Source: @Tencent Comics, World Style Feature

Summer vacation is a good day for the student party.

Putting aside the emotional summer homework, the two-month vacation is simply a day to go to the sea. But for all kinds of otaku and rotten women, it is more attractive to stay at home to watch movies and play games than to play in the mountains and rivers in the hot and tiring. There is only one thing that can drag most of the anime homepopulates away from their computers and make them consciously go outdoors - and that is the anime festivals everywhere. From the summer to October, comic conventions around the country line up to save the sense of zài, both in quantity and quality are the most in the year, from the south to the north of the large and small comic conventions attract comic fans to sweep goods, COS, engage in base, onlookers.

Animation festivals, also known as comic exhibitions, animation expos, and animation culture festivals, basically refer to the same thing in China. In addition to the COS performances and manufacturer shows that fans like, the main content is often divided into blocks to show the essence of domestic culture, and to let celebrities speak/perform/sign in blocks, and it may also be divided into blocks for children to practice with the big touches, and even get together with the game to show the game manufacturers to try it. So each flower into their own eyes, fans are happy, everyone is happy, and the scene of the Spring Festival Gala makes the air of happiness wafting around the comic exhibition.

However, if you want to insist that China Comic Con has no personality and has little international influence, it is not too kind. After all, China has not held a comic exhibition for a few years, and he can't eat a fat man in one breath. Speaking of which, which comic convention has a long history? What are the contents of foreign comic conventions? This topic is a little bigger, and today we have to take you around roughly to see what foreign comic conventions are like.

A mecca for sci-fi fans of film and television: San Diego Comic-Con Festival in the United States

The first fertilizer in the universe, which swept the animation circle back then, claimed to be made in San Diego, USA. Regardless of whether the fertilizer is real or not, it is true that this place in San Diego is related to comics. Home to one of the two largest anime festivals in the world, the San Diego Comic-Con Festival (also known as the San Diego Comic-Con Festival).

A small start

The guy who makes the big news often gets off to a small start, and the San Diego Comic-Con Festival is no exception. Looking at today's crowded, star-studded San Diego Comic-Con Festival, it's hard to imagine what the first edition would have been.

On March 21, 1970, Hill Dove held an exhibition in San Diego called the Golden State Mini Comic Con. The exhibition lasted only one day and only 100 people participated. This small exhibition became a test for Hill Dove, and instead of being discouraged, he learned from his experience and came back again. In August of the same year, Hill Dove took out the "Mini" and successfully held the "Golden State Comic Con", although the number of participants this time was only about 300, but it was double that of March.

The development of San Diego anime energy-saving is quite a bit of a snowball. In the early days, rubbing around and uniting various anime fan groups, everyone worked together; Later, the number of people increased, and the influence grew. Today, San Diego Comic-Con is the largest comic con in the Western Hemisphere, with hundreds of thousands of visitors over the course of four days, but surprisingly, the organizers of San Diego Comic-Con are non-profit.

Big comic con

The San Diego Comic-Con Festival is not only large, but also very rich. Cartoonist book signings, original art auctions, Eisner Prize awards, comic art seminars, model exhibitions, COS performances...... It can be said that the spring and snow and the lower riba people can take care of it.

In view of the fact that the extension of American comics to various fields such as film and television dramas and games is very mature, the San Diego Comic-Con Festival has long been out of the category of pure comic exhibitions; In addition to cartoonists, major film, TV series, and game manufacturers have also used all their best to promote it, and it has long become a mecca for science fiction fans and film and television fans. In addition to the exhibition in the venue, the organizer will also broadcast excellent films all night for fans who come to participate in the exhibition in the designated hotel, so the major film manufacturers have long regarded this place as one of the main positions of film promotion. In 2013, for example, not only did Stallone and Schwarzenegger walk the red carpet to promote their new movie, but a large number of stars and actors such as KellyCuoco, who played Penny, the heroine of "The Big Bang Theory", also came to help. It's star-studded.

It is worth mentioning that the organizer of such a big-name comic convention is actually non-profit! All of the organizers' income from the show will be invested in future exhibitions, and the total number of staff and hired workers is only a few dozen. When the show is held, they rely on volunteers to organize the work on site.

An anime festival that calls for blood donations

In the 70s of the 20th century, Robert Heinle, the original author of the novel "Starship", was seriously ill, and after he received treatment for blood donation, he always felt that he owed a favor to the blood donor. An idea took root in his mind and came up to the organizers when he attended WorldCon - "I only sign autographs for people who donate blood".

At that time, the organizers of the San Diego Comic-Con Festival, which was in the development period and were snowballing everywhere, heard about it, so ...... Not only can you invite famous novelists to come to help, but it is also a good deed, so why not do it? The organizers agreed to his request and were willing to cooperate with Robert Heinlein's blood drive; I didn't expect this activity to be maintained, and it has been maintained for more than 30 years. To this day, not only are many celebrities joining the blood donation team, but fans who donate blood can also receive autographs, giveaways and watch wonderful performances.

In fact, I personally feel that the blood donation activity is actually in line with the overall style of the San Diego Comic-Con Festival - fans who like American heroism come to the comic con, save others with their own blood, and become heroes.

The crown of Europe: the French Angoulême

There are no manufacturers who sell hard, no noisy video games, and no endless celebrity catwalks. Angoulême, France, a small city with a permanent population of only 40,000, is famous for its comics. Because it is home to one of the two major anime festivals in the world - Angoulême Comics Festival. That's right, the comic festival, here is focused on comics, only comics.

The Ninth Art

In the third issue of "World Wind", we introduced the relevant situation of French comics. In fact, it is not a shame for the French to read comics, on the contrary, the audience of comics in France is mostly adults.

In Europe, where art is celebrated, comics, known as the "ninth art", have a considerable status in their own right. On the one hand, there is an artistic trend, and on the other hand, an adult audience, so that the Angoulême Comics Festival as a whole presents a mixture of thickness and personality of wonder and hormones.

In 1972, Groux, an avid fan of comics, invited artists from all over the world to Angoulême for a two-week celebration in which he wanted to present a gathering of well-known cartoonists. As we normally wouldn't expect, such an abrupt invitation might have been turned down, but unexpectedly, cartoonists from all over the world responded to him. The comic book festival was well received by the local residents with its artistic and rebellious, avant-garde and diverse styles, and the festival was quite successful. Two years later, on January 25, 1974, the Angoulême International Comics Festival was officially opened, and the tradition of holding the festival in the last week of January continues to this day.

The legendary annual award

Unlike the non-profit San Diego Comic-Con Festival, the Angoulême Comics Festival has never hidden its commercial vibe. Maybe it's because the initial sponsorship was unstable, maybe it's because the mayor of Angouläm ran away with the money to fund the festival, or maybe it's because it's a big event for publishers, and since 1992, the posters of the Angoulême comic festival have been adding the logo of sponsors.

However, the presence of sponsors did not affect the quality of the Angoulême Comics Festival. To this day, the Angoulême Comics Festival still maintains the tradition of "using a big tent as a booth to pile up books", where you can see comic books from all over the world, from adult works in Europe to Japanese manga that are popular in Japan, to comics exhibited by Chinese booksellers... It's a lot to see.

In addition to the sea of comics, the annual awards given by the Angoulême Comics Festival are also the focus of the festival. At the beginning of its establishment, in order to confirm its authority, the Angoulan Comics Festival has repeatedly awarded awards to many non-French cartoonists; In the 80s of the last century, it was relatively closed, and the rewards were basically distributed to the French. Naturally, this kind of solitary play will not last long, and Angoulam is becoming more and more open and prestigious. At the 2013 Angoulême Comics Festival, the winner of the Grand Prix of the Year was Dutch cartoonist Bernard Willem Holtrop.

If you want to go to the Angoulême Comics Festival, you should start early. With a permanent population of 40,000, 200,000 people will be crammed into the city, and it will be difficult to find a room in the city and the surrounding suburbs without booking a year and a half in advance.

Japan Comic Con: You go your Yangguan Road

I am a little weak about the words "comic con" to describe the anime and manga exhibitions in Japan. This kind of exhibition in Japan has always been distinct, and it is relatively rare for a hodgepodge of anime and manga to be played at the same time (the famous hodgepodge is probably only the Akihabara Entertainment Festival). The most prestigious exhibitions that do the best in each field are usually in their own way. Let's pick a few representative ones to introduce today.

A feast for animation: Tokyo International Animation Festival

The Tokyo International Animation Show, also known as the Tokyo International Animation Expo, is the world's largest comic con every spring, and the world's largest animation-themed exhibition. Since 2002, the Tokyo International Animation Con has been held for 12 years, and the number of visitors has remained at about 100,000 in recent years.

The Tokyo International Animation Show is divided into two parts, the first two days are the enterprise exhibition, which is only open to professional audiences, and the main content is the planning and exchange of works, investment descriptions, and business negotiations... Class I; The last two days are the general audience visit day, which can be open to all animation lovers. In addition to the latest animation information released by various manufacturers and animation companies, the Tokyo Anime Awards is the much-anticipated annual animation award. In 2013, the Animation of the Year award went to "Wolf's Child Rain and Snow", and in 2012, "From the Poppy Slope". In 2013, "Sword Art Online" and "Kuroko's Basketball" won the Best of the Best Awards, while in 2012 this award went to "Madoka Magi" and "Tiger and Rabbit".

Figurine-new carnival: WonderFestival

WonderFestival, or WF for short, claims to be the world's largest figurine festival.

The organizer of WF is Haikaido, which is known for the quality of boxed eggs and capsule products. The exhibition is held twice a year, around February and August, and the exhibition is held for only one day.

On this day, model manufacturers show their skills, the new products to be released in the remaining half of the year and the new products currently on sale are on display, all kinds of models are dizzying, and the models made by model players (mostly GK) are also open for sale. In the past two years, WF has become the home of Liangxiao Club and its friends, and it is rarely matched in terms of booth size and the number of new products.

Hey? Right? What about new model games like "One Piece"? People played on their own. Megahobby, the manufacturer of the One Piece P.O.P series and a subsidiary of Bandai, is now competing with WF. The display of the new products in the water is mainly in the direction of juvenile manchu workers, which forms a sharp contrast with WF's house works.

ComicMarket

This is probably the most familiar anime exhibition for anime fans, and CM has been held twice a year for more than 80 sessions since 1975. CM is the world's largest doujinshi live sales conference, and in many anime works (such as "Lucky Star", "Xianshiyan", and "My Sister"), there are scenes of fans participating in the "Holy War" in a rage. After the end of CM every year, the same CP statistics have also become a great joy in the comic circle.

It can be said that most of the various doujinshi anime exhibitions in China have been strongly influenced by CM.

epilogue

Comics is not a narrow culture, and comic conventions around the world have exuded a different kind of brilliance because of local characteristics and customs. Compared with these mature and unique comic exhibitions, although China's comic conventions are a little immature, they are gradually moving steadily in the direction of diversification. Just as Comic Con in San Diego is full of heroism and Angoolam's Comic-Con Festival is full of art, Comic-Con is often an extension of native culture. When Guoman can take the lead one day, China will definitely have a world-renowned animation festival. We look forward to that day.