1st Costa Brava International Prize for Comics
This prize serves as an incentive for the sector and enables the festival to be promoted nationally and internationally in association with the Costa Brava brand.
MARCH 2014
The 5th Torroella de Montgrí Comic Festival took place on 21st June, organised by Torroella de Montgrí Town Council in association with Panini. A presentation of the newly created Costa Brava International Prize for Comics was made at the event. The Comic Festival was presented by Enric Vilert, President of the Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Girona, Jordi Cordón, Mayor of Torroella de Montgrí, and Lluís Torrent, Managing Director of Panini. Furthermore, the novelist and scriptwriter Andreu Martín, recently awarded the Pepe Carvalho Prize for Crime Fiction, and the illustrator Alfons López, current holder of the Catalan National Prize for Comics, were special guests at the event.
The Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Girona and Torroella Town Council have created the Costa Brava International Prize for Comics with the goal of promoting comics as a major art form and promoting the coming together of different cultures thanks to the international nature of comics, while at the same time raising the international profile of the Costa Brava. This initiative is included in programme 4 of the 2011-2015 Strategic Tourism Plan of the counties of Girona, concerned with boosting the international prestige of the destination. The first Prize, worth 20,000 euros, will be awarded in 2012.
The Patronat de Turisme is committed to events of this kind as part of its search for strategies and formulas to raise the international profile of the Costa Brava destination, in this case using art and culture as elements to attract publicity.
This year, the Comic Festival was held on 25th and 26th June in various venues in Torroella de Montgrí and L’Estartit with a varied programme of events catering for experts and novices alike. Torroella Town Council has set up this festival to attract tourism to the town while promoting culture and art within a thematic event.
