[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-craig-thompson-in-london":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Last Monday, I went to a \u003Ca href=\"http://www.comicafestival.com/\">Comica Festival\u003C/a>'s talk by comics creator \u003Ca href=\"http://www.dootdootgarden.com/\">Craig Thompson\u003C/a>, moderated by writer and broadcaster \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Theroux\">Marcel Theroux\u003C/a>. After the talk, he signed copies of his new book, \u003Ci>Habibi\u003C/i>, but the queue was so long that I gave up, and I'll have to buy it and read it another time. But I was impressed by the way Craig took time to talk with each person while he drew them a lovely picture, so I didn't really mind, it was nice seeing him connecting with people.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/craig_thompson_habibi-39ad1c1139.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere are my notes from the talk, held in a room right against the brick wall of an old church called St Albans.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/craig_thompson_london-7221882890.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nI'd been so curious to hear Craig talk about his work, ever since his comic \u003Ci>Blankets\u003C/i> was one of three graphic novels that got me back into comics, after writing them off as either newspaper humour strips (which I thought I would never been funny enough to make myself) or the kinds of superhero stuff I found very irrelevant. (The other two books were \u003Ci>Gemma Bovary\u003C/i> by Posy Simmonds and \u003Ci>Fluffy\u003C/i> by Simone Lia.) What I liked about \u003Ci>Blankets\u003C/i> was Craig's obvious love of line, that he wasn't afraid to tackle the cringy, churchy stuff from his childhood, and I think I also just found it very romantic. \u003Ci>Blankets\u003C/i> gets a lot of mixed responses - my sister couldn't \u003Ci>stand\u003C/i> it and gave it back - but everyone who's read it seems to have a very strong view, no one's indifferent, which I think means the book has done something right. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/craig_thompson_books-85d64da4da.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nMy studio mate, Gary, loves Craig's book, \u003Ci>Goodbye, Chunky Rice\u003C/i> and wishes he'd kept making books like that, but I think my favourite so far is his \u003Ci>Carnet de Voyage\u003C/i>. It's such a beautiful travel diary, and I was really inspired to make more of an effort to learn how to use my brush pen after reading that. I went on a trip to very similar places, in France and Morocco, and my drawings weren't half as good. But Craig does get a bit miserable in the book, and I realised that the only way to really draw a good travel sketchbook is to travel alone. Which is rather lonely, but possibly worth it, if I get a gorgeous, publishable book at the end of it. There's no way I'm going to find people who are going to walk down a street with me, then suddenly stop and wait while I spent two hours drawing on a random street corner. When I went to China last year with my family and drew my \u003Ca href=\"http://www.davidficklingbooks.co.uk/blog/index.php/2011/07/29/sarah-mcintyres-china-travel-comic/\">China travel comic\u003C/a>, most of my pages were either drawn on the bus (which doesn't make for even lines) or late at night in the hotel, when I had to draw from memory. So it was a wonderful souvenir, and the point of the trip wasn't to have a book, it was to see my family, so that wasn't a problem. But I always do have \u003Ci>Carnet de Voyage\u003C/i> in mind while I travel, making me work just a bit harder to keep my travel diary up to date.\\r\n\\r\nHere you can see one of Craig's pages from \u003Ci>Habibi\u003C/i> and how much he's inspired by Arabic writing and ornate patterns. I look forward to reading it.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/thompson_habibi-74c65ebcdc.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's the lovely \u003Ca href=\"http://www.comicafestival.com/\">Comica Festival\u003C/a> team! They are doing amazing things for comics in London, these people rock: designer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.peterstanbury.com/\">Peter Stanbury\u003C/a>, festival coordinator \u003Ca href=\"http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/megan-donnolley/35/a63/250\">Megan Donnolley\u003C/a> and comics guru \u003Ca href=\"http://www.paulgravett.com\">Paul Gravett\u003C/a>, along with \u003Cb>Josh Palmano\u003C/b> (not pictured) from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.goshlondon.com/\">Gosh! Comics\u003C/a>, who sold the books. Thanks for all your hard work!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/comica_festival_crew-4a40be61e1.jpg\">","2012-01-26T15:13:00.000Z","craig-thompson-in-london",[],"craig thompson in london",1776628721418]