Fair season: kids, comics, webtoons

Two book fairs on opposite ends of the publishing calendar are rearranging themselves around one idea: pictures now travel as rights. Bologna Children’s Book Fair opens April 13 to 16, 2026 in Italy, and Frankfurt Book Fair is already building out a bigger comics-and-webtoon business zone for October 7 to 11, 2026 in Germany. (publishingperspectives.com | buchmesse.de | tradefairdates.com) Bologna is still the place where children’s publishers go to find new artists before the rest of the market does. The 63rd fair brings together children’s books, licensing, television and film rights, games, and general trade publishing in one April event. (publishingperspectives.com | bolognawelcome.com) That is why Bologna puts so much energy into illustrator discovery instead of treating art as decoration after the deal is done. Its long-running Illustrators Exhibition, launched in 1967, is explicitly framed as talent scouting and a route to professional opportunities for emerging artists. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The fair also runs practical career training for artists who are trying to turn drawings into contracts. The Illustrators Survival Corner returns in 2026 as a professional-growth space curated by Mimaster Illustrazione, and the event program includes sessions such as “How to Sell Rights and Understand Licensing in Children’s Books.” (bolognachildrensbookfair.com | bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Bologna’s rights machinery has been expanding for years around that creative core. Publishing Perspectives says the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair includes 800 brands, while the television and film rights center and the games business center have already been operating alongside the fair as places to turn children’s stories into screen, merchandise, and game deals. (publishingperspectives.com) Frankfurt is taking the same rights logic and applying it to comics, manga, and webtoons at a larger trade scale. On its official site, Frankfurter Buchmesse says the Comics Business Centre is a venue where rights managers, agents, publishers, editors, and scouts meet to discuss translation rights, new markets, and stories that can move beyond the book. (buchmesse.de) The webtoon piece is not a side note. Frankfurt says a dedicated Webtoon Area is being developed with Webtoon Ambassador Sébastien Célimon, and its comics pages describe webtoons as part of the same international business hub rather than a fan add-on at the edge of the fair. (buchmesse.de | buchmesse.de) That setup tells you what publishers think a comic is now. It is not just a printed album for one language market; it is a package that can be sold as translation rights, mobile-first vertical reading, and potentially film, television, or game material in multiple territories. (buchmesse.de | publishingperspectives.com) So Bologna and Frankfurt are dividing the work rather neatly. Bologna is sharpening the early pipeline by spotlighting illustrators, workshops, and children’s-rights matchmaking in April, while Frankfurt is scaling the later-stage business infrastructure for comics and webtoons in October. (publishingperspectives.com | buchmesse.de | bolognachildrensbookfair.com) If you want the shortest version of the shift, it is this: the book trade’s most important fairs are making more room for formats where the image arrives first and the rights sale follows close behind. In 2026, children’s illustration in Bologna and comics-plus-webtoons in Frankfurt are being treated less like side genres and more like export engines. (publishingperspectives.com | buchmesse.de)