Voici Angouleme

 

After many attempts, we finally persuaded Monica to go to Angouleme! Jeff hadn't been in some time, and it was a fun trip overall. A mix of retreading familiar grounds, but with a fresh and wide-eyed perspective. 

For the first time, we stayed Sunday night. On Monday, the village was a charming ghost town. That afternoon, Marie Claude brought us to her hometown for a walkabout. That evening, Monica and I were planted at the CDG Ibis for early flights the next morning.

Mighty Crusaders!

While attending Angouleme, Xavier was telling me of an upcoming story in Scarce Magazine, about Archie Comics' super-hero comics line, featuring the Shield, the Comet, the Fly and Fly-Girl, and the Hood... together, the Mighty Crusaders! I drew this (and I think while I was later stuck at SFO waiting for a flight back to BOS). I might have colored this, and I might have sent it to Xavier, and he might have finally written his piece. I had the short-lived early '60s series in my collection and re-read it once I got home. It's definitely meant for a much younger audience than DC and Marvel were written for at the time.

I'll have to look for the color version.

And there, I found it!

Ha--I've used that explosion effect I made in 1998 in nearly every comics project I've ever done, including Liebestrasse, Saved by the Bell, stuff I did for Marvel, up to my most recent work in Clamantis.

In the same folder, I found a few other drawings I did during the festival, including a Superboy and the Legion (well, just the three founding members, a la S/LSH #250) for Xavier, and an Indie Superman saving a cat from a tree for Pierre.

Angouleme revisited

Between my trip to England and Ireland, and then again to France, I was in a bicycling accident. A pedestrian, texting, stepped into the bike lane. Though I was going fairly slow, when I swerved to missed her... ended up on the ground. My pant leg torn open, my knee bleeding. My coworkers were kind enough to cut my pant leg off and clean me up. One took me home to change and to medical. Nothing broken! 

But that's why I was wearing the brace. I hobbled into Pepe Jeans in Paris, told this lovely sales woman "Je ne parle pas Francais" when she asked if she could assist me, and walked away with two pairs of skinny jeans. En route, the fellow adorable fellow next to me chatted me up. That was nice. 

Meanwhile, Xavier was locked out of his AirBnB and spent the night sleeping outside. The story was too sad not to draw! And later still, grousing (with joy) about how the walk from Marie-Claud's place to the city center over the past decade of trips to Angouleme...
 

France 2015

A year ago, though my mom was ill, she seemed to be responding positively to her treatment, so I decided to attend Angoulême Festival. Given her condition, I was to keep my trip to a week with just a few days in Paris after the show.

Her health took a turn late November, and she passed away Christmas Day. I thought it would be good to get away from my routine a bit, so I proceeded with the trip.

It started off on a stressful note: to dodge the first of a dozen blizzards to hit Boston, I had to fly a day early. But, boo hoo, an extra day in Paris didn't kill me. 

I met up with Xavier and Alexander at our usual meeting spot near Gare Montparnasse, and enjoyed a lovely lunch before boarding the train.

Xavier was speaking English only for my benefit and Alexander's (who is from Slovakia), so it was slightly amusing when his countryman explained to him in English that he needed access to his luggage. 

We saw this guy (easy to spot) throughout the weekend, and on the return trip.

Drawings inspired by other people's drawings: A Stranger's Tale

At our charming haunt in Angoulême, Café Chaud, the party before us had left some random drawings on the table (like many place during the International B.D. Festival, the café encourages doodling on placemats, etc.).

Most were poorly drawn and without imagination, but this one page was pretty amazing. I believe it was a jam sketch. The drawing was bad to Ok, but the variety and composition really struck me.

So I gave it the ol' Tim Fish treatment. Indie witch carrying a basket of Easter eggs, a vampire-like diety, and little flying aliens. Nice.

Oh, Angoulême, how you torment me so. I was all set to NOT go this year, but Xavier and Jeff laughed that idea off. Now, of course I want to go again in 2012!

I'm always torn...love to see my friends there, love being at the festival, always inspired by the comics there. But there are so many other places I want to see, as well! And with no new book, it's a pricey annual jaunt. If only money and vacation time weren't an issue. Le sigh.

On the note of travel, Xavier asked about my travel sketch book idea...I'd still love to do it, but am not sure how wise it is to publish. And, I'd still like to get to Brazil and Argentina before I'd go to print...thoughts?

We must bury him

Jeff is obsessed with Psylocke, and he and Xavier have an adversarial relationship when it come to Psylocke vs. Spider-Woman. It's fun to hear them go at it.

On the walk home Saturday night, I noticed a dead cat on the sidewalk. It was pretty sad, but we had to move on. Though Xavier was very upset and wanted to try to bury it.

The next morning, Diogo saw me and Abby off at the train station. We made our way to Jeff's place and walked around Paris a bit.

Throughout the weekend, we had been talking about men's and women's outlook on sex. So, when Abby commented on my gallantry, I reminded her that I expected certain things in return, in general. Though she was quite safe with me.

Still not a morning person

First day of the Angoulême festival, I agreed to get up early and help Xavier set up.

The second day, I was a bit tired, a bit hung over, and not needing to be at the festival early, I only got up to see Xavier off.

He has this skill to wake up and be instantly chipper but non-annoying.

On this day, I was on a panel "Mainstream vs. Indie" comics, which was fun.

Actually, I am a morning person; I typically am up by 7. HOWEVER, I definitely need to ease into the day with minimal conversation and maximum neck-pinching and head-squeezing (reduces my recurring and debilitating headaches).

There are other sketches of this day, which will remain UN-posted. Those in the know—and you know who you are—know why.

Casual convention

This year, through some SNAFUs, we were very limited in booth space, so I wasn't exhibiting. This was a little sad, but it was also really nice to be able to walk around Angoulême and the festival with out much of an agenda.

While I was on a panel, and had a few scheduled signings, I was mostly roaming about, looking at the gorgeous books, admiring the charming village, and hanging out with friends.

I finally made it to the museum of comics, which (no knock at the comics museums in the U.S.) is Smithsoneon caliber.

Of course, I ate and drank a lot. But the long walks and steep hills to climb in Angoulême burned off more calories than I could consume, and my 30" waist jeans were beginning to fall off. I had dropped a lot of weight in 2010, and finally broke down and bought a slimmer size. And here, I admitted to myself that I'd have to drop down again.

Les Gens d'Angoulême

Not all, actually.

Let's see...clockwise from left is a Brazilian reporter (cuter in real, not as wide-eyed); woman carrying around her dead-looking baby; androgenous...boy? dunno; shaggy, scruffy, freckly guy Abby liked; skinny waiter from Lyon; cute Bastille waiter who gave me and Abby fresh-squeezed OJ gratuis; very tall guy at the festival with a very pronounced mono-brow.

More Angoulême

The Saturday of the festival really begins spilling over from the night before, with the inaugural gay-drinks-gathering at Cafe Chaud. I had been chatting up Yann, and throughout our conversation, little notes and sketches were passed back and forth. He explains "Yann" is another variation of "Jean" and "John" and showed me his drawing skills with a little hedgehog. I then drew one for him. The next day, clearly hung over. You also get to see a draft of a Psylocke drawing I've been commissioned to draw. Xavier was helping me (as I am not so familiar with the character, except for ages ago, when her telepathy floated around as a butterfly). I was drawing big hair, and he would say "flatter." I reduced twice until he said, "it's like she has spaghetti on her head." He thought the flatness you see here works. He recommended I draw her "very slutty." "Slutty" and "nightmare" are two of Xavier's favorite words.

Angoulême Festival

The festival days blur together a bit for me. But I drew the little sketch on the left for Jean Paul, and asked that he scan it for me. He has a thing for older, hairier guys, so I did my best. He came up with an intriguing little backstory for the character... definitely sounds worth pursuing! I am glad Jean Paul emailed me the scan... I liked this little sketch, which I did with blue pencil and a brush pen. The next sketch is definitely from day 2, a great sunny day! Our booth was near the clear plastic "sunroof" of the festival tent we were set up in, so I monitored what the sun was like throughout the day... chronicled the bit of shopping I did, and some of the interesting festival-goers (the "freaky frenchman" was real... I couldn't make up an outfit like that...). At the end of day 2 (1/31) was the inaugural "LGBT roundtable" which I was very proud to be part of. There was a great attendance, and lively discussion. Of course, my French is so bad, I mostly tried to look interested when I could no longer understand. Afterward, we had the inaugural gay gathering at a pub. Maybe about 25 people for that... and a really fun evening overall! More tomorrow. Oh—I surprised some native Frenchies with the fact that Pelforth Brune is a French beer.

Angoulême

The day technically starts at 12:01, as Xavier and I quest for gay nightlife; the one known gay bar is now out of business, so we hike to another bar we know to be gay-friendly. Xavier's drink of choice is the "Monaco" (see left for recipe). It's very sweet, and very light-weight. But still, we were out late, making the next morning very difficult. But a wonderful full day in Angoulême. By now, my tourist days and running about are taking their toll. Antoine was upset he missed my "emo school boy" outfit of vintage Lacoste cardigan, worn out cordouroys, white shirt and rep tie.