The Angoulême International Comics Festival has announced its lineup for "Worldwide Comics Explosion," a special program launched to mark the French's festival 50th anniversary and to shine the spotlight on ten emerging comic artists from around the globe.
Taiwanese comic artist Ding Pao-yen (丁柏晏) who creates comics under the pen name Morning Anxiety (日安焦慮) has been chosen as one of the ten featured artists with his comic book "Road to nowhere (世界邊緣之旅)." He previously self-published this book and it was later released in French by Misma, a French publishing house.
The other nine artists chosen for the special program include Anabel Colazo from Spain, Tunlaya Dunn from Thailand, Ha Min-Seok from South Korea, M.S. Harkness from the United States, Erlend Hjortland Sandoy from Norway, Juliana Hyrri from Finland, Sole Otero from Argentina, Mathilde Van Gheluwe from Belgium and Zuzu from Italy.
Born in 1988, Morning Anxiety was previously selected for the 2019 artists-in-residence program in the French city of Angoulême. He has been self-publishing works since 2014. This year, he collaborated with Slowork Publishing (慢工文化) and released his first commercial art book "Console, 2073 (2073年的電子玩具)" in Taiwan. The purpose of this creation is to convey his feelings towards technology and loneliness, and through his work, he hopes to immerse readers in the same emotions.
Held annually since 1974, the Angoulême International Comics Festival is the second-largest comics festival in Europe and the third-largest in the world. It has become a highly respected event featuring exhibitions, fan meetups, and conferences. The four-day event is also notable for awarding prestigious prizes for comics, attracting more than 200,000 visitors each year.
(Photo courtesy of Morning Anxiety)