Barcelona International Comic-con 2003

[ziritrion]

Perhaps some of you are interested.

From 8th to 11th of this month (next weekend) there's the 21st "Saló Internacional del Comic de Barcelona", which is one of the most important comic-cons in Spain (if not the most important). Every year it is held at a train station (Estació de França), and each year is getting bigger and bigger. Also, Usagi Yojimbo book 4 "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy" is being released by Planeta deAgostini as "La conspiración del dragón" (becoming the ninth UY book released in Spain). This year's guests are Will Eisner, Sal Buscema, Mattotti, Tim Sale, Mezzo & Pirus, Mark Bagley, John Cassaday, Bryan Hitch, Frank Quitely, Mark Millar, Tomaz Lavric, Humberto Ramos, Alejandro Jodorowsky, as well as many others, mainly national artists. I'll probably go on Saturday and Sunday (gotta go to class, y'know ). If you happen to be in Spain, Andorra, France, or anywhere else and are going to the con, send me an email . Tickets are 5 euro per day. More info in english here.

A curious fact about the con is that it will probably be more centered in American and European comic that Japanese. Since the introduction of Dragon Ball in 1991 in Spain (and even earlier anime like Dr. Slump, Mazinger Z, Captain Harlock, Speed Racer, etc...), manga and anime have had such an overwhelming success in Spain that it has its own con, held in November. Actually, this manga con has become the biggest manga and anime only con in the world (outside Japan). They choose to do it because the manga section was getting too big on the comic-con and it wouldn't fit on the train station . This year will be the 9th "Saló Internacional del Manga", which will be held on another building. Also, if you go dressed up as your favourite Manga character, the ticket is free . And if you win at the karaoke contest, you get a bunch of free comics

[Stan Sakai]

My good friend Sergio Aragones attends this festival every other year (not this year, however). I've heard so much about it, I would like to go there sometime, if not for the convention then for the wonderful Spanish food.

[ziritrion]

That'd be great! . Food is one of the main turistic attractions of Spain (and Spain itself is a turistic country), although when you're a college student living without your parents with three other guys in a flat (like myself) then it's a little bit harder to get some top quality food .

I'm starting to save money in order to go to the San Diego Comic-con next year, for the Usagi Yojimbo 20th aniversary . Hopefully I'll be able to afford it, if I can find a cheap ticket to San Diego and somewhere where I can stay at. The worst thing will be the plane: I'm 6 foot 4 tall and one of my worst nightmares is having to travel for a long time on a tiny seat while my legs are killing me .

[Stan Sakai]

How was the Barcelona Comics Festival? I heard there were about 90,000 people there, but I got the information second-hand.

I've got to go there some day, at least to taste that black rice and drink Bitter Kas.

[ziritrion]

It was great! Lots of people everywhere (sometimes it was almost impossible to get to the stands withouth beating people up ), lots of people dressed up (every single year since as far I can remember there have been two guys, one dressed up as Son Goku and the other as Vegeta, from Dragon Ball Z, who come to every Saló del còmic and Saló del manga), and lots of new releases (finally they're publishing Blade of the inmortal on a decent format). Unluckily, I did not get the con program on time, and I missed all of the signings by the invited artists (well, all of the artists I cared for ). I got the last number of a Spanish comic-book called Kung-Fu Kiyo, the first "Buddha" by Osamu Tezuka, and, of course, the last UY in Spanish, "La conspiración del dragón" (book 4), although I did not like the translation and editing as much as the others (perhaps because I first read DBC in English ).

The black rice you're talking about is one of the most delicius meals I've ever eaten. It consists of mediterranean rice (I don't know the formal name, it's a type of long rice whose grains don't stick to each other, kind of like Indian rice) which is fried on a huge pan along with seafood, meat and vegetables (like paella), and the whole thing is seasoned with squid ink. If you don't watch out, you can end up with your whole face covered with black ink, but it tastes great! I don't like Bitter Kas though (some people do ).