9. July 2019 - The HSF, Herceg Novi Strip Festival has added two outstanding British artists Boo Cook and Simon Davis to the list of special guests of this year's 13th edition of the Festival (HSF), which is going to run from 6 to 11 September.
Davis began work for the 2000AD house in the 1990s, and his brilliant full-colour artwork enabled him to be a long-standing illustrator of stories like Sinister Dexter, Black Siddha and Judge Dredd. Newer projects where he worked are Ampney Crucis with Ian Edginton and Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles with Pat Mills. Davis's latest creation is Thistlebone folk-horror story with writer T.C. Eglington. Apart from his work on comics, Simon is also a portraitist and the Vice President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
Like of all more prominent comic writers in Britain, Cook's comic work began at the 2000AD house on figures like Judge Dredd, Anderson Dogs, Blunt, ABC Warriors and Harry Kipling. In addition, he was the regular author of the cover for Elephantmen's Monthly Edition in Image/Comixology. Cook is also the author of a huge number of covers, including Wolverine and X Factor, for the most famous American publishing house Marvel. Like Simon, Bo is a polyvalent artist, so he is also a successful painter, writer and musician –drummer in the Forktail band where he plays with Davis, but also in the experimental-synth band Motherbox. He says he loves sci-fi, curry and cats.
Since all headliners have to make a special poster for the Herceg Novi festivity of ninth art, the London comic artists have already sent their works for this year's edition of the festival.
With the premier release of these remarkable achievements, the organizers remind that in addition to two great British artists, the list of special guests is made up of Argentinean, legend of the comic book Enrique Breccia; Italians Vanessa Belardo, Pasquale del Vecchio, Andrea di Vito and Mario Allberti, and Spanish Raul Allen and Javier Fernandes, as well as Belgian Alain Mauriset. They will lead an impressive army of more than 50 artists who will be staying in Herceg Novi in September. Among them are practically resident artists - William Simpson, Rufus Dayglo, Walter Venturi, Walter Trono, Dražen Kovačević, Mirko Čolak, Aleksa Gajić , Stevan Subić, as well as those who had participated in the festival from the first edition and are considered an inseparable part of the HSF, Tihomir Tikulin, Vladimir Vesovic, Iztok Sitar.
Given that 2019 is full of significant jubilees from the world of comics, this year's edition of the HSF will be marked by these crucial historical moments, like 90 years since the release of Tin Tin, 80 years of Batman, 60 years of Asterix, 50 years of Alan Ford and 50 years of the most famous Balkan comic book Dikan. In honour of this jubilee, a lecture will be held by the legendary author, creator of Dikan Lazar Sredanović, great Montenegrin theorist Luka Rakojević, as well as renowned comic artists Moreno Buratini, Iztok Sitar, Vladimir Vesović, Milko Peko, Zoran Stefanović, Enis Čišić and many others. Lectures will be held at local schools and established HSF locations, in addition to exhibitions, drawings for fans, art workshops, concerts and major HSF parties, which will make day-long programmes for all six days of this festivity devoted to ninth art. To make it even better, all events will be free for all visitors.
HSF would not be one of the best festivals in this part of Europe if it didn’t prepare a major surprise for each edition, so more special guests and music creators can be expected until the beginning of the 13th Herceg Novi Comic Festival.
