The Latvians are coming!

The theme of this year's Helsinki Comics Festival is LGBT comics and their official guest country is Germany. But watch out, in 2014 the festival also faces it's biggest presence of Latvian comics (yet)!

illustration Sabīne Moore

While Sabīne Moore is already in Helsinki interning for Kutikuti for a couple of weeks, right in time for the festival time (5th-7th of September) more arrivals are expected - kuš! editors David and Sanita as well as the artists Dāvis Ozols, Laura Ķeņina and Līva Kandevica will be there. Instead of sharing one big Latvian table, we'll spread out all over the festival!


So here's a little overview of what you can expect from all of us:

kuš!

kuš! will have a stand in the big tent on Lasipalatsi. The newest books you can get are the mini kuš!  by the Latvian authors Oskars Pavlovskis, Rūta & Anete Daubure, Anna Vaivare and by the Finnish artist Roope Eronen.

Besides that,  kuš! also brings the Comix4= Exhibition to Helsinki. It will be on display in the public library in Arabia and will include comics by the Latvians Sabīne Moore and Laura Ķeņina. More info here. On Friday at 16.00 there will be a talk "Comix4= : Comics as a tool against racism" in Laituri.

Sabīne Moore

You can meet Sabīne at the table of Kutikuti, where she'll help out selling their excellent books and also will offer her very own stuff. Next to self-published comics she will bring special animal stickers, strawberry paintings and silkscreen-printed leggings! Watch out, last time they were selling fast!

The newest book she has on offer is 'Stuck' (27 pages, b/w) a comic she drew in Berlin, but now printed in a fancier glossy A5!

Sabīne will be also doing a workshop for children together with Emmi Valve on the theme of the alphabet (facebook event).

Līva Kandevica

Līva comes all the way from Germany. She will share a table together with Michel Eselbrügge, Jannis Eselbrügge and Julius Wagner with whom she made a zine called 'Fanart', in there you can read her sexy alien lady story.

Her own zine is called 'THNX #1', it's A5 with several black and white pages.

Dāvis Ozols

Dāvis will share a table with Laura (see below) in the small press tent. He will have some of his landscape drawings on offer and his brand new book/zine 'Budapest, There and Back Again.' It's 32 pages, A5 format and in full color. Here's an excerpt:

Laura Ķeniņa

Laura will share a table with Dāvis (see above) in the small press tent. Laura has printed a brand new comic for Helsinki as well! It is called 'She Wants to Tell Me'. Two women find a severed ear in a Riga park one night and fall into a summer romance. A5, 32 pages, colour, offset.

Laura's work will also be part of the Comix4= exhibition and in the exhibition Rainbow Shades – True Life and Fiction in LGBTI Comics with Joana Estrela, Lilli Loge, Hazel Newlevant & Martina Schradi at the Kallio Public Library, Viides linja 1.

So see you all in Helsinki and look out for those colorful Latvian comics!