Clearing out the cameras {Angouleme: Day Four}

I really wanted to give a full sense of Angouleme and I realize that I am going to basically fail at that. I need to get my movie making skills up to snuff to show you the crowds and the space and all that. Next year. I SAID NEXT YEAR! Some of these photos are from Saturday and some of them are from Sunday. I'm trying to keep a semblance of order here for you.

Here's the promised video of Michel Rabagliati's stint onstage at the opening ceremony. I'll move this to it's proper place once we're all done with our Angouleme posts (Full version now up! It's around 2 minutes long but Flickr seems to have a 1-1/2 minute limit).

Angouleme street signs are all word balloons. How quaint is that?


Charles Berberian made the trip down to our little tent. I always feel like a slob around Charles. He's a well-dressed gentleman (not over-dressed just well-dressed.) Later, I ran into Philippe Dupuy on the street and forgot to take a picture. Argh!

Saturday was a different story at the L'Asso booth. They were open for business after a détente (see how much my french has improved?) was reached the day before and employees were smiling and artists were signing. Here's Carmela Chergui, rested and smiling for the first time in days.

This one is for Rina. Jochen Gerner signing at the L'Asso booth. And I'm not sure if you can tell by the crush in the background but this hall was impassable with the crowd. Sunday morning I was rushing to get back to the Rights Tent in order to catch a train to Paris and it took me an hour plus to push my way through the length of the tent.


Mulot and Ruppert signing for the fans. I know there was a board and exacto blade employed but I'm not sure what tricks they were playing this time in their elaborate signing methods. Later, in Paris I spotted their brand new release from L'Asso--a huger than tabloid newspaper.

Here's Michel at La Pasteque deep in Le Nouveau Monde tent signing away for a big crowd.

John Pham at his French publisher Cambourakis. Things were so crazy that we barely had a chance to say hi to John.


Peg in the crowded Le Nouveau Monde tent.

There was a tent dedicated to interviews and reading. And they had this giant drawing for people to color in as the days passed.

Here's Anouk Ricard being interviewed onstage.

Right next to the Treasure Fleet kids (Till Thomas and friends, note: the link is their photoset of Angouleme) were these Chinese artist who maybe were called Special Comics? I'm not totally sure. But they had some great zine and a massive anthology that I debated getting but luggage allowances talked me out of it.


Oh, are we drinking cognac in the VIP lounge because we have the special bracelets? Why yes we are.

Angouleme backstreets and giant banners leading you from tent to tent.

It was sort of like being in a major city shopping area with tents tucked into nooks and crannies for exhibitions. I should point out that Peg and I saw no exhibits the entire time. We were running around the whole time making appointments or trying to just browse books.

Caroline Seury signing her newish L'Asso book. Dolls on display.


Ludovic Debeurme signing at Cornelius.




The streets were crazy on Saturday and Sunday. Here I am trying to capture that intensity.

The reading room in the interview tent. You know, a dedicated salon where you read your newly purchased comics.

I am likely going to get some details wrong here but this is the Romanian booth and they were giving away an anthology called The Book of George. It seems that they started as a bookstore and since there was no real distribution they would make trips to Canada or France and buy as many comics as they could carry and lug them back home. Just so the good people of Romania could read some comics. Amazing.

Back in the front of Le Nouveau Monde tent, Brecht (pronounced Bresht) Evens does elaborate watercolors for the fans.

Is that a cheese plate? Non! It is a Brecht watercolor palette.

Oh, here is a demo! (Full version is up! It's really about 7 minutes long but Flickr has truncated it. I'll upload the full version as soon as I can.)

Moments before leaving for Paris who drops by our booth but our old pal, Jason. He had just gotten off the train and we were just leaving. I was sad not to have a beer with him (or arm wrestle him for that matter.)

The train station as we prepare to leave.

As we waited, this couple reached into their bags and pulled out the Cornelius edition of Wilson!! They seemed a little freaked out when Peg and I pounced on them to tell them that we published it in English.

And then we caught the train and went back to Paris (Peg will have a report on that for you tomorrow.) Let me just say as I end this series of posts that Angouleme is amazing and eye-opening and sometimes the intensity is too much and you need to unwind from the crowd just like Comic-Con. It's thee European comics show. EVERYBODY in Europe is a short flight (sort of) or train ride away. And the industry there is huge so there's so much to see. The set-up of placing the tents throughout the city is amazing although it has certain logistical problems (I never saw the Nobrow booth or Le Dernier Cri or who knows what else.) Seriously, North Americans, if you have a chance, go. You won't find a place to stay because it's booked so far in advance (15 years ago when I went for the first time I slept on the floor in the kitchen of a youth hostel) but it's still worth trying. And they say the easiest way to get a room is to rent one in an apartment. Lastly, I live in a bilingual comics loving city and I was still amazed at the number of small presses and the quality of the work. Vive le France!

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