Amadora International Comics Festival, Day 1 Amadora, Portugal
This past January this year I fulfilled a long-held desire to go to the Festival International de la Bande Desinée in Angoulême, France. I had long heard about it and realized it was a true pilgrimage for comic fans. (You can read more about that trip here.) Visiting Angoulême for the festival match my expectations and whetted my desire to visit other festivals. In fact, in April I met up with Cuban cartoonist friends in Athens, Greece at Comicdom Con.
Organizers of the Amadora International Comics Festival spoke to me in France about coming to their festival, which runs three weekends from October 21 through November 6 in Amadora, Portugal. Having cleared my calendar, I happily accepted the invitation of Nelson Dona, Festival Director, and Ligia Macedo who organizes the guests of the Festival (graciously and beautifully, I will add), and now here I am in Amadora and Lisbon. I am travelling with Creative Associates staff member Roberta Moreira, who manages the licensing systems for our Portugal/Spain agents (actually, ALL our international agents) and who just so happens to speak Portuguese (Roberta is from Brazil and has been working with the Peanuts brand for almost four years).
Our day began with three interviews: a radio station, a newspaper, and a magazine. Here is radio interviewer Anna Margarita (I am surprised she isn’t on television) interviewing me.
Here is reporter from the newspaper Publico, Mario Lopes. Tomorrow we will have a little time for sightseeing before the festival opens. The Peanuts exhibition is where I will headquarter, I am sure.
—Jean Schulz
