Freitag, 25. Februar 2011

weeks of wonders


Berlin Airport, we are on our way to the Comicfestival in Angouleme – and spot the first cosplayer! Or wait, no, turns out that one was for real …

first meetings on the train station in Paris; Sabine Wittkowski, Rich Tommaso, yours truly. (Foto by Peggy Burns, snatched from the drawn & quarterly blog)


1st festival day, first coffee with Sharmila Banerjee, Martin Ernstsen, Ville Ranta


the Canadian delegation David Turgeon, Michel Hellman in the back, Vincent Giard,
plus Kai Pfeiffer from Germany


Rotopol from Kassel (Foto: Kai Pfeiffer = KP)


Kai Pfeiffer, Kolbeinn Karlsson


Paul Karasik cuddles with my boyfriend!


Anyway, I had a lot to do. There was an interview with Stephane Beaujean in the Official Selection Section. (Foto: KP)


I had to sign books ... (Foto: Kai Pfeiffer = KP)


... until the fingers were bleeding and the pen had shrunk to a stub. (Foto: KP)


Saturday evening we were sold out of books. Thank goddess! (Foto: KP)


Serge Ewencyk, my french editior (çà et là) was happy too. (Foto: KP)


At night in the chat noir we observed a working man's hero:
Ville had to draw a comic report about the festival for a finnish newspaper until the next morning. Watching his progress: Sharmila Banerjee & Aisha Franz.


He made it.


in the back: Knut Larsson with Josefine Svenske; in red pullover: Rich Tommaso (Foto: KP)


New work by Frederic Coché at the belgium exhibition (Foto: KP)


Baru exhibiton (Foto: KP)


"Autoroute du soleil" by Baru on one board! (Foto: KP)


Sunday afternoon, most people have already left, when the awards ceremony was held. Shockingly, I got a pretty black & white kitty, too. In the middle, with the green scalf, Manuele Fior, winner of the main prize, and on my left Elodie Durand, who won, as well as me, the "Prix Révélation". (Foto: KP)


next morning: Paris


Reading in the Goethe Institut Paris with Jörg Stickan, who is the translator of the comic and also a great performer. (Foto: Vicky Ripart)


He read the texts in the balloons and translated my comments simultaneously. (Foto: Vicky Ripart)


Stranger, who got a Signature, and Aurélie Marquer, Organizer of the event. (Foto: Vicky Ripart)


In the middle: Dima Iakovlev from the comic festival in St. Petersburg.
Not in the picture: Kristiina Kolehmainen (Spx Stockholm) and Frederik Strömberg from Sweden. (Foto: Vicky Ripart)


John Pham, Sylvain Lamy (editions Cambourakis) after a signing we had together in Vincennes.
I will be on tour now for the next 12 days.


Signing in Lyon


Good food and vine in Lyon; unfortunately the conversation was very reduced, because Jean-? from the comic shop didn't speak English and he didn't want to speak German, although he learned it at school for 10 years, his mother was German and a German teacher in France, and as a child he spent his holidays at grandma's house in Germany.


Jean-Marie from the comic shop in Caen was not afraid of speaking English, and his amazing wife, Sophie, spoke it very well. The signing in Caen was fun, it took place in a little cosy restaurant, where the cider never dried.


Jean-Marie showing original drawings by Eddie Campbell, - the cat behind the window is awstruck, too.


Aix en Provence


Philippe from the comic department in the Librarie Goulard was praising my comic. He said:"The story has the quality of 'The Catcher in the rye' by Salinger. Did you ever think about writing it as a novel?"


Marseille: Caroline Sury brings in glamour, on the left: Denis, Collector


Paris, underground




Its funny, that a comic about punk life and sleeping on the streets brought me into such a beautiful hotel room like this one, room Nr. 17 in Paris.


The last three days a group of students from Berlin came to Paris. They were participants of my comics class at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee this semester. (Foto: Anselm Hirschhäuser)


We visited several artists in their studios, at first Manuele Fior.


Meikel, Christin, Lynda, Manuele, Celine, Maria


Bastien Vives (Foto: Anselm Hirschhäuser)


Thanh-Vi versus Bastien (Foto: Anselm Hirschhäuser)



Christian after the visit at Jean-Luis Gauthey and his Editions Cornelius.


Thekla and Max in the legendary comics shop "Superhero"


Still life in a chinese restaurant


Shi shi, Geoffroy (gave us a tour through ESAD, Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs) Thanh-Vi












end of the tour


l'atelier Formes vives, a group of young political graphic designers


Emmanuel Guibert arranged to meet with us in an old printing studio called ITEM, founded in the 19th century. Artists like Picasso, Matisse et Miró made lithographies here. We felt like entering sacred halls of graphic art. Emmanuel did printings there, too (so does David Lynch), and he literaly was celebrating a mass for us about the joy of working as a comic artist.




(Foto: Anselm Hirschhäuser)



(Foto: Anselm Hirschhäuser)

Chiara, tired.