January 31, 2014
Euro-Comics Special: Jen Vaughn In Angouleme 02
By Jen Vaughn
* by Friday, the crowds have already thickened so you cannot easily move around without the customary "Pardon." Police are out in force.
* there's a new Moebius biography with an extensive bibliography available by Daniel Pizzoli at the PLG booth in the New World/Indie Tent. Stuart Ng is picking up just a few for his site, largely because he hadn't seen about 10 images in it before when he flipped through it.
* a few cartoonists like
Fabien Mense -- who also worked on Hotel Translyvania -- had lines/queues running 20-30 people deep before their signing even started at 10am and were still signing books at 3:30pm. And you know how the signings are here, you stand in line for an hour or two because they will make you something incredible that takes twenty minutes! Worth it. Next year, I'm not eating the whole month before Angouleme so I can buy all the albums.
* London-based cartoonist
Cliodhna waiting in one such line and left with a beautiful book called
Chemin Perdu that I am absolutely getting (when I get home, the suitcase can only hold one mini-comic).
*
Chemin Perdu is by Amelie Flechais and has
a cute book trailer that only makes me want the album
more.
* repping their German publisher, Ulli Lust and
Kai Pfeiffer strike a pose. I was so excited when Ulli gave me
Air Pussy, a book I've been trying to get my hands on -- no pun intented -- for a few years.
comiXology.com
* comiXology rounded up some cartoonists like Ulli Lust, Chuck Forsman, me and writer Joe Keatinge to hang out and talk digital comics. Some French participants were some supposed to show up but got held up due to those damn signing lines I mentioned earlier. We drank their wine for them. David Steinberger, Chip Mosher and Jeremy Nguyen (Guided View Editor) entertained the lot of us.
* you can totally read Chuck's two graphic novels
The End of the Fucking World and
Celebrated Summer plus his minis are
on comiXology.
* Ulli's
Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life is also on there but you must buy it from a computer, it's too good and real for Apple.
* Joe's books like
Glory,
Hell Yeah and various other comics
are on comiXology, too.
Little Asia
* the tent for rotating exhibits is featuring "Little Asia" this year. Not sure exactly what they meant by that but the talent inside is undeniable and several manga from Taiwan were featured in the exhibit called "Travel With Comic."
* Kinono was drawing with some live ink and nib on a sweet, thin,
huge light table while his friends and colleagues watched. The guests each had a large display featuring pages of work, bios (in French and English, thank Crumb) and suitcases (remember the
theme?!) with an illuminated tablet and books.
* there was some interesting body horror stuff going on in TK. Chang Shih-hsin's work shown so I'm definitely looking for any translations when I get back -- Hideshi Hino and Junji Ito being some of my favorite horror masters.
Foreign Rights Tent
* not everyone can come in this tent since it's all business with licensors but I sweet talked my way in. This is where First Second set themselves up along with superhero publisher Dynamite, art book publisher
Insight Editions and much more.
* Emma Hayley from SelfMade Hero took the time to show me and Brigid some beautiful books from their spring line. This April, Nick Abadzis illustrated a David Camus graphic novel called
The Cigar That Fell in Love With A Pipe and I'm always happy for more Abadzis in my life. Also, coming out in May is
Aama, which is the first book in the sci-fi fiction series by Frederik Peeters and if we've learned anything from
Sandcastles and
Pacyderme, it's to give Peeters the reins of reality and enjoy the ride.
FOFF (Eff Off Fest)
* barely off the beaten path but a joy to try and find is the Off Festival (
aka "FOff"
aka "Fuck Off," etc.). Following some painted press board and cardboard signs, Joe Keatinge and I traipsed around Angouleme looking for the next sign like a fun easter egg hunt.
* two floors of screen printed comics and posters awaited us plus an entire room for a Mike Diana original exhibit, a castle made of trashbags -- no, I did not take off my shoes to enjoy that experience -- and more.
*
Love Hole got me going, partially because it was in English but also because it was my kind of absurd and filthy.
* I could have also spent all my money here.
* the statue I pass on my way home [below]. Usually littered with kids loitering. Do they even know how lucky they are?
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Jen Vaughn is a Seattle-based cartoonist and graduate of
The Center For Cartoon Studies. You can read her blogging on behalf of her employer Fantagraphics Books
here. You can read her digital comic
Avery Fatbottom here. You can follow her on Twitter
here.
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posted 4:00 pm PST |
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A Few Random Notes Concerning The Angouleme Festival: Alan Moore Would Decline Grand Prix
Here are few quick notes about things going on at the Festival. In addition to these quick-hit, bulleted updates, we're running intertwined on-the-ground perspectrive columns from Jen Vaughn (
1,
2) and Paul Karasik (
1,
2,
3), so please be sure to stay tuned.
My guess is we maybe get one more from Paul and one or two more from Jen. We also had Conversational Euro-Comics columnist Bart Beaty's
explanation as to why he isn't at the big French-language industry show this year.
*
the prix page at the Festival site should see a lot of activity the next several hours, if you want to bookmark it. One that gets announced earlier than most is the Prix Jeunesse, which this year has gone to the Soleil-published second volume of the
Les Carnets De Cerise series from Joris Chamblain and Aurélie Neyret. One nice thing about the change in North American publishing to include a wide variety of initatives including a significant push into books for kids is that you can look at a winner in a category like that one and go, "Hey, maybe that will show up over here one day" as opposed to "what a strange an exotic thing comics for kids can be."
* this morning's big news of the let's-all-talk-about-it variety is an Alan Moore statement
through the French-language industry news clearinghouse ActuaBD.com that even though he's a finalist for that festival Grand Prix -- one of the grandest if not the grandest honor in comics -- he will decline the award if he ends up the winner. The festival presidency that comes with the award looks to be the sticking point, in addition to the severing of comics festival in all form from the writer's life years and years ago. There has been some controversy about moves to open up the process in a way that's given us three finalists -- Moore, Bill Watterson, Katsuhiro Otomo -- where it seems perfectly reasonable to conceive of a future where each choice might not show or be involved with next year's festival were they to take the prize. One could argue that as strength of the past-winners in a room naming the new winner is that it would more naturally go to someone to whom the award might be of singular importance.
We'll see. Someone not accepting the prize or the opportunities that go with it might do what the voting changes are trying to do -- make the prize more newsworthy and relevent. As I've written a bunch of time, those are supreme comics makers and my only concern is that if the finalists pool is similar to that one for years and years at a time.
* I'm still hoping for Otomo, incidentally. Otomo's an underrated cartoonist in terms of the quality of his work, and a manga winner of a grand prix straight up (as opposed to a special honor) is way, way, way overdue, like "you're kidding me that hasn't happened yet?" overdue. I also think that would lead to the best festival. On the other hand, I have never been within a country mile of guessing the Grand Prix winner, and I don't expect that to change even now that I have a one in three chance.
* finally, I've asked for but haven't received additional word from either side on the fact that
the Festival was presented with a signed letter protesting SodaStream (and its West Bank primary manufacturing facility) as a show sponsor. I was also hopping that maybe they would update those signing off on it. I assume that's coming.
It did make news.
posted 3:45 pm PST |
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Parade Extra: Video Profile Of TK. CHANG Shih-hsin
posted 3:40 pm PST |
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CR Week In Review
The top comics-related news stories from January 25 to January 31, 2014:
1. Angouleme
gets underway in France with all the controversy and drama that entails.
2. A number of artists including several US cartoonists and some in attendance at this year's show
sent a protest letter to the Angouleme Festival asking them to sever the sponsorship of the company SodaStream, whose primary production facility is in the West Bank.
3. MIke Marts
'' to a new Marvel Executive Editor position; Marts had been working as the editor on the various Batman titles published by DC. The hire throws a spotlight on DC's decision to move out to California with all of its publishing operations by next year, DC's editorial talent pool more generally, and the success Marts enjoyed with the Batman-related book in the "New 52" era post-Fall 2011.
Winner Of The Week
FIDB in Angouleme -- still the best confluence of industry angst and overwhelming creative excess in all of comics' various publishing initiatives.
Loser Of The Week
DC; I'm guessing there will be an overreach in terms of speculation as to how much the Marts loss may cost them and an equally overreaching pushback trying to frame it as no big deal, but he made good books at DC that sold well and with creators that seemed to like working with him -- it can't be good to lose someone like that, no matter who might take over or no matter how popular the characters with whom that person worked.
Quote Of The Week
"Whether I jump into anything, whether it's crime or horror, if there isn't something I can put in there, something personal or something a little more three-dimension to the characters, I really can't get into it." --
Rich Tommaso. (Sue me, I just sort of liked that interview.)
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today's cover is from Marvel Comics during the year 1964
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posted 3:35 pm PST |
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If I Were In LA, I’d Go To This
posted 3:20 pm PST |
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If I Were In France, I’d Go To This
posted 3:20 pm PST |
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Happy 37th Birthday, Jim Rugg!
posted 3:00 pm PST |
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Happy 57th Birthday, Gilbert Hernandez!
posted 3:00 pm PST |
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Happy 59th Birthday, Diana Schutz!
posted 3:00 pm PST |
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Happy 54th Birthday, Ron Frenz!
posted 3:00 pm PST |
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Today Is Hourly Comics Day
Good luck and god bless to those participating.
posted 2:00 pm PST |
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January 30, 2014
Go, Look: Ulli Lust
posted 5:00 pm PST |
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Euro-Comics Special: Paul Karasik In Angouleme 03
By Paul Karasik
Angouleme Sans Comics
If you are now on your second day of the
Angouleme Festival, you may be ready to get away from anything resembling comics and comics fans. How about ducking into a church?
In the grand tradition of most small cities in Europe, Angouleme has a lot of churches. Wasn't there a
Donald Barthelme story about a town that was nothing
but churches? Angouleme comes close, edged out only by the ratio
per capita of bakeries. On the 12-minute walk from my hotel to my local Angouleme supermarket, there are six bakeries. Believe me, I know.
So during the Festival, if you are looking for some mid-day solitude from the rumble of the foot traffic, why not stop into one of these churches to take time off from comics and silently contemplate your deep moral personal questions (such as, exactly how are you going to explain the credit card charges for comics to the wife once you get back to the States)?
Uh-oh... you are merde-out-of-luck! Even the churches are filled with comics exhibits and fans!
Hmmm... maybe the prestigious
Angouleme Museum might be worth a quiet side-trip to avoid the crowds?
Uh-oh... they are running an exhibit on the first floor of COMICS! Unless you are fans of something called
Ernest & Rebecca, a comic for the kiddies that appears to feature a petulant brat with purple hair ("Rebecca") and a cute green something with big eyes ("Ernest"), dash past the throngs of
Ernest & Rebecca fans and climb upstairs.
Never mind. I'll let you in on a secret. During the Festival the Angouleme Museum is one of the best places to get away from comics throngs... once you go upstairs. Chances are you'll have the place to yourself.
"But, Paul," you protest, "I came to Angouleme 'cause I'm a comics fan! I don’t go for that high-brow museum art! I like my art to be filled with sex, violence, scatology, and weird stupid stuff!"
Mathilde, one of my students from the EESI school, grew up in Angouleme and was an Angouleme Museum guard. She cued me into a couple of secrets to delight the typical crass comics fan. I now share these secrets with you!
Seems like a typical rustic genre scene, yes? ["Scene d'auberge," by David Teniers, 1610-1690].
Look closer! It's rustic, alrighty! There's a guy, painted about an inch tall, dropping his Flemish drawers next to the skating rink.
This next one I discovered all by myself ["Scene de Patinage," by Claes Molenaer, 1660]:
Different artists, but the same rascal picture-bombed into both paintings! This time he is taking a leak.
This is how they are displayed on the wall. Don't tell me that the Angouleme Museum curator does not have a jolly sense of humor!
O.K.... so much for the scatology category. Now for the sex and violence. The Magred collection was assembled by Dr. Jules Lhomme, a resident of Angouleme who never set foot in Africa yet amassed one of the finest collection of 19th century African artifacts in any museum. Just how he assembled this collection during the so-called Colonial Period, I leave up to your 21st century imagination.
You want violence?
You want sex?
You want explicit sex?
I have been to this museum on numerous occasions but never noticed this odd composition until Mathilde pointed it out to me.
Back in the day, before Photoshop, if you wanted to delete someone from the family portrait, you just used a scissors and bought a smaller frame!
Now a close-up of the above by Barthelemy Van Der Helst, 1655. It is titled, "Portrait of a gentleman from Pays-Bas and his Wife," but a more accurate title might be, "Portrait of a gentleman from Pays-Bas and his Wife and their Ungrateful Daughter Who Grew Up and Ran Off with the Baker's Son."
Finally, everyone whom I speak to in Angouleme about the museum mentions this mysteriously charming painting... so it would be a severe oversight to overlook "Jeune Taureau" ("Young Bull") by Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899). Why is the bull jumping over the fence and why does it bear that delightful smile and why was it ever painted in the first place? Some mysteries are better left for the ages.
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Paul Karasik is a cartoonist, author and educator best known for his work on
the graphic novel version of City Of Glass and for
bringing to a wider audience the work of Golden Age cartoonist Fletcher Hanks.
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posted 4:30 pm PST |
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OTBP: Leslie Stein Selling Original Art
This is a note primarily for those that are
already Leslie Stein fans, because this (hopefully) involves an original art purchase, but if you're
not familiar with her work you might check it out. It's routinely strong, and I don't think it has found its audience even by the unfortunately diminished standard of comics-makers finding their audiences.
posted 4:10 pm PST |
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International Group Of Cartoonists Send Letter To Angouleme Festival Director Concerning SodaStream
Nearly four dozen comics-maker from an array of countries has published an open letter to the director of Festival Internationale De La Bande Dessinee, Franck Bondoux, asking that the Festival sever ties with Israel drink manufacturer SodaStream. SodaStream has been the recent target of a cascading, international boycott because of the presence of its primary factory in the Ma'ale Adumim settlement.
A number of US cartoonists were included in those signing: Eric Drooker, Joe Sacco, Ben Katchor, Susie Cagle, Peter Kuper and Sue Coe among them. Non-US cartoonists include Carlos Latuff and Baudoin.
Full text of the letter in English:
We, cartoonists and illustrators from all countries, are surprised, disappointed and angry to find out that SodaStream is an official sponsor of the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
As you must know, SodaStream is the target of an international boycott call for its contribution to the colonization of Palestinian land, due to its factory in the illegal settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, its exploitation of Palestinian workers, and its theft of Palestinian resources, in violation of international law and contravening international principles of human rights.
Angouleme has had an important role in the appreciation of comics as an art form for over 40 years. It would be sad if SodaStream were able to use this event to whitewash their crimes.
We ask you to cut all ties between the Festival and this shameful company.
Sincerely,
Khalid Albaih (Sudan)
Leila Abdelrazaq (USA)
Avoine (France)
Edd Baldry (UK/France)
Edmond Baudoin (France)
Steve Brodner (USA)
Berth (France)
Susie Cagle (USA)
Jennifer Camper (USA)
Carali (France)
Chimulus (France)
Sue Coe (USA)
Gianluca Costantini (Italy)
Jean-Luc Coudray (France)
Philippe Coudray (France)
Marguerite Dabaie (USA)
Eric Drooker (USA)
Elchicotriste (Spain)
Jenny Gonzalez-Blitz (USA)
Ethan Heitner (USA)
Paula Hewitt Amram (USA)
Hatem Imam (Lebanon)
Jiho (France)
Ben Katchor (USA)
Mazen Kerbaj (Lebanon)
Lolo Krokaga (France)
Nat Krokaga (France)
Peter Kuper (USA)
Carlos Latuff (Brazil)
Lasserpe (France)
Lerouge (France)
Matt Madden (USA/France)
Mric (France)
Barrack Rima (Lebanon/Belgium)
James Romberger (USA)
Puig Rosado (France)
Mohammad Saba'aneh (Palestine)
Joe Sacco (USA)
Malik Sajad (Kashmir)
Amitai Sandy (Israel)
Siné (France)
Seth Tobocman (USA)
Eli Valley (USA)
Willis From Tunis (Tunisie/France)
Jordan Worley (USA)
The group has set up a tumblr
here and is asking any cartoonist that wants to endorse the letter
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
posted 4:05 pm PST |
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Go, Look: More Wash-Technique Covers From DC Comics
posted 4:00 pm PST |
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Euro-Comics Special: Jen Vaughn In Angouleme 01
By Jen Vaughn
* the slowest day of
Angouleme is the most relaxing one for the cartoonists and publishers.
* the general buzz around the Festival is the that
the Tardi show is absolutely beautiful, that you go in thinking one thing and come out complete differently. I'll know for sure by Saturday. Most of the cartoonists are making time -- with their free entry, thanks to their badges -- to visit.
BD/Main Tent
*
Casterman has an impressive selection of new albums; most are available in bookstores near you. What appeared to be a new Hugo Pratt book was absolutely a
Corto Maltese *game* featuring art by said cartoonist.
*
Delcourt has one of the more impressive setups, reminiscent of
Random House at a
BEA/
ALA convention with hundreds of copies of the same book. To get to the many signings you must first cross through Delcourt and
Soleil.
Thierry Mornet pulled myself,
Moritat and
Joe Keatinge into the VIP room which was hosting some movie house lights = everyone sweating and looking good. [Moritat and Thierry pictured directly above.]
Boulet was being interviewed,
Rebecca Morse of the new album
Alyssa was charming and warm.
*
Guy Delcourt came out eventually to say high to everyone and gave me his respects to
Kim Thompson.
* many of the
Selection Officielle books are available for purchase and parked so in the main tent.
Para-BD Tent
* lots of sellers were hawking comics, art and more. The sketchbook table
Sketchbook Buro was making hand over fist with people like Mara, Valp and Richard Valley signing.
* ran into former Angouleme prize winner,
Ulli Lust of
Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life; she was outside, with Joe Keatinge.
Indie Tent
*
L'Employe du Moi is featuring a lot of American cartoonists like
Alec Longstreth and
Chuck Forsman.
* these 14 year old kids from Angouleme came up to me and tried to sell me their anthology comic. Loved the hustle Eric and Karamba were trying.
* Vianello was also signing and drawing amazing things in books, as a Hugo Pratt apprentice for years, he has a vast array of knowledge on and off the page. This was the longest line I saw today.
* The vanguard of comics experimentalism and fantastic storytelling lie in the hands of
Dash Shaw,
Joe Lambert and
Frank Santoro -- all seen during their signings.
* ran into some more familiar faces like
Sean Azzopardi, an
SPX regular. He had a new comic or two... I bought one!
*
Scott Eder was selling a
ton of pages from American artists like
Gary Panter,
Peter Bagge and
Jim Woodring.
* finally,
MK Reed shows off her big purchase, a beautiful album called
Milady.
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Jen Vaughn is a Seattle-based cartoonist and graduate of
The Center For Cartoon Studies. You can read her blogging on behalf of her employer Fantagraphics Books
here. You can read her digital comic
Avery Fatbottom here. You can follow her on Twitter
here.
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posted 3:55 pm PST |
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Go, Look: Cover Gallery For T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1-17
posted 3:50 pm PST |
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Go, Listen: Inkstuds Podcast 500th Episode
Congratulations to my peer
Robin McConnell for making it to episode of his podcast
Inkstuds. The
500th episode features
David Brothers,
Brandon Graham and
Frank Santoro. It is bound to be very entertaining.
posted 3:45 pm PST |
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Go, Look: Classic Covers At The Bristol Board
posted 3:40 pm PST |
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Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital
By Tom Spurgeon
* Tapastic
secured a couple of million dollars in funding in the way that companies with some sort of potential return are funded. It looks like the model for the webcomics portal is a South Korean webcomics portal rather than some of the failed attempts to do something similar based out of the US. I would imagine that nearly every model of how these things are going to work is still on the table.
* I was sad to see that Greg McElhatton
is going to scale back mightily on his reviewing -- or at least more fully embrace the scaling back that has already occurred. I wish him luck in everything he wants to do from here on out.
* I'm not sure how to get to it that isn't one of
these weird cross-postings, but that's a nice article about things to consider before using the Submit program at the digital retailer
comiXology. I would have to think that you'd want to maximize your chances there, I'd have to imagine that it is very tough to make yourself noticed given the number of comics they published, and I have to imagine that hitting your marks with an opportunity like that one is something that will be good for you to get in the habit of doing over the lifetime of making comics.
* one webcomics-oriented cartoonist, Miluette,
writes about putting the over-one's-lifetime project aside for a while and all the reasons that this might be done.
* I'm always intrigued by posts like
this one that talk about mainstreaming work on one's art into the course of a daily existence that may never see standard benefits like money as a return for that time invested, but I'm a creepy guy with no family who types all the time so part of that fixation may be due to the broken aspects of my own life where these things don't come up.
posted 3:35 pm PST |
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Go, Look: Mike Mignola Tagged On Alex Chung’s Tumblr
posted 3:30 pm PST |
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Collective Memory: Morrie Turner, RIP
this article has been archived
posted 3:25 pm PST |
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If I Were In LA, I’d Go To This
posted 3:20 pm PST |
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If I Were In Halifax, I’d Go To This
posted 3:20 pm PST |
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