Comic Con' France, Season 2

Comic Con’ France, the Festival of Popular Arts, is the can’t-miss European event for fans of Fantastic, Fantasy, Science Fiction and Comics!

A contraction of “Comics” and “Convention”, Comic Con’ France has been referring to the inevitable American events about cult universes for 40 years. The principle is to celebrate, in one place, all the Fantastic cultures, which developed thanks to Comics and Pulp magazines during the 20th century, soon joined by Science Fiction and Fantasy literatures, by Films, TV and now Video games.

The festival thus celebrates an eclectic and under-estimated culture which often raises questions and which lacked a yearly meeting for fans and people who are curious about these themes. Super-heroes, fantastic, Science Fiction, horror, robotics or even witchcraft; come and discover Comic Con’ France, the largest European event about popular arts!

Like every year, Comic Con’ France is linked to a touchstone event which is over 10 years old, Japan Expo. This association allows everyone to discover the tendencies in entertainment and culture of all the countries in the world, in one place and at the same time. Comics, Manga, Asian and American films, computer and consol video games and much more immerse you for four days in the hearts of these communities and cult universes!

The history of Comic Con’ France 2009 in pictures
The history of guests
Japan Expo’s website

Comic Books & Comics

American Comic imagination, an important part of today’s culture in the USA, was born in the early 20th century in badly crafted magazines and were very successful among younger and older people. New, cheap, original and varied, they soon became an essential element of popular culture although the intelligentsia remained skeptical at the time. In 1938, Spiderman was born and along with him creative artists, authors and illustrators who laid the bases of the fantastic and Science Fiction universes who were to become cult.

Comic books and Comics are the cornerstones of Comic Con’ France. Comic authors cross the oceans to be there and many Franco-Belgian authors are in for it: the groups ComicVerse and Café Salé, publishers such as Soleil, les Humanoïdes Associés, Ankama, Delcourt, Glénat and much more!

Cinema & TV Series

Cult universes belong above all to an image culture. In movies or on TV, the greatest cult universes were born ahead of their time: from George Méliès to George Lucas, there is an ongoing will to innovate, not only from a graphic point of view, but also from a thematic point of view. Keeping the foundations of fantastic, fantasy, horror, Science Fiction… literatures, adapted as films, cinema allows a whole generation of young fans of “images” to gather around graphically accomplished new universes. Long before cinema, TV was already at work. From Star Trek in 1966 to Heroes in 2006, forty years have elapsed but TV still offers as many cult universes when it comes to Science Fiction, Super-heroes and fantastic. More than ever, cinema and TV series belong to Comic Con’ France thanks to many guests!

Video Games

As a new media which has been expanding for 20 years now, video games today are the first cultural industry in the world. Often referring to films or Comics, video games also show great know-how and innovation: in Europe, in the USA or in Japan, games are amazingly revived thanks to processes which were only used for films, literature or pictorial arts up to now: the making, the acting, the scriptwriting, the music or the 2D and 3D graphic arts. Often ahead of their time, video games are getting attractive to more and more great artists. There are many of them and famous names from cinema or music give in to this new expression media.

Video games are more than present at Comic Con’ France! Also associated with Japan Expo, the video games area of the festival is an important part of it and one of the largest in Europe: publishers, online video game amateur developer and clubs organizing ongoing freeplay and tournaments during four days display on thousands meters square to celebrate video games and the hundreds cult universes and persistent worlds that are present!

Card games, board games, miniature wargaming...

Beyond video games, game cultures have been abounding with works of all kind for centuries. In a quiet and passionate area, you can find at Comic Con’ France classic strategy games, from Chess to Shôgi, and Othello or Backgammon. There are other games too as well as cult universes! For example, Trading Card Games (Magic the Gathering, Epic, World of Warcraft, etc.), board games, miniature wargaming (Star Wars Miniatures, Arcane Legions, etc.) and of course role playing games and Murder Party!

Comic Con’ Cosplay

Even if the word is rather used when talking about Manga, it sums up perfectly well this trend observed by a Japanese journalist in the 80s. The boom of Costume Playing dates back to the 60s and the irreverent fans of Star Trek, doomed to be called Trekkies and seen as insane by the media. Yet the trend went on and forty years later is stronger than ever. At Comic Con’ the principle of American Masquerades gained ground, following the unbelievable success of Cosplay at Japan Expo, and proposes shows and aisles the color of a never-ending carnival. Bump into Star Wars legions, Marvel and DC Super-heroes and even characters created from scratch by fans of life size role playing games! A total change of scenery!

Science Fiction and Fantasy Literatures

The three great names of Science Fiction had said so: Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein had predicted that the evolution of mankind, Earth, robots, mutations and alien artefacts would be tomorrow’s concerns! These avant-gardist authors who were also scientists have literally created universes from scratch and foreseen the evolution of our society with a disturbing accuracy. Or is it rather Men who adapted reality to those fictions? Literature is still fascinating today. Jules Verne, Tolkien, Gaiman or King often are the origin of the greatest films, series or even video games. Whether they are inspiring or adapted, those works prove that writing is the primary source of imagination of cult universes.
Fantasy and Science Fiction authors, cover illustrators and famous literature publishers: all of them are at Comic Con’ France!

Home Films and Screenings

Because fans are the heart of Comic Con’ France, the festival has an area and a program dedicated to Home films. The expression is not pejorative and highlights the semi-professional and sometimes dazzling position of the creative self-proclaimed “amateurs”. A dedicated room, an exhibitor area and a Home “Flims” contest (a tribute to La Classe Américaine and George Abitbol!) expect the attendees to take part in these creations which must be tomorrow’s TV and cinema successes! Beyond home films, several screening rooms allow to discover series and films about to become cult –often sneak previews and exclusivities– with the support of TV channels and famous publishers and distributors.

Exhibitors

Publishers, shops, magazines, webzines, fanzines, exhibitions… Comic Con’ is the can’t-miss meeting point of popular arts! You have several choices: shopping, discoveries (sneak previews, product and game demonstration), meeting amateur creators (fanzines, home films, etc.), new licenses, real size movie props, and so much more! Thus you can discover professionals but also passionate club members, to enjoy a great experience among cult universes!

Robotics

© All rights reserved Modern imaginary robotics dates back to the 30s and 40s, with the golden age of Science Fiction in the USA but also with works such as Astro Boy, the little Japanese robot which is also the first cartoon broadcast as a series to follow every week on TV. Long before today’s technological progress, creators were very imaginative but had an irrefutable scientific logic. In films or video games, the same authors are concealed behind the concepts. Those concepts have come true now and fit perfectly at Comic Con’ France in the robotics area. Supported by the pioneer club Planète Sciences, organizer of French and European robotics tournaments, this subject from the future, catching up with the present, becomes an inevitable stage for all the brave travelers of Comic Con’ France!

Comic Con’ France is everything and even more… During four days join the fans in the first substantial event of this kind in Europe contribute to it!