10. Hercegnovski strip festival
To kick things off, I want to write about a comic festival I visited recently.
This September, the road took me to Montenegro, for the first time in my life, to visit Hercegnovski strip festival in Herceg Novi. It was the 10th edition of the festival and the organizers were promising it to be a blast. The festival starts every first Friday in September. This year it was from 2nd to 7th September. I was expecting a bit of sun, sea and comics, but it turned out to be a lot more.
The festival is organized by only three comic enthusiasts – Jovan, Nebojša and Nikola, and trust me they do an amazing job. They were pretty helpful during my visit, helped me arrange my stay during the festival, told me what to visit in Herceg Novi, and if you plan to visit the festival be sure to contact them.
The guests on the 10th edition of the festival were Will Simpson (Judge Dredd, Batman, Hellblazer, Game of Thrones), Mike Collins (Doctor Who, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Batman, Superman, Transformes, Spider-man), Walter Trono (Dragonero, Secret, Testa o Croce), Guillermo Ortego (Wolverine, Batman & Robin, Green Lantern, Archer & Armstrong), Milorad Vicanović Maza (Wunderwaffen, Lady Spitfire), Igor Kordej (Star Wars, Tarzan, Heavy Metal, Cable), Jana Adamović (Les 30 Deniers), Dragana Kuprešanin (Freelance artist) were some of the headliners.
Also some of the festival ”regulars” were Stevan Subić, Zoran Đukanović, Iztok Sitar, Renato Vladimir Renky, Luka Cakić, Vladimir Vesović and the young guns which are attending his comic school. Fun fact that most of the people that are ”regulars” come back here every year for more.
People are drawing everywhere, you can buy comics, original artwork, prints. Sit down and talk to artists in a relaxed atmosphere is what it is all about. The artists are working non-stop, drawing and signing for hours without breaks on anything (papers, shirts, you name it), so if you are planning to collect their drawings you don’t have to worry about that, everybody gets one here. You get to talk, sing, laugh, drink, see them draw, get to know strange details about the characters they worked on, pretty much you can do anything here. You have lectures, exhibitions, workshops in-between to keep you occupied all the time.
This year, the festival published the first comic magazine in Montenegro, which was pretty big. The plans for the next year festival are already in motion, the comic school in Herceg Novi started last month…
This small festival is drawing a lot of big names into Herceg Novi, and should be on your radars and calendars as a must-visit place/festival. A bit of sun, sea, comics, history and art in Herceg Novi. As soon as we get some info about the next festival, it will hopefully be posted on this blog. Also, check out and like their fb page: https://www.facebook.com/stripfestival
Jovan, one of the organizers said to me as I was leaving: ”You are family now, you have to come back next year!” And that is what I intend to do next year. Hope to see some of you there also!
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