Creative Manchester is delighted to present the upcoming " Comics Up Close " event in partnership with Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Sheffield Hallam University. The event will include discussions about new perspectives in comics for comics inspired academics, researchers and students; comics creatives and teachers, returns in 2023. Speakers will include Dave McKean and Benoît Peeters.
Moved to its own date in the diary, outside the Festival weekend, Comics Up Close 2023 will take place on Tuesday 21st Feb 2023 (UNESCO International Mother Language Day) at Manchester Museum, which reopens on 18 February 2023 following a £15m transformation.
Working in partnership, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF), Creative Manchester and Sheffield Hallam University, invite you for a day packed with discussions about new and exciting perspectives on comics. Bringing together leading academics, world renowned comic creators and comic advocates from across the globe, the day will present new research and thinking on comics.
Previously part of the annual Lakes Festival event (returning again later in 2023), Comics Up Close now finds a new home, moving between universities in the north of England, and finding new allies and audiences in the process.
The event will consider what makes comics special and particular in the world of arts and culture, considered to be the Ninth Art in France. Among those leading the discussion will be comics authority Benoît Peeters, who has written many articles and given many presentations on the role of comics in the arts.
Dave McKean , auteur and comics maker, will reflect how are new technological advances, especially Artificial Intelligence, are offering us new opportunities to define what it is to create, to draw and consume comics, examining the implications of new developments that have stirred plenty of debate among creators in recent months.
LICAF boldly asserts that ’Comics Can Change the World’ but what do we really mean? Where can we find examples which move us closer to evidence rather than rhetoric?
"What makes Comics Up Close special is the coming together of comics creatives, academics and thinkers" says event co-ordinator and Festival co-Director Richard Foster. "The result is an inspiring and exciting mix of new perspectives on comics. This year, hosting the event in the newly refurbished Manchester Museum and with speakers like Dave McKean and Benoit Peeters, it’s going to be an amazing day."
Comics Up Close is an event created by Lakes International Comic Art Festival, in partnership with Creative Manchester for The University of Manchester and Sheffield Hallam University. It is supported by Arts Council England, CAE, Creative Europe, Lyon BD, Escola Joso - Barcelona, Comic Art Museum - Brussels.
COMICS UP CLOSE - New Perspectives in Comics 2023 11.00 - 17.00 (registration from 10.00) Tuesday 21st February 2023, Kanaris Theatre, Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, Manchester. M13 9PLTo register your interest, please email Richard Foster - rfprojectscumbria@gmail.com - and booking links will be sent early in January
