Jumbo Loop Comics. Since 2011
Jumbo Loop comics is a giant strip about 90ft long and 5.5 ft high bearing panels with consecutive story. It can be wrapped around poles or trees, forming a loop with never ending story. Installed in public spaces, it make readers to read the story by walking around. Jumbo Loop Comics was first created in October 2011, during the Back to Book National Festival Armenia by Levon Gyulkhasyan and Mkrtich Matevosyan. Eight such strips are made in Yerevan, Gyumri, Armenia and Angouleme, France. Starting 2015 I install a modification of Jumbo for Massachusetts International Comics Expo at Lesley University.
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2012 Yerevan, Armenia. It's Tumanyan's Fault!
During the Back to Book National Festival in October 2012 a group consisting of Levon Gyulkhasyan, Mkrtich Matevosyan, Armen Patvakanyan and Tigran Araqelyan developed a story named It’s Tumanyan’s Fault! The story matches educational purposes of both Back to Book Festival and children’s library where the work was performed. The plot is about an animation artist, who at the end of his career suddenly came to a conclusion that the cause of his family failure is a classic of Armenian literature Hovhannes Tumanyan. This is the never ending story, when the end of the story smoothly matches its beginning, forming a loop. The lettering was made by Nare Hovhannisyan, and the group of art school students colored the strip.
To turn it into a real public event, the group decided to move the actual drawing to the streets. Some statistics: The strip has 16 panels located on the 90 ft long banner. It is hung in a central location of Yerevan, in the front of the children’s library.
2018 Gyumri, Armenia. Last Supper in Nikol's Age
Jumbo Comics made in Berlin Art Hotel Gyumri and installed in Cherkezi Gorge. Authors Levon Gyulkhasyan, Mkrtich Matevosian, Karen Barseghyan. August 8-9, 2018. Inspired by Armenian Revolution 2018, and the photo of the late Armenian government party resembling Leonardo’s Last Supper. This comics features the idea of Static Comics, when story is told not via the body and figures’ movement, but the dialog flow.
2011, Yerevan, Armenia. Step Back, Doors Closing!
In October 2011, the 1st National Back To The Book Festival needed publicity of its events. Three cartoonists met at the Yerevan Khnko Aper National Children’s’ Library to draw the 89 feet long 5.3 feet high comic strip named Step Back, Doors Closing! The basic script and the art work penned by Levon Gyulkhasyan, Mkrtich Matevosyan and Tigran Arakelyan contained a story about the metro passengers man and a woman and their journey throughout the books. This strip reads like no other comics, as it is made on roll of plastic banner and is wrapped over four poles outdoors, in the library Garden, making readers to read panels walking around a square of 22 X 22 feet. The beginning of the story continued its end, making it a never-ending continuous story. Authors coined this concept as a Loop Comics. The story is an odd mix of humor and and psychedelics, it was definitely worth reading, not only for the tale it has to tell, but for the big scale of it, making you physically to wander throughout the story feeling the excitement of participation. This concept is approved by the fact that passersby started to color the banner immediately after it was exposed to public.
2011, Gyumri, Armenia. HumanFest.
In December 2011 in the second largest city of Armenia Gyumri during the Pumpkin Fest in Berlin Art Hotel Levon Gyulkhasyan, Mkrtich Matevosyan and Tigran Araqelyan elaborated even larger Jumbo Loop Comics. Within four hours the art work was done. Then with the assistance of local artists and hotel personnel the 93 feet long strip (four feet longer than the previous one!) was hung in the hallway of the hotel. The comic named HumanFest contains a story about pumpkin –human relationship described from the pumpkin’s perspective. As in previous work it is a never-ending story when the end perfectly matches the beginning.
2012, Yerevan, Armenia. Useless For Ignoramuses
This Jumbo entitled Useless For Ignoramuses was made in April 23, 2012 during the 3rd Comics Festival in Yerevan organized by French-Armenian APBDA -Association pour la promotion de la bande dessinee en Armenie. Authored by Levon Gyulkhasyan, Mkrtich Matevosyan, Armen Patvakanyan and Tigran Arakelyan, its sixteen panels has a humorous content and represented different ways of usage of books - all except reading of them. The media was a 83 meter-long transparent celluloid. The authors wrapped it around the bus station of the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies where the festival was running. As usual, the story had no beginning and no end. The 3rd APBDA BD Festival in Yerevan was held in frame of Yerevan the World Book Capital 2012 announced by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).