The Four Color Media Monitor

The Jerusalem Post reports that this year's Animix festival for comics and animation, which is held in Tel Aviv, will have a special focus on the tragedy of the Islamic terrorist attack last year on October 7, 2023:

The 24th Animix festival for animation, comics, and caricature from Israel and around the world will be held from August 6-10 in Tel Aviv.

The festival, which will open at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, will focus on visual works dealing with the events of October 7 and the ongoing war in Gaza. The opening will feature the launch of the comic book In the Heart of October 7 – an anthology in which 12 comic book artists illustrate 12 stories of heroism that took place on October 7.

Japanese manga artist Makoto Tanaka, who became famous for her manga story about the kidnapping of Noa Argamani, will arrive from Tokyo to be a guest at the festival. She will speak about this unusual creation and present a selection of her works, many of which are combined with Hebrew texts.

The program “Iron Pencils” will be presented, featuring special projects created during the war in Gaza. It will make accessible and commemorate in lines and colors, graphic novel and animation, stories that we must not forget. A special guest of this evening will be Kibbutz Be’eri resident Chaim Yellin.

This is something many other specialty conventions the world over likely refuse to work on, and who knows if Frank Miller's willing to participate? Unless he actually turns out to be a special guest and visitor, he's once again letting down everyone who admired his courage in focusing on the challenging issue of Islamic terrorism in his Holy Terror GN back in 2011. I'm glad the organizers of Animix are dealing with this subject for this year's convention, and they'd do well to give it some focus next year too.

Labels: animation, conventions, Europe and Asia, exhibitions, history, islam and jihad, manga and anime, misogyny and racism, politics, terrorism, violence