kuš!

Angouleme 2012

2012-01-30T16:12:00.000+02:00

We have just received the unbelievable news that (ku)š! #9 won the

FAUVE D’ANGOULEME – PRIX DE LA BANDE DESSINÉE ALTERNATIVE 2012 (ALTERNATIVE COMICS AWARD in ANGOULEME)

We are still very baffled by this and just want to thank and congratulate all the previous kuš! contributors and especially the contributors of š! #9 'female secrets' who where Akvilė Misevičiūtė (Lithuania), Alice Sola Kim (USA), Anete Melece (Latvia), Angie Wang (USA), Anita Rupeika (Latvia), Anja Wicki (Switzerland), Anna Deflorian (Italy), Anna Vaivare (Latvia), Betty Liang (Canada), Dunja Janković (Croatia), Emily Carroll (Canada), Husmann/Tschäni (Switzerland), Ieva Gvazdaitytė (Lithuania), Inés Estrada (Mexico), Ingrīda Pičukāne (Latvia), Jen Wang (USA), Kirsten Carina Geißer (Germany), Kris Mukai (USA), Lala Albert (USA), Lilli Loge (Germany), Māra Viška (Latvia), Mickey Zacchilli (USA), Queen Lü.Q. (Switzerland), Renata Gąsiorowska (Poland), Rūta Briede (Latvia), Sabīne Moore (Latvia), Sarah Mazzetti (Italy), Sophia Foster-Dimino (USA) Zejian Shen (China) and our awesome co-editor for this issue Ryan Sands (USA)

š! #9 with the cover by Inés Estrada contains stories from female artists from all over the world on 164 full color pages and still is available here!

Also take a look at the other award winners and the previous alternative award winners as well as the very strong competitors we had. We are highly looking forward to next year's festival, where according to tradition we will be part of the jury to select the next winner, just a bit sad that we can't take part anymore.

Two-headed comics artist

2012-01-24T10:59:00.001+02:00

The biggest Latvian daily DIENA shocked its readers today with this picture of a two-headed comics artist on its front cover.

The title of the story reads: "Different view on comics". And below the picture it says "everything alright, but". Turns out it is just a marketing trick, because as you open the newspaper you can see this artist is actually two artists, not only with two heads, but also two bodies.

Some people might be slightly disppointed, but we are happy that they featured a story about our Nordicomics/Naturegraffix exhibition and interviewed kuš! contributors Ruta Briede and Martins Zutis on spot, as well as Oskars Pavlovskis and Dace Sietina via phone to Lisbon and Gouda.

If you want to read the whole article, you might have to buy the newspaper. The main content is that comics are not what you expect from a media with such a comical name and there are more details about kuš!, the artists themselves, the exhibition and the upcoming comics battle in Nabaklab.

"sorry, I am so busy"

2012-01-18T16:17:00.001+02:00

Simon Häußle just has to be one of the lovliest artists ever! He sent us this beautiful drawing because his submission for the upcoming š! #10 "sea stories" was three days late.

We have no idea how he found the time to make this drawing. But we love it! However the scheduling of the issue should not be severely impacted and it should be out by the end of February.

Preorder š! # 10 'sea stories' from our webshop.

Cēsu Alus dizaina konkurss turpinās!

2012-01-18T13:01:00.000+02:00

Cēsu Alus dizaina konkurss turpinās!

Kā jau iepriekš ziņojām, A/S Cēsu Alus ir izsludinājis dizaina konkursu Cēsu Premium National Edition alus skārdeņu noformējumam. Konkursa darbu iesniegšana jau rit pilnā sparā, bet nekas vēl nav beidzies. Ja jūti sevī spēku un azartu un, ja Tev ir ar ko lepoties, droši parādi savu varēšanu. Darbi konkursam tiek pieņemti vēl līdz 29. janvārim!

Atgādinām konkursa nosacījumus - darba dizainā izmantojamas četras konkursa nolikumā norādītās krāsas, kā arī divas citas - pēc savas brīvas izvēles. Tomēr ņem vērā, ka dizaina pamatkrāsai ir jābūt sarkanai un dizainam ir jāatbilst Cēsu Premium alus zīmolam.

Konkursa darbu vērtēšanas kritēriji:

- atbilstība tēmai - National Edition
- atbilstība Cēsu Premium zīmolam
- oriģinalitāte
- radošais izpildījums

Uzcep jautru, stilīgu un pārsteidzošu skārdenes dizainu un, iespējams, Tavā labo darbu sarakstā būs
pašam sava alus bundža, bet kontā apaļi 1000 EUR!

Lai veicas!

Vairāk par konkursa noteikumiem lasi: www.cesupremium.lv

Behind The Comics I (Lars Sjunnesson)

2012-01-17T17:13:00.010+02:00

In theater to get to know more you look behind the curtains and in films you look behind the scenes - we thought it would be interesting to have a glimpse behind the comics created for kuš! and herewith we start this new series "Behind The Comics" in which kuš artists will give you an insight into their work.

The series starts off with Berlin-based artist Lars Sjunnesson from Sweden. He currently doesn't have a website, but to get to know him better you can check Comicstills.com or Sanatorium.se.

Lars was guarding Marcos Farrajota’s cats at the Chilicomcarne headquarter in Lisbon. There he discovered some issues of š! and decided to make his own comics contribution for us. Strange ways how artists discover us... Now Lars has finished the story "Strange Shit At Sea" for our next issue (š! #10 'sea stories'), he sent us some pictures and tells us the following:

I like to combine stuff that doesn't work together, like crayons or felt pens on acrylic color and then work it over with scalpel-blades or something.

The alternative would be to use normal pens on normal paper, which seems a bit boring. I don't know.

A good story writes itself. You can't force a story to become something it doesn't want to be. And never use your brain while you're working.

Sketches never work, so I never do any sketches. If I'm asked to show sketches of my work I always do them after I've completed the real drawings, which means that all my sketches are fakes. Like this one.

Josip Broz Tito. The main character in the book 'Bosnian Flat Dog'. His uniform is a bit dusty and needs a brush up, otherwise he's fine.

The cats are puking in the background.

The two girls are called Ikü and Üki. They are twins or something... I've used them in other stories before this one.

Nature. Can it be trusted? This is the main theme of most of my stories right now.

Thanks a lot to Lars Sjunnesson for this entertaining insight! Hopefully soon other artists will also tell us more what is going on behind their comics!

Pre-order š! #10 'sea stories' from our webshop.

Naturegraffix Workshop

2012-01-16T17:17:00.001+02:00

Last week before the opening of our Naturegraffix/ Nordicomics exhibition we had a workshop in Riga led by Estonian animator and comics artist Liza Salmin.

The workshop was attended by participants from Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Here you can find a digital shelf of the workshop comics: http://www.naturegraffix.info/comiczinelibrary.html

An excerpt of one of our most favourite stories created by Liva and Laura Aboltina we would like to share with you here:

Dizaina konkurss Cēsu alus skārdenei

2012-01-13T14:48:00.000+02:00

Cēsu alus ir izsludinājis interesantu konkursu – jārada dizains Cēsu Premium National Edition alus skārdenei. Uzvarētāja dizains jau šogad nonāks ražošanā un veikalu plauktos. Papildus nevīstošai slavai uzvarētājs saņems arī 1000 Eiro. Ir vērts piedalīties!

Konkursa tēma National Edition. Tas ir veltījums vērtībām, notikumiem, vietām un lietām, kas mūs iedvesmo mūsu zemē Latvijā.

Darba dizainā var izmantot četras mājas lapā norādītās krāsas, kā arī divas citas pēc savas brīvas izvēles, tomēr ņem vērā, ka dizaina pamatkrāsai ir jābūt sarkanai un dizainam ir jāatbilst Cēsu Premium alus zīmolam. Darbus var iesniegt līdz 2012. gada 29. janvārim.

Vērtēšanas kritēriji

· atbilstība tēmai

· atbilstība Cēsu Premium zīmolam

· oriģinalitāte

· radošais izpildījums

Vairāk par konkursa noteikumiem lasi: www.cesupremium.lv

NORDICOMICS un NATUREGRAFFIX

2012-01-05T15:53:00.002+02:00

Komiksu kultūras žurnāls kuš! piedāvā divas starptautiskas komiksu ekspozīcijas: NORDICOMICS un NATUREGRAFFIX

No 12.janvāra līdz 12.februārim kultūras platformāNabaklab skatāmas divas starptautiskas komiksu mākslas izstādes NORDICOMICS un NATUREGRAFFIX, ko piedāvā komiksu žurnāls kuš!.

Izstādes atklāšana 11.janvārī plkst. 19:00.

NORDICOMICS ir ceļojoša Baltijas un Skandināvijas jauno komiksu mākslinieku izstāde, kurā

Latviju pārstāv Oskars Pavlovskis un Mārtiņš Zutis. Izstādes ietvaros no 7.- 10. februārim notiks komiksu darbnīcas Latvijas un ārvalstu komiksu māksliniekiem no Igaunijas, Lietuvas, Somijas, Dānijas, kurās kopā tiks radīti grafiskie stāsti par Rīgu.

NATUREGRAFFIX ir jauna starptautiska komiksu antoloģija, kas iznāks reizi gadā. Tajā publicētajos vizuālajos stāstos mākslinieki pēta un atklāj dabas un cilvēku savstarpējās attiecības. Rīgā būs skatāmi darbi no nupat sagatavotā pirmā izdevuma “Ekoloģija pret urbānismu”, kurā apkopoti Somijas, Zviedrijas, Norvēģijas, Beļģijas, Vācijas, Latvijas un Igaunijas mākslinieku komiksi. Latviju pārstāv Endrju, Rūta Briede, Maija Līduma, Mārtiņš Zutis, Oskars Pavlovskis, Kristians Brekte, Dace Sietiņa un Kristofers Reidzāns.

NATUREGRAFFIX ietvaros, 11. janvārī pirms izstādes atklāšanas, Nabaklab notiks komiksu darbnīca, kurā piedalīties aicināts ikviens interesents. Darbnīcas norises laiks no 14:00 – 18:00. Kopīgai komiksu radīšanai ar Lietuvas un Igaunijas māksliniekiem var pieteikties rakstot uz kushmens(at)gmail(.)com. Darbnīcu vadīs komiksu un animācijas filmu autore Liza Salmina no Igaunijas.

Izstādes atklāšanas laikā apmeklētājiem audiālas ainavas piedāvās VairākKaunaNavTu tur Tu turutuu tuu Pim pa rampam pum Vau http://soundcloud.com/vairak-kauna-nav

Izstādi 8. februārī noslēgs komiksu cīņas, kurās zīmēšanas spēkiem mērosies izstādē pārstāvētie mākslinieki.

Ielūguma ilustrācijas autors: Endrju

remember planking?

2011-12-26T12:13:00.002+02:00

Well planking is soooo yesterday! It is followed by a much smarter trend: kušing. It is also easier, just hold the newest issue of (ku)š! in your face (or somewhere else) and take a picture. Here are some samples:

(1) http://bettyliang.tumblr.com/post/13643491204/hey-guys-i-just-got-my-s-9-female-secrets

(2) http://comixcube.com/2011/12/07/the-underground-is-emptying-my-wallet-bcgf-2011/
(advanced version involves wearing a Same Hat shirt!)

(3) http://inechi.tumblr.com/post/13796021763/kus

(4) http://nakedbearladies.tumblr.com/post/13812475221/comics-from-latvia-i-didnt-realize-it-but-this

(5) http://junction-at-therailroaddelayed.tumblr.com/post/14784637314/s-9-female-secrets

(6) http://www.kirstencarina.blogspot.com/2011/12/kus-9-female-secrets.html

(3) E-mail attachment by König Lü.Q.

You surely don't want to miss out on this, so better get yourself a copy of š! # 9 'female secrets' or of any other (ku)š! You can also be part of it by just reading (ku)š! without taking any picture. Suit yourself!

(8) http://kushkomikss.blogspot.com/2011/12/remember-planking.html

There are no limits to kušing. Also reverse kušing is much fun as you can see in pic 8. Feel free to send us your kušing pics, or just do it in private, like lots of others. So far, apart from procrastination, there are no reports of adverse effects by this!

š! 'midnight sun' portraits

2011-12-18T12:43:00.001+02:00

In November we released our special Finnish issue: š! #8 'midnight sun' (get your copy here). It contains comics from some of the best current comics artists from Finland. John Porcellino commented it like this: "The new issue is the ALL-FINNISH issue, and if you're an aficionado of European comics, you know the Finnish are producing some of the most brilliant and cutting-edge comics today. Featuring an all-star cast of contributors. Highly recommended!". What wasn't mentioned here so far is, that also Latvian artist contributed to this issue! They didn't make comics, but they drew portraits of each Finnish artists for our bio pages, and now we would like to share them with you also here:

Aino Sutinen drawn by Kristofers Reidzans

Amanda Vähämäki by Maija Liduma

Anna Sailamaa drawn by Anna Vaivare

Evan Androutsopoulos drawn by Oskars Veilands-Kustikovs

Henrik Duncker drawn by Gatis Kurzemnieks

Jaakko Pallasvuo drawn by UKNO

Jari Vaara drawn by Martins Zutis

Jarno Latva-Nikkola drawn by Dace Sietina

Jyrki Heikkinen drawn by Sasa Davidovs

Karri Laitinen drawn by Sabine Moore

Katja Tukiainen drawn by Anita Rupeika

Katri Sipiläinen drawn by Ernests Klavins

Kuningas Lü. Q. drawn by Endrju

Marko Turunen drawn by Ruta Briede

Mari Ahokoivu drawn by Reinis Petersons

Mikko Väyrynen drawn by Ingrida Picukane

Mikko Luostarinen drawn by Maija Kurseva

Roope Eronen drawn by Bulats Ratkevics

Tommi Musturi drawn by Anete Melece

Ville Hänninen drawn by Aivars Baranovs

To see more of the inside of this issue you can take a look at our website or our tumblr or well, best is you really get yourself a real copy!

Drink & Draw

2011-12-03T22:03:00.000+02:00

Last Thursday we again met for our monthly Drink & Draw session. This time we actually also drew. Below you can see some of the doodles by Reinis Petersons, Ingrida Picukane, Oskars Veilands-Kustikovs and UKNO. If you want you can purchase them too. They make a lovely Comicsmas gift and also help to support kuš!, as the proceeds will go directly 50/50 to the artists and to the production of our next issue. What the next issue is about, you might figure out in some of these doodles:

If you liked these doodles head over to our webshop and get yourself some original drawings from Latvia!

Get š! #9 'female secrets' now

2011-12-01T13:45:00.001+02:00

Get our newest issue š! #9 'female secrets' now! It cost only $ 12.00 (shipping and handling already included!) and contains stories by 27 international female cartoonists on 164 pages!

Format: A6, 164 pages, full-color, glued binding, English.
Get it: Click paypal button above and get it for $ 12.00

Cover by: Inés Estrada (Mexico). Artists: Akvilė Misevičiūtė (Lithuania), Alice Sola Kim (USA), Anete Melece (Latvia), Angie Wang (USA), Anita Rupeika (Latvia), Anja Wicki (Switzerland), Anna Deflorian (Italy), Anna Vaivare (Latvia), Betty Liang (Canada), Dunja Janković (Croatia), Emily Carroll (Canada), Husmann/Tschäni (Switzerland), Ieva Gvazdaitytė (Lithuania), Inés Estrada (Mexico), Ingrīda Pičukāne (Latvia), Jen Wang (USA), Kirsten Carina Geißer (Germany), Kris Mukai (USA), Lala Albert (USA), Lilli Loge (Germany), Māra Viška (Latvia), Mickey Zacchilli (USA), Queen Lü.Q. (Switzerland), Renata Gąsiorowska (Poland), Rūta Briede (Latvia), Sabīne Moore (Latvia), Sarah Mazzetti (Italy), Sophia Foster-Dimino (USA) Zejian Shen (China). Guest Editor: Ryan Sands (USA).

Have a sneak peek at some of the pages inside on our tumblr

Interested in our other issues? Then visit our webshop!

Mikro-komiksu konkurss noslēdzies!

2011-11-28T21:12:00.003+02:00

Rūta Briede

Paldies visiem ilustrāciju un mikro-komiksu autoriem, kuri atsaucās pirms pāris nedēļām Kafka kafijas un kuš! izsludinātajam aicinājumam uzzīmēt to, kā nevar dzīvot bez kafijas! Zīmējumus saņēmām gan pa vienam, gan kolekcijās. Turklāt par lielu pārsteigumu viena ilustrācija atceļojusi arī no Japānas.

Svētku sezonā KAFKA kafijas pakas rotāsies ar Reiņa Pētersona, UKNO, Rūtas Briedes un Mārtiņa Zuša zīmējumiem. Veicināšanas balva arī Ivaram no stulbums.com.

UKNO

Rūta Briede

Reinis Pētersons


Mārtiņš Zutis

BUY COMIX DAY

2011-11-26T17:29:00.005+02:00

Today is the international BUY NOTHING DAY as well as the international SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESS DAY, so it is certainly a great day for just buying comics. Slightly inspired by the Comics Reporter's holiday shopping list we decided to create our own list and suggest you to buy some things from international Small Press we love. The list is in no particular order:

- Café con leche

Small press from Mexico lead by Inés and Roi. Full of great bargains. Sweep through, we just got ourselves Mitocondria but can also warmly recommend GANG BANG BONG, or any of the beautiful stickers!

- SPIT AND A HALF

Zine and comix distribution service provided by John Porcellino since 1992. Get yourself the new King Cat, issue #72 (!)

- KUTI KUTI

Cutting-edge comics from Finland! They currently sell prints and original artwork to support their studio. We also recommend to subscribe to Kuti!

- KOYAMA PRESS

One of the most interesting new publishers around, supporting amazing new artists from Canada and abroad. Among everything else we suggest you to get LOSE #3 by š! #7 contributor Michael DeForge.

- LE DERNIER CRI

French publisher specialized in sick screen and comics with a very low print run. They have exhibitions all over the world and last year we were happy to host them in Latvia. A print by Léo Quievreux will certainly make all your visitors envious!

- Retrofit Comics

Amazing project by Box Brown aiming to publish 17 books by 17 artists within 17 months or so. Among the first books is BOWMAN, a truly crazy retro science-fiction story by the insane š! #7 contributor Pat Aulisio.

- Drawn & Quarterly

These guys need no introduction. Everything they publish is just perfect. They can really suck the money out of your pockets, so watch out. Here we suggest the book "We are on our own" by kuš! #7 contributor Miriam Katin, the story of a mother and her daughter’s survival in WW2. Get this and basically everything else...

- Nobrow

Their goal is to be an "Independent publishing platform for illustration and the graphic arts that showcases some of the best talent out there today". They surely have succeeded... You might wanna consider getting Klaus by Richard Short.

- THE TREASURE FLEET

Connection of Édition Biografiktion, My Own Press, Salmiak & Ulama - some of the coolest small press guys from Germany. Get everything, but make sure you also get Brigitte by š! #5 contributor Aisha Franz.

- KABINETT
Probably the coolest comics gallery there is... If you write them nicely, they might even send you books you order, if not, you might have to go yourself to Vienna, to get this beauty by Simon Häußle directly from the comics machine.

- PictureBox

About themselves: "Online and in-print visual publisher and emporium Mildly hysterical but keeping it together. Sorta" . Surely when publishing 1-800 MICE, they kept it all together. We highly recommend to get this book by kuš! #7 contributor Matthew Thurber.

- Canicola

Fine comics publisher from Italy. They realized the amazing idea to make an alternative children comics book, which certainly is also a great read for adults. Seriously, get it! It also features work by some kuš! contributors: Anete Melece, Anna Deflorian and Brecht Vandenbroucke!

- Thickness

Mind-blowing anthology series of erotic comics edited by š! #9 guest editor Ryan Sands and Michael DeForge, who also did the cover above! Put this under your own Christmas tree!

- RABIT!!

(The !! stands for the rabbit's face!) They don't publish comics, but produce the most beautiful sketchbooks which you can use to draw comics in. Forget Moleskine, this is the new real thing for every creative artist!

- kuš! komikss

Yay, if you haven't noticed, that's us. You know by now, that reading kuš! saves your soul, but make sure to do it regularly. We, of course, highly suggest you to buy everything from our webstore! The drawing above is by kuš! regular Martins Zutis.

Ok that's it, we could make the list much longer, as there are lots of comics out there we love and you certainly would too... In case you think we seriously missed out on something (and you are surely right on this), then feel free to post your suggestion in the comments. You are very welcome to use it for shameless self-promotion!

female secrets revealed

2011-11-21T21:21:00.004+02:00

š! #9 'female secrets' is out! It contains stories by 27 international female cartoonists on 164 pages!

Cover by: Inés Estrada (Mexico). Artists: Akvilė Misevičiūtė (Lithuania), Alice Sola Kim (USA), Anete Melece (Latvia), Angie Wang (USA), Anita Rupeika (Latvia), Anja Wicki (Switzerland), Anna Deflorian (Italy), Anna Vaivare (Latvia), Betty Liang (Canada), Dunja Janković (Croatia), Emily Carroll (Canada), Husmann/Tschäni (Switzerland), Ieva Gvazdaitytė (Lithuania), Inés Estrada (Mexico), Ingrīda Pičukāne (Latvia), Jen Wang (USA), Kirsten Carina Geißer (Germany), Kris Mukai (USA), Lala Albert (USA), Lilli Loge (Germany), Māra Viška (Latvia), Mickey Zacchilli (USA), Queen Lü.Q. (Switzerland), Renata Gąsiorowska (Poland), Rūta Briede (Latvia), Sabīne Moore (Latvia), Sarah Mazzetti (Italy), Sophia Foster-Dimino (USA) Zejian Shen (China). Guest Editor: Ryan Sands (USA).

Have a look at some of the pages inside:

Angie Wang / Alice Sola Kim

Kirsten Carina Geißer

Zejian Shen and many more...

This issue was generously supported by: Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation

Format: A6, 164 pages, full-color, glued binding, English.
Get it: Order it from our webshop for only $12.00 (shipping and some free postcards included). After some days it will also be available in selected bookshops in Riga and around the world. The pictures above are pretty blurry, not like the print, so better get your real copy!

Piedalies starptautiskā komiksu darbnīcā Tallinā!

2011-11-16T15:47:00.000+02:00

Vēl 2 vietas brīvas komiksu darbnīcā Tallinā kopā ar starptautiskiem māksliniekiem! Lasi programmu un piesakies, sūtot ziņas par sevi - vārdu, uzvārdu, vecumu, un mazu portfolio līdz piektdienai, 18. novembrim uz epastu kushmens(at) gmail(.)com. Līdz svētdienas vakaram dosim atbildi.

Illustration by Bendik Kaltenborn

Nordicomics Baltic workshop
The Finnish Comics Society is hosting a Nordicomics workshop in Tallinn. The workshop will be held in Rotermanni keskus in central Tallinn, Estonia, at the Pop-up Koomiksikeskus from 5th to 9th of December 2011. At the same time there will be the Nordicomics Baltic exhibition, which showcases new comics from the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Main idea of the workshop is to work with other artists and network! The similar workshop has been held in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. More information about the Nordicomics program at www.nordicomics.info

Nordicomics workshop and Pop-up Koomiksikeskus is organized with the Finnish Institute of Estonia and with the funding from Nordic Culture Point.

What?
In the workshop all the participants will draw a comic of the theme "Tallinn". The comics are done during the workshop and they should be done on 8th of December, when the workshop ends. We will present the results of the workshop on Friday at the Pop-up Koomiksikeskus party. There can be as many pages as you like, just as long as they will be ready when the workshop ends. Pages should be done in black and white. The plan is to do a book of the comics, which we can present in the next workshop in Riga on January 2012.

When?
The working time will be from 5th to 8th December, on 9th December we will present the results of the workshop at the Pop-up Koomiksikeskus party.

More detailed schedule:

From Mon 5th to Thu 8th of December
12:00 meeting with all the participants (every morning!)
13:00-16:00 "Free time", touring the city or drawing
16:00-19:00 Drawing together at the Rotermanni keskus
19:00-20:00 Artist presentation

Fri 9th19:00 PRESENTATION of the results of the workshop
Pop-up Koomiksikeskus party

Where?
Rotermanni Keskus, Mere pst 4 Tallinn, Estonia.
The Finnish Comics Society is hosting a Pop-up Koomiksikeskus happening in Tallinn at the same place, which means exhibitions, workshops, parties and other cool events!

Who?
The workshop is for all comics artists, professionals and amateurs. We can offer you the accommodation, but unfortunately not travel costs. Minimum age: 18.

Female Secrets Cover revealed

2011-11-09T22:15:00.000+02:00

Inés Estrada from Mexico made the cover for our all female issue. It is a wrap around piece and here you can see the front of it:

The issue will be released on the 21st of November. If you want to be the first to get it, you can pre-order it here.

kuš! at Comica Comiket London

2011-11-08T17:50:00.000+02:00

We are very happy to announce that on Saturday the 12th of November we will have a stand at the Comicafestival in London. Come by and say hello to Ieva representing us there (our shadow office is finally coming out to the light).

Comica poster by Isaac Lenkiewicz.

THANKS A LOT to Paul Gravett for making this happen!!!

Mikro-komiksu konkurss par makro-garšīgo Kafka kafiju!

2011-11-07T21:47:00.000+02:00

KUŠ! SADARBĪBĀ AR KAFKA KAFIJU AICINA PIEDALĪTIES MIKRO-KOMIKSU PROJEKTĀ par tēmu KAFIJA!

Nevari dzīvot bez kafijas? Uzzīmē to!

Esi zvērējis vīgriežu tējai nekad pat nepieskarties kafeinizētajai dzirai? Pastāsti, kā iet!

Attiecības ar kafiju mēdz svārstīties visplašākajā amplitūdā - no degvielas dienas startam līdz hedonistiskai baudai, no sociālā lubrikanta līdz pedantisma esencei.

Ilustrācija: Gatis Kurzemnieks, š! #6

Uzzīmē mikro-komiksu vai mikro-ilustrāciju ar savu tēmas interpretāciju, un tas kļūs par vēstījumu uz KAFKA svaigi grauzdētas kafijas iepakojuma. Savukārt pats tiksi pie lielā maisa svaigi grauzdētas kafijas pēc izvēles!

Daži tehniski parametri, ko lūdzam ievērot:

- TIKAI melnbalti zīmējumi—iepakojumi tiek drukāti termodrukā, krāsu un papīru izvēles nav.

- maksimālais attēla izmērs—60x60mm; komiksa/ilustrācijas reprodukcija var būt mazāka par norādīto izmēru

- termiņš: svētdiena, 20.novembris

- komiksu vai ilustrāciju sūti Kušmenam uz kushmens(at)gmail(.)com

- rezultātu paziņošana: 24.novembrī

- balvu saņemšana: no 25.novembra līdz 20.decembrim

- fināla izlasē iekļautie darbi tiks izmantoti KAFKA kafijas pupiņu iepakojuma etiķešu dizainā periodā no š.g. 24.novembra līdz 2012.gada 20.martam.

- info par KAFKA kafiju te: Kafka kafija, facebook, twitter

Finnish Johnny Depp and comics come to town

2011-11-02T12:57:00.002+02:00

Last weekend (October 29th and 30th) in Dirty Deal together with Finnish Institute in Estonia we organized 2 workshops for 16 - 24 years old youngsters from Riga. Comics teacher Petri Koikkalainen came from Helsinki to lead the workshops together with Latvian artists Ingrīda Pičukāne and Reinis Pētersons.

Altogether 12 young people took part in workshops and learned how to develop characters, what to tell with pictures, how to deal with words, bubbles and when to leave the text completely out.
Participants met Clint Eastwood in a desert and found out how to draw a comics strip, how to tell a story about their home city, where to draw important details and what to leave in the background. Then a comics-real Johnny Depp arrived in Riga, where he went to the market and got into trouble straight away. Finally, everyone with pencils drew a story and saved him. Soon the comics made during the workshops will be published on the comics workshop blog, there you can find what happened later on.

Here are some impressions from the workshops:

Supported by the Finnish Institute in Estonia, the Embassy of Finland in Riga and Helsinki Comics Centre.

š! #9 "female secrets" preview

2011-11-01T17:35:00.007+02:00

In June we together with guest editor Ryan Sands announced an open call for female artists to contribute to š! #9 “female secrets”. We received well over 100 contributions by 97 international artists (including 27 from Latvia). The works were of utmost diversity and it took us a while to select the comics to be published. However, now after litres of sweat (gallons for Ryan) it is done and the issue soon will go be out (according to our printer on the 21st of November)! Here we proudly reveal the up-to-now secret artist list:

Akvilė Misevičiūtė (Lithuania) www.magicdust.molestar.org

Anete Melece (Latvia) www.anetemelece.lv

Angie Wang (USA) www.okchickadee.com

Anita Rupeika (Latvia) www.rupeika.info

Anja Wicki (Switzerland) www.anjawicki.ch

Anna Deflorian (Italy) http://cargocollective.com/annadeflorian

Anna Vaivare (Latvia) http://annavaivare.blogspot.com

Betty Liang (Canada) www.behance.net/bettyliang

Dunja Janković (Croatia) www.tripica.org

Emily Carroll (Canada) www.emcarroll.com

Husmann/Tschäni (Switzerland) www.husmanntschaeni.com

Ieva Gvazdaitytė (Lithuania) http://whitecardboard.blogspot.com

Inés Estrada (Mexico) http://inechi.com

Ingrīda Pičukāne (Latvia) www.ipicukane.id.lv

Jen Wang (USA) www.jenwang.net

Kirsten Carina Geißer (Germany) www.kirstencarina.blogspot.com

Kris Mukai (USA) www.krismukai.com

Lala Albert (USA) www.plslala.com

Lilli Loge (Germany) www.lilliloge.de

Māra Viška (Latvia) www.viska.lv

Mickey Zacchilli (USA) http://mickeyz.org

Queen Lü.Q. (Switzerland) http://lueq.wordpress.com

Renata Gąsiorowska (Poland) www.frfcl.blogspot.com

Rūta Briede (Latvia) http://rutabriede.com

Sabīne Moore (Latvia) http://illu-sab.deviantart.com

Sarah Mazzetti (Italy) http://cargocollective.com/sarahmazzetti

Sophia Foster-Dimino (USA) www.sophia-foster-dimino.com

Zejian Shen (China/USA) http://zesansan.com

The issue is already available at our webshop for pre-order. You can pre-order it now for only 12 dollars and we will ship it to you when we receive it from the printer.

Format: A6 (approx. 4" x 6"), 164 pages, full color, glued binding, English, supported by the Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation

See some preview pics here: http://kushkomikss.tumblr.com/tagged/female_secrets

š! #8 (midnight sun) launch

2011-11-01T12:14:00.001+02:00

Last Friday we had the opening party of our special Finnish issue at MiiT in Riga. The musical entertainment was provided by „Vairāk kauna nav", with VJ Inese Vēriņa, Oskars Veilands un Roberts Galviņš and after by DJ TRZ (LV BEATS / Dirty Deal Audio).

Next to a silkscreen print exhibition and animation movies by Kutikuti from Helsinki there were also tables for the guests to draw.

But the main event was the first Comics Battle in Riga with Reinis Pētersons, Oskars Pavlovskis, Ingrīda Pičukāne, Maija Līduma, Aivars Baranovs and Mārtiņš Zutis from Latvia and the special guests from Finland Mikko Väyrynen and Jarno Latva-Nikkola.The Show was led by the Finnish comics teacher Petri Koikkalainen. Oskars finally won the battle, how it came to that you can see in the pictures below.

The event was generously supported by the Finnish Institute in Estonia and the Embassy of Finland in Riga.

More pictures you can find here.

(ku)š! # 10 "Jūras stāsti" - piedalies!

2011-10-31T12:23:00.005+02:00

Ir atkal laiks „open call” un atkal var piedalīties vīrieši! Radi un sūti jaunus vizuālus stāstus jaunajam (ku)š! numuram! Tā kā kuš! grib lasīt arvien vairāk latviešu komiksus, šoreiz piedalīties "open call" aicinām tikai māksliniekus no Latvijas.

Lai iepazītos ar jau kuš!ā publicētajiem komiksiem, meklē iepriekšējos kuš! numurus Lukabukā, Randomā, Muhamorā un Galerijā „Istaba".

ilustrācija: KJ Martinet

Noteikumi:

- Tēma: Jūras stāsti (Sea Stories)
- Saturs: Komiksi (var būt arī ilustrācijas)
- Valoda: Angļu vai latviešu (ja latviski, atstāj vietu subtitriem)
- Formāts: A6, platums 105mm × augstums 148mm (+ 3 mm malas pārlaides. Tā kā izdevums būs līmēts, ja zīmē atvērumu (2 lapas blakus), svarīgākās detaļas nezīmē vidū, tās būs grūti saskatīt.) Oriģināls, protams, var būt lielāks par A6. Dažkārt oriģināli lielāki darbi izskatās labāk drukāti mazākā formātā.
- Krāsas: Jā, CMYK (drukāsim uz Munken Print Cream)
- Izšķirtspēja: 300 dpi, vēlams kā tiff vai PDF fails
- Lappušu skaits: Ne vairāk par 8
- Citas lietas: Ieteicams dot darbam nosaukumu, to (ie)raksti pirmajā lapā. Autoru vārdi tiks nodrukāti katras lapas apakšā blakus lapas puses numuram. Tāpat par katru autoru publicēsim īsu aprakstu (ku)š! pēdējā lapā. Lai arī publicējam tikai vienu katra autora darbu, vari sūtīt vairāk nekā vienu darbu, tā būs lielākas iespējas izvēlēties.
- Termiņš: 2012. gada 15. janvāris
- Sūti Kušmenam uz kushmens(at)gmail(.)com
- Publicētajiem autoriem atlīdzība graudā: 1 kg (ku)š! = 5 gabali...

Jautājumu vai neskaidrību gadījumā raksti Kušmenam: kushmens(at)gmail(.)com. Negarantējam, ka visus iesūtītos darbus publicēsim, dažādu iemeslu dēļ tas var nebūt iespējams. Lai vai kā kuš! cer un priecāsies saņemt jaunu, vēl neatklātu autoru darbus. Ja publicēt neizdosies šajā reizē, kuš! paturēs prātā gan Tevi, gan Tavu darbu nākamajiem projektiem!

kuš! (www.komikss.lv) ir komiksu kultūras žurnāls no Latvijas, kas publicē gan vietējo, gan ārzemju komiksu autoru darbus. kuš! interesē atklāt jaunus māksliniekus, it īpaši no Latvijas. Piedalies!

Komiksu darbnīcas jauniešiem Rīgā

2011-10-27T15:14:00.002+03:00

Sestdien un svētdien, 29. un 30. oktobrī „Dirty Deal” notiks komiksu darbnīcas jauniešiem somu komiksu skolotāja Petri Koikalainena un latviešu mākslinieku Ingrīdas Pičukānes un Reiņa Pētersona vadībā.

Komiksu kultūras žurnāla kuš! un Somijas Institūta Igaunijā kopīgi organizētajās darbnīcās piedalīties aicināti gan komiksu lietpratēji, gan tie, kas vēl ne reizi nav uzzīmējuši komiksu – ikviens vismaz 16 gadus vecs jaunietis, kam interesē stāstu stāstīšana apvienojot attēlus un tekstu. Darbnīcās varēs attīstīt prasmes radīt vizuālus stāstus, kā arī uzzināt vairāk par komiksu mediju.

Darbnīcu ilgums: 4 – 5 stundas. Dalībniekus skaits: 15.

Norises vieta: Dirty Deal, Maskavas ielā 12, k-2

Norises laiks:

1. darbnīca: sestdien, no 12.00 – 16.00 (Vada Petri Koikalainens un Ingrīda Pičukāne)

2. darbnīca: svētdien, no 13.00 – 18.00 (Vada Petri Koikalainens un Reinis Pētersons)

Lai piedalītos, sūti ziņu uz kushmens@gmail.com, norādot savu vārdu un vecumu, kā arī izvēlēto darbnīcas dienu. Ja tiec abas dienas, norādi abas, atkarībā no pieteikumu skaita, kuš! dos ziņu, kurā ir brīvas vietas.

Uz darbnīcu ņem līdzi savus zīmēšanas piederumus. Darbnīcas ir bez maksas.

Organizē: komiksu kultūras žurnāls kuš!

Atbalsta: Somijas Institūts Igaunijā

Midnight Sun Launch Party

2011-10-25T15:08:00.001+03:00

This Friday in MiiT, don't miss Riga's first comics battle with Finnish and Latvian artists! More info on www.komikss.lv

Website Relaunch

2011-10-17T13:50:00.000+03:00

We just completely updated our website, go check it out: WWW.KOMIKSS.LV

Special Finnish (ku)š!

2011-09-27T15:05:00.002+03:00

Finnish comics are tremendously vibrant, diverse and fascinating and the Finnish comics scene this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of their very first Finnish graphic novel Professori Itikaisen tutkimusretki. But instead of baking a big cake to celebrate this, we decided to make a special (ku)š! anthology featuring a bunch of currently the most exciting comics artists from all around Finland.

Illustration by Mikko Luostarinen

Aino Sutinen, Amanda Vähämäki, Anna Sailamaa, Evan Androutsopoulos, Henrik Duncker, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Jari Vaara, Jarno Latva-Nikkola, Jyrki Heikkinen, Karri Laitinen, Katja Tukiainen, Katri Sipiläinen, Kuningas Lü. Q., Mari Ahokoivu, Marko Turunen, Mikko Luostarinen, Mikko Väyrynen, Roope Eronen and Tommi Musturi provided stories for this issue which is titled “Midnight Sun”. Ville Hänninen, one of the top comics specialists from Finland, wrote a text introducing the Finnish scene and Henrik Duncker provided photographs from the land of the midnight sun.

The cover was made by Amanda Vähämäki and Roope Eronen...

... and here are some impression of how this issue looks inside:

Jarno Latva-Nikkola

Katri Sipiläinen

Jari Vaara

The format is A6 and it contains an amazing 148 pages in full-color, it has a glued binding and is all in English. You can get a copy of this colorful comics explosion from our webshop or get it in Riga in Galerija Istaba, Lukabuka or Randoms. Soon also available in other stores in Riga and abroad.

This anthology has been published with the financial assistance and the generous support of FILI– Finnish Literature Exchange, Embassy Of Finland, Riga, Finnish Institute in Estonia, Helsinki Comics Centre, HungryLab.

Pривет от Pитера!

2011-09-27T11:43:00.003+03:00

kuš! is happy to report from the comics festival Boomfest in St. Petersburg. It is still on until October 16th, so if you happen to be there, do some boom boom boom!

kuš! took part in the festival with „The Last Match” exhibition, it can be seen in the Nobokov’s Museum – a great chance to get to know not only 283 illustrations in matchbox size, but also Nobokov’s butterfly collection and an exhibit by the Catalonian artist Miguel Gallardo. Gallardo’s exhibition derives from his relationship with his daughter who has autism and comics for them become part of their communication.

Here is a short animation introducing the world of Maria:

The festival’s biggest space was one of many St. Petersburg’s many places called Манеж. During the weekend three lovely Lamelos guys were making a wall painting there and during the nights they took care of the liveliness at Boomfest’s partys. By the way, in the bar Mishka it revealed that the Russian artist Edik Katykhin is most probably the lost brother or at least a cousin of Lamelos.

Манеж was home for the exhibition of Julie Doucet as well as the Le Monde diplomatique (France) collection, featuring artists Joe Dog, Juhyun Choi, Mazen Kerbaj, Mad Meg and others.

Another show called „One day in history” succeeded in both showing works of interesting Russian illustrators (kuš! especially liked Тимофей Яржомбек, Родион Китаев, Дарья Рычкова) and in the same time the exhibition shed light on important historical facts like Lenin’s death, the invention of the bra, prohibition of alcohol in the USSR etc. Downstairs of the same gallery there is a comics reportage by V.Lomasko and A.Nikolajev from the court process against the freedom of contemporary art. Exciting (and sad) to follow.

Among other exhibitions, Boomfest was celebrating it's 5 years anniversary this year, in honor of that there was an exhibition in the garden with the theme „Birth” – as part of that also a work by our Maija Līduma.

There was a workshop and lecture program at the festival as well, but kuš! happened to find itself in the unofficial academic program – we took part in the class on comics for the graphic design students at the Art and Industry Academy (which used to carry the name of the Latvian-born sculptor Vera Muhina).

Many thanks to Dima, Polina, Nastja, Anja and all the the organizators and helpers of the festival as well as to the Latvian Consulate in St.Petersburg for their support.

The Future Is Now

2011-09-26T12:21:00.003+03:00

During the Contemporary Art Festival Survival Kit # 3 in Riga we had the chance to invite Léo Quievreux from France to make a solo exhibition. We had featured a comics by him in Š! #4 and he made the cover of kuš! #7 and already a long time we wanted to make an exhibition with him. Finally it worked out.

As this year the festival was looking into the future with exhibitions of 50 international and Latvian artists, also Léo showed his futuristic vision entitled "Future Is Now".

The exhibition consisted of black and white drawings from Léo's book La Prothèse HRZ (released by Le Dernier Cri), newer color drawings, excerpts from mini kuš! and a HUGE wall painting, which Léo made during the exhibition.

So here you see the artist at work...

...and here you see visitors looking at the artist working...

....some of them took pictures...

... others interviewed him for the television show SEMS...

... others just observed...

... but Léo didn't get distracted and just focused on his painting....

... with lots of details...

... even Death couldn't stop him...

... to finish the huge wall painting during the White Night.

Especially for the exhibition Léo also made a mini kuš!

And in the exhibition there was also a second wall painting, which was inspired by Janis Rozentals painting "The Serpent".

Well, it was a very amazing exhibition and we were very happy to have Léo in Riga...

... to show our gratitude we even brought him to a Paris fashion store at the Central Market. Other impressions Léo had of Latvia, you can see on his tumblr.

We have very colorful memories of this week and would like to thank the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art for making it possible and the Institut français de Lettonie for supporting this event! MERCI BEAUCOUP!

Helsinki Reloaded

2011-09-22T09:41:00.001+03:00

As we just can't get enough of Finland, we (kuš!) visited Helsinki for the third time this year, this time to attend the great Sarjakuvafestivaalit. We had a jolly good time and learned that if you drink vodka in a coffee cup, you should also use a coffee cup cover not to spill it in anyone's face once the tram makes abrupt movements, yeah, but that's another story, let's focus on comics related happenings:

So as there was a big comics fair, we got a table where we presented our issues.

Amongst lots of international and Finnish guests also Daniel Csordas from Hungary visited us.

Next to us Andrea Bruno was tabling with the excellent Italian anthology Canicola.

Sanita is joking around with our neighbors Vincenzo Filosa (Canicola) and Marcos Farrajota (Chili Com Carne), in the back you can spot Sharmila Banerjee and Max Baitinger...

... and then going back to work with Sabīne Moore (kuš! of course)...

...while David is already sick of all the colorful comics and reading some black and white newspaper without pictures.

After a lot of sitting around he (middle, from left to right) stretched his legs in the small press tent talking about small press secrets with small press people Marcos (Chili), Juliacks (Swell), Vincent (still Canicola) and Frau Franz (The Treasure Fleet).

Above you see some pictures of our Midnight Sun exhibition at the MBAR. showing a preview of the special Finnish issue of kuš! featuring the following contributors Aino Sutinen, Amanda Vähämäki, Anna Sailamaa, Evan Androutsopoulos, Henrik Duncker, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Jari Vaara, Jarno Latva-Nikkola, Jyrki Heikkinen, Karri Laitinen, Katja Tukiainen, Katri Sipiläinen, Kuningas Lü. Q., Mari Ahokoivu, Marko Turunen, Mikko Luostarinen, Mikko Väyrynen, Roope Eronen, Tommi Musturi and Ville Hänninen. (More info about this soon!!!)

Out of nothing Black Peider showed up and made sure nobody would miss the International Comics Battle.

8 International artist took part in this exciting comics tournament...

... but only one could win... and the KOLOR KLIMAX goes to Sabīne Moore!

Did we mention that Frau Franz was also at the Festival? ...

...so was Gregor Hinz, showing his excitement to be our table neighbor...

... and Sam Arthur from Nobrow Press...

... well and next to dozens (lots of dozens) other amazing artists and publishers and warmly wrapped up guests (sketched by Sabīne Moore, like all the following illustrations in this post)...

...there were also some visitors from the Animal Kingdom.

BTW, just to make you jealous, this was the view to the sea at our place of residence at the Latvian Embassy to Finland. Thanks a lot for the great hospitality!

Next to enjoying our time there or at the Festival, we also had a fine dinner with our friend Kristin...

... and made a visit to Finland's high security prison on Suomenlinna.

Well we are happy that not only we had fun at this great festival and want to thank all our nice visitors and especially all the organizers and staff of this Festival. See you next year!!!

Cold Soup in Helsinki

2011-09-09T10:58:00.000+03:00

Last month we had an exciting week in the Nordic comics capital Helsinki. Now as we prepare for our next projects there, we should tell a bit what happened in Finland.

We had this exhibition "Cold Soup", presenting Latvian comics artists, ath the Helsinki Comics Centre. Participating artists were: Kristians Brekte, Rūta Briede, Kaspars Groševs, Endrju, Ernests Kļaviņš, Maija Līduma, Maija Kurševa, Anete Melece, Sabīne Moore, Oskars Pavlovskis, Reinis Pētersons, Ingrīda Pičukāne, Kristofers Reidzāns, Dace Sietiņa, Mārtiņš Upītis, Oskars Veilands-Kustikovs un Mārtiņš Zutis. Ok, after so many names you probably want to see some pictures...

Here you can see how Cold Soup is made. It is easy, you basically need to find an aggressive bottle of Kefir and a militant beetroot, give them a sword each and make sure they attack each other. Then you have the basics for the cold soup and you can just throw in some dead potatoes, hard boiled eggs, chopped spring onions, massacred cucumbers - stir and there you have your delicious summer meal!

Ingrīda Pičukāne took over the shop of the comics centre. The comics centre offers also a big library, artists studios, workshop rooms, coffee and ice cream and is a unique place that promotes Finnish comics in Finland as well as abroad.

For our exhibition Sabīne Moore turned the Comics Centre "Sarjakuvakeskus" into SarjakuvakesKUŠ!

Reinis Pētersons is reading the Finnish comics tabloid Kuti.
.

Sābine creating stickers...

Guests at the exhibition opening

Mārtiņš Zutis telling about his works.

The exhibition is open.

In the exhibition we showed works from the last 4 years of kuš! history including all the magazines.

Next to the exhibition we also attended the World Comics workshop and we held our own workshop for participants from Finland and Estonia.

Helsinki as we can see is a very welcoming place for kuš! and we will soon be there again at the Helsinki Comics Festival!

Cold Soup

2011-08-14T16:39:00.000+03:00

If Kefir fights against Beetroot you get Cold Soup.

Mural drawn by kuš crew Reinis Pētersons, Sabīne Moore, Ingrīda Pičukāne, Martiņš Zutis and David Schilter

A report about our exhibition at the Finnish Comic Centre in Helsink follows soon. You can go to our facebook album to see some pics in the meantime.

Latvijas komiksu izstāde Somijas komiksu centrā Helsinkos

2011-08-09T11:07:00.002+03:00

No 11. augusta līdz 2. septembrim Somijas komiksu centrā Helsinkos skatāma Latvijas
mākslinieku komiksu izstāde „Aukstā zupa”. Izstādē darbu oriģinālus izrādīs Latvijas mākslinieki,
kuri veiksmīgi eksperimentējuši ar Latvijā vēl neierasto vizuālās mākslas formu – komiksu, un
radījuši spilgtus un svaigus vizuālos stāstus.

Somijas komiksiem šogad 100. dzimšanas diena. Iesildoties svinībām Helsinku komiksu festivālā,
kas notiks septembrī, komiksu centrs Helsinkos aicinājis komiksu žurnālu kuš! izrādīt žurnālā
publicētos un izstādēs izrādītos komiksus, kas tapuši 4 gadu laikā kopš kuš! dibināšanas.

Izstādē piedalās: Kristians Brekte, Rūta Briede, Kaspars Groševs, Endrju, Ernests Kļaviņš, Maija
Līduma, Maija Kurševa, Anete Melece, Sabīne Moore, Oskars Pavlovskis, Reinis Pētersons,
Ingrīda Pičukāne, Kristofers Reidzāns, Dace Sietiņa, Mārtiņš Upītis, Oskars Veilands-Kustikovs un
Mārtiņš Zutis.

Izstādi 11. augustā atklās mākslinieki – Sabīne Moore, Reinis Pētersons, Ingrīda Pičukāne,
Mārtiņš Zutis, un kuš! redaktors Dāvids Šilters. Papildus izstādei mākslinieki piedalīsies
komiksu meistardarbnīcās-apmācībās, lai vēlāk vadītu komiksu meistardarbnīcas bērniem un
jauniešiem Latvijā, kā arī vadīs Latvijas komiksu stāstīšanas meistardarbnīcu Somijas komiksu
māksliniekiem.

Izstādes atklāšana: 11. augustā, plkst. 18.00

Izstādi atbalsta: Somijas Institūts Igaunijā, Somijas Komiksu centrs Helsinkos un Helsinku pilsētas
dome.

NEW: Kuš! special issue "3 X 3"

2011-08-04T16:12:00.001+03:00

For this issue we planned to make an experiment: 9 contemporary Latvian artists from the fields of photography, design, sculpture, painting, and other art forms Arnis Balčus, Ivars Drulle, Dace Džeriņa, Ernests Kļaviņš, Romans Korovins, Kate Krolle, Daiga Krūze, Krišs Salmanis and Evita Vasiļjeva where invited by us and took up the challenge to create comics. Most of them made a comics for the very first time. The result: 3x3 unconventional stories on 9 pages each collected in one rather experimental comics book. The beautiful design of the book was done by Zigmunds Lapsa.

Some sample pics:

Format: A5 (approx. 6" x 8"), 100 pages, full-color, stiched binding, french flips, English and Latvian, released in July 2011.

The book is now available for the special introduction price of 3x3 dollars including shipping in our webshop, and soon also in Latvian bookstores for 3.30 Lats.

The project was generously supported by the Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation VKKF.

Strange comics jams

2011-07-08T21:17:00.006+03:00

Latvian artists where lucky to take part in two very special comics jams with international artists at the last Ligatura comics festival in Poland.

First here is the very impressive result of the comics jam initiated by Saša Rakezic:

Ingrida Picukane, Agnieszka Piksa, Martins Zutis, Boris Stanic, January N. Misiak and Aleksandar Zograf contributed to this drawing, which later was embroidered by Saša's wife Gordana Basta.

Saša tells: Gordana has started to work on embroideries made by my drawings since 2001, but in 2009 we started this "jam embroidery" thing. So when we were visiting comics events, we asked cartoonists to jam on a drawing together, and Gordana later did the needlework, which is a very slow process, because everything is done by hand, no machines whatsoever.

After that, this embroidery along with others was presented at a comics exhibition in Graz organized by Tonto Comics:

The second comics jam was initiated by Ingrida Picukane. Here you can see comics activist Guido van Hengel drawing on her cast:

After Ligatura Ingrida took this very special traveling exhibition with contributions by Jeroen Funke, Léo Quiévreux, Tomasz Niewadiomski, Agnieszka Piksa, Martins Zutis, Oskars Pavlovkis, Aleksandar Zograf, Vladimir Palibrik, Boris Stanic, Dima Yakolev and lot of other international contributors on tour:

While Ingrida doesn't want to initiate any similar comics jam soon, we are all looking forward to take part in any other strange (or normal) comics jams in the near future!

CRACK GIF REVOLUTION

2011-06-27T13:23:00.007+03:00

CRACK! mates (fltr: Kristofers, David, Simon, Frej (???) and Sebastian) interpreted by Kristofers Reidzans

CRACK! Fumetti dirompenti was certainly the most unique festival we ever attended. This years theme was 3D Revolution and the main guest were LE DERNIER CRI among dozens of other small press publishers, individual artists, musicians and performers. It was so impressing, it is hard to put in words and better than talk a long time about it, you got to visit it yourself. Watch out, once you get cracked, you will never feel the same again. As it was so special, we also have a special foto report, not in 3D, but with animated gifs...

The festival took place in an old fort with the greater part underground but also in the open air:

Here you can see some people we met (partly including Ivana Komikaza Armanini, Maik, Sebastian Borckenhagen, Simon Gärdenfors, Dunja Jankovic, Pakito Bolino, Yokogaga, Akwile, Frej Larsson, Fredox, Vuk and Vladimir Palibrik, Marlene Krause, Kilian and Amanda from Anatheme, Goulven Derrien and much much more):

There where dozens of impressing exhibitions in the tunnels:

This was our kuš! selling table with 2D comics, 3D snacks and 1A champagne:

At the other side of the table thousands of people passed by, some of which also stopped:

We also got a visit by the extended Milk and Wodka crew from the Swiss alps including our hero König Lü.Q.

Also lots of dogs made a visit...

... and other animals were floating around outside:

Thousand thanks to Valerio and his great crew for inviting us and for organizing this very amazing festival!!!
photo credit: gif me more

Everybody talks about Latvian komiksi

2011-06-27T10:06:00.001+03:00

Well this is certainly slightly exaggerated, nonetheless we are happy that in the last month two academic books about comics were released, which both had articles about the Latvian comics scene.

On the one hand there was an article in the International Journal of Comic Art, published by the renown comic scholar John A. Lent from the USA. The IJOCA with it's 760 pages and lots of illustrations is bible sized and "aims to publish scholarly and readable research on any aspect of comic art, defined as animation, comic books, newspaper and magazine strips, caricature, gag and political cartoons, humorous art, and humor or cartoon magazines."

The pages about Latvia look like this (just an excerpt!)

Next to the article about Latvian comics this issue features much more interesting articles and reports on International comics, for example "Embracing the Victimhood: A History of A-Bomb Manga in Japan" or "Dissecting the Antiheroine: The Sexual Transgressions of the Morally Ambiguous Heroine in Comics".

The second book featuring an article about Latvian comics is the Scientific comics magazine Zeszyty Komiksowe from Poland, published by Centrala. The issue 11 is dedicated to comics from Eastern Europe.

The Latvian article looks like this:

The book also features an exclusive comics by Latvian artist Ernests Klavins:

Some impressions from Ligatura

2011-06-25T16:14:00.006+03:00

In the beginning of June we had the great chance to visit Ligatura again, this time with a quite big Latvian crew consisting of the editors David Schilter and Sanita Muizniece as well as the artists Martins Zutis, Ingrida Picukane and Oskars Pavlovskis. It was a very great festival where we met a lot of old and new faces, discovered outstanding comics art in the numerous exhibitions as well as during the extraordinary pitchings and the comic panels held, for example, by Aleksandar Zograf, Lucie Lomova, Andrzej Klimowski and Paul Gravett.

The first thing we did was visiting of the exhibition of experimental comics by kuš! # 8 contributor Agnieszka Piksa:

After we had our own exhibition: the last match:

One of the absolute highlights was the exhibition of Maciej Sieńczyk works curated by Kuba Woynarowski:

Another highlight was the Eyjafjallajokull book launch and exhibition by the Krakow based group "Gili Gili":

The exhibition by Umulec magazine was presented in beautiful simplicity:

Here some pics of the pitching, which was won by Jay Wright (2nd: Jeroen Funke, 3rd: Boris Stanic)

One day Vladimir Palibrik and Boris Stanic took us to the flee market:

Somewhere in the city we also saw a big mural by BLU:

LE DERNIER CRI, at Ligatura represented by Leo Quievreux, had an exhibition of their amazing silkprints:

Ingrida Picukane unfortunately broke her leg and everybody became jealous, as she got so many nice drawings:

t is always especially enjoyable at Ligatura to meet lots of nice people (from top left to bottom right: Lucie Lomova, Markus Huber, Juanita, Jean-Paul II, ???, Ivana Armanini from Komikaze and Tomasz Niewiadomski) :

Always a good sign that a festival has been successful is that it makes you very tired:

Already now we look forward to the next edition of Ligatura and we are sending thousand thanks to the great festival hosts Anna and Michal!

Many thanks also to the Latvian State Culture Fund VKKF for supporting the trip!

Dace Sietina in Lambiek

2011-06-25T13:39:00.001+03:00

Dace Sietina, Latvian artist living in the Netherlands, has a couple of times been published in (ku)š!, now she will have a personal exhibition in the famous comics shop Lambiek in Amsterdam. Go and enjoy her unique cut-outs!

The exhibition "let's cosmos" opens on Friday the first of July at 17.30 in Lambiek, Kerkstraat 132.

Kuš! on TV

2011-06-20T17:26:00.000+03:00

Last week after the komiks presentation at VEF art center with Martins Zutis and Ruta Briede we also gave a small interview to LZK TV:

Unfortunately there are no subtitles. So in the beginning they say the presentation at the Art Centre showed that comics culture in Latvia is alive. The presenter says, it is better to once see kuš!, than longish talk about it... after which follows a rather long and uncut interview with us freezing on the beautiful roof of VEF. Well the questions were if kuš! is more popular abroad than in Latvia, to which we replied if we just look at the amount on exhibitions we currently make it might seem so... Another question was what is currently going on, for that we replied, that we have a new open call about female secrets, that we just had an exhibition in Poland, that we visit the Crack festival in Rome and that in two weeks we will release a special kuš! edition with Latvian artists of contemporary art. Well and then there were some other questions and we told some other replies. If you want to learn what, then you must learn Latvian, it is not so hard and will soon take over as world language, in Afghanistan they already start to speak Latvian now.

After this shivering interview we got to enjoy a concert by Gaujarts, also on the VEF roof:

The Last Match at Ligatura Comics Festival

2011-06-20T14:17:00.001+03:00

In the beginning of June the exhibition The Last Match traveled to Poland to the amazing Ligatura Comics Festival. The exhibition included works from 273 artists from 51 countries, including contributions from Polish artists Janek Koza (PL), Agata Nawrot (PL), Agnieszka Piksa (PL), Anna Maria Łuczak (PL) and Patryk Mogilnicki. The exhibition opening in the cozy Malingrad gallery was very successful with lots of visitors and was also attended by lots of participating international exhibition contributors such as Jeroen Funke (NL), Aleksandar Zograf (SRB), Tom Gauld (UK), Léo Quiévreux (F), Lucie Lomová (CZ), David Böhm (CZ), Juanita (DE) and Markus Huber (DE) and of course our very own Latvian crew Oskars Pavlovskis, Martins Zutis and Ingrida Picukane.

Thanks a lot to Agata and Marek for helping setting up, we never were so fast and managed it in only two and a half hours this time. Special thanks also go to the great organizers of the festival: Michal and Anna!

Crack Fumetti Dirompenti

2011-06-15T14:44:00.001+03:00

We will be in real 3D at the Crack Comics Festival in Rome tabling our 2D comics from June 16th until June 19th!

Looking forward to meet new and old friends from all over the world and Italy of course!

KOMPASS Nr.2 + GAUJART koncerts

2011-06-13T22:55:00.004+03:00

Mākslas Centrs VEF teritorijā Ūnijas iela 8/k7 Riga, Latvia, 15. jūnijā, 19.00-23.00

Šoreiz jaunās mākslas prezentāciju sērijas KOMPASS pasākumā ar savas nozares aktualitātēm iepazīstinās komiksu kultūras žurnāla KUŠ veidotājs DĀVIDS ŠILTERS un DIRTY DEAL TEATRO vadītāja KRISTA JANSONE.

Dāvids Šilters un Krista Jansone ir uzaicinājuši iepazīstināt ar savu radošo darbību sekojošus māksliniekus:

viena no komiksu žanra pārstāvjiem – Rūta Briede šobrīd strādā divu cilvēku dizaina apvienībā “Rabit!!”. 2009. gadā ieguvusi māģistra grādu Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmijas scengrāfijas nodaļā. Zīmē vizuālas esejas/komiksus bez teksta, kuras publicē komiksu žurnālā “Kuš!”. Trešdien Rūta izrādīs savus darbus un pastāstīs, ko ar tiem domājusi pati un ko sapratuši citi

otrs mākslinieks, kas zīmē komiksus – Mārtiņš Zutis, nupat pabeidzis LMA Vizuālās komunikācijas nodaļu un uzsācis darba gaitas DDB reklāmas aģentūrā. Brīvajā laikā strādā pie personīgajiem projektiem (īsiem komiksiem, animācijām un proceduāliem darbiem), kas arī būs skatāmi prezentācijā

Ģirts Šolis ir viens no Latvijas netradicionālo formu teātra apvienības “Umka.lv” dalībniekiem

Plkst. 22.00 uz VEF korpusa jumta terases uzstāsies grupa “Gaujarts”, kas kopā ar “Umka.lv” veidojuši muzikālo/leļļu/objektu izrādi “Par vienu vīru...”

Ieejas maksa KOMPASĀ – 1 LVL
tiem, kas vēlēsies palikt uz grupas GAUJARTS koncertu būs jāpiemaksā vēl 1 LVL
savukārt tiem, kas ieradīsies tikai uz Gaujarta koncertu, ieejas maksa būs 2 LVL.

www.totaldobze.com/ArtCenter/

RSVP Feisbuk

Take part in (ku)š! # 9 "female secrets"

2011-06-12T00:53:00.004+03:00

After a little break we finally have an open call and you are very invited to take part in (ku)š! – well, if you are a woman… For this issue we discriminate all the men and just invite female artist to contribute stories about the theme “female secrets”. You can interpret it very freely and experiment how you want, we are interested to get very different works.

Here are the details of participation:

- Theme: Female Secrets (Just female artists)
- Form: Comics (or illustrations)
- Language: English or Latvian
- Format: DIN A6, width 105mm × height 148mm (+ 3 mm cut off space! In case of spreads, the details shouldn’t be in the middle, as the book will be glued and the very middle is hard to see. The original artwork can be bigger than A6 of course. Often it looks better if it is smaller in the printed version…)
- Colors: Yes, CMYK (will be printed on Munken Print Cream)
- Resolution: 300 dpi, as tiff or PDF preferably (for review purpose please first just send Low Res files)
- Pages: maximum 12
- other details: Would be good, if you give the story a name, this you can write as title on the first page, artist names will be mentioned by us on every page next to page number and we will also write a short biography about you in the back of the book. You can send also more than one work if you want. However usually we just publish one work by each artists, but it is nice if you let us choose…
- Deadline: 1. September 2011
- submit to kushmens(at)gmail(.)com
- "remuneration": 1 kilo of š! = about 5 pieces...

Please make sure you understand all the details, if you have any questions write us to kushmens(at)gmail(.)com. You sending us works doesn’t give a guarantee that we will publish it. We unfortunately have to reject works for very different reasons. However we are happy about any contributions and if it doesn’t work out with a publication in this issue, we still keep you and your work in mind for future projects.

More info about kuš! you can find on our website www.komikss.lv

UPDATE

- As we receive a lot of entries, we want to ask you, to just send us LOW RES files, as it takes a lot of time to download and our inbox could get overloaded! However please keep your high res (300 dpi) files ready, if we decide to publish your work, we will contact you to send them.

- Please don't send more than 3 contributions

- Don't send files wich are not suited for printing in A6 (width 105mm × height 148mm)

- If you have any other questions feel free to comment here, or send us an e-mail

(ku)š! # 9 "sieviešu noslēpumi" - piedalies!

2011-06-12T00:45:00.002+03:00

Pēc īsās pauzes kopš februāra kuš! saka, ka pietiks pauzēt, nu ir atkal laiks „open call” – aicinām radīt un sūtīt darbus jaunajam (ku)š! numuram! Ir tikai viens ierobežojums – piedalīties var tikai sievietes. Topošajā numurā mazliet vīriešu diskriminācijas - publicēsim komiksus, kuru autores ir sievietes. Jo (ku)š! nr.9 tēma: „Sieviešu noslēpumi”; tēmu vari interpretēt un eksperimentēt pēc brīvas izvēles. Kuš! interesē saņemt dažnedažādus darbus.

Piedalīšanās parametri:

- Tēma: Sieviešu noslēpumi (Female Secrets), (piedalās tikai sievietes)
- Saturs: Komiksi (var būt arī ilustrācijas)
- Valoda: Latviešu vai angļu
- Formāts: DIN A6, platums 105mm × augstums 148mm (+ 3 mm malas nogriezums. Tā kā izdevums būs līmēts, ja zīmē atvērumu (2 lapas blakus), svarīgākās detaļas nezīmē vidū, tās būs grūti saskatīt.) Oriģinālais darbs, protams, var būt lielāks par A6. Dažkārt oriģināli lielāki darbi izskatās labāk drukāti mazākā formātā.
- Krāsas: Jā, CMYK (drukāsim uz Munken Print Cream)
- Izšķirtspēja: 300 dpi, vēlams kā tiff vai PDF fails
- Lappušu skaits: ne vairāk par 12
- Citas lietas: Ieteicams dot darbam nosaukumu, to (ie)raksti pirmajā lapā. Autoru vārdi tiks nodrukāti katras lapas apakšā blakus lapas puses numuram. Tāpat par katru autoru publicēsim īsu aprakstu (ku)š! pēdējā lapā. Lai arī publicējam tikai vienu katra autora darbu, vari sūtīt vairāk nekā vienu darbu, tā būs lielākas iespējas izvēlēties.
- Termiņš: 2011. gada 1. septembris
- Sūti Kušmenam uz kushmens(at)gmail(.)com
- Publicētajiem autoriem atlīdzība graudā: 1 kg (ku)š! = 5 gabali...

Kuš! (www.komikss.lv) ir Latvijas komiksu kultūras žurnāls, kas publicē starptautisku, arī Latvijas, komiksu autoru darbus. Mūsu prieks un intereses ir atklāt jaunus māksliniekus, it īpaši no Latvijas.
Piedalies!

Just reminding...

2011-05-24T15:22:00.000+03:00

Get your antidepressants HERE

(flyer made by Anete Melece)

The Last Match in Poland

2011-05-24T13:08:00.002+03:00

Our exhibition The Last Match travels to Poland to the amazing Ligatura Comics Festival, where it will be called something like "w ostatnim meczu". The opening of the exhibition will be on the third of June. At the festival the exhibition curator David Schilter will be present together with Latvian artist Ingrida Picukane, Martins Zutis and Oskars Pavlovskis. There will be 273 contributions from 51 different countries on display. There will for example also be contributions from Polish artists Janek Koza (PL), Agata Nawrot (PL), Agnieszka Piksa (PL), Anna Maria Łuczak (PL) and Patryk Mogilnicki. As the exhibition keeps on growing, we hope to get more Polish artists for the upcoming shows. Especially excited we are, that at the Festival will also be present some other international exhibition contributors such as Jeroen Funke (NL), Aleksandar Zograf (SRB), Tom Gauld (UK), Léo Quiévreux (F), Lucie Lomová (CZ) and David Böhm (CZ).

Find three differences

2011-05-18T00:03:00.003+03:00

Can you see the differences?

- The upper picture is the donuts cashbox used by Fantagraphics Books at TCAF 2011 (see here)

- The lower picture is the matchbox bank used by kuš! at Comic Salon Erlangen 2010 (see there)

Hans Gern's Hausparty

2011-05-17T23:32:00.004+03:00

It is already a while ago we were in Switzerland, but the internet in that country was so slow, it prevented us to report much. So now is the time to make it up...
Not only did we visit the marvelous Fumetto, but we also got invited to Hans Gern's Hausparty, which was certainly one of the highest highlights of an anyhow already very pleasant visit. It wasn't an ordinary party, it featured next to tons of Bratwurst and a rock concert also the most dangerous indoor bike race ever. However, everybody survived, that is good, so we could better enjoy the great decorations which were created by Hans Gern's friends from Ampelmagazin (among others Anja Wicki, Luca Bartulovic and Markus Häfliger). Markus is responsible also for the photos (below) and the best ever Hausparty flyer (above). Unfortunately we don't have any pics from the real action, but you should check out how the venue looked like:

UPDATE: Markus sent us also some pics of the action:

Surprise Exhibition

2011-05-16T11:30:00.002+03:00

Kuš! had an exhibition in Liège, Belgium and didn't even know about it. It took place in the cultural centre La Zone from 2nd until 8th of May. David Krančan, Domen Finzgar and Mateusz Skutnik where there with the famous Stripburger exhibition Greetings from Cartoonia and came up with the idea to make an homage to our The Last Match exhibition.

As you see here, it is a bit smaller than the real one, but all the same a very pretty show, which made us very proud!

This above is the work by Mateusz Skutnik from Poland

Here you see the contribution by David Krančan (Slovenia)

And finally Domen Finzgar (Slovenia)

Thank you very much for making this happen and giving us this special surprise!

Europe 1:20'000'000

2011-05-10T14:46:00.003+03:00

In the last few months we were working together with the Viennese KABINETT comic passage on a special book/exhibition project. We were invited by Heinz Wolf, Nicolas Mahler and Simon Häußle to make a special issue for the 10th anniversary in the MuseumsQuartier Vienna. The result:

EUROPE 1:20'000'000 (cover by Martins Zutis)

is out now and can be seen in the KABINETT in Vienna until the end of August, before it moves to Latvia. The book/exhibition EUROPE 1:20'000'000 is not about cartography – well, at least not in the customary sense of the word. Europe is inhabited by about 700 million people of whom 34 artists were invited to make exclusive comics about their country. The book sets on an imaginary route through Europe. Like on a real journey, you might not always be able to visit every country. But here you get to visit 34 of approximately 50 European states on a shaky zigzag route starting in Latvia and finally leading to Austria. For the exhibition in the two "halls" the artists drew each a landscape and a portrait for this special European exhibition.

The involved artists are: Anna Deflorian (Italy), Anna Hilti (Liechtenstein), Bjarni Hinriksson (Iceland), Bob Byrne (Ireland), Branko Jelinek (Slovakia), Cem Dinlenmiş (Turkey), Damir Steinfl (Croatia), Datto Machavariani (Georgia), Edda Strobl (Austria), Emelie Östergren (Sweden), Igor Baranko (Ukraine), Irkus M. Zeberio (Basque Country), Janek Koza (Poland), Julia Grigorieva (Russia), Jyrki Nissinen (Finland), Kaja Avberšek(Slovenia), Karolis Strautniekas (Lithuania), König Lü. Q. (Switzerland), Kristel Maamägi (Estonia), Lamelos (The Netherlands), Lenka Djorojevic (Montenegro), Liesbeth De Stercke (Belgium), Lucie Lomová (Czech Republic), Maja Veselinović (Serbia), Mari Kanstad Johnsen (Norway), Marijpol (Germany), Mārtiņš Zutis (Latvia), Michael Rytz (Denmark), Mitar Vasić (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Olive Booger (France), Pedro Burgos (Portugal), Scott Jason Smith (UK), Sorina Vazelina (Romania) and Zsolt Vidak (Hungary). The curator of it: David Schilter.

Now we want to show you some pictures of the project:

This is the KABINETT with the the two small halls, the space, the comics vending machine and a ceiling painting designed by Blanquet:

Here you can see the exhibition halls a bit closer:

Now some close-ups from the exhibition:

And some pictures from the opening event:

And this is the museum shop, where you can buy the comics 24/7 until the end of August:

The book (beautifully designed by Monika Gruzite) has 80 pages, 34 artists, format is 13cm x 18cm, soft cover, black and white comics is currently until the end of August exclusively available in Vienna at the KABINETT. After that it will also be available in Latvia.

If you can't wait that long, you may also buy a copy here: http://kushkomikss.ecrater.com/p/11363511/kabinett-europe-120000000

Twitter Competition

2011-04-27T12:59:00.000+03:00

At Fumetto we met Brecht Vandenbroucke, here you can see him in partner look with fellow artist Misaki Kawai.

He signed a couple of KU foldout kuš! which you can now buy here. The signed KUs look like this:

There are only three signed pieces available, but we still have the unsigned posters which you can purchase here. Just to remind you, KU foldout kuš! is a mixture between magazine and a poster by the artists Marcus Nyblom from Sweden, Latvian Oskars Pavlovskis, Lai Tat Tat Wing from Hong Kong, Patric Sandri from Switzerland, and Brecht Vandenbroucke from Belgium where you can unfold the time starting from the stone age into the future. Here you can see some preview pics:

If you don't manage to get a signed copy, you can win one! Just follow us on twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/kushkomikss) and retweet our competition tweet until Friday, then we draw a lucky winner who will get the following KU signed by Brecht:

Good luck!

Happy Eastern

2011-04-24T20:45:00.001+03:00

Wish you all happy Eastern and on this occasion we would like to share with you the Eastern greetings from Heinz Wolf:

Heinz Wolf is a comics artist from Austria and he is also the head of the KABINETT comics passage in the MuseumsQuartier Vienna, with whom we are currently organizing an international comics project. More about that will be announced here soon.

Uzmanieties - Purkšķviesulis!!!

2011-04-21T14:42:00.000+03:00

Recently kuš! had a workshop at the International Children's film festival "Berimors". The part about komikss was held by Zane Zajančkauska and the part about animation by Ingrīda Pičukāne. Here follows a small report and some pictures by Zane:

9.-10. aprīlī Liepājā notika ikgadējais bērnu filmu festivāls Berimors. Vēl pirms filmu skatīšanās notika radošās darbnīcas un lekcijas, tai skaitā kuš! saruna par komiksiem. Divu stundu garumā tapa tādi jauni supervaroņi kā Purkšviesulis, Mikrovaronis, Nāves nāra, Mēbeļvīrs un citi; tika mēģināts pierakstīt to, kā skan mašīnas iedarbināšana un autosignalizācija; lai saprastu komiksa un animācijas atšķirības, komiksā pārvērtām fragmentu no Oskara Pavlovska un Dāvija Liekniņa filmiņas Zirdziņš.

Atpūtas brīžos daži entuziasti uzmeklēja visas plikumu vietas, kādas jelkad bijušas žurnālā kuš!, vislielāko cieņu izpelnījās plikais burkāns Kolbeinn Karlsson komiksu stāstā.

Viens ir skaidrs - tuvākajā laikā žurnālu kuš! komplekts ceļo uz Liepājas bibliotēku. Lasītāji ir!

Fumetto Report II

2011-04-11T14:23:00.000+03:00

We are having a great time at the International Comics Festival Fumetto. There are amazing exhibitions, but unfortunately it is not allowed to picture them, anyhow, we got some nice pictures from outside the forbidden zone...

Shock in Lucerne. This is how our box of kuš! arrived. At least the books inside remained in pristine condition.

Every festival Anete Melece (on the right) seems to find a double. This year it was Nine Antico from France and they even had "partner look" when meeting the very first time. So charming!

Here you see the same Anete with our kuš! Stammgast König Lü.Q who doesn't look too similar...

Atak is enjoying some quiet reading below his beautiful silkprint (buy here, cheap!).

Aisha Franz even in her free time can't stop signing books. She has a lot of fans at the festival, we are also counting us to them!

Enjoying the sunset at the lake of Lucerne together with Nine, Laurence and Brecht.

Misaki Kawai is posing in front of Lynn's new Ferrari. Good times for comics in Switzerland!

Dice got a little horse to pose with at the Fumetto party...

.... and the Kasseler Crew posed with kuš! David. From left to right: Isabel Seliger, Michael Meier, Rene Rogge, kuš! David and Thomas Wellmann.

Always jolly good times at the Fumetto parties... When walking home spotted this nice still life on the street. It is most probably not an installation of Beni Bischof, anyhow it slightly reminded us of his amazing art, which can also be seen at Fumetto. Really a must see!

More pictures of Fumetto coming soon. Best is you come and get your own impression of one of the very best comics festivals there is!

E-mail from Tokyo

2011-04-05T21:35:00.000+03:00

It is very scary to all of us what is happening in Fukushima and our thoughts are with the Japanese people wishing them just the best! We received an e-mail from Takeshi Tadatsu and would like to share his thoughts:

hi guys from beautiful days tokyo
we appreciate you guys and many people's help all over the world.
these wishes encouraged us lot.
after the tremendous earth quakes and tsunami
people just try to restart and rebuild their own life,

same time nuclear plants still same dangerous situation,
both negative and positive perspective exist.
anyhow need long term, they are calm down,
mean time, radiation are running out every seconds ,,,,,from Fukushima
to tokyo, and world,,,,,
so scary ,,,,
hopefully, it's over in minimum damage future world.

here's my drawing about it and it was very difficult to draw,,,,
hope you'll like it.

left side japanese text means nuclear plant.

thanks
takeshi

kušmens iesaka izstāde "Wood Morning"

2011-03-28T15:17:00.002+03:00

wood morning from TRON on Vimeo.

Izstādes “Wood Morning” mērķis ir parādīt koka vērtības mākslā jaunā gaismā. Kā materiāli tiks izmantoti skrituļdēļi, saplākšņi, skičpapīrs, dēļi, papīrs un finieris. Tematikā caurvijas koka, meža tēma, neierobežojot izteiksmes veidu un saturu. Dalībnieki ir ielu un vides mākslinieki. Izstādē piedalās – Tron, Cue, Frost, Evija Timma – Novika, Endrju, Kiwie, Hēfe, Rist, Krishjanis, Korsh. Katram māksliniekam ir izteikta stilistika, kas ir atšķirīga, līdz ar to paredzam, ka izstāde būs daudzveidīga, krāsaina, detalizēta un mūsdienu izteiksmes līdzekļiem veidota.

Atbalsta:
Gallerija L; SIGHT SKATEBOARDS; veikals RIPO; Baltijas Komiksu Kultūras žurnāls (ku)š! un Auseklis!

kuš! in Austria

2011-03-26T17:29:00.001+02:00

Since the first of March kuš! editor David is in Vienna as guest of the KABINETT comic passage. What exactly he is doing will be revealed in a later post, now he would just like to share some links to the many artists he met in Austria:

Heinz Wolf and Nicolas Mahler (drawn by Wolf)

And these are only the few artists which we met in Vienna. The scene might not be widely known outside Austria and maybe even less inside Austria, but there are a lot of people creating very interesting comics and surely in future we will here more from here.

Tiny festival report from Linz

2011-03-08T16:40:00.003+02:00

This year kuš! was again in the Austrian comics capital Linz to visit the festival Nextcomic. The program was slightly confusing, but the atmosphere was all the better and there were some nice exhibitions to discover, among them also exhibitions by Manuele Fior, Jens Harder and Arne Bellstorf which we unfortunately all missed, as they were not too central. What we did see, you can discover in the next pictures:

Comics artist and Kabinett activist Heinz Wolf carefully covering the logo of semi-tasty Africola not to advertise it in front of a huge paper toy (made by someone else).

Jyrki Heikkinen was also there representing Finland in the exhibition Cartoonia from Stripburger, but here he is taking a look at the works by Christoph Raffetseder and Herbert Christian Stöger in an Austrian group show.

According to the festival boss Gottfried Gusenbauer (left) the show was not curated, he "just invited some old comics friends". Well that was a pretty courageous thing to say, as this exhibit was exactly the one which took place in a fancy art gallery. Well at least his friends are some of the most recognized Austrian comics artists such as Thomas Kriebaum (on the picture on the right), Nicolas Mahler, Christoph Abbrederis, Heinz Wolf and Unkraut Comics so it worked out pretty well.

Not exhibiting and just like us enjoying some quality time in the PEZ capital was Kai Pfeiffer (the one asking "Do you ever go out?"). The paintings behind him are by REO (link not found).

Here is a beautiful detail of a comics in the personal exhibition of Lucie Lomová, who just finished her comics artist residency in Linz.

Not present in Linz was Lamelos, but they left their marks all over the cultural centre Kapu, where we were happy to stay (Thank you Welli!).

Other people we met but unfortunately didn't shoot were Michael Jordan, Kaja Avbersek, Bojan, Paul Gravett, Helmut Kaplan, Edda Strobl, Michael Hacker, Sebastian Broskwa and Konrad Beck. We surely had a great time in the city of light...

Andreja Lavrinoviča / endrju darbu izstāde

2011-03-05T14:04:00.001+02:00

http://www.endrju.lv/

(ku)š! # 7 is out

2011-02-23T13:58:00.002+02:00

Yesterday we received a couple of boxes, this is how they looked inside:

So, finally the new (ku)š is printed! The issue contains 20 stories from Latvian and international artists about the forest. It might not be so much about gnomes and fairies, like in the forest of your dreams, but rather stories that might evoke nightmares... Well enough said, better read it yourself. Here are some preview pics:

Excerpt from Emelie Östergren's story "The monster that dreamed of getting eaten"

Excerpt from Michael Jordan's story "TheHuntress'woods"

Excerpt from Oskars Pavlovskis' story "sled"

Cover artist: Till Hafenbrak (Germany). Comics artists: Emelie Östergren, Kolbeinn Karlsson (Sweden), Michael Jordan (Germany), Juani Ta (Romania), Michael DeForge, Duy Thang Nguyen (Canada), Derek M. Ballard, Pat Aulisio, Ansis Puriņš, (USA), Jyrki Heikkinen (Finland), König Lü. Q. (Switzerland), Yoshi (Lithuania), Dace Sietiņa, Kristofers Reidzāns, Maija Līduma, Mārtiņš Zutis, Oskars Pavlovskis, Ingrīda Pičukane, Sabīne Moore, UKNO (Latvia)

Format: A6, 100 pages, stiched binding, full-color, English and partly Latvian with English subtitles,
Price: LS 1.40, $ 6.50, € 5.00 (plus shipping). Write to kushmens@gmail.com or buy it on ecrater. Soon also available in Latvian bookstores.

Generously supported by: Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, AS "Latvijas valsts meži", Mammadaba, HungryLab.

More preview pics on www.komikss.lv

Buy it here (just scroll) :

Kur es esmu?

2011-02-21T11:37:00.002+02:00

Last weekend kuš! took part at the Sport and Art Festival Sigulda. Una Meiberga curated a very beautiful exhibition in the train station of Sigulda with the title "Kur es esmu?"(Where am I?) with works from Latvian artists Māra Viška, Daiga Krūze, Anda Lāce, Paula Zariņa, Artūrs Bērziņš, Andrejs Strokins, Reinis Liepa and Kristaps Krievs. Kuš! presented a selection of magazines for reading (and buying) and on Saturday we hold a comics workshop.

Here are some pictures from the events:

The exhibition will be open until the 6th of March, so if you happen to be in Sigulda, you should go take a look! As you might have noticed in the pictures, it is recommended to dress up warmly...

new (ku)š! in print

2011-02-17T21:35:00.000+02:00

Just a few days left, and we will release the newest š! with this beautiful cover by Till Hafenbrak:

More details follow soon!

mini kuš! review

2011-02-07T10:36:00.001+02:00

Comicsgirl just wrote a very nice review about our mini kuš! collection. Read the review here to get an independant take on our newest publications.

If you want to buy mini kuš! and make up your own opinion you can do that in Riga in Lukabuka, Muhamors, Randoms and Galerija Istaba. Each comics costs 1 LVL. If you are abroad, you may purchase it on our ecrater shop.

Also check out the comicsgirl's review about "Zombre #2 – The Magic Forest", a very beautiful comics by Ansis Puriņš, who will also have a story in our next issue of (ku)š!.

Thanks, Eden!

komiksu konkursa rezultāti!

2011-01-31T13:19:00.001+02:00

A/S "Latvijas valsts mežu" un kuš! rīkotais komiksu konkurss par tēmu "Mežs - atjaunojams zaļais resurss" ir noslēdzies un rezultāti zināmi! Liels paldies visiem komiksu autoriem, kuri piedalījās konkursā.

UKNO par komiksu "Mežamāte" saņem galveno balvu - Dāvanu karti atpūtai nedēļas nogalē ar ģimeni un draugiem tūrisma un rekreācijas centrā "Ezernieki".

Dace Sietiņa un Kristofers Reidzāns saņem atzinības balvas - - bezmaksas ieejas kartes Tērvetes Dabas parkā (2 pieaugušajiem un 2 bērniem).

Visi uzvarējušie komiksi tiks publicēti jaunajā kuš! "Meža stāsti".

Angouleme 2011

2011-01-26T11:04:00.001+02:00

From the 27th until the 30th of January is again the biggest comics festival of Europe taking place in Angouleme. Unfortunately once again we won't be able to visit it. But still kuš! will be there. Our friend Christian from Passenger Press has all English issues of kuš! at his stand. Go by there and check it out and also pick up one of his amazing anthologies. All the Passenger Anthologies are cooperations between movie directors/script writers and comics artist who bring the stories into a visual experience.

In addition to that you surely should also check out the treasure fleet. It is the new mini-comic-distribution-project formed by Aisha Franz, Till Thomas, Sharmila Banerjee + Martin Ernstsen (Salmiak Comics), Ana Albero + Till Hafenbrak + Paul Paetzel (Biografiktion) and they carry the kuš! issues wich have contributions by Aisha, Till H. and Paul.