Safari Festival celebrates ‘new waves in contemporary comics’

Founded by publisher Breakdown Press, the event aims to give more exposure to interesting contemporary comic work.

Tom Oldham, Breakdown Press co-founder, says,  ‘We felt there was a gap for forward thinking interesting cartooning work and wanted to run an event that reflected that and the comics and illustration we’re excited about’.

He adds, ‘It’s an interesting time for cartooning and graphic art in that a lot of the exhibitors are heavily influenced by fine art and other media outside of comics and cartooning, and that can usually produce more interesting things – especially with narrative works’.

The 30-odd exhibitors have been hand-picked for the one-day event, and include Jack Teagle, Puck Collective, Rob Flowers, Sina Sparrow and James Jarvis.

Joe Kessler, the man behind the flyer and branding for the event, will also be showing his work.

According to Oldham, the sort of work that exited the festival organisers is ‘more avant garde’, with much of the work taking inspiration from North American comic artists and publishers such as PictureBox Press, Montreal-based publisher Drawn and Quarterly, and fellow Canadians Koyama Press.

As well as comics, Safari Festival will also present artwork and prints.

Safari Festival takes place from 11am to 6pm, on 30 August at Protein, 31 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EY. The festival is free to attend.