Rumiko Takahashi from Japan at the same time. Another duality in his work is the clash of lowbrow culture and the highbrow culture, as he tries to balance them. He hopes that he will not produce a poorly made mass product or a bad piece of art, creating the illusion of culture. His latest comic is based on the autobiography of the famous Hungarian symbolist painter Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka. His goal was to portray Csontváry’s ars poetica with the expressive tool of a graphic novel. His short story with Máté Matuszka, was created for the 100th anniversary of World War I. It was published in the collection of Sarajevo Assassination, and in 2015 it won the award for the best short Hungarian comic, the Alphabet Award. He is currently working on an adventure story based on a Hungarian belief system, highwayman legends and a real witch trial. This will be his longest story so far.
Gyula Németh switched to illustration after working as a graphic designer for 15 years. He works as a freelance illustrator and comic book artist in Budapest. His first comic book, Inmates in the Gulag was printed in 100 000 copies for schools throughout Hungary. in 2019 he wrote and illustrated “Between the Lines” for which he received the Alfa-beta award for the best Hungarian short comic. His first English language comic was the short story, Wake up Dead for Heavy Metal Magazine’s Megadeth themed album, Death By Design in January 2019. Shortly after, he started to work on Dark Horse Comics’ classic Criminal Macabre series new story arch The Big Bleed Out with writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night). They also completed another book, a World War II horror story, called The Possessed. His first big self initiated project was a fully illustrated version of H.G. Wells’ classic science fiction story, The Island of Doctor Moreau. He is also working on a book about the creatures of Hungarian folklore.
Levi (Levente Németh) runs his own graphic design company specialised in cultural and sport events marketing. As Creative Director he successfully managed the overall artistic tasks of the World Championships of Fencing, Kayak-Canoe, Gymnastics and Handball held in Hungary in 2018 and 2019. He graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, and worked for multinational advertising agencies as Art Director. He published his first graphic novel, Kings and Crosses: Voluntas Tua in 2017. The book was nominated for the prize of the best Hungarian graphic novel of the year 2017 in Hungary and was published in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands this year. Levi’s next historical comic book, Canes et lupi was recently introduced to the public.
Works:
Királyok és Keresztek: Voluntas Tua - Enter Studio 2017
Des Rois et des Croix, Livre I - BD Must Éditions 2019
Des Rois et des Croix, Livre II - BD Must Éditions 2019
Királyok és Keresztek: Canes et Lupi – Helikon Publishing House 2019
Links:
http://www.bdmust.be/catalogue/albums/des-rois-et-des-croix/des-rois-et-des-croix-livre-i-livre-ii
http://www.bdmust.de/katalog/alben/koenige-und-kreuze/koenige-und-kreuze-buch-1-2
https://arthungry.com/nemeth.levente/5551/kiralyok_es_keresztek
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy3_Fl7FbTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nesVqbNk8nw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MvcoOIH_Qw
János Mészáros (Sinonimo) started his career in the film and video business. He worked for Hungarian film distribution companies and he was involved in the managements of cinemas. He worked as a copywriter, created film promotion materials and reviews. From 2003 he provided marketing services to private clients. János currently works as a freelance writer and translator. He translated books on finance and comics from English. In 2018 he published his first comics together with Levi under the name of Kings and crosses. He frequently writes short stories for blogs specialised in literature, and his novel about a famous Hungarian writer, Jenő Rejtő received the prize of Napút Publishing in 2018.
Books, novels and comics:
Királyok és keresztek: Voluntas Tua – graphic novel, published by ENTER in 2017
Des Croix et des Roix Tome I-II, - French edition, translation together with Antal Bayer, published by BD Must Éditions in 2019
Királyok és keresztek: Canes et Lupi – graphic novel, published by Helikon Publishing House, 2019
Rejtő-kód – short story, published by Napút Publishing in 2018
Cash-flow management - translation, published by CO-NEX Publishing in 1995
Vállalatok pénzügyei – translation, published by CO-NEX Publishing in 1996
Pénzügyekről nemcsak pénzügyi szakembereknek- translation, published by CO-NEX Publishing in 1997