Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.10.2019, Síða 32

32The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 19— 2019
A Picture As
A Thousand
Words
The birth of The Icelandic Comics Society
Words: Andie Fontaine Photo: Art Bicnick
Comics
The exhibition will last until October
28th at Hafnarhús.
While comics are a popular me-
dium in Iceland, and there are cer-
tainly comic artists and authors
in this country, a real effort is
now being initiated for creating
future comics cultural venues, in
the form of The Icelandic Comics
Society (TICS). Founded by Védís
Huldudóttir, Einar Valur Másson
and Atla Hrafney, TICS “seeks to
invigorate the medium of comics
and develop new opportunities for
the industry in Iceland.”
Atla Hrafney, herself an acclaimed
comics author and editor at Hive-
works Comics, tells the Grapevine
that she believes comics, as a me-
dium, is hindered by a number of
factors.
“Yes, I do believe the medium
is stunted in its potential growth,
both here and internationally,”
she says. “Comics are looked at,
from an institutional standpoint,
as a genre rather than a medium.
When government groups, pub-
lishers and grant givers all look at
it that way, it's a bit hard to navi-
gate for newcomers, and most
comics authors leave the country
in pursuit of greener pastures.
“Imagine for a minute if Iceland
refused to make more grants for
musicians because music is pres-
ent in most films and TV, which is
already supported in various ways.
That's kind of what's going on, a
miscategorisation of mediums
that leads to systemic ignorance,
and so our job is to fix that.”
Rolling with it
Counteracting this ignorance re-
quires a degree of creative think-
ing. Ultimately, TICS is born from
the idea that the medium can re-
ceive both greater public atten-
tion and accessibility through a
number of different angles, all of
which help artists, authors, edi-
tors and readers.
“We're hoping to pursue two
venues; the first be-
ing cultural, and the
second industrial,”
Atla Hrafney says.
“The first will be
done through work-
shops, exhibits, and
potentially festival
or convention orga-
nizing. That's why
we're so keen on es-
tablishing a comics
centre, a physical location that we
can guide folks through and cu-
rate on our own terms helps in-
vigorate the cultural element. The
industrial side is mostly bureau-
cracy and meetings, helping com-
panies or institutions understand
the medium and how to work bet-
ter with it. That might extend to
the educational sector, but work
like that is always fluid, and day-
by-day, so we'll roll with it as it
comes.”
To this end, TICS is organising
a pop-up exhibition at Hafnarhús
featuring comics from Icelandic
and Finnish creators alike. In ad-
dition, Atla Hrafney and Védís will
be conducting a workshop for pri-
mary school students on how to
make comics—thoughtfully so, as
primary schools in Reykjavík will
be closed for winter break during
the time of the exhibition, which
runs from October 24th to Octo-
ber 28th.
The importance
of comics
There is little doubt about the pop-
ularity of comics, and Atla Hraf-
ney underlines why the medium
is so important.
“Anyone can make a comic,
which means anyone can express
themselves in a visual way,” she
says. “If a picture says a thousand
words, then you can easily fit
5,000 into a comic. There's a rea-
son why most memes exist in im-
age form, and not just as text. Be-
yond that, Iceland makes some of
the most recognizable artworks in
the world, across music and films
and books. Sigur Rós and Björk are
hugely recognised, and Icelandic
works right now are a hot item,
so from a business angle, it's such
a great cultural
item to export.
We' v e a l r e a d y
seen fol k s l i ke
Hugleikur Dags-
son prove that
Icelandic com-
ics can be a force
of nat u re that
reach beyond our
shores.”
W hile “al l of
the members of TICS share com-
mon educational backgrounds,
particularly in the way we expe-
rienced the problems in comics
in Iceland,” Atla Hrafney empha-
sises that “we each use it in our
own way, and our aesthetic senses
are completely different through-
out. It's about as eclectic as can be
expected.”
Ultimately, Atla Hrafney has
high hopes for TICS.
“How active the foreign exhib-
its and pop-ups will be depends
entirely on our international col-
laborators, but of course, a work-
shop and an exhibit like this is
routine in Finland and historical
for us,” she tells us. “There's a bit
more pressure and desire to push
it further here, which is exactly
what we intend to do.”
Just your friendly neighbourhood comic girl
Books
“Comics are
looked at, from
an institutional
standpoint, as
a genre rather
than a medium.”
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