The visual of Utopiales 2024 is revealed!

Emil Ferris signs the poster for the 25^th edition of Utopiales!

Emil Ferris was born in 1962 in Chicago. Illustrator, she contracted the West Nile virus in 2001 and was paralyzed. Doctors told her there was nothing more to do, but she decided to fight, took art classes in a wheelchair and, for 6 years, worked on My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. Rejected 48 times before finally being published, this graphic novel instantly elevated her alongside the masters of the genre, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Charles Burns and Alison Bechdel.

the illustrator’s vision

It all started with Jules Verne’s novels and their era. These were the initial inspirations for this poster. Then I went back to the psychedelic aesthetics of the 60s and 70s, like those of Spielgelman or Crumb. Finally, through the prism of the dreaming child – the child that every sci-fi fan is deep down inside – I wanted to cast a spell of PEACE on us, and show the triumph of the Earth after the evil we’ve done to it. I made it look like a garden trellis floating in the galactic night sky of Kubrick’s 2001. I wanted to evoke all the mythology that mysteriously surrounds us.

This visual means that we must protect goodness, life, people, animals and plants that flourish…

My Bic loves Utopiales!