There are many photos I didn't take at Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême! I missed snapping pics of Moebius, Jason, JC Menu, Killoffer and Joe Dog. I missed taking the photo of all the little kids with red hats reading CF's 2-pager in Kramers Ergot #7 and I missed the guy dressed up as Tintin just after I sassed Alex about how there was no one in costume. I missed taking a picture of Souther's raw meat salad...

Souther and I were crashing together in a château about 40 minutes outside of Angoulême. Every morning we'd get picked up by a car service and taken to the show. I know, I know, it sounds fancy - - and it was. All the drivers had clean shaves and nice haircuts, their pants were pressed and their breath smelt of the finest perfume (change out for cigarettes and bread). Some times the car we were picked up in was signed by Picasso.



One morning we woke up and found Tom Gauld in our room! That same morning the fancy car service was 3 hours late...



While we waited Tom and Souther discussed the current revolution happening in Dutch comics.



Isn't this amazing! Souther peeled the shit out an orange. Amazing.



On the topic of Amazing... I wish you could flip through Tom Gauld's sketchbook (and I wish my camera hadn't auto-focused on Tom's shoulder and lovely hair). Tom's sketchbook has these great 2 page spreads, with his daughter jamming on the left page with a green marker and then the right page is FULL of Tom's jewel like drawings, cataloging his toothy imagination.



Souther and Alex behind the booth. Technically, not a good photo but I like where Souther's head is in relation to Sharry Boyle's book Otherworld Uprising.

While we were in France there was a nation-wide strike.

From what I could gather, the French people were striking because of the government's handling of the current economic crisis.

The night of the strike I was talking with some Northern European friends (possible the happiest people... ever.) and one of 'em in a loud voice goes "Hey Jason! In America what would happen if you strike against crisis!?!" I replied "You'd probably get fucking fired." And they all laughed hysterically. I asked my friend what would happen in Northern Europe and he said "Nothing. Because we aren't stupid." And then I started laughing...

Hey!



It's Joe Daly! The man behind Scrublands and the upcoming The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book.



Here's Joe preparing to sign a copy of Kramers Ergot #7.



To Joe's left we find the amazing Conrad Botes. GO NOW! GO! and find a copy of The Best of Bitterkomix vol. 1 featuring Conrad's amazing story "Blood River."



Conrad and Joe sign Kramers Ergot #7... at the same time.

Here is a statue of Herge's head. It is common for French children to run up to it with excitement and glee.



If I'm remembering right, this photo was taken just after Dan Clowes finished a radio interview. Dan told me he thought the interviewer asked him to explain his take on Nietzsche, so he did... turned out the interviewer asked him about David Lynch... Anyway, it's a nice photo of Dan and Alvin Buenaventura shooting the breeze.



Alvin watches a rough preview of Ghost World II: The Bob Skeetes Story.



Melissa, Souther and Alex anticipating the upcoming Clowes & co. signing. The tension was building and so was the size of the crowd.



"AUTEUR! AUTEUR! AUTEUR!" croaked the crowd of anxious fans. Like atheletes of olde making the fabled trek down the long dark corridor to the arena of champions... Adrian Tomine! Chris Ware! and Dan Clowes! well rested and pumped up for some fuckin' book signin' dewd!

So the show ended and it was awesome.

Here's a photo-collage-thing of our exodus...

Click to enlarge

What we didn't sell we just tossed because in France they don't give a fuck about money.

But I'm American and I was like "Alvin! what the fuck are you doing!!!"

Alvin looked up at me with those eyes and said... "Let it go Jason."

So I let it go.

The Tijuana Bibles Hardcover Vol. 1
By various anonymous artists; edited by Michael Dowers

In all its many guises, sex has been around for a long time. Back in the 1930s it was these little eight-page sex comics that became the talk of men's clubs, bars and some of the rougher workplaces. Famous Sunday-funnies cartoon characters were the earliest, and most popular, targets of these XXX-rated parodies; a parade of Hollywood actors and actresses madly copulating in a wide variety of positions soon followed. These "Tijuana Bibles" were so popular in their day that fans anxiously awaited new releases; men and boys got a genuine education when they realized there was more than one position that could be used to have sex. As the years went on, pornography evolved into men's girlie magazines, and then today's adult film industry; one look at these sexy, silly little comics will have you hankering for the good ol' days.

This fat hardcover volume collects all of Vols. 1-3 and most of Vol. 4 of the original Tijuana Bibles softcover series. Like those volumes, this book features a new original cover illustration by Pat Moriarity. This volume also includes comics historian R.C. Harvey's introductory essay "Getting Our Pornograph Fixed."

520-page black & white 5.25” x 7.75” hardcover • $35.00
Add to Cart • Read More...

I was out sick yesterday, so here's a double dose:

• Review: The Fort Worth Business Press takes a loving look at Humbug

• Review: The Daily Cross Hatch finds "a lot to love" in the pages of Boody. The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers

• Review: The Lighthouse Keeper's Cat says that The Magic Bottle by Camille Rose Garcia is "a great graphic novel"

• Review: Jog takes you story-by-story through Supermen!

• Blurb: The Comics Reporter is somewhat overcome by the arrival of Humbug

• Blurb: Scamp: An Irish Illustration Blog previews Humbug

• Profile: USA Today Pop Candy spotlights Dame Darcy

• Oddity: Exclusive to the D&Q blog: Paparazzi catch A-list celeb in clutch with Ivan Brunetti

• Oddity: Hopey Glass is in Montreal, posting on Craigslist (via The Beat)

Not too long ago Legendary Larry Reid asked me to put together an exhibit of HUMBUG art and artifacts for the Fantagraphics Bookstore.     The show opens March 7th 2009 and it's going to be fantastic, if I do say so myself... seriously, the work is so good!     If you're a fan of comics or art or history then you'd be a fool not to check it out!     Anyway, I spent the better part of this morning going through original artwork by the likes of Will Elder, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth... and Russ Heath (see above image).     Heath didn't do a lot of work for HUMBUG but what he did do was amazing trompe l'oeil-esque cartooning, parodying the ads and articles of the day, circa mid 1950's.     His HUMBUG contributions are so stark and deadpan, sincere and illusive that they're subversion is felt at a gut level.     Since assitant editing HUMBUG I've been thinking a lot about Heath.     I even pulled out my beat up old copies of BLAZING COMBAT -- what? you don't have BLAZING COMBAT? You will soon...  

Days like today make me crush out on my job all over again.

Now (as currently seen on Ribs's blog):

Then (preliminarily):

Coming in Fall/Winter. Serialized weekly right here.

In case you missed this part of our Humbug exhibit announcement yesterday:

Don’t miss a special performance and book signing by cult cartoonist Dame Darcy on Saturday, March 14 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Darcy will perform with her three-piece acoustical combo and sign copies of her wildly popular Victorian gothic comic book series Meat Cake, as well as her new graphic novel Gasoline. This event coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentation throughout the historic neighborhood.

Listing Information

Saturday, March 14, 6:00 to 9:00 PM
Dame Darcy
Music performance and book signing

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM
www.fantagraphics.com/bookstore

DAZZLING REVIVAL OF HARVEY KURTZMAN’S TIMELESS SATIRE MAGAZINE HUMBUG AT FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKSTORE & GALLERY.

Exhibition and Book Launch of New HUMBUG Anthology On March 7 in Seattle.

Four years after founding notoriously seditious MAD magazine for EC comics in 1952, celebrated American satirist Harvey Kurtzman and his crew of incorrigible cartoonists joined fledgling publisher Hugh Hefner to produce two issues of the equally irreverent Trump. When economic setbacks forced Hefner to cancel the new title, Kurtzman and collaborators Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth pooled their limited resources to self-publish 11 issues of Humbug, skewering American popular and political culture of the Cold War era in unparalleled fashion. Fifty years later, Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books has collected the entire series for the first time in a handsome two-volume slipcase edition. To commemorate this momentous occasion, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery hosts an exhibition of original art and artifacts from Humbug contributors opening Saturday, March 7 and continuing through April Fool’s Day, 2009.

Organized by Humbug anthology assistant editor Jason T. Miles, the exhibition features original illustrations by cartooning legends Will Elder, Al Jaffee, and Arnold Roth together with each of the delicate original issues and related ephemera. The meticulously restored Humbug collection, which includes insightful essays and interviews by Gary Groth and John Benson, will make its debut at the event. The public is invited to preview the exhibition on Saturday, March 7, from 11:30 till 8:00 PM. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman, "Kurtzman has been the single most significant influence on a couple of generations of comic artists." 
With the publication of the complete Humbug, an essential element of Kurtzman’s legacy will be preserved for posterity.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) in Seattle’s Georgetown arts community. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: 206.658.0110.

Don’t miss a special performance and book signing by cult cartoonist Dame Darcy on Saturday, March 14 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Darcy will perform with her three-piece acoustical combo and sign copies of her wildly popular Victorian gothic comic book series Meat Cake, as well as her new graphic novel Gasoline. This event coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentation throughout the historic neighborhood.

A selection of imagery in a variety of formats is available for publication. For additional information contact Eric Reynolds at Fantagraphics.

Listing Information

Humbug
Original art and artifacts from Harvey Kurtzman’s classic satire magazine featuring MAD artists Will Elder, Arnold Roth, Al Jaffee and Jack Davis collected in a handsome 2 volume slipcase edition by Fantagraphics Books.
Public preview and book launch, Saturday, March 7, 11:30 to 8:00 PM
Exhibition continues through April Fools Day

Saturday, March 14, 6:00 to 9:00 PM
Dame Darcy
Music performance and book signing

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM
www.fantagraphics.com/bookstore

I'm really not trying to drag this out... but I will.

What we have here are a couple of nearly-panoramic-photo-collage-things I put together to try and give a sense of the fervor behind the Buenaventura booth at Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême when Dan Clowes, Chris Ware & Adrian Tomine were signing and sketching for fans. I'm not sure if it was any krazier than San Diego Comic-Con but the degree of passion and devotion on display was exciting, worrisome and definitely European. During San Diego Comic-Con it's not uncommon to see excited, overweight children trying to run from booth to booth to obtain free shit and a drawing from say the Owly guy or Prof. Neal Adams. Now, take out "excited, overweight children" and replace it with "concerned, well dressed European adult" and you get an idea of a common scene on display at the Angoulême show. One crazed, scary-eyed (and very nice) European man had snuck into (we call it "breaking and entering" where I come from) the building the day before the show opened in hopes he could procure autographs and drawings from Clowes & company!

Click to enlarge:

 L to R: Dan Clowes, Alex Holden, Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine, Souther Salazar, Melissa P. Coats & way far to the right, just under the green sign is Tom Gauld

David Hockney I ain't, but these were fun to make.

L to R: Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Alex Holden's shoulder, Souther Salazar & Kramers Ergot #7

Hiding behind a copy of Kramers Ergot #7, Dan Clowes signs books for his French publisher Cornélius. Signing at Angoulême is dangerous business.

Chris Ware and Dan Clowes slave away. This photo and commentary taken from a fan's point of view.

Dash Shaw draws for a fan in the French edition of Bottomless Belly Button. It was a lot of fun to watch Dash personalize copies of BBB, much to the delight of French sensibility, he drew ALL OVER the book, including the flip. It was cool.

Dash's French label mate and Seattle's own Kaz Strzepek draws for a fan as he blurs into the gloaming. Along the bottom of the frame you can see the hardcover to the French edition of Mourning Star... or you can click here to see it.

Photo of Tintin taking a photo of himself.

Are we there yet...?