East London Comics & Arts Festival 2018

15.00 - Springboard Meetings : 

The Springboard meetings provide the chance for young creatives to meet industry experts, show their work, ask questions and gain insight into the professional creative industries. Each expert is available for an hour, divided into 15min slots. 

15.45 - 16.45 : Akvile Magicdust - Tropical Wildchilds

Lithuanian illustrator, comics creator, and winner of Last year’s WeTransfer Award, Akvile Magicdust, will share the process of creating her newest comic book Tropical Wildchilds at ELCAF this year whilst discussing her inspirations and the differences between creating personal and commercial work.

5:00 - 6:00 PM : AOI discusses : Creating your own success

Join the AOI’s Lou Bones with illustrators Patrick Kyle, Aisha Franz and Barbara Malagoli to discuss the real challenges around pursuing personal work whilst expanding your career through diverse routes in print, self-publishing, online, 3D and more.

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm : Hilda UK Premiere

Join us for a UK premiere of episodes 1 and 2 of Luke Pearson’s Hilda! This September, the blue-haired adventurer is coming to Netflix with a new animated series, produced by Silvergate Media in association with Mercury Filmworks! Catch a UK first glimpse in this screening, followed by a Q&A with Nobrow & Flying Eye Books Co-Founder Sam Arthur.

12:30pm - 1:30pm : Conor Stechschulte – Comics in Twilight

Comics are an artistic practice situated between the daylight of text and the darkness of image… or is it the other way around? Conor Stechschulte, author of The Amateurs (Fantagraphics) and Generous Bosom (Breakdown Press), will talk about the ways in which he attempts to take advantage of this in-betweeness inherent in the hybrid language of comics.

1:45pm - 2.45pm : Aisha Franz - Work Life Balance 

Berlin based artist Aisha Franz will read an excerpt of her comic series “work-life-balance” and talk about how balancing work and a personal life as an artist – and human, and woman – really is… Not always as fun and fulfilling as some with ‘conventional jobs’ may assume it to be, but a subject that proves to be great inspiration for her work and an ideal topic for thoughtful comedy!

3:00pm - 4:00pm : Tor Brandt - Spiritual Minimalism 

Join Danish illustrator and comics artist Tor Brandt as he give an an introduction to his work and his minimalist style that over time has developed to consist of bold shapes in a restricted colour palette. Tor will discuss how he cuts everything down to its bare bone and strives to have as few elements as possible in his images, and how he believes this process in his work amounts to a spiritual practice.

4:15pm - 5:15pm : Nina Cosco - How Not to Be Bored

French visual artist Nina Cosco creates tapestries, drawings, ceramics, creative writing and illustrations from her studio in Belgium. Introducing a wide range of different media to express herself she will explain which elements trigger inspiration and how they act as platforms to incorporate serious subjects into her work – reflecting on her practice as a colourful research that can reveal fascinating insights into society today.

5:30 - 6:30pm : Patrick Kyle – Working Without a Predetermined End

Patrick Kyle – author of graphic novels Black Mass (Mother Books), Distance Mover, Don’t Come in Here and Everywhere Disappeared (Koyama Press) – joins us to discuss a working philosophy coined by Chicago Imagist Barbara Rossi: How “Working Without a Predetermined End” has helped him maintain and develop his practice as an illustrator, cartoonist and fine artist over the past 10 years.

12:30pm - 1:30pm : Luke Healy – The Book as a Medium

Luke Healy will talk about the possibilities available when artists stop thinking of comics as a medium, and start to consider the book as a medium. He will give a brief history of artist books, mini-comics, and the ways cartoonists past and present have challenged, and continue to challenge the comic book format.

3:00-4:00pm : Charlotte Dumortier – Powerful First Lines

Join ELCAF’s artists in residence Charlotte Dumortier who will be talking about powerful first lines; the spontaneity and playfulness of a first sketch; and how to try to preserve this in a final drawing by trusting yourself and your intuition. She will take you through some tricks and techniques as well as discussing constraints, collaborations and the illustration scene in Antwerp.