Zampano

The bi-annual Comic-Salon in Erlangen, a small university town outside of Nurenberg, Germany has been the most important comic book event in Germany for over 25 years. Every two years the German comic book industry descends on this small town to celebrate the art and commerce of comics. I used to go to the Salon about twenty years ago and we had a booth again with our new release “Bakuba and other African Stories”. All the Zampano artists were in attendance and signing our free publication Zampano Mini-Mag, as well as their own graphic novels.

Supposedly about 25’000 visitors crowded the convention center and in typical German fashion everything was well organized. Our location, as a first time exhibitor was less than desirable but most fans found us easily and business was brisk for most of the weekend. I was also part of two panel discussions on webcomics and e-comics in general. Also, a brand-new magazine with the “innovative” title Comix featuring my autobiographical comic Endless Sky was launched at the salon. The concept is fairly simple; to print German, Austrian or Swiss Comics on newsprint and sell it for a dirt-cheap price of 2 Euros but with a very large print run of about 15’000 copies. The concept was well received and supposedly several thousand already sold at the show.

Below you can find a few pics of the Salon and the Zampano gang:

Entrance to the show (photo: David Boller

Zampano founder: David Boller(photo: Comic Radio Show)

Don Caneloni creator (photo: Comic Radio Show)

Katastropolis creator (photo: Comic Radio Show)

Every two years there is a major comic convention in Germany in the sleepy University town of Erlangen, called Comic-Salon Erlangen. This show’s got an over twenty five year tradition and always attracts a decent crowd of mostly comic fans and collector. In comparison to France it is less of a family event and more of an industry event. We’re gonna be present with a booth for the first time and all of our three creators are gonna bee signing. I will also participate in two webcomics-oriented panel discussions on Thursday and Friday. Expect a full report in the following week with photos and all. Below you can find the all the date for the signings that are planned so far. See you there:

Thursday, 3.6.2010
13:00: David Boller
15:00: Rudolph Perez

Friday, 4.6.2010
11:00: Rudolph Perez
13:00: David Boller

Saturday, 5.6.2010
11:00: David Boller
14:00: Rene Lehner
16:00: Rudolph Perez

Sunday, 6.6.2010
12:00: David Boller
15:00: Rudolph Perez

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to post much on the English site lately. The preparation for the convention season and our first official release Bakuba have taken their toll on my time management. I promise to be more on top of things, as we prepare to add the final brick to the Zampano universe, a French version of the site.

One of the great things about conventions in Europe are the creative events that organizers are planning to make the shows more attractive to the audience. Panini, the world-famous Italian sticker company has scheduled another sticker album for the Comic-Salon Erlangen this June. Of course, we’re participating with three stickers and half a page in the album. Each of the Zampano creators has contributed one sticker and they can be picked up at our booth at the convention. Below you’ll find a preview of what you can expect:

Next week we’ll be announcing the third issue of theZampano Mini-Mag. The cover is in the can and we’ll be announcing tons of surprises. The Mini-Mag No.2 will be available at the End of Mai for the convention in Erlangen, Germany. Also, all back-issues are out of stock at this point and we’d advise all interested readers to pick up the current issues at a show or order it directly from the store.