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Celebrating New Zealand Comics —10 years of ComicFest

Part of Connecting to collections 2024 series

Tuesday 16 April 2024, 12pm to 1pm
Online — Zoom
Free
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Join Sam Orchard as he reflects on the history of Comicfest, the power of New Zealand comics both as important sources for documentary heritage and on the international stage, and what to expect from ComicFest this year. This year the festival will be celebrating its 10th year.

Join us online for this event.

Register for a Zoom link

A celebration of New Zealand cartoons and comics

Our Connecting to Collecting offering this April is timed to celebrate the lead up of ComicFest, which will be held at the National Library on May 4th. ComicFest is a festival showcasing and celebrating New Zealand cartoons and comics.

The festival, which will be celebrating its 10th year, began as a Wellington City Libraries initiative to encourage comics readership through Free Comic Book Day. Today it is celebrated as a partnership between Wellington City Libraries and the National Library of New Zealand.

Comics as documentary heritage

Join curator and comic artist Sam Orchard as he talks about the power of New Zealand comics as important sources for documentary heritage, both here and overseas. He will also reflect on the history of Comicfest and talk about what's planned for this year's festival.

This event will be delivered using Zoom. You do not need to install the software in order to attend, you can opt to run Zoom from your browser.

Register if you’d like to join this talk and we'll send you the link to use on the day.

Register for a Zoom link

About the speaker

Sam Orchard is the Assistant Curator for the Cartoon and Comics Archive at the Alexander Turnbull Library. He is a comic artist and illustrator, who has been involved in community and youth development campaigns and practices for over a decade.

Cartoon character reading. They are sitting in a chair, on a cloud, on a magic carpet of grass and flowers.

Element from ComicFest 2024 poster. Designed by Mary Guo.