The Gráficas! festival starts this Thursday in Málaga with Ana Miralles and Aneke

The fourth edition of the Gráficas! International Festival of Women Comic Authors and Creators begins this Thursday, November 5, in Málaga. The first event will be at 18.30 hours at the Centro Andaluz de las Letras, with a conversation between the cartoonist Ana Miralles and Aneke, author of this year's poster, moderated by Natalia Meléndez. The activity is titled "Ava, Esther y sus mundos" and opens a programme spread across all of Andalusia. At the same event, the exhibition "Las viñetas de Gráficas!26" opens in the main hall of the centre, with copies of original illustrations by this edition's participants. It can be visited Monday to Friday, from 9:00 to 14:30 hours, and will later tour other Andalusian venues.

The bulk of the Málaga programme is concentrated on Friday, November 6, and Saturday, November 7. On Friday, Carmen Carnero, Ana Galvañ, Marta Kayser and María Badía will take part, Emma Ríos will do a shop window decoration and Lisa Blumen and DJ Raki will offer a drawn concert. The masterclasses for schools, at the Fundación Unicaja María Cristina, Eduardo Ocón and the Biblioteca Provincial de Málaga, will be given by Aneke, María Badía, the French artist Leá Mazé and the American Kelly Sue Deconnick. On Saturday there will be shop window decorations by Marta Kayser and Carmen Carnero, a reading breakfast with Ana Galvañ and an illustrated aperitif by Alicia GM and Dunia Navinés. The international guests Leá Mazé, Lisa Blumen, Kelly Sue Deconnick and Emma Ríos will star in two meetings at the Centro Cultural Fundación Unicaja. The day ends with a group signing session at 20:30 hours in the Plaza del Obispo. Outside the capital, the festival reaches Fuengirola and Arroyo de la Miel, with Ana Miralles on the 6th and Aneke on the 7th. In Córdoba and Granada there will be shop window decorations and talks on November 6, with Paola Garrido, Rosa Codina, Wakaiki and Alicia GM. During the event days, a free fanzine produced by the students of the Escuela de Arte de San Telmo will be distributed in bookshops in Málaga.

As a new feature, this year "OFF - Gráficas!" is born, meetings of authors with art students in the other provinces during November. The first was held this week at the Biblioteca Provincial de Jaén with Ro Its Somethings. The next appointment will be on November 10 at the Biblioteca Provincial de Huelva, with the talk "Dibujar el pop" by Irene Mala. On November 12, María Medem will give the masterclass "Mucho más que cómics" at the Centro Cultural Fundación Unicaja de Sevilla; on the 17th, Ana Penyas will be at the one in Cádiz with "Generaciones gráficas"; and on the 24th, Clara Soriano will visit the one in Almería with "¡Hacemos cómics!". The festival was born to give visibility to the talent of women comic creators, according to the Consejería de Cultura, Patrimonio Histórico y Deporte, which organises it through the Centro Andaluz de las Letras. It has the collaboration of the Diputación Provincial de Málaga, the Institut français de Sevilla, the Fundación Tres Culturas del Mediterráneo, the Universidad de Málaga, the Escuela de Arte de San Telmo, the Biblioteca Provincial de Málaga, the municipal libraries of Arroyo de la Miel and Fuengirola and the Museo Interactivo de la Música de Málaga. The full programme can be consulted at the Centro Andaluz de las Letras page.