There are many photos I didn't take at Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême! I missed snapping pics of Moebius, Jason, JC Menu, Killoffer and Joe Dog. I missed taking the photo of all the little kids with red hats reading CF's 2-pager in Kramers Ergot #7 and I missed the guy dressed up as Tintin just after I sassed Alex about how there was no one in costume. I missed taking a picture of Souther's raw meat salad…
Souther and I were crashing together in a château about 40 minutes outside of Angoulême. Every morning we'd get picked up by a car service and taken to the show. I know, I know, it sounds fancy – – and it was. All the drivers had clean shaves and nice haircuts, their pants were pressed and their breath smelt of the finest perfume (change out for cigarettes and bread). Some times the car we were picked up in was signed by Picasso.
One morning we woke up and found Tom Gauld in our room! That same morning the fancy car service was 3 hours late…
While we waited Tom and Souther discussed the current revolution happening in Dutch comics.
Isn't this amazing! Souther peeled the shit out an orange. Amazing.
On the topic of Amazing… I wish you could flip through Tom Gauld's sketchbook (and I wish my camera hadn't auto-focused on Tom's shoulder and lovely hair). Tom's sketchbook has these great 2 page spreads, with his daughter jamming on the left page with a green marker and then the right page is FULL of Tom's jewel like drawings, cataloging his toothy imagination.
Souther and Alex behind the booth. Technically, not a good photo but I like where Souther's head is in relation to Sharry Boyle's book Otherworld Uprising.
While we were in France there was a nation-wide strike.
From what I could gather, the French people were striking because of the government's handling of the current economic crisis.
The night of the strike I was talking with some Northern European friends (possible the happiest people… ever.) and one of 'em in a loud voice goes "Hey Jason! In America what would happen if you strike against crisis!?!" I replied "You'd probably get fucking fired." And they all laughed hysterically. I asked my friend what would happen in Northern Europe and he said "Nothing. Because we aren't stupid." And then I started laughing…
Hey!
It's Joe Daly! The man behind Scrublands and the upcoming The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book.
Here's Joe preparing to sign a copy of Kramers Ergot #7.
To Joe's left we find the amazing Conrad Botes. GO NOW! GO! and find a copy of The Best of Bitterkomix vol. 1 featuring Conrad's amazing story "Blood River."
Conrad and Joe sign Kramers Ergot #7… at the same time.
Here is a statue of Herge's head. It is common for French children to run up to it with excitement and glee.
If I'm remembering right, this photo was taken just after Dan Clowes finished a radio interview. Dan told me he thought the interviewer asked him to explain his take on Nietzsche, so he did… turned out the interviewer asked him about David Lynch… Anyway, it's a nice photo of Dan and Alvin Buenaventura shooting the breeze.
Alvin watches a rough preview of Ghost World II: The Bob Skeetes Story.
Melissa, Souther and Alex anticipating the upcoming Clowes & co. signing. The tension was building and so was the size of the crowd.
"AUTEUR! AUTEUR! AUTEUR!" croaked the crowd of anxious fans. Like atheletes of olde making the fabled trek down the long dark corridor to the arena of champions… Adrian Tomine! Chris Ware! and Dan Clowes! well rested and pumped up for some fuckin' book signin' dewd!
So the show ended and it was awesome.
Here's a photo-collage-thing of our exodus…
Click to enlarge
What we didn't sell we just tossed because in France they don't give a fuck about money.
But I'm American and I was like "Alvin! what the fuck are you doing!!!"
Alvin looked up at me with those eyes and said… "Let it go Jason."
So I let it go.