[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-photos-from-angouleme":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Earlier today, I posted \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/270395.html\">my drawings and comics from the festival\u003C/a>, and here are some photos I took while we were in western France. I'd never been to the festival of \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Belgian_comics\">\u003Ci>bande-dessinée\u003C/i>\u003C/a> before, so I went with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.littlewhitebird.com\">Ellen Lindner\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.comixinflux.com\">Stephen Betts\u003C/a> to see what it was all about.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_town6-f576bbc524.jpg\">\\r\nAngoulême is amazing, the whole town takes part in the festival and for a few days, everything is about comics.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_town4-9b72ea2a3c.jpg\" width=\"340\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_bktent1-f37b80819a.jpg\" width=\"340\">\\r\n\u003C!--more LOTS more photos under the cut-->\\r\nComics commentator \u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/bartbeaty\">Bart Beaty\u003C/a> from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/bart_beaty_in_angouleme_2010_01/\">The Comics Reporter\u003C/a> took us into the local Quick burger joint to see the remarkable wall designs by... \u003Cstrike>oh dang, I had it written down, a well-known French BD artist \u003Ci>(Can anyone tell me who it is?)\u003C/i>\u003C/strike> \u003Ca href=\"http://www.lecrayon.org/membres/benoit/biobenoit.htm\">Ted Benoît\u003C/a>. \u003Ci>(Thanks, Alfred and Bridget!)\u003C/i>\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_quick-341ec3e20b.jpg\"> \\r\nLots of wall murals peeking around corners:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_town7-2bb7f3b5b0.jpg\">\\r\nHere are some of the British brigade - \u003Cb>Dan Lester, Oliver Lambden, Francesca Casavetti, Sean Azzopardi\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Ellen Lindner\u003C/b> holding down the fort.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_bastards1-828ecb2089.jpg\" width=\"350\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_06-f5bd330c7e.gif\">\\r\nThere were three amazing buildings across the river from each other, all housing comics exhibitions and libraries. I loved the reflections on this one, \u003Ci>le Bâtiment Castro\u003C/i>.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_bdcentre-d9029593bc.jpg\"> \\r\nDifferent comic artists have made tiles in the past, showing their characters. (Most were Franco-Belgian or American, but Ellen and I spotted one by Posy Simmonds.)\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_town3-97360d8bc2.jpg\"> \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_town5-77ca4474c6.jpg\"> \\r\nI was hugely impressed by the Museum of BD's permanent collection. I did my best to read some of the panels in French, but fortunately \u003Ci>mon ami d'Internet\u003C/i> \u003Ca href=\"http://_w_o_o_d.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">_w_o_o_d\u003C/a> knew loads about BD and gave me a great tour of both the permanent collection. Then we went through to the neighbouring exhibition, \u003Ci>Cent Pour Cent\u003C/i>, in which a hundred comic artists reinterpreted a page of another comic artist's work. It was pretty amazing, even to someone like me who's only really starting to learn about comics' history. I ran into \u003Ca href=\"http://patriceaggs.com/\">Patrice Aggs\u003C/a>, who was thrilled to see an old Popeye film she'd unsuccessfully been trying to find on DVD for years.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_perm_collectn-f585009996.jpg\">\\r\nI went to loads of the exhibitions, including one by \u003Ca href=\"http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blutch\">Blutch\u003C/a>, where \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Giraud\">Moebius\u003C/a> was also having a good look. Really amazing drawings, reminded me a lot of work by \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Rego\">Paula Rego\u003C/a> (but with a very different attitude toward women.) We were going down the hill to the Castro Building with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.paulgravett.com\">Paul Gravett\u003C/a> and he stopped a guy coming the other way, named \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jochengerner.com\">Jochen Gerner\u003C/a>. We went on to see his exhibition and for some reason I took more photos of that one than anywhere else. I liked his work, it was thoughtful and playful at the same time and a lot of the images were very simple and striking. This poster has a lot of comic artist names on it that I know and many I still need to look up:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_gerner1-069b259f34.jpg\">\\r\nYou can read some of this piece, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jochengerner.com/index.php?page=galerie&id=35&PHPSESSID=c22572949239c6769f43c710ae1b1d53\">\u003Ci>Grand Vitesse\u003C/i> online\u003C/a>; it's a record of a train journey, with scenery sketches that get more and more streamlined as the train picks up speed.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_gerner2-6896421127.jpg\">\\r\nDetails from another book: \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_gerner5-f0a2dec5ae.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_gerner4-41f587d95c.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_gerner3-49439c00cb.jpg\">\\r\nI couldn't resist making a little linocut print at the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.fremok.org/site.php?type=P&id=80\">Match de catch à Vielsam\u003C/a> workshop. (Spot mine among others made by visitors on the day. They seem to have spent much more time on theirs.)\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_linowkshop-05c3a2730f.jpg\">\\r\nA lot of people come to Angoulême to meet their favourite authors and often stand in queues for hours to get \u003Ci>dédicasses\u003C/i> in their books. \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_signings-323d482646.jpg\">\\r\nI was tempted to queue for \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Semp%C3%A9\">Sémpe\u003C/a>'s album of New Yorker drawings, but I ended up buying three books from German author \u003Ca href=\"http://www.mawil.net/\">Mawil\u003C/a>, having become a fan from his book \u003Ci>We Can Still be Friends\u003C/i>. (I didn't get a photo of him, but you can see two of his drawings in my books.) I went to an hour-long talk by Sempé, illustrator of the much-loved \u003Ci>Petit Nicolas\u003C/i> books, and I only understood maybe a third of the French, but it was still great to see his drawings of New York and see what he was like. After he got very politely told he couldn't smoke in the hall, he spent much of the time making everyone laugh by teasing his two interviewers. The older interviewer seemed to be a friend of his, but he hardly talked to him except to rib him about his beard. Obviously a guy who's had a long, successful career and doesn't have to prove anything, but still fun to watch.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_mawil-1-7968408752.jpg\">\\r\nIn the exhibition of Russian comics, I was most impressed by \u003Cb>Roma Sokolov\u003C/b>'s story, \u003Ci>Kvas\u003C/i>, drawn in felt-tipped markers. Many of the pieces were very nostalgic, for the Russian space age, old-time scenes like the elderly people queuing at the kvas truck, and Soviet-style packaging. And I recognised the work of \u003Ca href=\"http://olegti.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">olegti\u003C/a> from LiveJournal, yay! Ooh, and Roma's on LJ, too: \u003Ca href=\"http://roma_sokolov.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">roma_sokolov\u003C/a>\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_russcomics-4380ea146b.jpg\">\\r\nAnd we ate well, here's the gang on our second night:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_dinner2-a9a210c258.jpg\">\\r\nThe festival gave a lot of space to up-and-coming young comics artists, and their work was hugely impressive, better than most adult British comics artists. Which makes sense, since French-speaking children are allowed to stick with comics throughout their whole lives instead of the majority feeling they have to give them up when they're able to read books without pictures. I hope we get more kids in Britain making comics, these French kids are really pushing themselves.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_jeunesse1-98ada3fbb4.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_jeunesse2-5c0d5deb49.jpg\">\\r\nMore yummy food... here you can spot \u003Ca href=\"http://aqwatic.blogspot.com/\">John Aggs\u003C/a>, his mum \u003Ca href=\"http://patriceaggs.com/\">Patrice Aggs\u003C/a>, and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.scribblehound.com\">David O'Connell\u003C/a>, and then \u003Ca href=\"http://www.nickabadzis.com/\">Nick Abadzis\u003C/a> peering intently at the fabulous cheese trolley.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_dinner1-43ca75f681.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's our wonderful host, Patricia, who let us stay in her house:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_patricia2-f9604378d2.jpg\">\\r\nI was totally fascinated by the lampshade in our bedroom:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_lamp-1f513e990a.jpg\">\\r\nWe ended up getting home very late every night, and Ellen drew me when I was passed out on the bed, waiting for my turn at the shower.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angou_ellenpic1-548ac4fb43.jpg\">\\r\nHere's some of the loot I picked up at the fair. I'll try to write things about them later when I've read them!\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_loot-324482ea32.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/angouleme_trondheim1-77dc67f89a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThere was so much going on at the festival that I missed lots of things, such as the talks by Joe Sacco, Emmanuel Guibert and Robert Crumb, or see \u003Ca href=\"http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/baru_wins_angouleme_grand_prix/\">Baru (Hervé Barulea) win the Grand Prix\u003C/a>, meaning he will be the president at next year's festival. But I think I saw as much as I could possibly manage, and learned a lot. Thanks, Ellen and Stephen, for taking me along with you and showing me the ropes! I'm really looking forward to this festival next year, when I'll be selling my \u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i> book, hurrah!\\r\n\\r\nFor a more detailed analysis of the festival, go read \u003Ca href=\"http://comixinflux.com/influx/blogpost/61\">Stephen Betts' great write-up over on Comix Influx.\u003C/a>","2010-02-01T15:55:00.000Z","photos-from-angouleme",[],"photos from angoulême",1776628719109]