At the Bologa Children’s Book Fair Comics Corner, which in 2024 hosted more than 700 business meetings in the comics and graphic storytelling sector. Image: BCBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Angoulême Runs Wednesday Through Sunday
As many of our readers will recall, the 2025 traveling exhibition that Elena Pasoli‘s Bologna Children’s Book Fair puts on the road each year was announced in September with five international stops planned before the March 31 to April 3 run of the trade show in its 63rd iteration. As we mentioned, Jacks Thomas‘ Bologna Book Plus was also involved in the tour.
Opening in Toulouse at the Cartoon Forum in September; it then moved to Frankfurter Buchmesse in October; went on to the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair in November; then to Guadalajara International Book Fair and the 34th International Publishers Congress from the International Publishers Association (IPA) in December; and on Wednesday (January 29) will open for a run through Sunday at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême.
The public-facing show at Angoulême is in its 52nd year, and the Bologna exhibition will be at the International Rights Market (MID) at Stand RL41, for those who may be bound for the event this year.
Termed the “Grand Tour,” the Bologna exhibition is again supported by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) and the Italian ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation. And there’s clear reason to be there.
Figures used by the Bologna fair indicate that in Italy, in particular—where spending on the purchase of comics has tripled since 2019—comics for children and young people are growing especially fast at a rate described as being greater than 22 percent.
Synergy for Bologna’s Comics Corner
A look at a bit of the visual identity created by Bruno de Almeida, a Brazilian based in Portugal, for Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025. Image: BCBF
One of the attractions of Angoulême for organizers of the Italian trade show is that Bologna opened its physical Comics Corner in 2022 in response to the growth of the international comics sector in world publishing.
Quickly attracting comics professionals to the Emilia-Romagna (after having been established in Bologna’s digital format in 2020), the sprawling “corner” last year drew more than 70 publishers representing 21 countries and engaging in more than 700 business meetings.
As you may recall, the 2024 Bologna Children’s Book Fair logged 1,523 exhibitors. Together, the main fair and Bologna Book Plus drew 31,735 trade visitors a gain of some 10 percent above the trade show’s statistics of 2023 (which drew 28, 894).
New markets added to the Bologna array last year included Angola, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Cameroon, Colombia, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Monaco, Moldova, Paraguay, the Philippines, Togo, and Uganda.
The 2025 guest of honor market at Bologna is to be Estonia. And under Pasoli’s direction, Bologna Children’s Book Fair has been expanding its footprint with the additions of whole sectors of specialized publishing and trading centers.
This makes the fair at Angoulême and the Bologna exhibition there a chance to promote Bologna’s still-young TV/Film Rights Center and the first iteration of the Games Business Center, which is a collaboration with Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19). These, of course, are understood to be closely related to comics, so the synergy of the Comics Corner and these cross-media elements of the show are expected to augment each other.
Artwork for Bologna Children’s Book Festival’s 2025 edition of the ‘Grand Tour’ illustration exhibition. Image: BCBF
More on Bologna Children’s Book Fair is here, more from us on children’s books is here, more on comics and graphic storytelling is here, and more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.