Peg can't get out of the Rights Tent {Angouleme: Day Two}

The day started off with a mis-set alarm clock and a couple of missed appointments but after our half hour drive in we arrived for the first day of business. Peg did a panel with the other foreign rights guests: Calista Brill from First Second, Todd Martinez from Image and formerly of Comic Relief (who told us how Tintin in Tibet in Tibetan was one of the store's bestsellers), Mark Smylie from Archaia, Carol Burrell from Lerner Publishing, and Alex Bowler from Jonathan Cape/Random House UK. Paul Gravett naturally moderated and discussion centered around the trials of translation, new book covers for different markets, and the love of being flown to another country to talk about comics. Is it a European show without Paul moderating a panel on english comics?




Our hostess, Ivanka Hahnenberger from VIP-Brands. She handled all the logistics of getting this group there. Peg grilled her at dinner one night to find out that this woman has lived an amazing life and is already negotiating with Jennifer Jason Leigh to play her story. We would also like to thank Caroline Chatelet from the festival who was our official host, though we do not have a picture of her. Sorry Caroline!



Peg had thirty minutes between appointments so we rushed out of our tent and into the next tent. And this is what greeted us. Now, Angouleme is quite different than San Diego Comic-Con in many ways but sometimes, well, it's just the same. We gasped and quickly dashed out and (difference) grabbed baguettes with emmental and ham and munched as we walked. A very typical Angouleme experience.



Peg went back to a meeting and I rushed off to another tent. Here we see the clutch of mainstream publisher booths. Dargaud as we enter the door. One of Dash Shaw's publishers.



The Delcourt booth. Delcourt publishes a number of D+Q titles in French.



Glenat!



Nice to see our pal Snoopy at Dargaud. Currently signing behind that crowd was Lewis Trondheim and a couple other folks. There was a TV crew interviewing an older gentleman at the Dupuis booth but I wasn't able to figure out who it was. Probably the French Steranko.



Later we headed over to Le Nouveau Monde tent which is where all the great small press stuff is--L'Association, Cornelius, Actes Sud, Ego Comme X, Atrabile, tons of minis and posters. Here we see the striking L'Asso workers.



Here's the flier (click for readable view.)



Me new mate, Alex Bowler from Jonathan Cape. I am not a short man but for crying out loud I will never take a photo standing next to this giant again. Alex was very gracious whenever I asked him if he knew Renee Zellwegger. Which was a lot. And he actually did, sort of. Apparently Renee is a method actor who spent time in British publishing.



And here is a long shot of the Cornelius booth--decked out with many many lamps. The "money man" Guillaume mans the booth. Emilie and Jean Louis size it up from the outside.



Directly across from them is the Pinceel booth. They distribute a lot of English comics in Europe. They had all those great giant figures that Press Pop makes too. I never saw most of those. Also, a sign listing all the foreign publishers they carry except for Drawn & Quarterly. AHEM. Hear that Dan Nadel? Le PictureBox is bigger in Europe than D+Q. Actually, Peggy took care of this the next day. Bart did have a sign with D+Q on it but didn't have room and took down another to promptly display it. I wont say which sign he took down.



I tried to avoid bumping into Paul Karasik but I failed. What, no, I'm kidding. Paul is awesome. He was in town teaching a class and dropped by the festival. We talked briefly a couple of times and then we were whisked away in opposite directions by the crowd.



Later, after much haggling, we got into the opening ceremony. Here is President Baru on stage with the emcee who I am told is a Parisian radio host. My impression was that her comics knowledge was not extensive.



Guess what Angouleme and SDCC share? A love of movie tie-in. Alas. Both shows are great but it seems to be only human to see how much cinema turns our comic heads. We saw a 20-minute preview and discussion of Largo Winch II (with Sharon Stone!) which is the #1 selling book in France and it was eerily similar to watching the Scott Pilgrim cast on stage at the Eisners last year.



Hey, some TV!! Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard fields a few questions about playing a zombie on the TV show. And superheroes.



Here is Dash standing up briefly when they show the cover of Body World and announce "John Pham." Oh well.



Trondheim does Peanuts! And then Jeannie Schulz stood up and waved to the crowd. Awesome.



Michel Rabagliati was honored after winning a prize last year but attending this year. It was a nice five minute interview with a great slide show from his French tour but ending with a puzzling moment where the host asked him if he read superheroes.



Afterwards, heading off to dinner, we run into Argentinian cartoonist Liniers and Fred from La Pasteque.



Dargaud hosted a dinner at the Hotel Mercure. Really excellent food. Endless wine, cheese plate at the end of the meal. Great! Here is the foreign rights crew. Left to right: Todd from Image, Alex from Cape, Calista from 1st/2nd and Matt from Archaia.

Getting drunk at the Dargaud dinner with Dash and Marc Bell. Dash told us about meeting Nicole Kidman when he drew the comic for Rabbit Hole. Special thanks to Thomas from Dargaud for being such a great host.

This is where everyone ends up after everything. Le Chat Noir. You order that beer (s) that you really don't need.



I swear to god I need to write names down and I'll get this sorted out later. Here is one of the Nobrow guys. Where is the other guy? He's here somewhere. Look everyone is at least 1-1/2 sheets to the wind at this point. Do you not know who Nobrow is? Tsk, tsk.


At the end of the night we go to the car stand. Here sits a number of drivers getting ready to be sent out of town for an hour to our awesome hotel.

Peg will do day 3 tomorrow, and apologies for the delay, the internet at the rights tent was intermittent due to the impact of 200,000 people descending on the town.

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