Earlier this year I had the pleasure of coordinating and organising an international comics art trail through out the city of Portsmouth, UK! working with some incredible talent, it really was a great opportunity to spread comics from country to country.
Portsmouth Comic Con’s international initiative for 2022 focused on shining a light on comics and artists hailing from the land of smiles itself, Thailand – specifically Bangkok Thailand.
Our journey began with a sit down interview with comics scholar Nicolas Verstappen, who built his credentials in his home country of Belgium, where he spent many years making comics an area of study before relocating to Bangkok. He had always been interested in teaching, and since he was now on the job hunt he looked for work at local universities. Verstappen’s enormous talent and wealth of knowledge didn’t go unnoticed at Chulalongkorn University where he was offered a position in their prodigious Communication Arts faculty. Now Nicolas Verstappen is the author of “The art of Thai comics: a century of Strips and Stripes”(River Books, 2021), what could be considered the go to written authority on the 9th art in Thailand.
It was with Nicolas Verstappen’s aid that we organised Portsmouth Comic Con’s International Initiative 2022 – an art show that showcases 16 Bangkok based artists across 20 poster sights throughout the city of Portsmouth! To find out more about these artists and the state of the comic industry in Thailand please follow this link to the official page!
Below are the two interviews I shot whilst working on this project, with comics artist Nirut Chamsuwan and comics scholar Nicolas Verstappen.
Nirut’s honesty permeated the interview and made delving in to the more esoteric aspects of comics all the easier
Please find below some photos of the art in situ during it’s initial 18 day run in the wild, before being rehoused in the Portsmouth Guildhall for the duration of Portsmouth comic con 2022
jjscottillustration.co.uk 