The Platform of Independent Comic Book Publishers (PEIC) denounces that the poster for the Imagine Comic Festival in Jaca, which replaces the cancelled Hispano-French Comic Book Fair in Jaca, was created with artificial intelligence and using an image from a resource bank.
A few months after the withdrawal of funds for the Spanish-French Comic Fair of Jaca after five editions, the City Council of the city has presented Imagina Comic Fest, which it defines as “a recreational and cultural event specially designed for children and young people”, which will take place on October 18, 19 and 20.
In the presentation of the festival, it was said that it was focused “on creativity and imagination”, although the PEIC assures that it sees with “surprise and indignation” that this event, “in which the authors participate, has chosen to promote itself using an image generated by artificial intelligence and a brand image from a well-known free image bank. From the PEIC, we express our weariness with the continued contempt for an artistic and literary medium such as comics and graphic novels.
They assure that the aim of the Jaca City Council with this festival “has nothing to do with the ninth art or with a typical comic book room. “It is not the first time, although we hope it will be the last, that a public institution trivializes the work of publishers and artists with their performances, that is why we ask the Jaca City Council to rectify its proposal and eliminate the word comic from its festival.
Cancellation of the comic book show
In March, with the vote on the budgets, the allocation for the Spanish-French Comic Strip Fair, which was held every two years in Jaca, was eliminated, on the pretext that it “did not bring enough money to the city.” The parties that voted for this decision were the PP, the Aragonese, Vox and PAR.
The Jaca Hispanic French Comics Fair was a meeting between authors, publishers, booksellers, agents and critics of the comics industry in France and Spain, two of the most important in Europe. It was organized by the Aragonese Association of Comics Authors, which, with more than 60 members, was born in 2014 with the desire to be a common space for the world of Aragonese comics.
