Anguoleme

One of the whole reasons that I wanted to come to France was so that I could go to one of the worlds largest comic book festivals. And I got to say, despite all the craziness that has happened this last month (hence why I've not updated in forever) it was totally worth it. I bought way more BD than I probably should have, and my suitcase is going to way a ton when I head home in about 8 days, but that's the price to pay for beautifully coloured and overall great comics.

For the most part while we were there it was either snowing or raining, but the very last day I was actually able to get a few nice shots before it became over cast yet again. Oh, and my goodness the freakin stairs and hill there! I thought when I saw it that Lacoste would have prepared me for it, but no, that wasn't the case. Not to mention I fell in a hole from where a tile in the floor had been removed and bruised/scrapped up my knee; that was fun.... Anyway back tot he festival.

I meet a lot of really cool people. A couple of Italian guys that spoke English really well and ended up getting into a debate with Billy about politics. It was funny. I had them look at my work and gave them my contact information, whether or not I will here back from them is a whole nother matter, but one of the reasons that we were there was to try to network, so mission accomplished. I also got to meet Mobius which was a complete accident but totally awesome. We were walking past a table and noticed this really old gentleman signing books and upon doing a double take Billy and I both realized that was Mobius sitting there. If we had been a second sooner I might have gotten a drawing from him, but as it was he only had the energy to sign my book, which frankly was good enough for me.

I also meet Julien while I was on a tour at the game design school that was located in Angouleme. He's a grad game design student there, and his school was participating in the Global Game Jam, which I think SCAD was also taking part in at the time, and is why I was even there (even though I totally am not remotely involved in the game design department at SCAD)... He even has a few friends in the school with him that are going to GDC this year, so Jolie is hoping to meet up with them maybe and network a bit more. Anyway, Julien was kind enough to hang out with Jolie, Billy and I for the majority of the last day we were there, which was really fun. And now we are friends on Facebook. I'm going to try and learn French when I get back to the states so that I can try to communicate with Julien in his native language since he spent the entire time speaking to us in English. I feel it's only fair (plus if I ever make it back to Angouleme I will be able to communicate with the locals better.)

There was this really cool BD museum that had everything from Euro comics to American comics, to Manga in it which was really impressive to see all that in one place. I love that France treats comics better than the US does. I really wish that comics were taken seriously enough to have an entire musuem dedicated to the art form. Sadly I do not expect that to happen any time soon. What was also cool was there was all the murals that were around the town. I really wish that Savannah would let us paint on the side of some of those really ugly buildings around town. Heck in Anguleme, including the mural we are standing in front of they use an entire side fo the building as ad space. That's what that painting is, an ad for some comic artists BD. It's such a great way to advertise. Everyone sees it, even if they have no idea what it is for. So when they are going through a book stores comics section and they come across it, they'll be like "oh hey, i recognize this, cool!" I want to be able to do something like that.


While we were walking around we saw these people on stilts, which was really cool even if we didn't know what exactly they were for. I really like this pic mostly because how sad the man in the foreground does. Dude, you're at a comic book festival, cheer up.







One of the things that we were required to do while we were there was visit this animation school, a BD school, and some local BD and animation artists that lived and worked in Angouleme. It was really interesting to see how they set up thier schools and programs for artist. I can't emphasize enough how much more France gives a damn about comics than the states do. Going to see the studio a bunch of artists worked at made the majority of us want to move to France and just live here and do comics. The French government, provided you get accepted into their program pays for all of your schooling or for your apartment or studio depending on what program you were applying for. There were a couple of students actually seriously considering applying for a spot in the programs to see if they could work there for a year or so on their projects. I would love to be able to do that honestly, but the selection process is super intense and I don't think at this point I have the skill to get in. Would be a great experience though if I could.

Anyway there is so much more that I can say about Angouleme but for now I think this post is long enough. Maybe I'll come back to it after I get back to the states and have more time to really go over what I bought and why they are awesome.