The AmadoraBD festival, organized by the Amadora City Council, celebrates its 36th edition with the central hub once again located in the Parque da Liberdade. Here, the majority of exhibitions, autograph sessions, editorial launches, and commercial areas are set up.
This year, the organizers have expanded some of the additional programming to weekdays to ease the flow of visitors on weekends, which are traditionally the busiest times for both entries and for authors and booksellers in the commercial space.
“We have extended the autograph sessions to include Fridays at the end of the day with international and national authors. We believe this strategy will encourage people to attend the festival and visit us in the evening,” explained Catarina Valente, the director of AmadoraBD.
A new initiative is the introduction of ‘Hora BD’, which offers an additional 15% discount on comic book purchases from Monday to Thursday, between 18:00 and 20:00.
Regarding programming, AmadoraBD maintains a model from previous editions of “combining new releases with the classics of comic books”, featuring retrospective exhibitions and others focused on albums published over recent months, according to Valente.
The festival features a retrospective dedicated to the awarded Brazilian brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, who will be present at Amadora. The exhibition showcases originals from works such as ‘Mesa para dois’, ‘Daytripper’, and ‘Dois irmãos’.
Another retrospective celebrates Portuguese author Luís Louro, marking 40 years of his career and, for the first time, exhibiting sketches and drawings from nearly all his albums, as he shared.
Visitors can see sketches from books such as ‘O Corvo’, the ‘Jim del Monaco’ series, ‘Alice’, and the latest ‘Filhos de Baba Yaga’.
“This is an opportunity to see the other side of the mirror. […] The style hasn’t changed; it’s evolved. I have a signature in my work, and I don’t need to sign because people recognize my style. This evolution satisfies me. If people didn’t notice a difference, I might as well hang up my brushes,” he stated.
AmadoraBD will also mark other milestones, such as the 85th anniversary of ‘The Spirit’ with an exhibition of originals by the American author Will Eisner (1917-2005), whose “genius transcended many conventions of the time, exploring the artistic and narrative potential of comics,” as noted by the festival.
Upon entering the central hub of AmadoraBD in the Parque da Liberdade, visitors are greeted by characters such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, part of the exhibition celebrating 65 years of the Justice League.
Authors Miguel Mendonça (Portugal), Maria Laura Sanapo (Italy), and Kevin Maguire (United States) will be present for this exhibition at AmadoraBD.
The festival also highlights exhibitions with original boards from albums like ‘O abismo do esquecimento’ by Paco Roca and Rodrigo Terrasa, ‘Radium Girls’ by Cyrielle Evrard, and ‘Corpo de Cristo’ by Bea Lema, with the latter two authors expected to attend the festival.
AmadoraBD extends beyond the central hub, featuring retrospectives of the visual work of Alice Geirinhas and Dinis Conefrey at the Galeria Municipal Artur Bual and an exhibition by Filipa Beleza at the Bedeteca Municipal.
On Sunday, the winners of the annual comic book awards presented by the festival will be announced.
This organizational model has been consistent for several years, and Valente noted that “regardless of the political and social climate, the festival has become a commitment of the city and the community itself, who claim the festival as their own.”
The AmadoraBD festival concludes on November 2.
