Sarah McIntyre, along with Emma Vieceli, headed off last weekend to France for the Paris Manga and Sci-Fi Show – naturally Vern and Lettuce had to go along with them (and thankfully French chefs didn’t see them as ingredients for dinner!). As well as more of the cool Vern and Lettuce special strip about the gig (the first panels of which I shamelessly borrowed to post above) Sarah has posted up a neat report on the gig, with plenty more art and photos as she usually does. Emma was there with the the shiny new – or should I say nouveau? – French language edition of her lovely Dragon Heir Reborn, part of a series which we’ve told you a number of times you should be reading. There’s a new Indy French publisher called Aaltaïr, and Guillaume Bresch and Patrick Chaduc are the men behind it and the French version of Em’s book.

Guillame also told Sarah something about why he started a new independent publisher and it is refreshing to hear that he not only loves books but he believes they have been around thousands of years and will be around for a long time to come – nice to hear when many worry about what will happen to books and reading in an ever changing publishing and media world. He’s got a couple of imprints for comics and for manga (which leads to a sidebar discussion on the difference between comics and manga – as Emma points out, manga really just means comics, not a specific form of big-eyed talking magical panda comics), he’s considering children’s illustrated books (I’m sure talking to Sarah would help persuade him to that idea! And our own Richard has reviewed several younger readers works that blur the line between comics and traditional picture books, looks like an area ripe to expand for young readers) and he has already done a chapter book version of Peter Pan with illustrations by Charles Vess (and yes, he is open to submission ideas). There’s a bunch more pics comparing the French cosplayers with some of the London event ones and loads more art, go and have a look, may be a new event to add to your comic calendar, even if it isn’t in the nicest part of the city.

A reminder for all Glasgow peeps, Charlie Adlard, the man who brings the brilliant Walking Dead comic to visual life, will be signing in our store in the city’s Buchanan Street (right by the Underground) on Thursday February 23rd from 5 to 6pm, so zombie fans, stop munching those brains and stagger your undead way down for a chance to meet him.

Okay, we’ve had more than a few reports on here from the recent Angoulême comics festival in France (see here), but here’s a wonderfully unusual one to point you towards, a torrid tale of teased yarn, sneaky undercover knitting, street art and comics at Europe’s most important bande dessinee bash. Yes, it could only be Deadly Knitshade herself, Lauren O’Farrell, one of the Fleece Station Mafiosi abroad, creating some of here woollen wonders around the festival (I still grin recalling seeing her knitting a fantastic Nessie at Hi-Ex in Inverness a couple of years back) and she’s posted up a report with loads of pics of her work and some of the other fab street art created around Angoulême that caught her eye too, go and have a look for a very different Angoulême report.

(one of Steve Bell’s picks from his own cartoons from 2011 – “The Lowry Crapper”, commenting on the announcement of massive public sector cuts in Manchester while drawing on the iconic work of Lowry)

This year was no exception, and the quality of the selection was amazingly high, as was the variety in drawing style, subject matter and narration.  One constant though: all entries showed a remarkable level of self-confidence and grip on the medium the artists had chosen.

As of this year, you too can discover the richness of comics to come by heading over to the EspritBD website.  This service, developed with generous financial aid of the French Caisse d’Epargne bank, allows young artists to showcase their works.  It offers a full-fledged authoring kit you can use to turn your pages in a professional-looking e-book, and for each author has his own profile page with links to Facebook, Twitter, a blog, etc.

For readers, EspritBD has a wide range of browsing facilities, from genres and subjects to a number of official selections, such as the Jeunes Talents (showcasing the entries to the Angoulême competition), the Révélation Blog (a selection of the best Webcomics, predominantly in French though) and BD Scolaire (which focuses on comics created by cartoonists in their teens).  You can also create your own bookshelf, or select a number of strips to read after one another in a playlist. And naturally, you can “like” and “share” what you read on your social medium of choice.

EspritBD also has a client for IOS devices, which even allowed us to scan the artwork at the exhibition, and browse the other works by the artist that created it.  It was pretty neat, and in my opinion a very valuable resource for all starting cartoonists.

You can read Wim’s previous posts from this year’s BD festival here, here and also his previews of the festival here, here and here.

Pat Mills points us to a podcast recording of the talk he had with Grant Rogers at the Comics & Conflicts events last summer in the Imperial War Museum, organised by Alex Fitch, Paul Gravett and Ariel Khan, now online so those of us who couldn’t be there can get a listen.

This year was a really fun trip.

I had decided beforehand to try and have a more rounded festival experience and combine time behind our author table with attending talks and exhibitions. With that in mind I only travelled to the con with a bunch of mini – comics, which traditionally do sell well. This year the crew consisted of myself, Francesca Cassavetti, Sally Anne Hickman and Oliver Lambden. We have retired the Bastards name and went along as Azfab.

We met Stephen Betts, Ellen Lindner, Gary Northfield And Lauren O’Farell at Eurostar, and then travelled first leg with Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. In Lille we met the Nobrow crew and Martin Steenton who I was sharing a Tumblr blog that was initiated by Dan Berry.

Straight of the train and to the tent we set up the table and met our neighbours Tom and Chris from AdHouse books. Then off to the house for a night of food and wine (well, when in France…). Thursday was creators meet and greet, so a relaxed day. I went to the Spiegelman exhibition that was split over two sites, the Castro building and the museum. It was great. I actually got the random chance to speak to him, congratulated him on his exhibition. I managed to remain conversational and not gush or ask to have a photo taken with him or give him comics. Later there was an evening of parties; the stand out was at La Maison des Auteurs, which always exhibits excellent work.

Friday was a busier day but took the time out to go to the Eddie Campbell talk. On returning to the table it was obvious that my comics were not going to sell in any great number. So I decided to just relax and enjoy the event. I took a bunch of mini comics round for review, had an accidental  ‘folio review with l’association who liked my drawings. That was an amazingly good feeling.

(pics all by Sean and taken from his Flickr)

Saturday was madness – so many people. This was Francesca’s day as she sold loads. There was no Chris Ware, and the Charles Burns talk was full when we got there. I also got to meet Wim (our very own Continental Correspondent – Joe), which was nice. The Raw talk was held in a cupboard-sized room, so that was a blow-out as well.

Sunday was a more sedate day and this was Sally’s day. I took another look round the Spiegelman exhibition and almost got knocked over by the man himself, a huge media scrum and, apparently, President Sarkozy. It was insane. I just love the whole craziness of this type of large-scale event. It’s like living in a cartoon village, with NO spandex heroes – bliss! After I tried to get into the Fred exhibition but there was just no chance, it was rammed.

If I have a complaint at all, it is that the programming with the venues seemed perhaps a bit lopsided. Overall though my Angoulême 2012 experience was really good. I still feel restricted by language when dealing with publishers, so it’s back to French classes for me. I always return from this festival full of inspiration. It’s such an amazing experience and if any cartoonist is serious about the medium then they have to visit.

Simple.

FPI would like to thank Sean for his time and report – you can follow more of Sean’s work on his own site here and as we mentioned yesterday he has already uploaded a pile of photographs from this year’s festival onto Flickr. Stay tuned for more on this year’s festival from Wim shortly.

The Embassy of Japan and partners have again organised the now traditional annual Manga Jiman competition for new manga comics talent in the UK. The award ceremony is due to be held this Friday in the Japanese Embassy in London, where the final selection will be made. Competing for the top prize (a return trip to Japan) are:

Anya Zhuravskaya – ‘Storyteller Sisters’
Ami Clark – ‘The Flower That Held Its Breath’
Byron Reynolds – ‘Crash Course’
Dean McKnight & Jade Sarson – ‘Shear Brilliance’
Elena Vitagliano – ‘The Deep Needs Train’
Gillian Ha – ‘To The Girl With The Butterfly Ears’
Lorenzo Fruzza – ‘Heart’s Orbit’
Megan Wheeler – ‘A Harvest Love’
Rebecca Burgess – ‘Letters From England’
Sarah Burgess – ‘The Man and his Shadow’
Vivian Truong – ‘Moving On’

As is traditional now with the Manga Jiman competition, the work of all the shortlisted nominees will be displayed at an exhibit in the Embassy (101/104 Piccadily, W1J7JT) which will run from February 6th to 28th. The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5.30pm and is free to enter, although being in an Embassy building you will need some form of photographic ID for entry. Good luck to all the nominees and of course if you’re in the city during February do swing by the exhibition and give them all some support.

Andy Luke follows up his impressive Abscence comic, which went out to a variety of organisations across Northern Ireland to promote awareness and understanding of living with epilepsy, with an exhibition at Belfast’s Arts & Disability Forum Gallery in Belfast. The exhibtion will include work from his comics such as “Gran, a reaction to the death of a family member, celebrating legacy; Absence, a study of how epilepsy has affected the artist’s life; and Don’t Get Lost, about a social group shattered by rape. Andy will be in residence at the ADF on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the exhibition, developing a new visual narrative in response to news topics that will be worked live on the gallery walls.”

There’s a preview of the exhibition on Thursday 2nd February  from 5 to 7pm, with the actual exhibition being opened to all from 3rd of February to March 15th. In addition to the exhibition Andy will be giving a talk on Thursday 16th February at 2pm and he will be leading a free comics workshop on Friday 24th February at 11am (you still need to book both the event though as spaces are limited). Some of Andy’s work should also be going up on the ADF’s website. And while we’re talking about the talented Mr Luke, you should have a look The Invisible Artist, an impressive half hour video piece on comics history and culture in Northern Ireland which he wrote and presented:

The Invisible Artist from Northern Visions/NvTv on Vimeo.

Good chum of the blog Sean Azzopardi was again at the Angoulême comics festival in France and he’s posted up a whole bunch of photographs so those of us who couldn’t go can at least have a glimpse of some of what it looked like: