Illustration Station is a series of meetings dedicated to the art of the book. The creator of the initiative is the artist Albena Limoni, and the format is aimed at both professionals and amateurs. We are joining forces with Albena to make the meetings even richer and more exciting.
On Sunday, November 17, 2024, from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m., we will hold another meeting ofIllustration Stationin the exhibition and event space KO-OP, this time dedicated to the topic of comic books. Together we will unravel the questions of what are the genres in comic books, what is a graphic novel, and how has digital drawing changed the comics industry.
In the first part of the event, we will hold a conversation with our special guests Anton Staykov, Kristian Andreev, and Anani Borisov. In the second part, we will look at comic books and discuss their construction. We invite visitors to bring books from their personal collection for us to look atthere. Some of the comic books we will focus on were provided by the library of the French Institute in Bulgaria.
Anton Staykov is an artist, journalist, researcher, PhD in the semiotics of advertising, teacher, and lecturer. He is the author of the award-winning books A Brief History of Bulgarian Comics (2013) and The Bulgarian Primer. 200 Years in the First Grade (2015), as well as the host of his own column, “The Book as Art,” on Bulgarian National Television (2017–2019), and a screenwriter of documentary films. Staykov has curated exhibitions in the fields of comic books, illustration, and visual arts. He is part of the team of the booksforkids.bg platform.
Kristian Andreev has many years of experience as a freelance artist, and he has also been involved in game designfor several years. A passionate fan of comic art and everything related to it, he is a graduate of the Sofia Arts High School.
Anani Borisov graduated from the Arts High School and Academy of Art in Sofia with a degree in illustration. He is actively involved in creating comic books. He is the author and artist of the series Tony the Duck, Bandit, Insomnium, and Bushido. In 2020, he founded his own publishing house, Prime Comics, thanks to which he publishes his comics independently.
The project was implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture. Admission is free. Everyone interested in the topic is welcome.
Albena Limoni on the decision to create Illustration Station:
“The first meeting took place in April 2024. The idea for these events came about quite naturally. I wanted the meetings that I had with illustrator friends of mine, but in a narrow circle, to break out of their small format. For us to be able both to see unfamiliar faces and to create a community of the sort we had not had until now. To look at books and to talk about paper, printing, artists, and everything else that excited us. The other goal I had was for these meetings to serve as a connection between artists and publishers. And before each event, I invite the participants to bring books from their personal collections and libraries so that we can look at them and discuss them together. It’s a joy for me that a lot of people attend the events, which is proof of the need for these meetings. Up till now I was doing this alone, but I now have the support of the Association for Culture and Literature, with the help of which we will be able to achieve even more.”
