In its nineteenth edition, which will take place from September 5 to 10, the Herceg Novi Comic Festival (HSF), in addition to the already announced twelve spectacular special guests and a fantastic art and music program, brings dozens more phenomenal programs and guests that place this event at the very top of European and world comics.
Thus, this year, the most influential comic book author of all time, Jill Thompson, will once again be in Herceg Novi, whose personal desire is to become a permanent guest of HSF. Along with her, also from the United States, one of the most famous screenwriters – Joan Starer, whose comic is on the walls of the Smithsonian museum, as well as the editor-in-chief of Heavy Metal magazine, Dave Kelly, will be with us.
At this year’s edition of HSF, there will also be regional well-known superstars of the American market, Esad Ribić and Goran Sudžuka, while in an extremely interesting exhibition, after ten years, Herceg Novi will once again present one of the world’s most sought-after authors, Stevan Subić.
The exhibition program will be completed by a non-series exhibition dedicated to Hugo Pratt, which HSF realizes in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Italy.
Presentations of the biggest current editions of the regional scene, as a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Miki Muster, were prepared by the great Slovenian, Pia Nikolic, while young authors Sara Novaković (Serb) and Silva and Sara Dervanović (MNE) will also present themselves. Milko Peko and Vladimir Davidenko will present their exceptional comic strip about the life of St. Jerome, in the Herzegovinian church dedicated to this saint, and the three-day comic workshops for the youngest will be led by the outstanding Srđan Stamenković Srle. The Herzegnov Comic Festival in cooperation with the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development is also preparing the eco-action “Comic heroes against sea pollution” in which participants will be rewarded with festival posters of special guests.
HSF received confirmation of its recognition in the European framework by being invited to be part of the international project “Comics Beyond”, which is realized in cooperation with the Museum of Comics in Brussels, Comicon from Naples, and festivals in Amiens, France and Amadora, Portugal, and thus the multimedia spectacle “Moby Dick City Blues”, whose authors are Italian artists Cosimo Miorelli and Stefano Becini, is coming to Herceg Novi. The visual identity of the poster – “Comics is love” and other promotional material of the festival, this year is due to the Italian Oscar Scalco, who, together with Anna Lazarini, Claudia Avella, Sergio Mancinelli, Andrea Enrique, Alessandro Giordano and Francesco Filippini, will never present the Italian comics scene more strongly.
“There will be other international stars with us, great cartoonists Christoph Bataillon, Sara Burini, Artiom Trahanov and Aleksej Ivanov, and like every year, the audience can count on seeing the HSF Ambassador in the world, the phenomenal William Simpson, in Herceg Novi. Along with the biggest stars of the regional scene, Aleksa Gajić, Jovan Ukropin, Iztok Sitar, Štef Bartolić, Krešimir Biuk, Luka Cakić, Bob Solanović, Bora Grbić, Vuk Popadić, the audience will socialize and enjoy the works of over a hundred authors”, the HSF press release states.
