At the 2014 Angoulême International Comics Festival in France, 7 Taiwanese cartoonists sketched cartoons featuring horses, attracting the attention of many visitors.
The Taiwan Pavilion’s theme is “Traveling with Comics,” and several cartoonists shared their travel experiences in forums. A large post box has also been installed at the venue for visitors to send postcards printed with Taiwan-drawn comics. The staff will bring the postcards back to Taiwan and send them to the French readers.
Visitor:
This is like an adventure, getting to know some beautiful things I’ve never known before.
French comic fans saw different storyboard drawing skills in Taiwan comics. Taiwanese cartoonists also got to know the French comics industry better by attending the festival.
Taiwanese cartoonist Hsiao Chuang:
After watching the exhibition, we found their productivity, the depth of historical studies, and completion of scripts all very impressive.
Taiwanese cartoonist Yeh Yu-tung:
I hope the experience of visiting a foreign country and seeing a different world can help me draw more diverse works.
Taiwanese cartoonist Kinono:
For them, reading comics is very normal for adults. So as a cartoonist, I certainly hope one day this becomes very common in Taiwan.
Launched 40 years ago, the Angoulême festival is the largest of its kind in Europe, attracting over 200,000 visitors every year. This year is the fourth time Taiwan made its showing here, and the three award-winning cartoonists were featured on the festival’s official website.
The only regret for the Taiwanese cartoonists was that they did not have French editions of all their comics, which made it slightly difficult to introduce their contents to local readers. Nevertheless, the Taiwan Pavilion still attracted many visitors who asked for their autographs and took pictures with them.