Giganto Books at Comicdom Athens

Comicdom Athens is an annual Comics show-convention. This year it takes place on the 5th and 6th of April, at the Hellenic-American Union's main building, at Massalias 22 st., in Athens. It will be a weekend filled with comics, featuring original art exhibitions, awards, screenings, workshops, a charity sketch event, bazaar, and international guests!

The official Comicdom poster designed by Tassos Papaioannou

One of the publishers participating at the event is Giganto Books. They have their 5th anniversary this year, and to celebrate, they will present five new comics editions at their stand there, located on the ground floor. They will also have all their old titles on sale at 50% - that's neat! The Giganto Books stand will be designed by their artists and will be given away in parts at the end of the show to those who care (I want a piece for me too!).

Print advertisments for Giganto Books

A few words about Giganto Books: Tassos Papaioannou is the man behind the label - he created it in 2003 (He also designed this year's poster for Comicdom and will show some original art at the venue). It specializes in publishing comics by Greek and foreign artists. So far they have published the following titles : Subart Comics (anthology, #1-3), Generator: Victor Van Dread (by Vassilis Lolos), Mistress (comics anthology by Greek women artists), Fanzine (Program for the shows of Phebos Delivorias and Zac Stefanou), Populart (by Tassos Papaioannou, #1-2 + special), Tourta (cake) (by Ilias Kyriazis and Tassos Papaioannou), Rozblack (Pinkblack) (by Ege + Firzb, #1), Common Comics (by Panayiotis Pantazis, #1-3), Blast Comics (comics anthology with artists from Greece, USA and Turkey), Krak Komiks (by Tassos Maragkos, #1-2), KuroShiro (by Taxi, volume.1), Noisebook (by Anastasis Tsiatsios) and Now! (by Panagiotis Pantazis and Tassos Papaioannou.

First look of two of the new editions! Looking good!

Tassos Papaioannou was born in 1978 in Athens. He studied marketing and graphic design (last one with a three-year scholarship). He was awarded first prize at the category «New Talents» at the 1st Greek Comics Competition organized by Eleftherotypia newspaper - "9" magazine- in collaboration with ΑΚΤΟ and since then he has been publishing regularly his comics at "9" ("One cigarette time" together with Ilias Kyriazis etc) and participates in exhibitions and festivals for comics in Greece and abroad (1st Script prize in 2004 at Belgrade). In 2003 he started Giganto Books. Since January 2006 eh had been drawing "Mixtape" comic strip (full page) for Sonik music magazine, a collaboration that just ended its course. From February 2007 he has been writing for comics at Velvet Velvet. Last year he was included into Taschen's "Ιllustration now! Ωol.2" book, one of the few Greek illustrators to do that.

He is part of the poor designers family, who in 2006 won the Evge prize for general category, for the pdf online poor magazine.

Since february 2007 his illustrations are exclusively represented by Smart Magna agency.

Here are the five new titles:




1. Common Comics #3 by Panayiotis Pantazis

48 pages, 6,5 €
Dim: 17 x 24 cm

What to say about Pan Pan, as he likes to be called - maybe to remind us of the ancient Greek deity? ;-) Third issue for “Common Comics” by Panayiotis Pantazis, it includes a one-off story titled GONG: separated in 4 parts («Today's Day», «Glorious Days», «Glorious Night» και «The Next Day from a Glorious Night») GONG describes the chronicle of a teenage love between a Greek guy and a Polish girl.

Panayiotis Pantazis is best known from his comics series ”re/stor.diaries” published within the pages of the «9» comics anthology of Eleftherotypia newspaper (he has also published many other stories in 9). He has also participated in various shows related to comics and art (Babel Festival at Technopolis, Athens Voice Covers Show at Benaki Museum etc).
The #1 Common Comics issue was published in February 2007 and #2 in June 2007 (both from Giganto Books).
Other comic-books still in circulation are «Now!» (Giganto Books) in collaboration with Tassos Papaioannou, and «Lynch» (ΚΨΜ publishing) in collaboration with Giorgos Gousis, Michalis Dialynas, Taxi and Anastasis Tsiatsios.
He is also prolific in music - you can listen his tracks in his Myspace profile.



2. Krak Komiks #2 by Tassos Maragkos (Tasmar)

32 pages, 5,5 €
Dim: 17 x 24 cm

Second issue from Giganto Books for Krak Komiks by Tasmar. Within its 32 pages one can find: the 24-page second part of the "Hard Rock" series (the adventures of Markos, Gogos, Judy and the rest of the heroes continue in absolute “hard rock” attitude) and many one-page comics with «Hard Rock» heroes but also K.omista (and his brain-f.....g comics). It ends with the hot story «Greek Comics Wonderworld», about, what else, the Greek comics scene.
Tassos Maragkos was born in Syros, in 1977 and has studied graphic arts. he has worked as a graphic artist and as a sketcher. For the last 8 years he has been creating comics. his work has been published in 9 magazine, Gallera magazine, free press magazine Bang, comics magazine Happy Revolver, Uncovered City newspaper, independent comics imprints Pick Your Sin, Red Dot Comix, Sapilla and in various anthologies. From 2004 up to 2006 he self-publishes bigBANG! which was awarded best Greek independent comics imprint for 2005 and 2006. For the last two years he has been living in Thessaloniki (just because it's beautiful!). Visit his personal blog to learn more news about his work!



3. KuroShiro (Volume.1 | 2004-2008) by Taxis

80 pages, 8,5 €
Dim: 17 x 24 cm

First collaboration for Taxis and Giganto Books. Volume.1 of «KuroShiro» has 2 parts:
In the first one, you can find all the Taxis' stories published in Babel magazine from 2005-2008 but also 4 stories published for the very first time (1 older and 3 brand new). In the second part you will find a 25page sketchbook by the artist, rich with finished illustration works as well as drafts.

Taxis was born in 1983. He has graduated from the School of Arts in Athens. He occupies himself with comics and graffiti since 1998 takes part in European graffiti festivals since 2004. He was awarded in the young talents contest of 9 magazine (Eleftherotypia newspaper, 2002) and also in the 1st Patras contest in 2006.
He was director of photography for the film Mia Roz Paramana (One Pink Safety Pin) by N. Pomonis, distinguished at the 47th Thessaloniki Film Festival (Digitalwave competition, 2006), and also collaborated in the film Roz (Pink) by Alexandros Voulgaris (do I see an obsession with everything pink here?).

Since 2005 he has been published in Babel magazine. He has also worked for Cinema magazine and Lifo free press. Recently, along with Panayiotis Pantazis, Giorgos Gousis, Michalis Dialynas and Anastasis Tsiatsios, he sketched “Lynch” (ΚΨΜ publications). You can also see his work in the street art book «…sto dromo» (in the street).
He has participated in many team exhibitions in Athens and abroad: International Babel festival (Athens), “7PLY Project” (Athens), “ReMAP K.M.” within the 1st Athens Biennale, 3rd Komikazen internazionale del fumetto di realta (Ravenna, Italy), "Labyrinths” comics and contemporary aspects of visual arts (Beijing 2008).


4. Noisebook by Anastasis Tsiatsios

80 pages, 9,5 €
Dim: 13 x 17 cm

First collaboration for Anastasis Tsiatsios and Giganto Books but also the first art-book for the publishing house, «Noisebook» is 80 pages full of illustrations and is separated in 2, half sketched in black & white, half sketched with red detailing. Caustic, dirty, full of juxtapositions, it was made to provoke the reader to come into terms with his own nature.

Anastasis Tsiatsios is alive and kicking!


5. Tora! (now!) by Panayiotis Pantazis + Tassos Papaioannou

32 pages, 4,5 €
Dim: 10 x 14 cm

Comic-book «Tora!» (now) is the first collaboration for Panayiotis Pantazis and Tassos Papaioannou. The two artists transfer their existence onto paper (each one sketches himself) and, starting with a chat in MSN messenger, try to find answers in the questions troubling them.

Panayiotis Pantazis was born in 1982 in Athens, where he is living –with a six year break- his now.
Tassos Papaioannou was born in 1978 in Athens and was always waiting for now to come.

Here are the flyers for the Giganto new publications, created by Tassos Papaioannou:


So this weekend, go by Comicdom and see these guys, buy their stuff and enjoy yourselves!

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