Paris! {Final Angouleme Post}

I realize the delay in posting this last entry takes away from the fun, but the reentry into North America has been hard, people!

Ok, I dragged tom away from the convention a day early on Saturday so that we could have some "non-comics time." As you'll see, this is clearly not possible, ANYWHERE, and especially in France. Late-ish Saturday night we arrive in Paris, and Tom & I head out to a local joint in Belleville for pizza. It was a small side-street-y place and only one other couple was present. The owner seemed like a bit of a character and remarked as he saw us taking this picture that Thomas Ott was a friend (his words, "mon copaine") and that he lived right around the corner. Yes, those are real paintings by Thomas on the wall behind Tom.


Obligatory photo for my 5 year old, Gigi, who is learning about France in maternelle.


Oh, you know, strolling down Blvd. St-Germain on the Left Bank, look up only to find WILSON staring back at me!!!!

Inside the store, they had all of the nominees from the festival prominently displayed. Wilson, the gatekeeper, looks like he may turn around and say "Hey Brother..." to the man reading.


And then 30 minutes later, we stumble upon the BD store, Aaapoum Bapoum, et voila, another WILSON display this time with Charles Burns' X'ed out. What's with all of the cut outs?


Right when you walk in you see a full display of all Cornelius titles.


What can I say? The french love WILSON.

We were slowly making our way through the 6th Arrondisement to the legendary...

Un Regard Moderne.

I admit, this place gave me a panic attack. Tom told me a story that the reason Thomas from Actes Sud published Mark Alan Stamaty's Who Needs Doughnuts in french was because he found the english edition at a bottom of a stack here. Thomas is a patient man.

Though I love that they had Gary's Satiroplastic poster framed.

And that Vanessa's MAKE ME A WOMAN is front and center, well, for the next day or so, at least.

We were told that if you want a specific book at the store, you have to give the owner a week or two to find it.

When I say EVERYONE in France knew of Art being the president in 2012. I mean EVERYONE.

Everyone.

Before we left for home, we visited the offices of Cornelius to have lunch. I have to say that meeting the Cornelius staff was *almost* the best thing about the trip. Left to right: Jean-Louis Gauthey, Julien Magnani (designer), Guillaume Traisnel (money man and craftsman of all of the Clowes and Burns cut outs!), and Émilie Le Hin (translator, publicist, foreign rights and more). It was almost spooky, but yet totally inspiring and wonderful, to meet a company so similar to D+Q in France! Emilie and I bonded and agreed over everything! Emilie, move to Montreal!

And it's easy to see why, like our beloved Chief, Chris, Cornelius was founded by Jean-Louis who runs the company with a finely honed aesthetic that is at once instantly recognizeable as a Cornelius book, but also uniquely about the artist. Talking to Jean-Louis is like talking to Chris, they don't talk about themselves, it is solely always about the artist. And talking to an artist about Jean-Louis, is listening to a D+Q artist talk about Chris. The artist totally adores him.

Charles Berberian joined us for lunch and told us a story about doing a press check for his new Cornelius book Sacha and that Jean-Louis' standards were so exacting that Charles couldn't even see what Jean-Louis wanted corrected.

Here are some differences between the two companies. Cornelius casually had a bottle of wine out.

They have a fully loaded kitchen.

AND, the ENTIRE office was built by Jean-Louis out of pallet wood and pipes. Seriously, he made the desks, the shelves, the kitchen, everything!

Their entry way.

Ok, Charles Berberian on his way out of the office. You know with his hat on, cashmere coat, sharp flight bag, and guitar strapped to his back.

A photo of the building's courtyard on the way out.

Again comics. But how could we miss Charles Burns'show at Galerie Martel?! A few shots from the show.

Originally, I thought this would be the "one" comics thing we did in Paris.




And our way back from the Galerie on Tuesday night, making our way up Rue de Belleville who do we randomly run into but "friends-we-just-made-at-the-festival" the crew from Book About George that Tom blogged about earlier.

As my coworker Jessica says "Comics you've done it again!"

Posted in: