Miami Book Fair Celebrates Comics and Graphic Novels
Sunday, November 14, marks the start of the 27th annual Miami Book Fair and the return of their popular program The Comix Gallery, which features the School of Comics and Kids’ Comic Con events.
The Miami Book Fair takes place November 14-21 at the local college’s Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. The Fair concludes with a three-day Street Festival, November 14-21. The Miami Book Fair is America’s largest and finest book festival and has been called the model for all book festivals by The New York Times.
Two years ago this fine fest of literature broke new ground when it launched The Comix Galaxy, a program to celebrate the place of comics and graphic novels in American literature; panels, workshops for kids and young adults, sessions for educators, etc. The two most popular events of this feature happen during the three-day Street Festival portion of The Miami Book Fair, The School of Comics and the Kid’s Comic Con.
The School of Comics and Graphic Novels takes place on Thursday, November 18, and Friday, November 19 and invites parents, teachers, librarians, and comics creators to participate in the appreciation of sequential art with two days of education-based programming.
The first day of the School of Comics, held on the 18th, will be a Day of Education for parents, teachers, and librarians on how to expand their schools’ academic curricula with graphic novels. The keynote for this Day of Education will be delivered by Dr. William Ayers, education theorist, professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of To Teach: The Journey, in Comics.
The second School day, Friday the 19th, will focus on established comics creators teaching their craft to those with comics creation inspirations of their own. Comics creators participating in day two of the School of Comics includes Amy Ignatow (The Popularity Papers), Tracy White (How I Made It to Eighteen) and Raina Telgemeier (Smile).
Another favorite activity of the Miami Book Fair’s Comix Gallery program is the Kids’ Comic Con, which features hands-on workshops and portfolio reviews. Kids’ Comic Con is free and open to all throughout the Street Fair. The Miami Book Fair touts Kids’ Comic Con as “…the place for every kid who dreams of creating the next Superman or Wimpy Kid.”
Some of the comics creators, writers, artists and other professionals participating in The Comix Gallery events at the 2010 Miami Book Fair
are:
- David Axe (War Is Boring)
- Barry Deutsch (Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword)
- Sid Jacobson (Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography)
- Mat Johnson (Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story)
- Chip Kidd (Shazam! The Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal)
- Denis Kitchen (The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen)
- Inverna Lockpez and Dean Haspiel (Cuba: My Revolution)
- Lars Martinson (Tonoharu)
- Mark McKenna (Banana Tail)
- Vanessa Davis (ake Me a Woman)
- Jaime Hernandez (The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death)
- Joan Hilty (Senior Editor, DC Comics/ Vertigo)
- Joe Sacco (Footnotes in Gaza)
- Joshua Hale Fialkov (Tumor)
- Alex Simmons (Archie)
- …and many others
In addition to The Comix Gallery events there will be two exhibitions of comic art at the Miami Book Fair. The Miami Dade College’s Center Gallery will have an exhibition of original drawings and page blowups from the graphic novel Cuba: My Revolution by Dean Haspiel and Inverna Lockpez (on display throughout the Fair and beyond). Another exhibition will consist of pages from a 12-issue comic book series about the Mexican Revolution and will tie in with the Fair’s celebration of Mexican culture.
Visit www.miamibookfair.com for more information.
