“But, moooom, I don’t know how to read!”
“Then read the instructions!”

Those were the first things I heard when I entered Parque da Liberdade (the former Ski Skate Park) in Amadora, where the 35th edition of the Amadora BD International Comic Festival took place between October 17 and 27. This exchange between a mother and her son would appear on the surface to be a lack of appreciation for the limitations of infancy when, in fact, quite the opposite, it encourages the opportunity for interpretative freedom – between representation itself and imagination, playing with associations from a ‘library of images’ just over half a decade old. The frequent connection between the art of comics and children is both freeing and limiting – in fact, comics are much more than just illustrated texts or subtitled illustrations – after all, they are a mutual agreement between word and image based not on a complementary relationship, but on one of complicity: ‘by changing the title of an image, you change its meaning. Writing bends the image. I like to experiment with it’^[1]. As such, reaching out to children (precisely through the collaboration between literature and illustration) can be quite liberating, as it breaks down the tradition of dividing the arts, as well as their autonomy. However, this is precisely the limitation in the equation between Comics and a younger audience: the failure to recognise what is on offer to other age groups – or the belief that there is only kind of demand and market in this niche. Yet, Comics can also be seen as favouring the inclusion of children and young people in the pictorial-literary universe of the artistic field, without it – always – having to be adapted to their age group. Art Spiegelman’s Maus may be considered a key reference in this exercise. A post-memoir graphic novel (where the two-way relationship between image and word is also usually the norm), about the transgenerational trauma of the Shoa – using an analogy in which the Nazis are represented as cats and the Jews as mice -, the author shifts between his father’s account and silence about the barbarity. Although it is a serious and hard-hitting work, due to its allegorical and somewhat fictional charge – much like memory -, it can be a perfect vehicle for telling the Holocaust events, even to children and young people. As Rancière rightly points out: ‘the real must be fictionalized before it can be thought’ and, although this is a hallmark of all literature (and art), Comics have the unique ability to make poetry and fantasy available (and possible) to everyone – whether they are young, children or illiterate. Following this principle, Humanity was the theme of the 35th edition of the Amadora BD International Comic Festival. With the same spirit, the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution was also honoured.

The Festival was divided into several locations between Amadora and Reboleira, the main one – which was home to a large part of the exhibition grounds, the shopping area and the gaming arena – in Parque da Liberdade and the others at Bedeteca da Amadora (Biblioteca Municipal Fernando Piteira Santos), Galeria Municipal Ar-tur Bual and Casa Roque Gameiro, where solo shows and exhibitions also took place. At Parque da Liberdade, in the centre hallway of the exhibition floor – which opened the pavilion premises -, the street was reenacted using an immersive WIP (work-in-progress) and DIY (do-it-yourself) experience. The reproduction of a Lisbon street from the 70s by artist João Arrochinho – SóFachada – was based on the series of posters A poesia está na rua by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and echoed memories of revolution and liberation. A newspaper stand, an electricity box, a street bench and sewage pipes stood along the corridor that led to the different exhibition rooms. Avenida da Liberdade no. 74 was imagined in fantasy fashion, under which this poetry conceived herself – through workshops: posters, mural paintings and stickers (which quietly included the presence of the Casa Para Viver movement and Coletivo pela Libertação da Palestina).

Several nooks and crannies along the corridor, replacing building doors, opened the entrance to the ten exhibitions on display. The displays appeared to be split into two sections: a celebratory one and another that we may call insurgent, where Comics are understood as a tool for education and liberation and which, in fact, also celebrates an anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution. In the ‘celebratory’ section, we could mention exhibitions on the classics, such as the 60th anniversary of Daredevil; Mafalda, a 60-year-old non-conformist; 80 years of cartoons in the newspaper A Bola (called Elevada Nota Artística); Naruto; and even a Levoir area devoted to the classics of Portuguese literature in comics, which this year celebrated the 500th anniversary of Luís Vaz de Camões and the 90th anniversary of Fernando Pessoa’s Mensagem. While celebratory, this section also bears some hints of insurgency, just as the insurgent section also contains some form of celebration – ranging from Mafalda, who is still unruly sixty years on; to Daredevil, a blind superhero who synaesthetically sees through his hearing. The latter, from the standpoint of inclusion, has a sensory and immersive exhibition in honour of his condition.

Meanwhile, the ‘insurgent’ section included the roots of the fantasy to which Comics initially referred: that of the working class. Universidade das Cabras, with drawings by Christian Lax, asserted the power of education; Quilombo, Herança e Resistências by Marcelo D’ Salete looked back at the work of the Brazilian author, including topics such as slavery and how Brazil resisted it, colonialism and structural racism; the New York Trilogy (Giant, Bootblack and Harlem) by French-Canadian Mikael addressed the problem of the city in eternal construction, while revealing the astonishing circumstances of immigrant workers. Finally, Mathieu Sapin’s Edgar and Paulo J. Mendes’ Elviro, both still in the insurgent camp, were in my opinion the stars of this edition. Between individual memory (of his father-in-law) and cultural memory, Mathieu Sapin draws up a history of what the Portuguese diaspora in France was, or may have been, during the Estado Novo. Paulo J. Mendes, author of the Best Work by a Portuguese Author at the 2023 Amadora Comic Strip Awards, with Elviro, paid tribute to popular material culture and mourns its loss by depicting the last days of an old tram network in a coastal town. This second section, where all exhibitions are related to publications (as in the first), emphasises the role of stories and memory when writing History and individual accounts, under the institutional voice. In Comics, History is written as deservedly as in the institutional academic realm. Having said that, the scant representation of independent publishers in the commercial centre is somewhat dissatisfying, given that the exhibition section is largely geared towards independent platform publications. The publications are there, but not the publishers.

The ‘insurgent section’ expanded to the areas outside Parque da Liberdade. At Galeria Municipal Artur Bual, two exhibitions celebrated April with Cristina Sampaio’s cartoons and Nuno Saraiva’s editorial illustrations, posters, cartoons and comic strips. At Bedeteca da Amadora, Raquel Costa fictionalised (after all, isn’t that the best way to understand reality?) 25 women in 1970s Portugal and pushed us to look at women’s liberation in time, space and the relativity of cisgenderism. Casa Roque Gameiro honoured Guida Ottolini as a renowned illustrator and Comics author from the third generation of the Roque Gameiro family.

I would also like to emphasise that the Comics competitions held by the Municipality also have a place at the festival. With cash prizes, they are aimed at the school community or at young authors and intend to provide opportunities, boost creativity and promote Comics as an educational tool. Amadora BD will also become part of the Comics Beyond project in 2024 – a European Comics incubator with the purpose of strengthening employability and helping to develop the entrepreneurial spirit and networking skills of new artists. It remains to mention the other activities that make this exhibition a festival. Amongst debates and releases, there were also workshops for all ages, mural workshops, poster workshops and Manga page layout workshops.

As a final note, and as a way of preparing for a future edition, I suggest exploring some of the Portuguese and international talents featured at Amadora BD, reminding the readers of the power of the so-called lower arts where, ultimately, these represent a whole treasure trove of humanity’s secrets, with all their variety, truth and integrity: ‘our concern with history is a concern with performed images already imprinted on our brains, images at which we keep staring while the truth lies elsewhere, away from it all, somewhere as yet undiscovered’^[2].

^[1] Blaufuks, Daniel. (2008). O Arquivo, The Archive. Um álbum de textos. An album of texts. Lisbon: vera cortês agência de arte, p. 21.
^[2] Sebald, W. G. (2001). Austerlitz, translated by Anthea Bell. New York: Modern Library, p. 72.