Comicmania International Festival

Comicmania International Festival is an international comics convention and the only such event in Lovia. It takes place at Woodstock Forest, in Noble City. The festival is organized on the first Saturday of June every year, since 2010. It was initially financed by the Department of Culture, Heritage and Education and today by Ministry of Culture.

History
The idea of Comicmania International Festival originally belongs to Miroslav Ruk, founder of Horus Comics. Through Alphabet Publishers, he pressed DoCHE to finance an event like that. Those in charge of the department were sceptical, but Justin Abrahams, a comicfan himself, convinced them. Before Ruk, the famous artist Andy Bowe had expressed his desire to see a comics festival in Lovia. "The comics production in Lovia isn't big, but the fans are really hungry for that", he stated in 2006. At the very beginning, no foreign comic artist would come in Lovia for the festival. So, the first convention was postponed to 2009 and then to 2010. Finally, the 1st Comicmania International was held on Saturday 5, 2010. All Lovian comic artists were present, beside a few artists from Brunant and Libertas. There was a good attendance, better than expected. Patrick Butler, who also visited the convention, stated: "I believe it was quite a success. The Festival was well organised and just think it's the first one. I'm sure we'll see far more artists and visitors in the future". The whole event was dedicated to Andy Bowe, who had died last year.

In 2011, the festival hosted a couple of American artists, as well as Brunanters and Mäöresers. For the first time there were cosplayers, depicting characters from Nemesis and The Spear of the Dragon series. More people came and the sales increased.

Without a doubt, the 2012 convention was the most successful. Attendance reached over 700 people, with even more foreign artists. Also, the Five Lonely Parrots gave a small concert for free, which lasted for about an hour. Cosplayers portrayed characters from more comics and there was also a stand of Gamer's Corner.

Organizing
The festival is entirely organised and financed by the Ministry of Culture. The 2L$ entry sum is clearly nominal, while children under 10 get in for free. The money are to fulfill the ministry's purposes.

The festival is so far held on the first Saturday of June every year, so the visitors can enjoy the fine weather. All stands are situated across the main path, but the artists sit into the pavillion, signing comics and speaking with the people.

Awards
So far there are only two awards given, due to the low production of Lovian comics. What is more, in 2010 a special award was posthumously given to Andy Bowe, who had died in 2008, for his great contribution.

2010

 * Award for Best Scenario: HyperMan, by Maksym Andreichenko
 * Award for Best Artwork: The Spear of the Dragon, by Wei Lang

2011

 * Award for Best Scenario: Nemesis, by William Benedict
 * Award for Best Artwork: The Hawk, by Jason Bruddock

2012

 * Award for Best Scenario: Against the Revolution, by various writers
 * Award for Best Artwork: Donatello, by Harold Freeman