A festival for new age visual storytellers

The first edition of the Delhi Comic Arts Festival (DeCAF) 2017 will be held at the India International Centre (IIC) from December 4 to 6. This festival has been created for comic creators, particularly the new generation of visual storytellers, professionals who are associated to the many branches directly connected to the world of comics and audiences who are looking for more diversity and range in the world of graphic storytelling.

Established superheroes and cartoon figures are not the focus of this festival. They already have several platforms and resources to showcase themselves. At DeCAF you will get to hear and meet new graphic storytellers from India and abroad as they make presentations about their projects, their work and their experiences.

DeCAF 2017 features a prominent international and Indian presence. These include the Artistic Director of the Fumetto Comics Festival, Jana Jakoubek from Switzerland along with Pierre Thome and Lika Nuessli who will be at DeCAF. Reinhard Kleist, an artist of great repute along with Arne Jysch from Germany will be attending. As will be the creator of the new Superhero (the Urban Legend) Josef Yohannes from Norway, Bia Bittencourt (curator) from Brazil, Bettina Egger from Austria, Miguel Gallardo from Spain and Amruta Patil from France.

From India, names who have made a strong impact in the world of comics will also be present for the event. Artists like Vishwajyoti Ghosh, Kaveri Gopalakrishnan, Appupen, Priya Kuriyan, Bharath Murthy along with editors like Karthika V.K, Urvashi Butalia can all be seen and heard at the festival.

As part of the festival, there will be an exhibition of 250 artworks spread around the campus of IIC featuring works by the participating artists as well as others.

"In the past, when I started dabbling with comics as an Editor, there weren't too many people working with the medium in India. Very few were supported by the big publishing houses and almost nobody then and even now, have been able to make sense of the commercial dynamics. People are still doing it out of their love for the medium and it is great to see that the number of people creating comics has grown significantly in the country. Many new independent publishing houses have shown praiseworthy initiative and presented comics in diverse narratives. We hope to soon create similar versions of this festival and travel to other cities of India. With this festival we hope to boost the culture of visual storytelling in the country and create a platform for graphic storytellers from all around India," says Anindya Roy, Director of the Delhi Comic Arts Festival.

DeCAF 2017 is organized in collaboration with India International Centre in association with, Max Mueller Bhavan/Goethe Institut, Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, Alliance Française de Delhi, Embassy of Norway, The Austrian Cultural Forum, Cervantes Institute, Embassy of Spain, Embassy of Brazil, Norla and Hochschule Luzern who have all extended their support to this festival.