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.

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.

There was a very good show in the Comics Museum, tracing the relation between painting and fine art on the one hand, and cartooning on the other. The curators had gathered quite a large number of paintings and other works of art by people who are otherwise known for their comics work. Ranging from Tintin creator Herge and all-round graphical genius Jije (Joseph Gillain) to Guy Peellaert and Baudoin, to experimentalists like Fremok’s Alex Barbier and people like Jochen Gerner and Denis Fremand.

(some of Jije’s work on show at Angoulême)

It was quite revealing, and in a sense quite sad, to see these celebrated classic cartoonists trying their hand at “high art” and failing miserably to reach beyond sheer epigonism. The constrast with the work of contemporary graphical artists, for whom comics are just another medium for expression, was remarkable.

(some of Peellaert’s work on show at Angou)

I was also very amused by the retrospective of French cartoonist Fred. Virtually unknown beyond the borders of his homeland, this writer and artist has been making magical comics in his series Philemon since the late sixties, playing around with all the rules of the medium and storytelling in general,

The result are hilarious romps that often break the fourth wall, tear down the frames and, why not the page itself, use all kinds of media (from cross stitch patterns over old newspaper illustrations to collages with photos of the artist himself) and never fail to be very, very funny, insightful and philosophical at the same time. A lavish multivolume ‘integrale’ of the series was recently published, and it may not be to late for an intelligent English publisher to get in on this after all.

(some of Sardon’s work on show at Angou)

The last exhibition I liked a lot, was a show about the custom made stamps that cartoonist Vincent Sardon uses to create inventive, sardonic and insightful works of art. Using formats and metaphors usually limited to an old-fashioned office environment, Sardon mocks artists who often end up doing the same thing over and over (his do-it-yourself Dubuffet kit was hilarious), or delivers commentary and criticism on any aspect of French life. I especially was moved by his building blocks sets, in which he creates cities or insects by reusing the same fragments over and over.

(Tintin and Snowy appear with Stalin, Marx and Lenin in this work by Sardon)

In my final piece (somewhere later this week), I’ll discuss some of the books I discovered during this festival. In the mean time, a tout a l’heure!

You can read Wim’s report on the impressive Spiegelman exhibition at Angoulême here on the blog

I attended the comics festival of Angoulême a couple of times in the past, and even though the event generally has a fairly international feel to it, it’s always been a predominantly French affair, albeit with a good contingent of guests from other lands. With the presidency of Art Spiegelman however, it would seem that Anglophones have really discovered the festival in overwhelming numbers. In the Rue Herge as well as in the different tents English seems to have become the second language of choice.

Similarly, a lot of British and American authors were present  in several booths, as French publishers strongly continue their catching up by adding all and any modern classics to their catalogues. Even Scottish artist and now Australian resident Eddie Campbell came halfway across the world to sign the French translation of his Alec collection, which is on the official selection for the best album award.

(editing RAW)

The main reason to call this the English edition of the Festival, however, are the exhibitions that President Spiegelman created for the CBDI and for the Museum. In the first, he created a very extensive, detailed and complete overview of his own work. From his very early self-published comics to the underground magazines he edited in San Francisco in the early 70s to Raw, Maus and later his work for the New Yorker. Even the Garbage Pail Kids were present in their full glory, sharing wall space with original art, vintage artifacts and prints and an immense amount of sketche and preparatory work.

(above: snap of Spiegelman’s first fanzine at the exhibition, below: The Loonies, very early work from Spiegelman)

Especially the presentation of Maus, which had a whole room dedicated to it, gave a good idea of the impressively maniacal amount of preparation and sketching Spiegelman undertakes before he ends up with his seemingly simple pages. Maus was presented in its entirety, in the form of a gigantic frieze of live sized reproductions of the pages of both books. Every other page was accompanied by preliminary tryouts, sketches, unfinished dialogue or reference material. Much of what was on display is also present in the book MetaMaus, but it still is quite different when you see it in reality.

(above: creating the cover artwork for the brilliant MetaMaus. below: pages from Maus)

In the Museum Spiegelman took on the permanent collection and added his personal touch, focusing on the authors and creators that influenced him, or which he greatly admires. As a result of this the lion’s share of the museum was dedicated to American authors, with original art by anybody from Outcault or MacManus, Milt Gross and Rube Goldberg to Chester Gould and Jack Kirby, Bill Griffith and Patrick McDonnell.

A whole row of display cases was reserved for alternative, underground and current cartooning, by Wally Wood and Bill Elder, Harvey Kurtzman and Rick Griffin, Spain and R Crumb. Many of the pieces were especially for this exhibition lent by collector extraordinaire Glen Bray, and almost all of them were accompanied by very insightful commentary by Spiegelman himself.

A separate room told the story of Raw Magazine and featured original art by Ben Katchor, Charles Burns, RK Sikoryak and many others, along with ephemera like an sketch by Jacques Tardi and a very sweet letter by Burns offering his work for consideration by the magazine.

(the great Jacques Tardi sketches for Spiegelman)

Without a doubt, this was the best show by a President that I have seen thus far in Angoulême. Spiegelman’s successor has a far from easy job waiting for him

Last year Art Spiegelman won the City of Angoulême Grand Prix, and, as tradition dictates, this makes him the acting president of this year’s edition, and his work the subject of one of the major exhibitions.  The Spiegelman show will be divided into two parts.  The first will focus on Maus and how it came to be.  Not only will the show feature all the original pages that make up the entirity of Maus, it will also include no less than 700 drawings, sketches, reference photographs and other documents.  Spiegelman is well-known for how he catalogues and archives his past (just have a look at MetaMaus, one of the best books of last year), so this should be a treat.  Next to Maus the show will also tell the history of Raw magazine, with plenty of original art and artifacts.

In addition to this exhibition, Spiegelman took over the Cité Internationale (the Angoulême comics museum) and built his own Museum on the History and Accomplishments of Comics.  He’s bringing along original artwork by some of those who inspired him, such as Windsor McCay, George Herriman and Harvey Kurtzman, but also from his contemporary peers, such as Justin Green, Jacques Tardi, Chris Ware, and Lorenzo Mattotti (what a roll call of top comic talent).  The show promises to be no less than a personal tribute of a master to the medium that he has helped to make great.

Next to Spiegelman, the festival pays hommage to another great creator, who’s probably less well-known beyond France and the French-speaking countries.  With his series Philémon, Fred has created one of the true great philosophical comics, while never ceasing to experiment with narrative structure, page design and language.  The exhibition will feature original plates from books like Magic Palace Hôtel (1980), La Magique lanterne magique (1983), L’Histoire du corbac aux baskets (1993, which won the award for Best Album at the Angoulême Festival in 1994) or L’Histoire du conteur électrique (1995).

Charles Berbérian created the icon for the show L’Europe Se Dessine, in which fifty cartoonists and comic artists from all over Europe visualise what Europe stands for, its origins, strengths and future.  Contributors include Enki Bilal, Milo Manara, Ruben Pellejero, Joost Swarte, Ulli Lust, Anouk Ricard, Nix, Florence Cestac, Andi Watson, Miguelanxo Prado, Kati Kovacs, and others.

More focus on international comics in two more exhibitions, one on Spanish comics (with artwork by Prado, Guarnido, Max, Bernet and more) and one on comics from Sweden (featuring Anneli Furmark, Loka Kanarp, Joanna Hellgren (Frances, Éditions Cambourakis), Knut Larsson, and more.

And I haven’t started to mention all the smaller shows that seem to pop up all over town.  It’s going to be a very full festival, but we’re not complaining !

See Wim’s prevous post in his Countdown to – looking at the Selection – here.

With lodgings, accreditation and train all dealt with, it’s time to start really preparing for the Smorgasbord of comics that is the Angoulême Festival.  In this post I’ll be highlighting some of the more surprising or noteworthy titles on the several short lists, honour lists or other sélections that the Festival has.

On the Sélection Officielle short list, we find a number of usual suspects that were originally published in English : Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes, Craigh Thompson’s Habibi and the Alec giant by Eddie Campbell and a collection of reporting comics by Joe Sacco, but also, quite surprisingly, Lars Martinson’s Tonoharu – not surprisingly in that it’s not worthy of being on the list, but rather that it’s not that well-known a comic, even though it deverves a very wide recognition (agreed, lovely little gem of a book, beautiful edition too from Top Shelf – Joe).    In terms of BD, there’s Polina by Bastien Vives (look out for this one, we’ve been flagging it up a lot, wonderful work), a new Enki Bilal (Julia & Roem), Chroniques de Jérusalem by Guy Delisle (coming in English this spring from D&Q, I’m glad to say – Joe), the new Jason (L’Île aux Cent Mille Morts, with Fabien Vehlmann), and, as one of the only books on the list that are part of a continuing series, the new Jonathan by Cosey.

For me personally, the Séléction short list is also a good pointer towards books that seem to have passed me by during the year.  I’m quite looking forward to the first part of L’Année du Lièvre by Cambodian creator Tian, which reminds me a little of Belle Yang’s Forget Sorrow, one of the best books I read last year.  En Route pour le Goncourt by Jean-François Kierzkowski and Mathieu Ephrem, about a hopeful aspiring writer starting out, is also quite intriguing.   Les Ignorants by Etienne Davodeau brings together two things that are close to my heart : literature and wine, and the hard work it takes to create the two.  And finally, Pendant Ce Temps A White River Junction is the collection of comics that belgian cartoonist Max De Radigues created about his time at the Center for Cartoon Studies.

The Sélection Patrimoine honours publications that aim to preserve important classic titles for future generations of readers.  This year, we find the first volume of the French super-hero comic Fantax (originally published in the late 1940′s) the second volume in French of Terry And The Pirates and the twelfth of Snoopy & Les Peanuts.

It has been quite a good year for all-ages comics, and the Sélection Jeunesse offers some good titles.  The latest adventure of Jules by Emile Bravo and the latest Paul by Michel Rabagliati spring to mind, but also the second volume of the very endearing Les Souvenirs de Mamette by Nob (in itself a spin-off of the comic Mamette,one of the best comics about older people) and the third part already of Le Royaume, a very funny “medieval” comic by Benoît Feroumont.  I’m also quite looking forward to Ulysse by Christine Palluy and Benjamin Adam and to Grenadine et Mentalo, the latest brain child of the wonderful Colonel Moutarde, both of which were published by BD Kids, the new comics imprint by magazines publishers Bayard and Milan.

Finally, the Séléction Polar, celebrating the best crime comics of the year.  There’s the new Canardo by Sokal (still the best crime comic featuring a duck) and Ô Dingos, ô châteaux, the new book by Jacques Tardi (together with Jean-patrick Manchette).  Quite surprisingly, there’s also an Association publication on the list, La Bande à Foster by South African creators Conrad Botes and Ryk Hattingh. Le Perroquet des Batignolles ties it all together : created as a radio serial for France Inter in the mid-1990′s by Tardi (and Michel Boujut),it now returns as a comic by Association co-founder Stanislas.

Besides these four “official” ones, Angoulême boasts more sélections than you can shake a stick at, with the Schools’ prize (five books selected by the pupils in the schools of the city), the High School’s prize (who have nominated, amongst others, the new book by Vincent Bailly, Un Sac de Billes, based on the autobiographical novel by Joseph Joffo), de Sélection BD Alternative (which every year salutes a particularly good fanzine) and the Révelation Blog, for the best new online comics (check out the comics by Pierre Bunk – they are quite hilarious).

Next time, more on the exhibitions and other events that await us in a couple of weeks time.  Stay tuned !

The excellent Belgian comics creator Judith Vanistendael will be at the Librairie Galerie Brusel, 100 Boulevard Anspach, on the 20th of January at 6pm to promote her new book David, les Femmes et la Mort, being published by Le Lombard. It’s an intriguing looking tale of a man facing almost certain death after a cancer diagnosis and the effect this has on those around him as mortality casts its long, dark shadow across their lives.

Judith is one of those creators our own Continental Correspondent Wim first put us on to and we were delighted when the good folks at SelfMadeHero translated and published her Dance by the Light of the Moon in English, an achingly beautiful, touching tale that made it to several Best of the Year lists (mine included) that year. She handled the emotional side of that tale very well, deftly managed to balance romance against the everyday real world of family life, work etc, so I am sure that the new book will similarly hande the emotional aspects of the story extremely well.

And for those of you who took up our recommendation of reading Judith and loved her work there is more good news as our chums at SMH are also translating this new book and we should be seeing it in the UK in April under the title When David Lost His Voice, which is great to hear. That’s another one on my Must Read list for this year. In our weekly newsletter we regularly recommend some top graphic novels you should have on your shelves to build a classic, quality library and in a pure slice of coincidence this week I had picked Judith’s Dance by the Light of the Moon, which we have on special for the next couple of weeks so do give it a try if you haven’t already.

The tradition dictates that whoever wins the Grand Prix at the Angoulème Comics Festival, is invited to curate the next edition of the Festival.  This means that he or she will probably get a major retrospective exhibition (which are always a treat in their own right), but also that the festival will focus on particular topics, genres, authors, etc.  This year, American cartoonist-par-excellence Art Spiegelman is the head honcho of the Festival, and in an interview at the official Press Conference presenting this year’s Festival, he explained what he is trying to do.   The interviewer is French journalist Jean-Luc Hees.

It’s dubbed in French, but with the appropriate mental prowess, you will be able to zone out the French voice, and focus on Art speaking.

The Dept of Epic Awesomeness

A Best Of The Year list for 2011 is not complete without Craig Thompson’s magnum opus Habibi (Pantheon/Faber & Faber).  Not because it’s such a hefty tome (it is), not even because it’s a gripping story (it is not), but predominantly because it’s one of those books that don’t leave you when you read them.  You find yourself coming back to it, thumbing through the pages of delightful art and rereading passages that did not make sense at first, but that are now full of hidden meaning.  This is, in all sense of the words, a major work.

Rarely have I seen the horrors and absurdity of war depicted in such a harsh and hard-hitting manner than in Onward Towards our Noble Deaths (Drawn & Quarterly) by manga god Shigeru Mizuki.  It’s a loosely autobiographical tale of Mizuki’s involvement in the battle on one of the tiny islands in the Pacific during World War II.  The baffling lack of realism on the part of the commanding officers, the sheer disdain by everybody for conscripts (who were “worth less than horse” and the senselessness of these lives lost for no reason at all – it leaves you breathless.  Literally (and I mean, literally)

Life’s a Bitch Dept.

Life With Mr Dangerous (Villard) confirmed my eerie suspicion : Paul Hornschemeier is just so much better than Chris Ware in depicting the drudge of daily life, the misgivings and self-doubt of your average 21th Century human, and the impossibility of real relationships, and doing so in a style that is at once daring and experimental, and more than pleasing to the eye.  It’s not as good as his masterpiece, The Three Paradoxes, but it’s dangerously close.

One of the very few pamphlets I bought this year (and yes, I know that contributes to the total annihilation of the industry), is Optic Nerve 12 by the very slow Adrian Tomine (Drawn & Quarterly).  Every time I think I’m over him, he brings up this kind of work that is simply amazing.  The book is only 42 pages, and largely consists of a really deterministic tale on how delusions of grandeur are bound to fail, and one about what happens is you happen to look exactly like a porn star.  Tomine storytelling at its best.

Read Up On Your References dept.

2011 was also the year that witnessed the publication of  the complete edition of Brian Walker’s The Comics (Abrams) at the incredibly affordable price of $ 24.99.  This book gives an overview of the history and evolution of American newspaper comics from the Yellow Kid all the way to the Boondocks.  It’s littered with concise but comprehensive profiles of all the great creators, but the best part is the artwork, which is abundantly present and lavisly reproduced.  No library should go without it !

Another great book “about comics” is Art Spiegelman’s MetaMaus (Pantheon/Penguin), the extensive companion volume to his graphic novel, Maus.  In this book, Spiegelman presents the back story of the comic, how it came to be, what the hurdles were, the influences of the people around him, etc.  The real gem of this edition, however, is the bonus DVD containing the complete Maus, along with audio commentary, linked reference texts and preliminary versions of nearly every page.  A real gem.

Dept. of music to my ears

I wrote earlier about La Maison de Pain d’Epice (Dupuis) by the French cartoonist and musician Cleet Boris (see here – begging to be translated and published in English, publishers that is a hint), and there’s not really a lot to add to that.  I simply fell in love with this book – its format, the artwork, the honesty of the stories, the humor that accompanied really painful passages, and the large dose of healthy nostalgia that it exhudes.  And, let’s not forget, the fact that Boris is one of the few artists that can draw a believable guitar.

Not really about music, but closer to jazz than I have ever seen a comic go, is Daytripper (Vertigo), by the Brazilian wonder duo Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.  The book reads like a series of variations on an age-old theme (“If I die tonight, what will my life have been ?”).  Moon and Bá take you on board for what can only be described as a series of every-evolving and accelerating sax solos, only to end in a climax that leaves you stunned and deeply moved at the same time.

Close To Home dept.

To round off, two books from my neck of the woods.  If Boerke In Hollywood, Pieter De Poortere‘s latest collection of strips about his anti-hero, Boerke (Oog En Blik / De Bezige Bij) doesn’t finally get him noticed across the pond, I don’t know what will.  The book contains 53 silent parodies on famous movies – sometimes hilarious, sometimes zany, quite often totally over the top, but never not funny.  And always meticulously drawn in De Poortere’s signature style, combining filth with picture book like innocence.

When I was a kid, my parents used to read Knack, a weekly news magazine that also contained a very strange strip, called Iamboree.  It basically features a number of ancient greeks discussing philosophical conundrums and mundane problems with the same profundity and relentless logic, always ending in totally absurd situations.  I was intrigued by these stories, most of which I didn’t quite understand.  To coincide with this year’s festival, Strip Turnhout asked venerable creator Gommaer Timmermans to make a selection of ten years worth of strips.  And to my great delight, they are still as great as ever.