Tag Archives: cyril pedrosa

Review: Portugal

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Portugal PedrosaFor us, children of immigrants, there’s nothing like going to the country of our forefathers. As we hear stories about these places all our lives, and how our older family members want to go live back there sometimes. That is why, if we are lucky enough to go there at all, it really is a homecoming. Me, personally have been lucky enough to go both places, and as much fun as I had, I have never felt more out of place.

Yes, my parents came from these places, and technically, these places were considered my homeland, but in the eyes of my family in both places, I was an American.  What Rodrigo Duterte said about Filipinos in America, digs into that divide as most of my family members were more than disgusted that anyone I knew. Because the reality is, in the immortal words of the rapper, Rakim, “it is not where you are from, it where you are at.” So, when I got a chance to read Cyril Pedrosa’s Portugal, it reminded of those trips to the Philippines and Trinidad, being in state belonging and no belonging.

We meet Simon Muchat, a comics writer suffering from writer’s block, who feels the pain of being listless, suffering endlessly as an art teacher. Everything changes, when he gets invited to go to a comics convention in Portugal, a place has seen since he was a child. Once he arrives, his life instantly gets siphoned into the ecosystem of the country, as immediately the sights, smells and sounds of his childhood encapsulates him. By book’s end, Simon, falls in love with the people and the country.

Overall, a gorgeous and earnest ode to how homecomings can be rediscoveries of self. The story by Pedrosa is funny and touching. The art by Pedrosa is master class in drawing light in sequential art as it only places in comparison to how lifelike he draws people. Altogether, a book that makes you believe that home can be more than where you are.

Story: Cyril Pedrosa Art: Pedrosa
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy

SPX 2016 Announces International Guests Tom Gauld, Cyril Pedrosa, Aimée de Jongh and Pascal Girard

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spx-logo-240Small Press Expo is proud to announce Tom Gauld, Cyril Pedrosa, Aimée de Jongh, and Pascal Girard as Special Guests for SPX 2016.

Small Press Expo is honored that all of these international creators are appearing at the festival for the very first time.

This is in additon to previously announced special guests Daniel Clowes, Lisa Hanawalt, Jeffrey Brown, Trina Robbins, Charles Burns, Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez, Sarah Glidden Carol Tyler, Jim Woodring, Drew Friedman, Ed Piskor, and a rare festival appearance by Joe Sacco.

Tom Gauld is reknown comic creator, designer and illiustrator. He has weekly comic strips in The Guardian and New Scientist, as well as having his work published in The New York Times and The Believer. In addition to his graphic novels Goliath and You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, he has designed a number of book covers, as well as a can for Diet Coke. This fall he releases Mooncop from Drawn & Quarterly. Gauld lives and works in London.

Cyril Pedrosa studied animation design at the Gobelins, a Parisian school dedicated to careers in the moving image. He went on to work on Disney animated feature films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules. A rising star in graphic storytelling, his unique work is a product of his animation background combined with his literary influences of Borges, Marquez and Tolkien. His moving journal of going back to his family roots, Portugal, is a bestseller. NBM will release Pedrosa’s latest, Equinox  this September.

Aimée de Jongh is an award-winning animator, comic artist, and illustrator from the Netherlands. She has since created work for children’s books, TV shows, music videos, and art installations, alongside numerous comic book series. Her animated film Aurora was screened widely in the Netherlands and Janus, a video installation she created with the L.A.-based artist Miljohn Ruperto, was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Return of the Honey Buzzard, her first graphic novel, won the Prix Saint-Michel and is published in English by SelfMadeHero.

Pascal Girard was born in Jonquière, Quebec, Canada, in 1981. He began filling his notebook with drawings on his very first day of school and never stopped. Since he was unable to rid himself of this habit, he naturally decided to make it his career. Girard is the award-winning author of Nicolas, Bigfoot, Reunion, and Petty Theft. He lives in Montreal. In September 2016, Girard is releasing an expanded hardcover edition of his first book Nicholas published by Drawn & Quarterly.

In the next few weeks, SPX will announce more guests, the 2016 Ignatz nominees and a full slate of programming.

SPX 2016 takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18, and will have over 650 creators, 280 exhibitor tables and 22 programming slots to entertain, enlighten and introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.