Sketches from the frontline

I made it home with my sketchbook this time. Unfortunately I managed to leave my copy of Jennifer Hayden's excellent Underwire on the train. You win some, you lose some...

Angouleme was a treat comme d'habitude. Great exhibitions, such as Dreams in Comics, which features plenty of Windsor McKay of course, but 70 other artists are on show. Quite a few strips involve sexual fantasies and neuroses of all sorts (Guido Crepax anyone?) with the odd one covered to shield it from the innocents' gaze. It is always a joy to peruse gorgeous artwork from Hugo Pratt, Fred, Moebius, etc etc – the list is endless. I particularly enjoyed the anxiety dream from JC Menu where president Mitterand comes to visit and he can't find anything to show him. He ends up having to give the first lady one of his rare vintage American comics.

The Willem exhibit was particularly fascinating, I emerged after an hour and a half having only read and examined half of it.

The Dutch contingent who designed and screenprinted posters over the four days were a brilliant idea led by Joost Swarte. I did not regret getting up extra early to catch his joint talk with Willem.

While I was in revelling in the Willemness of it all, Sally Anne was having a Dash Shaw fest with a talk, book signing, and generally spotting him around the place. The social aspect is also important, as we met old friends and acquaintances and made new ones. My fellow Dessinators Sean, Sally Anne and Oliver were once again perfect travelling companions, and my brother Hugo joined our gang for a while.

And to compensate for last year's sad loss, I managed to capture Willem afresh while he drew me an fabulous personalised dedicace.

Shmurgen is BACK!

I'm off to France again tomorrow so gutted that I will miss THIS!
Anyway pop along if you're in the neighbourhood and grab a sandwich and a comic from our friend Schmurgen, I understand he has a new one out.
The lovely Sally-Anne Hickman and I met at Gosh to get our books signed by Joe Sacco, author of Palestine, on Wednesday. We stood in line and were impressed that he took the time to talk to everyone. Also he is far smarter than me, as he draws himself in his comics much uglier than he really is, so one is agreeably surprised on meeting him.
I have just listened to Sally-Anne's Thursday interview on Resonance FM. Listen to it HERE to find out what she's working on. Oh and she gives B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S a mention too.

The Thing vs Schmurgencon

Saturday 28th March dawned and Richy K. and I set off for the wilds of Mile End, fortuitously hooking up with Sally Ann on the tube. We set up our wares on our very well-positioned table, next to Rob Jackson, and awaited the rush of punters. It was busier than last year, possibly due to it not being Easter weekend, with a fair amount of the traffic stopping at our table. At the end of the day, I sold all my copies of Striptacular and came away with a profit after table costs, which is a good result.
I picked up the latest Curtis and Terrorist from Oliver Lambden, Jake Harold's That Time I Went on a Trip to Berlin, Rob Jackson's Bog Wizards 2 (with board game!), Paul Rainey's No Time Like the Present part 8, Phil Spence's Reasons Why I'm Scared to Love You and Whores of Mensa 4.
All really good stuff – I will endeavour to review things more fully at some point.

We then moved on to Schmurgencon which was taking place in uncompromising fashion just down the road.
It was altogether a more intimate affair, involving a certain amount of liquid refreshment and experimental performance art. The mysterious Norwegian was nowhere to be seen, he was rumoured to have suffered some kind of accident...

Oli Rocks!

Did you have to eat that kebab, Oliver?
NO BARCODES was a resounding success. Between forty and fifty exhibitors showed up and mingled happily in an atmosphere of bonhommie and camaraderie, meeting old friends and new faces, checking out each others work, and even selling comics to passers by. I shared a table with the charming Marc Ellerby and sparkly Sally Anne Hickman who did very well with her very tactile productions - fur, flock and glitter certainly draw the punters in, there's a lesson for all of us here... Sean and Oli were on our table too but spent the day being mine hosts, introducing people, recording the event and running the regular stall round the corner.
Due to being stuck in the middle of a row, I had to squeeze past Jake H quite a few times as he beavered away inking his magnum opus. He never complained once and put us all to shame with his cheerful industriousness.
I met Paul Rainey whose excellent No Time Like The Present I had picked up in Bristol, I bought a copy of Tom Humberstone's My Fellow Americans, and sweet Mikey made me sing on camera (view the shame here) .

The very low table price meant there was minimal pressure and I imagine everyone will have recouped their costs,and made a profit, unless they travelled a very long way. The weather was clement and the rain held off and we all wandered round to the pub and downed pints by the canal feeling all warm and fuzzy from the good vibes.
And Ned finally got to meet Gary Northfield.