It raises some very interesting and relevant points, and caused a small amount of controversy. I have discussed it a little on Facebook and Twitter and thought I would capture some of those thoughts on this blog, as a response to Trondheim’s letter.

Angoulême: Love It or Shove It by Lewis Trondheim

Since the dawn of time, the artists have been dissatisfied with the Angoulême festival.

The publishers have been dissatisfied with the Angoulême festival.

The Cité International de la Bande Dessinée et de L’Image has been dissatisfied with the Angoulême festival.

And the Angoulême festival has been dissatisfied with the Angoulême Festival.

All, I’m sure, true. And, you can’t please all of the festival goers all the time either.

The artists grumble because its a waste of their time, because they don’t advance at all on their own work during this period of time, because they aren’t paid, because they don’t have time to see the exhibits, and because it’s difficult for them to get back to work immediately after returning home. There are also plenty who grumble because they weren’t invited as guests.

The publishers grumble because every year they lose dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of Euros.

I’m almost at a loss as to why any of them bother going? Surely they must get something out of the festival. It feels to me that this boils down to “the publishers would like to make more money” which is essentially a truism.

Certainly the BD industry seems to be in a vicious circle of publishing more and more books, so that no book can get promoted effectively, and seemingly the only way a publisher can keep up with the competition – and stay current and visible – is to continually introduce more new comics in to the market. This is not down to the festival, but may contribute to the festival being so difficult for publishers.

They both grumble because neither of them have a voice in the planning of the event.

They both grumble because the Angoulême festival is the only national media spotlight on comics in France, and because despite everything, we can’t go without it.

This is very interesting – it would be instructive to see what, in Trondheim’s eyes, makes the festival essential.

Angolême’s City Hall and the chairman of the General Counsel shoot themselves in the foot and send in their foot-soldiers of the Cité and FIBD back to back without taking charge of their real responsibilities, which is to bang their fist on the table and make everyone work together.

Without specifics it’s difficult to know what that means. The festival happens, so to an extent people are working together, surely?

The awards are cannibalized by the sub-awards in order to please the sponsors. We now have the SNCF Award for Detective Comics. Why not western, or science fiction? Have you ever seen a l’Oréal, Renault or Electrolux award at the Cannes Film Festival?

A really valid point. The additional prizes are very confusing. Personally (and from an international perspective) they do not really diminish the prizes of Angoulême, but I could well imagine they would in France.

And there’s the FNAC Award. Too bad that the book which gets this award can’t be in the running for the festival award for best book!!!

Yes, that does seem like a real oddity! I can understand the thinking behind it (spreading the awards between as many books as possible, but still).

There’s an award for best young readers book which is chosen by a jury of young readers. Why? Is the award for best detective story voted on by the police, investigators and detectives? Making a good comic for young readers is just as difficult as making any other good comic, full-stop. Why have a different jury for it?

Again, Trondheim makes a good point. Writing for children is deserving of critical analysis and acknowledgement by professionals. (Cliodhnah Lyons pointed out that the popular vote allows children to get involved, engage and become invested in the process, so maybe the best would be to have two prizes – one jury-awarded and the other a popular vote).

And the Grand Prix! [The nomination of the festival president for the following years’ festival] I was flattered to have been chosen by my peers, and I thank them, but I’m ashamed to have been selected before Munoz, before Blutch, before Spiegelman, before Chris Ware, Bill Watterson, Otomo, Toriyama, Tatsumi, Binet, F’murrr and many others.

It’s interesting to see who he’s omitted from his list of the overlooked – Baudoin and Mattotti for two.

When I see, during the deliberations of the nominating committee, how many of my colleagues are neither familiar with most of these names, nor with their work, nor have they even heard of a Japanese artist, I’m ashamed! And I tell myself that I can’t do the job I was chosen for, which is to vote for the artist whose work has contributed the most to the development of comics.

That’s why I left the meeting room in the middle of the deliberations this year and why I won’t be back for the next round of nominations.

This is where I take issue with Trondheim. To my eyes, since (and including) Trondheim we’ve been in something of a golden age of Angoulême Presidents: Munoz, Dupuy & Berberian, Blutch, Baru, Spiegelman. There is a case that some of these people won the Grand Prix too early, but I personally think that that is a (totally justifiable) reflection of how the L’Asso generation has transformed European comics culture.

While I understand Trondheim’s frustration at the lack of visibility of some titans of comics, I fail to see how walking out and then conducting a boycott helps that situation.

Maybe he hopes that his absence from next year’s committee will so shock his fellow ex-Presidents that they will start reading manga. Or they will be so humiliated by his walk out and letter to Le Monde that they will shame-facedly elect one of the Trondheim-approved candidates.

For two years, I believe, it was the artists who voted. And then they chose Gossens and Crumb. I would have more confidence in this type of nomination process than the one we have now, no matter the quality of the artists who are chosen. I want to be clear that this should not be considered as an attack against any individuals; Jean-Claude Denis, Baru, Depuy and Berbérian and myself might not have been nominated before a number of other artists. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think that these artists posses many talents, especially when it comes to myself: I’m really good at squash.

It’s not meant as an attack, but it’s noticeable that he hasn’t walked out on the selection before.

So go ahead and grumble. It’s OK, its the French thing to do, it releases tension, but it doesn’t change anything for the better.

So I propose some changes for the better.

For the Grand Prix:

A vote among all the artists.

or

A vote amongst all the artists [which gives] a short-list of three names among whom the academy of the Grand Prix would decide. There could even be time for people to read the works in question. And if a nominated work hasn’t done its work for the reader, it would be dismissed from the nomination proceedings.

Some combination of an artists’ vote and the ex-presidents choice sounds like a good idea (although I think the short-list should be longer than just 3). I wonder whether this will give the results that Trondheim hopes for. The world has moved on since the days that Goosens and Crumb won; the scene is much bigger, and much more diverse.

But I wonder what the problem is here? What would make Trondheim happy? It doesn’t actually seem like he’s very upset at the process itself, more just the results that it produces (his suggestions to change the process are more to get a better result, not because the process is unfair or otherwise wrong). What if his new process doesn’t perform as he expects either?

At the end of the day, it appears to me that the heart of this complaint is that the Grand Prix winners aren’t diverse enough (on which note, Sarah Glidden, and many others, noted that he did not mention any women in his list of omissions, and that only 2 women have been Angoulême President).

If it’s that no managka has won the prize… Well, I think a great many would agree. But it’s not clear to me that his suggestions would go any way to alter that.

For the Awards:

The president of that years’ festival should also be president of the jury.

I had actually thought that was already the case. Clearly not. Who is?

The composition of the six members that already make up the jury will remain as they are (two journalists, two book store owners, two artists)

We’ll get rid of the sponsored awards and integrate the young readers award or any public award into the rest of the selection.

Fair enough, but presumably that would lead to a short-fall in funding, leading to a smaller festival… more on that later.

We’ll get rid of these silly award names like “intergenerational” which are planned in advance. The jury elects the best books of the year and, if it’s really necessary, the jury can find a specific name for each book, enough to satisfy the bookstores and Fnac which have a need for these kinds of hooks.

This was something that I recall Trondheim did when he was President (before the era of best scenario, best art, etc., etc.). I guess the sub-divisions have crept back in. To be honest, I didn’t mind them too much, but I think they hark back to a time where the norm was collaboratively created comics, rather than the individual auteur model more prevalent today.

For the Festival:

To install and the take down the tents costs a fortune, between one to two thousand million euros. Angoulême has plenty of solid infrastructure capable of holding the stands for book signings. I’m confident that in the Castro building, or in the Museum, there could be room for this.

Enough with the same old publishers’ booths. A single bookstore (maybe the Museum bookstore?) could take care of all the artists’ works.

There could be a common space for all the signings.

Wow! This is massively significant. I think it’s probably just about true – just – that you could accomodate all the artists signing in buildings rather than the tents, although it would require a phenomenal amount of organisation on timings. And the negotiations of who would sign when? And the queues of people wanting dédicace! Ye gods, the queues!

So far, so impractical. But to say that the publishers tables should be replaced by a single shop… This is actually the most radical change to the festival as we know it – while people may not go to the festival principally to walk around the tents looking at publishers’ tables in practice that is the dominant activity. So changing that is a radical idea.

While it would make the travelling easier for the publishers, would they be able to stock the central store (which, assuming the Museum store, gets busy enough as it is) with their latest and greatest books? Would the Museum bookstore have room for the stock? What about the small-press and independents? The international publishers?

The artists could be guests of the festival or their publishers.

Those publishers that now have no presence?

Public access to the signings should be free.

Hurrah! (But the queues, ye gods, the queues).

Only the books which are bought on site would be marked with a label and would be “signable.”

A big shame for those people who’ve bought those exact same books and carried them all the way to the festival… While I can understand not wanting people to turn up with multiple books from years past, I can’t help but feel that Trondheim doesn’t have the festival attendees’ interests at heart.

We could brainstorm with the publishers on a way to create uniform spaces for the artists to do signings in, with a maximum number of spaces. This wouldn’t require as much space, and we could then get rid of the tents.

Intelligent diminution, so to speak.

While there may not be any more sponsored awards, there could of course still be sponsored exhibitions, concerts, etc.

I’m all for that! I’m fairly sure the current organisers would not oppose that either.

The artists could arrive the day before the festival opens to the public–on Wednesday–and would have time to see all the exhibitions if they so please.

And, in an ideal world, they could even be paid for their work.

And I’m still not even talking about moving the festival to June.

We are the players in this little community which has had the luck of being looked down on, seldom publicized, and which brings in very little money. Thanks to all that, there is also very little animosity or jealousy. And we all know each other at least a little bit.

I honestly don’t see how the majority of Trondheim’s proposals bring in more money. However, maybe that’s the point. Reduce Angoulême from the ginormous publicity machine it is now, and then la BD will receive more attention through the rest of the year. It won’t just be the Angoulême Circus coming to town (by which I mean France, not Angoulême) once a year.

And this should also come with the standard observation that the regard with which comics are held in France and Belgium is totally unparalleled in Anglophone countries. But that doesn’t undermine Trondheim’s points – it just emphasises once again how well developed the comics culture is in France, where you can complain about things which people would only dream of in the US or UK, and then get a letter published in a national newspaper detailing your complaints!

Obviously, we don’t live in an ideal world. But we can help shape our own immediate environment. The FIBD, the Cité, the Angoulême City Hall and the General Counsel can shrug their shoulders at all these proposals. I’m taking the risk of being ridiculed and making enemies.

Or there very well could be goodwill among all and an opening of discussion.

I’m sure it will be an entertaining discussion! I personally think that the festival has been run pretty well these last few years, but I’m clearly not the core audience, neither for Trondheim’s piece, nor for the festival (although I like to think that our opinions on who should be President and what makes for good festival exhibitions etc., should largely coincide). But I think his desires and suggestions are somewhat contradictory – at the end of the day, he’s fallen out of love with the festival.

Never the most obviously optimistic of commentators, Trondheim’s complaints are reminiscent of his spat with L’Association, immediately prior to his becoming President. Maybe he’s on the verge of divorcing from the festival altogether and setting up his own – without sponsored prizes, and recognising the Presidents that he thinks are deserving. Given that this is Trondheim, I think he could just about do it. Perhaps it will even be held in June.

Thanks to Gary Northfield, Cliodhna Lyons, Brad Brooks, Nick Abadzis, Peter Stanbury, Kenny Penman for all the debates on this. And thanks to Sarah Glidden for the translation that I’ve swiped here.

The letter covers what Trondheim sees as the issues with the Angoulême Festival, and makes some suggestions on how to fix it. It’s funny and spiky, and, to my eyes, sensible and unreasonable in equal measures. But definitely worth a read. Thanks to Sarah for translating it. The original is published on Le Monde’s website.

I would quite like to see Menu and Trondheim discussing how to fix the Festival. I suspect that you would be left with just the smoking remains of Angoulême, but there may have been a rapprochement between the two.

Cover from RAW volume 1 number 1

Detail of RAW volume 1 number 1 cover

Mockup of RAW volume 1 number 3 cover

Mockup of RAW volume 1 number 7 cover

Françoise Mouly (detail from number 7 mockup)

Cover to RAW volume 1 number 7 (with famous ripped corner)

RAW volume 2 number 1 mockup

RAW volume 2 number 1 mockup

Letter from Charles Burns & Joost Swarte art

Zippy-scope!

Flier for RAW party

Dog Boy by Charles Burns

Fish For Dinner by Marc Beyer

Curse of Cham by Ben Katchor

Picture This by Linda Barry

Industry News and Review No. 6 by Françoise Mouly

Joost Swarte piece

Jimbo by Gary Panter

The Passion of Saint Sluggo by Charles Burns, Ever Meulen & Art Spiegelman

Details from The Passion of Saint Sluggo

Fires by Lorenzon Mattotti

Details from Fires

Good Ol’ Gregor Brown by Bob Sikoryak

The Hell of War by David Sandlin

Los Garriris by Mariscal

Page by Jacques Tardi

Complete originals from Here by Richard McGuire

Details from Here. Note where images have been covered over.

More details from Here. Note where images have been covered over.

Art Spiegelman’s presidency of the Angoulême Festival was hotly anticipated, and he did not disappoint. For a man with such a serious and formidable reputation, his festival was wonderfully light and fun, while continually reminding you of just what heights the artform is capable of achieving.

The exhibitions seemed to be the Festival’s main topic of conversation – whether amazing, underwhelming, or oversubscribed (or in the case of many sad-faced professionals, manning their booths, tantalisingly out of reach) they were what people were talking about.

First off, the Art Spiegelman exhibit at the Bâtiment Castro was astonishingly good. Fantastic quality, very comprehensive (even the Garbage Pail Kids had their own display!), and well laid out. It mixed high-quality reprodutions with originals, and sensibly broke his career down into several phases – principally the underground comix days, RAW, Maus, New Yorker covers and his children’s work. Every page of Maus was reproduced with preliminary sketches presented above or below the page. These sketches were fascinating, often utilising two strongly contrasting colours. It’s not a technique I’ve generally seen before, but I assume it’s to help breakdown the composition and experiment with the shading before the final execution in black pen. Enough has been said about Maus as a work that I cannot add to it here. But seeing it displayed so effectively here really brought back just how amazing a work it is. Amazingly the rest of Spiegelman’s ouevre is interesting enough to not be overwhelmed by this most overwhelming of works.

Spiegelman curated another exhibition – ‘Le Musée Privée d’Art Spiegelman’ – across the river at the new Museum. He had basically rejiggered their permanent collection, to present his personal view on the history of comics. So the intention was largely the same as the previous exhibition, but the execution was Art’s. As you’d expect, this was an eye-popping smorgasboard of the greatest comics produced over the last 100 and some years. It was almost overwhelming in its comprehensiveness, but still great to see originals from McCay to Kurtzman to Clowes, with many more in between and alongside.

Off to one side in that exhibit was a room dedicated to RAW, the seminal comics anthology, edited by Françoise Mouly (who was, as you’d expect, a highly visible and significant presence at the festival). If this had been billed as a separate exhibition it would have been considered one of the best of the festival. Original art from Gary Panter, Marc Beyer, Ben Katchor, Linda Barry, Joost Swarte, Loustal, Mattotti, Bob Sikoryak, Mariscal, David Sandling, Françoise Mouly and more. A particular highlight was seeing Richard McGuire’s Here, shown in its entirety (interestingly it appears that McGuire had originally intended it as 4 3×3 pages, rather than the 6 2×3s presented in RAW). There were many pieces of ephemera from the history of RAW, including a letter from the young Charles Burns, written on a page torn from a notebook. It expressed his admiration and requested consideration as a contributor. I guess he was successful. I could have spent hours in here.

The museum housed another exhibition, titled ‘L’Autre Histoire de la Bande Desinée’, which focussed on comics artists who are also painters. Sadly for me no photos were allowed at this exhibit, so I trust you will trust me when I say that it was extraordinary. My favourites were large pieces by Anke Feuchtenberger and Lorenzo Mattotti, but works by Baudoin, David B and Loustal also stick in the memory. So does an abstract by Hergé, but more because it paled in comparison to an original page of Tintin in Tibet pencils, hanging alongside. Fortunately for us he did not give up the day job. Anyway, I told anyone who would listen that this was one of the must-sees of the festival.

The Fred exhibit occupied the always evocative Hotel St Simon. It was a lovingly detailed show, that managed to let the artwork speak for itself. We were fortunate to be invited in by one of the people putting up the show, the night before it was due to open. It was the kind of serendipitous opportunity that Angoulême occasionally provides, and which you should not spurn – we did not. While the early viewing meant we missed some little touches – like a sound-effect of a tap dripping in the stairwell to provide atmosphere – it was particularly fortunate we saw this exhibit early as the queues to get in later in the festival stretched down the street. I was kinda surprised at that, given that Fred’s greatest body of work was produced decades ago, and that it is a fairly conceptual body at that. It goes to show the affection in which Fred is still held, and the exhibition was a fitting tribute to his work.

Vincent Sardon’s exhibition of hand-made stamps was well received – bright, funny, irreverent and in places gleefully pornographic. I’m not sure it amounted to a whole lot, but it was definitely a lot of fun. Hervé Di Rosa’s exhibition at the out-of-the way Musée was also pretty cool, showing Di Rosa’s kind of underground pop art through original pages from DiRosaMagazine, beautiful lithographs deried from them, and his, more modern, sculptures. There was definitely a Jim Woodring feel to much of his art. Unfortunately photography wasn’t allowed, so I can’t really do the technicolor glory of Di Rosa justice.

Other exhibitions were less successful. The Spanish exhibition relied far too heavily on small reproductions, and those reproduced badly on surprisingly glossy paper. Additionally, I personally found it difficult to get a sense of the exhibition’s structure, making for an unfulfilling experience. The exhibition of the European Union had something of a designed-by-committee feel, sadly. The idea was that 50 cartoonists from the EU would illustrate an EU-themed topic, using a specially-created character by Charles Berberian. The thematic selection makes some of the entries seem a little too worthy (although many cartoonists were clearly attempting to undercut their theme with subtle satire). Each piece was reproduced on curved surface, which seemed a little fussy and ostentatious, and also reduced the viable viewing angle a little (a touch unhelpful when crowded). Also, accompanying text was printed in dark-blue on colourless glass! Difficult to read and painfully easy to walk into. That said, there were some very nice pieces in here, as you would expect with such an embarrassment of talent. A small controversy worth noting: only two EU countries weren’t represented, Ireland and Slovakia. I’m sure somewhere there was a group of disgruntled Slovakian cartoonists to match the rather cross Irish cartoonists I spoke to.

The Swedish exhibition seemed to divide opinion. Some people like themed exhibitions, others prefer culling the best work from the artists on display; some find the large, 3d extracts of the comics breezy and fun, others find them tacky. I was definitely in the pro- camp: there were some interesting pieces by some very good artists; the accompanying text was shown in Swedish, French and English; and I personally felt the theme worked well (and that not knowing anything about Strindberg prior to the exhibition). On the other hand, I didn’t feel that there was enough of the original art on display (there was better coverage in the catalogue), and the pages were shown out of order on at least one artist (again, some don’t mind that in a gallery show).

Happily, I ran into Joanna Hellgren at the Swedish exhibition, and she gave me a lovely book by Emilie Ostergren called The Duke and His Army, published by Sanitorium. It’s a gorgeous little book, which I’ll blog about soon. Joanna also debuted the third and final volume of her story Frances at the Cambourakis table (volume 1 is translated on Comix Influx) – I’m really looking forward to reading that.

Finally, I saw one of the strangest comics exhibitions I’ve ever seen – a celebration of chairs in comics. Taking famous chairs, the curators had then juxtaposed comics panels in which they’re depictied. Odd, perhaps slightly obsessive, but fun.

Unlike some, I felt the festival very well attended this year. The Thursday seemed busier than most, there were crowds of people trying to get into the tents on Saturday (the Para-BD tent (back-issues, original art & vinyl toys) had the longest queues I’d ever seen), and the Fred Exhibit required a looooong wait most anytime. Still, this may have been illusory – it’ll be interesting to see any actual figures.

Unsurprisingly, with the Spiegelman presidency, there was a very good representation from American and British cartoonists. Great to catch up with Jason Little, Nick Bertozzi and Mike Dawson, and to meet George O’Connor. I chatted to Sarah Glidden for a bit, as she embarks on a 7-month residency in the town. Sally-Anne Hickman, Francesca Cassevetti, Sean Azzopardi and Oliver Lambden attended once again, this time in the guise of Azfab. I got to hang out a lot with Gary Northfield, graffiti knitter Lauren O’Farrell and Ellen Lindner, as the latter distributed The Comix Reader on the streets of Angoulême. London retailers were represented by Camilla, Tom and Simon of Orbital Comics, as well as Sam and Alex of publishers No Brow, returning after being the talk of last year’s festival (despite having been misplaced into the Para-BD tent; they were in the far more appropriate Nouvelle Monde tent this year). I also managed to grab chats with Doug and Emma from Self Made Hero, Martin and Judith from Blank Slate Books and Lizzie & David from Walker Books, as they all zipped around town for their various meetings.

The Jeune Talents tent (containing work by people up to 18 years old) was excellent this year, as it is pretty much most years. In fact, I tend to prefer it to the exhibitions at The Maison Des Auteurs (where the students of L’École Supérieur de l’Image show their work). While far less polished, the youngsters just seem to be a little freer and unrestrained in their approach, while retaining plenty enough craft to be appealing. I’m hoping that their entries will be put up on the web (as previous years’ have been). The Jeune Talents tent also included pages from Fables Nautiques by Blandin Marin a graduate of the l’École Superieur de l’Image. It’s a charming book, but to be honest, I preferred the uncoloured pages on display here.

Overall, I thought the new books were a little less interesting than some years, but maybe that’s due to my having developed a slight aversion to books, after a recent Transatlantic move – which involved a whole lot of books. But Bastien Vives’ Polina looked great, in a much looser style than the other of his I was familiar with, Le Gout Du Chlore. I actually hadn’t realised quite how many books he has done. The guy is prolific, and carries off many different styles. Hopefully Gout Du Chlore has done well enough in English that his other books will follow.

3 Seconds by Mathieu is a really fascinating book – probably my book of the festival. It has its critics, and could be regarded as something of a one-trick pony, but I think the amount of mileage (no pun intended, for those who’ve read the book) that Mathieu manages to eke out of that pony is phenomenal. It clearly relies on digital techniques to compose its infinite zoom technique, and perhaps those are a little jarring at times. Plus, the hypothetical photon in question seems to have had one too many in the Chat Noir, swaying off its straight line everso slightly. But, as I say, the amount that Mathieu accomplishes and communicates within the confines of such a constraininh constraint is mind-boggling. I doubt we’ll see any more books solely devoted to this perpetual zoom technique, but I expect to see it co-opted into the comics creators’ arsenal of tools.

Personally, I was very excited to pick up two more books by Isabelle Pralong. Oui, mais il ne bat que pour vous is a very sizeable tome from l’Association which I’m very eager to read, and her collaboration with seamstress du BD Aurélie William Levaux, Prédictions (Atrabile) looks really beautiful. I love Pralong’s work, but those who find her style a little too rough for their tastes might find her collaboration with Levaux a bit more appealing.

Apart from those I mentioned in the Angoulême preview, Genevan cartoonist, Sacha Georg has a new book out, La Fille de l’Eau, published by Dargaud – full colour, very appealing. La Page Blanche is a slick and colourful book written by Boulet and illustrated by Pénélope Bagieu. It’s about an amnesiac woman who wakes up in Paris, and tries to figure out her past. It looked like a interesting story, nicely executed.

Frédéric Poincelet has collaborated on a book with writer Vincent Bernière, Le Chateau des Ruisseaux, which is as beautiful and elegant as you’d expect. And David Les Femmes et La Mort by Judith Vanistendael looked very interesting too. Self Made Hero will be publishing that as When David Lost His Voice this Spring. (In fact, they’re publishing a lot of good stuff, very soon; check i out.)

So Angoulême 2012 came to a close. As people started to disperse, the news that JC Denis would be President in 2012, and I must confess that my response upon hearing the news was to say “who?” This is the first year in quite a number of years that I’ve had this reaction, and I wonder if it was a reflexively inward-looking choice after the internationalism of Spiegelman’s festival (particularly as its the big four-oh for the festival next year). We will see what JC Denis will bring to the next festival, but this year’s will be remembered as a highwater mark, and primarily, I expect, for the amazing Spiegelman retrospective. But there was tons more to enjoy – so much so that I didn’t quite get round to everything I wanted for the first time in quite a while. There’s a case to be made that this festival was a touch backward looking (particularly in the main exhibitions, and the lack of new ground-breaking books), but there will be festivals which reveal glimpses of the future, and I guess this just wasn’t one them. So be it. With Spiegelman’s long and influential career, and his great knowledge of comics history, I was more than content to be led by him in a nostalgic celebration of this co-mixed artform.

Firstly, of course, the President is Art Spiegelman. Not just one of the foremost comics creators in the history of the artform, but also one of its foremost thinkers. Anticipation is high to see what he is bringing to Angoulême 2012.

Three exhibitions in particular hint at Spiegelman’s affiliation with the comics Avante Garde.

First off, there’s a retrospective for surrealist visionary, Fred, himself a former President from 1980. In Fred’s day, Presidents weren’t given an exhibition celebrating their work, so this exhibition somewhat corrects that omission, at the same time that Dargaud is bringing out an unabridged collection of his seminal Pilote strip Philemon. We are promised 100 original pieces of Fred’s beautifully rendered, dreamlike sequences, from Philemon and elsewhere.

For the last four years Vincent Sardon has been making idiosynchratic rubber stamps, as detailed on his blog. L’Association is publishing a book about this art project (although it appears that the first printing did not go well), and Angoulême is hosting an exhibition – showing the stamps, the works created with them and a recreation of his studio. I assume this book is from the post-Menu L’Asso (as it is still in production, rather than already delivered), giving this exhibition an extra (and quite possibly misplaced) frisson of intrigue.

Painter and cartoonist Hervé di Rosa has been creating art for three decades, including his avant garde magazine DirosaMagazine, for which this exhibition is named. Throughout his career, Di Rosa used the language and visual styling of comics in his prints and paintings. Although having contributed to French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo, he is more commonly associated with the world of fine arts – giving him a natural affinity with Spiegelman.

Spiegelman will of course have his own exhibition, which sounds like it will be an extensive exploration of his career. This has the potential to be one of the must-see exhibitions of recent years. Additionally, he has commisioned an exhibition of the artists that have inspired him, including some massive names as you would expect. Essentially Angoulême 2012’s reputation stands or falls by the quality of these exhibitions.

Charles Berberian has helped create a wide-ranging exhibition on the nature of Europe. Using a character that he created, comics luminaries from around the EU have created strips expanding on themes of the roots, present reality and the future of Europe. There are some great names here, including Joost Swarte, Baru, Prado, Nicholas Mahler, Florence Cestac, Matti Hagelberg, Anouk Ricard, Ulli Lust, Andi Watson and lots more. I’m sure there will be a few misses, as there always are in such large exhibitions, but I’m confident there will be loads to enjoy. It will also be interesting to see how much influence Berberian has had on the exhibition as a whole.

There will be a wide-ranging and perhaps overdue retrospective of Spanish comics at the Espace Franquin. Starting from the Franco-era of censorship censored comics, to the outpouring of creativity of post-dictatorship Spain, (in which many of the most famous Spanish cartoonists blossomed), to the modern day. If this show lives up to its billing it should be fascinating, and visually arresting. (The catalogue will magnanimously be published in French and Spanish – possibly in an attempt to rescue some credibility for this relentlessly Francophone international festival).

The excellently titled “Life isn’t for amateurs” is a Swedish exhibition themed around Sweden’s most famous writer, August Stringberg. I know little to nothing about him, but according to the exhibition’s blurb, Strinberg’s influence is still strongly felt in Sweden, and so various contemporary comics creators have created Strinberg-themed work for this exhibition. Including Joanna Hellgren, whose lovely book Frances is translated on Comix Influx, amongst many others, I’m sure this exhibition will be worth a look.

Taiwan feels the Angoulême spotlight this year. This continues the festivals explorations of East Asia’s comics scene, after last year’s Hong Kong exhibition, the ever increasing presence of China and South Korea over the last decade, and the acceptance of Japanese Manga into the Angoulême-approved comics canon. In such a broad exhibition it’s impossible to get a sense of what to expect, but I’m sure there will be lots of gems within.

Official Selection

Of course, this is the first year of the reborn L’Asso, and it will be fascinating to see what has changed. I anticipate a certain swagger to them, having secured 3 nominations in the Official Selection – the books nominated for a ‘Fauve’, the Oscars of Angoulême. As far as I know, or have been able to tell, JC Menu’s new publishing house, L’Apocalypse, will unsurprisingly (as they are not due to publish anything until later this year) not yet have an official presence at Angoulême, although I expect to see the man himself around.

As ever, the Official Selection contains some amazing books.

3 secondes by Marc-Antoine Mathieu is astonishing. Almost more slow animation than comics – and hence something of a formalist experiment – it is an extraordinary example of what the artform can achieve.

The amazing Brecht Evens maintains his inexorable rise, with a nomination for Les Amateurs (due to be published in English as The Making Of by Drawn + Quarterly later this year.)

Interesting to see Charlie’s War (Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun) nominated in its French translation – it feels like that should be nominated in the Heritage selection.

Eric Lambé’s Joue Avec Moi looks utterly beautiful – soft plains of pastel-like colours, with a smooth assured line. Great to see Frémok among the nominations.

Polina by Bastien Vivès is drawn in a monochrome inky style, much, much looser than his previously nominated Le Gout de Chlore.

I’m very excited to see a new book from Swiss artist Isabelle Pralong, creator of the wonderful L’éléphant (translated on Comix Influx). Oui mais il ne bat que pour vous (Yes but it beats only for you) is in Pralong’s normal style, which I find very effective, although some find a little off-putting. Despite my hopes I’m not really expecting it to win a prize, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it. Also worth noting that it’s published by L’Association, although I have no idea whether this was a pre- or post-Menu book; it only came out in October, a long while after the two parted company.

Le Mirror de Mowgli is the eagerly awaited follow up to Mon Fils from Olivier Schrauwen, now going by Ollie, apparently. It looks to be a relatively simple (possibly wordless) story, with a suitably becoming three colour palate.

Valérien, Manu Larcenet – a beautiful looking revival of a 60s sci-fi series. Larcenet achieves a great rich and grimey watercolour, reminiscent of the richly rendered adventure stories of yesteryear.

There have been concerns that Les Raquins Marteaux may not surive 2011, but hopefully their nomination here will help. Teddy Beat by Navarro Morgan is set in Brooklyn amongst hipsters and drug dealers. More adult comedy from the publishers that brought you M Feraille.

White River Junction looks intersting – an account of a young Belgian comics creator spending a year’s residency at The Centre for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont.

Lés Vacances de Jésus et Bouddha is a French translation of a manga by Hikaru Nakamura, which looks like a lot of fun. Hope that gets translated into English!

The charming and idiosynchratic Anouk Ricard has Coucous Bouzon, a wacky take on the corporate world of brainstorms and weekend retreats, apparently. I expect it will be very good.

Marion Montaigne has a fun-looking book, Tu Mourras Moins Bête, based on her comics/science blog, which translates as You’ll die less stupid

I like the naïve stylings of Lemon Jefferson Et La Grande Aventure by Simon Roussin. Published by 2024 – a publisher I saw for the first time last year, and noted for their interesting books – this book is produced in felt. Felt!

There are a couple of nominations for ex-students of Angoulême. Skins Party by Timothé Le Boucher, of Le Beaux-Arts, and the appealing Fables Nautiques by Blandin Marin, of l’École Européene Supérior de l’Image.

Doomboy by Tony Sandoval, about a kid playing guitar to his dead friend, feels kinda interesting, with a slight Dave Cooper styling to the art.

Perenial of the Selection Officiele, Étienne Davodeau, is on again this year with Les Ignorants, a black and white autobiographical story about Davodeau and a local winemaker learning from each other.

Kerascoët, whose dark fantasy Jolies Ténebres drew attention (and an Offical Selection nomination) a couple of years back, has another fairy story Beauté. As you’d expect, this looks beautiful; whether it has the same dark undertones remains to be seen (by me, anyway).

En Même Temps que la Jeunesse by Jean Harambat, explores the different approaches to rugby in various countries. Drawn in a appealingly loose style, similar to Johann Sfar.

Cambodian artist Tian’s L’Année du lièvre is a story about escaping the Phnom Penh in 1975, as the Khmer Rouge took power.

Other notables include Chantal Montellier, Blutch, Matsumoto, Cyril Pedrosa, Jason and Frederik Peeters amongst others. And there are also nominations for translated work by Ben Katchor, Jim Woodring, Eddie Campbell, Craig Thompson and Daniel Clowes. To be honest, I’m mostly judging these books by their covers (and descriptions) as shown on the Angoulême website. I’m sure I’ve missed some excellent stuff, and it may be that not all of these books that I’ve picked out turn out to be great, but hey, they’re what caught my eye. I’m sure much more will catch my eye over the next few days.

RESUME

Le 10 janvier 2011, la “masse salariale” de L’Association (qui n’aurait pas pu s’appeler ainsi si je ne m’étais pas moi-même fait licencier de L’Asso par le Bureau en mars 2010) se mettait en grève pour protester contre le projet de décroissance, et donc de réduction de deux à trois postes sur sept, que la direction et moi-même avions jugé indispensable pour la survie de la structure. Le stand vide à Angoulême avec la banderole “en grève” et l’intense médiatisation d’une affaire interne a tristement mis la confusion dans les esprits. La revendication sociale s’est vite mélangée au désir de revenir à un fonctionnement plus “collectif” et plus “démocratique”. Si les salariés s’en défendaient au début, leur action a permis le retour des ex-Co-Fondateurs ayant démissionné en 2005-2006, de facto élus lors de l’Assemblée Générale du 11 avril, sur la base d’une seconde liste présentée au dernier moment et comportant les 7 Co-Fondateurs de L’Association. Si ce coup de théâtre a pu passer aux yeux de tous pour une réconciliation inespérée, la résurrection aux forceps du groupe mythique, qui n’avait plus aucun sens, n’a pas longtemps résisté à la réalité : Stanislas est parti immédiatement ; quant à moi, une fois constaté qu’il me serait dorénavant impossible de m’occuper du fonctionnement de L’Association comme je le faisais seul depuis cinq ans, j’ai décidé de démissionner de ce C.A où j’avais été “plébiscité”, exprimant mes raisons dans mon Muniquet du 23 mai 2011, et laissant derrière moi une Utopie éditoriale de 21 ans, dont tout le monde sait que j’en suis à l’origine, que je l’ai portée à bouts de bras tout ce temps durant, contre vents et marées, avec “intransigeance et opiniâtreté”, qui restera bien évidemment ma devise.

DERNIERES NOUVELLES DE L’ASSOCIATION

Au sein de ce C.A s’est élu le nouveau Bureau : David B (Président), Lewis Trondheim (Trésorier), Killoffer (Secrétaire Général).

De retour à Paris fin mai après ma décision, je n’ai pas pu avoir accès au local rue de la Pierre Levée. Un mail de David B, nouveau président de L’Association, m’informait le 1er juin 2011 : “suite à ta lettre de démission nous pensons pour des raisons de sécurité qu’il est mieux que tu ne puisses avoir accès au local de l’Association uniquement lorsque les salariés sont là. Nous avons décidé de poser un verrou supplémentaire sur la porte.”

Désirant réunir 14 années d’affaires tranquillement, ce n’est que grâce à l’intervention bienveillante de Mokeït que j’ai pu entrer dans le local le soir, et déménager mes affaires personnelles, mon ordinateur et mes archives. Zab et moi avons démonté et emmené la Pyramhydre en lieu sûr, ce monument incompris ayant régulièrement été menacé de destruction.

Une fête (que fêtait-on exactement ?) a eu lieu dans les locaux le 22 juin, pour laquelle il a été annoncé que Trondheim ferait le “service d’ordre”. Celui-ci, au cours d’une mini conférence de presse, a déclaré publiquement qu’aucun titre n’était prévu à L’Association à partir d’octobre (alors que j’en avais au moins quarante dans mes tiroirs). Symboliquement, c’était aussi la première fête de L’Asso à se finir dans le sang, l’un ayant mis une bouteille sur la tête d’un autre.

La formule de Lapin que j’ai élaborée à partir de 2009, centrée sur la “nouvelle génération”, qui a permis à de nombreux jeunes auteurs de s’épanouir, a été supprimée, rendant inachevés les feuilletons qui la composaient.

Le livre “sur L’Association” prévu initialement chez Shampooing, et à l’origine essentiellement basé sur le règlement de comptes, se fera en définitive à L’Association elle-même et sortira en novembre. Trondheim en avait annoncé la publication à L’Association avant même que je ne décide de partir et alors que je n’en avais rien vu. A ce jour, seuls Duhoo et Mokeït ont fait la démarche de me transmettre leurs pages de ce collectif.

Le “nouveau bureau” s’était engagé à respecter les livres que j’avais planifiés d’août à la mi-octobre 2011. Or, Barthélémy Schwartz, dont le livre “Le Rêveur Captif “devait paraître en octobre dans la Collection Eprouvette, a reçu un message de L’Association lui stipulant que son livre repasserait en septembre devant le “comité éditorial” et qu’il serait informé à ce moment-là si son livre recueillerait suffisamment de “votes” pour être publié ou non. Ce livre avait été annoncé, travaillé par le diffuseur les Belles Lettres, et le contrat en avait été signé. Je devais en par ailleurs écrire la préface.

Pour mémoire, mon dernier programme comportait, outre ce « Rêveur Captif » de Barthélémy Schwartz : « Avis d’orage dans la nuit » de Christian Rosset, « Viva la vida » de Baudoin et Troubs, « La Bande à Foster » de Conrad Botes et Ryk Hattingh, « D’une île à l’autre » de Vanoli, « Pure perte » de Baladi, et « Oui mais il ne bat que pour vous » d’Isabelle Pralong. Etaient également commencés et signés le livre du Tampographe Sardon, les « aphorismes » de José Parrondo, « L’Enfance d’Alan » d’Emmanuel Guibert, « Au Travail » d’Olivier Josso, et la traduction du « Döde Paret » du Suédois Joakim Pirinen.

Enfin, on connait la lutte symbolique que j’ai mené contre le fait d’imprimer des codes-barre sur les livres, et comment, face à l’impératif de devoir malgré tout en mettre, j’avais opté pour un sticker n’abimant pas le livre et comportant un certain message politique. Une des premières mesures du “nouveau bureau” a été de décider d’imprimer les codes-barre sur les ouvrages, y compris sur ceux que j’avais initiés. Le “Viva la vida” de Baudoin et Troubs, très beau livre qui parle de la pourriture de ce monde, est le premier livre de L’Association à comporter le code-barre imprimé.

Ce contexte a évidemment achevé de me démotiver pour LockGroove Comix n°3, plusieurs fois programmé à L’Association, qui ne sortira donc pas cet automne comme annoncé. J’ai préféré me concentrer sur diverses autres choses et notamment sur ma future structure éditoriale : L’APOCALYPSE.

PREMIERES NOUVELLES DE L’APOCALYPSE

La situation que j’ai vécue entre janvier et mai 2011 m’aura au moins permis de retrouver une énergie que je ne soupçonnais plus pour imaginer de tout recommencer à zéro, et de refonder une nouvelle maison d’édition, plus en accord avec mes idéaux et mes désirs tels qu’ils ont évolué toutes ces années durant.

Cette structure s’appellera L’Apocalypse. Ce nom avait été un titre évoqué et abandonné (car il faisait peur) pour la revue publiée par Futuropolis en 1990 et qui devait s’appeler Labo. C’est Pacôme Thiellement qui me l’a remémoré, je l’en remercie car ce nom est parfait tant en ses multiples sens (révélation et résurrection bien plus que fin du monde) que sur le plan onomastique (et “continuité conceptuelle”). D’autant plus que pour cette nouvelle structure, je travaillerai avec Etienne Robial, fondateur des Editions Futuropolis (le vrai, l’unique).

Le nom est déposé. La structure sera une Sarl, dont j’effectuerai le montage financier et administratif cet automne. Selon toute vraisemblance, les publications commenceront à la rentrée 2012. D’ici là, un vaste Catalogue et toutes ses ramifications graphiques s’élaboreront avec les Auteurs et une équipe en construction. La diffusion en sera vraisemblablement effectuée par les Belles Lettres.

Je ne désire pas y publier que de la Bande Dessinée : livres de dessin, textes, livres-objets et toutes sortes d’ouvrages prendront place dans ce Catalogue. Un large secteur de disques, vinyls bien évidemment, sera aussi au programme. Il s’agira donc plus d’un lieu où se transfigurera l’”Erosion Progressive des Frontières” chère à feu la revue L’Eprouvette, qu’un “éditeur de BD” de plus. En ce sens, L’Apocalypse ressemblera davantage à mes aspirations polymorphes que n’a pu l’être L’Association, dont j’ai respecté la ligne avant tout consacrée à la Bande Dessinée, même seul à la barre, alors que les statuts que j’avais rédigé pour L’Association s’engageaient dès 1990 à “gommer les clivages entre les différents moyens d’expression”. L’Apocalypse sera Rock’n’Roll. Et sous le signe du Double.

Il est trop tôt pour annoncer ce qui formera le futur Catalogue de L’Apocalypse, mais je peux promettre de hautes réjouissances sur tous les plans. Quant à la partie Bande Dessinée, nombre d’Auteurs que j’ai publié au sein de L’Association ont exprimé l’envie de me suivre dans ces nouvelles aventures. Et d’autres, de multiples horizons. Je me retrouve donc en 2011 avec le désir de (re)construire un lieu éditorial à mon image, avec ses idéaux et ses idiosyncrasies, transcendant et faisant circuler les “genres”. Avec plus que jamais l’envie de faire exister des projets fous en synergie avec les Auteurs, loin des délires « démocratiques » et loin des « votes ». La configuration qui s’annonce me permet d’imaginer que soit rendue viable une telle nouvelle Aventure, une nouvelle Avant-garde (je n’ai pas peur d’utiliser le mot), en toute liberté, sans querelles, sans soupçons, et sans boulets.

Encore une fois, un immense merci à vous, Amis, qui m’avez soutenu pendant ces mois difficiles. Vos réactions à mon départ de L’Association forment un si bel ensemble de textes que j’aimerais réunir un jour ce florilège d’une façon ou d’une autre : merci de me signaler si vous seriez en désaccord avec la publication de ce que vous avez eu la gentillesse de m’écrire.

A très bientôt avec L’Apocalypse.

Jean-Christophe Menu 23 août 2011.

ABSTRACT (please forgive my rough english)

If in France people had it hard to understand what happened at L’Association the last months, I can’t imagine the incomprehensible mess it could have been felt from abroad. January 10th 2011 began a strike from the staff, so-called “masse salariale” (employees mass), a term they couldn’t have used if I didn’t make myself fired by the Bureau in march 2010, anticipating the problems to come. The staff was protesting against the need of decreasing and thus to reduce the team, a decision the direction and I judged indispensable for the structure survival. The empty booth at Angouleme with the “on strike” banderole, the overexposure of an internal affair made everybody confused. The social claim was soon mixed with the wish to come back at a more “collective” or “democratic” ruling. If the employees didn’t claim it at the beginning, their action allowed the return of the ex-Co-Founders who quit in 2005-2006, de facto elected at the Assembly of April 11th, on the basis of a second list presented at the latest moment and comprising the 7 Co-Founders of L’Association. If this sensational turn could have passed for an unexpected reconciliation, this forced resurrection of the mythical group no longer resisted at reality : Stanislas quit immediately; and for myself, when I established that henceforth I wouldn’t be able to manage L’Association like I was managing it alone since 5 years, I decided to dismiss of this committee where I was “plebiscited”. I exposed my reasons in a text called “Muniquet” sent may 23rd, letting behind me a 21 years publishing Utopia I launched and managed all those years against all.

The new Bureau is now comprising David B (President), Lewis Trondheim (Treasurer) and Killoffer (Secretary).

When I came back to Paris in may, I wasn’t able to enter the L’Asso office. An e-mail from the new President David B informed me that they put a new lock on the door to avoid me entering, for “security reasons”. Thanks to Mokeït’s help, I finally could move my personal stuff, computer and so on. Zab and I dismantled and put away the Pyramhydre, an unappreciated “monument” which was regularly threatened of destruction.

A party (to what toast exactly ?) was done in the office june 22nd, where it had been publicly said that no book was ready from october (when I had at least forty in the drawers). Symbollically, it was also the first L’Asso party to end in blood, one having hit another one’s head with a bottle.

Lapin anthology latest formula, which I launched in 2009, centered on the new french comics generation, had ben cancelled, making unfinished the series of all these young artists.

The collective book “upon L’Association”, originally based on old arguments between the ex-Co-Founders and me, planned for Trondheim’s Shampooing sub-label at Delcourt mainstream company, finally will be published at L’Association itself in november. This publication had been announced before my departure and at a time I saw nothing from it. Only Duhoo and Mokeït showed me their pages for this.

The “new Bureau” engaged themselves to respect the books I planned for august till mid-october 2011. But now, Barthélémy Schwartz, whom “Rêveur Captif” was about to be published in october in the Eprouvette collection, received a mail from L’Association, stipulating him that his book will pass again in front of the “committee” in september and that he will be informed if the book will have enough “votes” to be published. This book was announced, worked by our distributor, and the contract was signed. Incidentally, I was supposed to write a foreword for this book.

For memory, my last programme included, beyond this « Rêveur Captif » by Barthélémy Schwartz : « Avis d’orage dans la nuit » by Christian Rosset, « Viva la vida » by Baudoin & Troubs, « La Bande à Foster » by Conrad Botes & Ryk Hattingh, « D’une île à l’autre » by Vanoli, « Pure perte » by Baladi, and « Oui mais il ne bat que pour vous » by Isabelle Pralong. Also were on their way and signed the book of the « Tampographe » Sardon, the « aphorisms » by José Parrondo, « Alan’s youth » by Emmanuel Guibert, « Au Travail » by Olivier Josso and the translation of the Swedish Joakim Pirinen’s « Döde Paret ».

At last, for years I had a symbolic struggle against the fact to print the barcodes upon the books. When finally barcodes became inevitable, I put them on a sticker which could be taken off without damaging the book, and containing a political message against barcodes. One of the first measures of the “new Bureau” was to print them on the books, even those I initiated. “Viva la vida” by Baudoin & Troubs, a beautiful book upon our world’s decay, is the first L’Association book with a printed barcode.

This context finished off to discourage me for LockGroove Comix # 3, several times annouced at L’Asso, which won’t be published in fall as been said. I prefered to concentrate myself on other stuff and over all on my forthcoming new publishing house : L’APOCALYPSE.

FIRST NEWS OF L’APOCALYPSE

The situation I endured between january and may 2011 at least allowed me to find back an energy I didn’t expect anymore to start it all again, and reset up a new publishing label, more in tune with my ideals and desires such as they evolved all those years.

This structure will be called L’Apocalypse. An old idea of a title, forsaken cause frightening, for the 1990 Futuropolis anthology which will be named Labo. Thanks to Pacôme Thiellement who remind it to me, because it’s perfect on its multiple senses either than in sound, and by the fact that for this new structure I’ll be working with Etienne Robial, ex-boss of Futuropolis (the vintage and only true one).

The name is registered, the company on its way and I probably will begin to publish in fall 2012. Since then, a large Catalogue, its graphic identity and a new staff will be in progress.

I don’t want to publish only comics in it : books of drawings, texts, all kind of products will be part of this Catalogue. And a large department of records, obviously vinyls, will be set up. Therefore it will be more a place to transfigurate the “progressive erosion of boundaries” dear to the late anthology L’Eprouvette, than another new “comics publisher”. So L’Apocalypse will fit more my polymorphic aspirations than L’Association, for whom I respected the main Bande Dessinée line, even alone, despite the fact the status I wrote for it claimed as soon than 1990 an “erasure of the cleaving between the different arts”. L’Apocalypse will be rock’n’roll. And under the sign of the Double.

It’s too soon to tell what will form L’Apocalypse Catalogue but I can promise high rejoicings on every plans. Upon the comics part, lot of artists I previously published at L’Association expressed the wish to follow me in these new adventure, and much others. So here I am in 2011 with the opportunity to build again a new label adventure, with more than ever the desire to publish weird projects with the Artists, far away from the « democratic » delirium and from the « votes », and to set up a new Avant-garde (the word don’t afraid me), in total freedom, without quarrels or suspicions.

Thanks again to all of you Friends, who supported me during these difficult months. Your reactions to my departure are forming such a beautiful set of texts that I’d like to join them in a way or another : thanks to say me if you would disagree the publication of what you had the kindness to write me.

See you soon with L’Apocalypse.

Jean-Christophe Menu August 23rd, 2011

Joumana Medlej talked about her Lebanese female superhero, Malaak. While clearly influenced by American superhero comics, Malaak is clearly steeped in the tradition of Lebanaon – Malaak herself sprung from one of the cedars for which Lebanon is so well known.

Medlej self-publishes her comics, as there isn’t a strong comics industry in Lebanon. Malaak is in English, but include Arabic words that are explained in a glossary at the back. Unusually, she also includes a cast list at the front – showing which of her characters are based on her friends! The Malaak comic book is not easy to find outside of Lebanon (as far as I know), but you can still enjoy the comic if you have an iPad, using the Malaak app.

Charles Hatfield is a professor in the Department of English at California State Universty, Northridge. Charles went through his work at CSUN, and how it is changed over the years. He was both witty and wise in his talk, and clearly captivated his audience. Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature!, Charles’ book – based on his PhD thesis – came out a few years ago, and his new book, on Jack Kirby, will be coming out in the 2012.

Lighter Than My Shadow is a graphic novel in progress by Katie Green. It is about Katie’s awful with anorexia and sexual abuse – happily, firmly behind her now. Katie was articulate and open about the very difficult things that she has battled – I can’t imagine being so honest and forthcoming in front of a room of people, let alone in the pages of a book. It was an affecting but also humorous talk. Her art is meticulous and delicate and complements the dark and difficult subject matter beautifully. ?Lighter Than My Shadow is due out in 2013.

Their recent tribulations have been very well publicised, due in part to the massive influence that L’Association has had on the Franco-Belgian comics scene in the last 20 years. It is no exaggeration to say that what they achieved changed the face of European comics. And Jean-Christophe Menu was a huge, huge part of that.

I’ll try to sort out some sort of translation on the site very soon. In the meantime, a toast to J-C!

MUNIQUET ONICIEL

DE JCMENU.

A tous.

Je laisse L’Association derrière moi.

Sans rancœur ni regrets.

Il aura fallu, pour accepter l’amputation de 21 ans de vie, un fameux diagnostic de gangrène incurable.

Il aura fallu aller au bout de cette incurie pour le savoir vraiment.

L’impossibilité d’aller de l’avant dans ce contexte ne fait désormais pour moi plus aucun doute.

Et ma décision, mûrement réfléchie, est désormais inexpugnable.

Ce n’est pas très gai de voir une Utopie s’écrouler sous le poids de la plus basse trivialité. Une poignée de revanchardise, une autre d’inconséquence, une autre d’incompétence : ça fait un chien à trois pattes. Et il pue.

Bon courage aux lapins inattendus qui sortent du chapeau, par hasard ou par tour de passe-passe : ils se voient sauveurs, ils ne sont que l’ombre d’un Collectif fantasmé qui n’est plus actif que dans certains cauchemars, ceux-là mêmes où le mot “démocratie” devient moins que rien.

Je quitte L’Association avec un seul souci : perdre ces moments magiques où un Editeur et un Auteur découvrant leur ouvrage sorti des presses, éprouvent ce que j’oserais appeler une Epiphanie. Epiphanies qui doivent continuer à exister ailleurs. Et mieux.

Donc non, finalement, je pars sans aucun souci.

J’ai été “patron-voyou”, lynché des mois publiquement, puis j’aurais (paraît-il) été “plébiscité”. Pour moi c’est la même chose, dans le sens où cela n’a aucun sens. J’ai besoin de sens pour construire quelque chose. Dans la configuration qui s’annonce, je ne suis indispensable que muselé et rouméguant moi-même sur trois pattes. Sans façons.

Tout se passe dans le déni total de ce que j’ai pu faire seul depuis cinq ans : à savoir un travail d’Editeur libre à qui on ne cherche pas noise au moindre pet. Noise que j’ai déjà vécue. Et que d’aucuns se croient autorisés à me faire revivre. Eh bien non.

J’ai été jusqu’à la réconciliation, au pardon, j’ai voulu y croire, j’y ai presque cru. Mais dès que les points fondamentaux ont été abordés, la mésentente séculaire est revenue au galop, en pire puisque désormais “Bureau” (autoproclamé et illégitime, mais quelle importance ?). La suite de l’Histoire de L’Association ne m’appartient plus. Mais la suite de mon Histoire n’appartient qu’à moi. Et à certains d’entre vous.

Par respect élémentaire pour les Auteurs, je souhaite accompagner jusqu’au bout les livres que j’ai initiés ; achever de superviser le graphisme du site internet de L’Association. Mais dès ce jour, je me désolidarise de toute décision et de toute procédure émanant de L’Association, lesquelles, souvent consternantes à mes yeux, ont déjà commencé à s’élaborer sans mon consentement.

On “remercie” l’Expert-Comptable, conseil de la structure depuis plus de quinze ans. On “remercie” l’Avocat de L’Association. On “remercie” un chef de fab intérimaire dont j’étais sûr des compétences. On annonce, à L’Association, le fameux livre “sur L’Asso” prévu ailleurs et bâti sur le règlement de comptes, sans mon accord et alors que je n’en ai rien vu. On envoie des “communiqués officiels” dont je n’ai suivi ni la rédaction, ni la diffusion.

Le plus curieux, c’est que cela ne m’affecte même plus.

Il suffit désormais de passer son chemin, en se forçant à la mansuétude.

Quitter ce marigot toxique n’est plus qu’un immense soulagement.

Ensuite, je créerai une autre structure.

Mieux vaut refonder, même le métal le plus précieux, que de se laisser fondre.

Pour moi, L’Association a achevé son Histoire. Une Magnifique Histoire, utopique, imprévisible et chaotique à souhait. Je crois d’ailleurs qu’elle a fini son Histoire dans le Valais Suisse, à Sierre en juin 2010, dans les liesses de l’exposition et du livre de ses 20 ans. Ensuite (même s’il y eut des Livres et non des moindres) tout n’a plus été que délire.

Il en aura fallu beaucoup, pour me dégoûter de 20 ans d’une Utopie que j’aurai créée. Il fallait que j’aille jusqu’au terme de ce processus (crise, conflit social, grève, agressions, calomnies, AG truquée, revenants hostiles, nouveau constat d’incompréhension) pour imaginer possible de laisser tout ce travail derrière moi, et imaginer possible de tout reprendre à zéro. C’est fait.

Merci, du fond du cœur, à tous les Auteurs et Amis qui m’auront soutenu, non seulement au cours de ces derniers mois abjects, mais pendant toutes ces années de lutte contre les moulins à vent (bien inoffensifs, finalement) et de réalisation de livres impossibles. Je laisse derrière moi un des plus beaux Catalogues de la Terre. Aucun regret : la moindre virgule de ce puzzle fait partie de ma vie. Vous êtes nombreux à le savoir. Le puzzle continuera autrement. Nous n’en perdrons aucune pièce.

Nous nous interdirons la nostalgie. Les Livres, eux, sont vivants.

Un Catalogue cohérent est vivant et dangereux.

Pour toujours. Si ce n’est pour l’Ethernité.

Je ne souhaite mauvaise chance à personne.

Je sauvegarde tout bonnement ma liberté.

Mes convictions. Et ma raison.

Voire ce qu’il nous reste à faire ensemble.

Allez savoir.

Intransigeance !

Opiniâtreté !

Où c’est possible !

Jean-Christophe Menu.

Had a nice time at the Comics and Small Press Expo on Saturday. Peter Stanbury was pointing out that in the old days of Fast Fiction they had one table for small press stuff in a hall as big as the one that was now filled with small press comics. Very nice to see.

The venue at Goldsmith’s was really nice, although a touch harder to get to than the Queen Mary College where the “Thing” (this expo’s most obvious ancestor) was held. Maybe that contributed to slightly lower turn out – a few people said that the day had felt a little slow in terms of sales. Perhaps a little more publicity could have helped encourage to brave the buses or trains to get there. I hope that can be sorted out as the venue is really nice, and New Cross has some nice options for the all important post-expo socialising (see Ellen Lindner’s excellent map!).

I picked up some nice stuff, including work by Dave O’Connell, Dan Berry, Bad Dog by the always excellent Gary Northfield, Blood Magic by Karen Rubins, Nervous In A Cape #3 (I don’t have any others) by Christie Abraham, Some People by Luke Pearson, West: Distance by Cheverton & Keable and Filmish #3 (ditto) by Edward Ross. Some nice stuff there!

After that, a few of us went to see Lorenzon Mattotti in conversation with Dave McKean, hosted by Paul Gravett. Mattotti is a good talker – although his work clearly speaks for itself! – and described his work with reference to Tchaikovsky, Francis Bacon and even Genesis. He discussed Fires, Pinocchio (and how, though he likes the Disney film, it isn’t representative of the novel), his love for Robert Louis Stevenson, the covers he’s done for The New Yorker, and finally Stigmata, just out in a beautiful new edition.

A great talk, and after that it only left the socialising, with too many people to name. A good day. Hopefully the London Comics and Small Press Expo will build on this great start, and draw the crowds that it deserves.

Before arriving at the 2011 Angoulême Festival all the excited talk was about L’Association – would they be there at all? would they be selling books? Would they fold totally, or maybe sack their staff? Would Jean-Christophe Menu, their iconic editor-in-chief leave? Their success and influence over the last 20 years, meant that all independent publishers would be following very closely what was going on at L’Association.

For the first two days of the festival, the L’Asso table – as in the last few years, occupying pride of place, with a large 3-sided booth, as the very first thing you see as you enter the Nouveau Monde tent – was effectively a picket line. The tables where there would normally be books were covered with leaflets describing the strike action. On the third day the picket was relaxed and artists were allowed ot sell their books and do dédicaces, but that was not indicative of any resolution to the dispute.

Menu himself was fairly visible around the festival. I didn’t talk to him, but he seemed to be in fairly good spirits despite the problems. Although I’m sure he did find the whole thing (and having to talk about it) tiresome, I suspect that part of him enjoyed the controversy, and probably felt some sympathy with the strikers.

The whole crisis at L’Asso was apparently precipitated by the closure of Le Comptoir des indépendants the main small-press distributor in France. This has obviously had a wider impact than just L’Association. Apparently many small publishers have limited the number of books that they have put out in the latter half of 2010 – as if they can’t get the new books into the shops, they will miss their opportunity to get promoted effectively. Partly because of that (coupled with a strong Euro and a larger than average to-read pile) I didn’t buy many books at all this year, so instead I’ll focus mostly on the exhibitions, which fortunately were generally pretty good.

Of course, this was Baru’s year as President, and he had a suitably monumental exhibition in the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image. On display were literally hundreds of pages of beautiful original art. And Baru’s pages are beautiful: dense, glossy blacks, vibrant, harmonious watercolours – and barely a correction on ‘em.

It was really wonderful stuff – and a worthy tribute to this popular, genre-crossing master of the artform. As with Blutch’s exhibition last year, the focus was really on the art (rather than influences, contemporaries, working methods, etc.), but unlike Blutch’s, this was a comprehensive retrospective of Baru’s career.

The best exhibition, though, was upstairs in the CNBDI. Dominique Goblet has long been a leading light of the European avante-garde for over a decade now. She works on the fringes of traditional comics. This exhibition showcased a lot of her work, stretching back to her first album with Fréon (now Fremok), through her fantastic book (“translated on Comix Influx”:) Faire Semblant C’Est Mentir, work from the fantastic Match De Catch exhibit from last year, on to her new work Les Homme-Loups (with Freon again), and many other pieces as well.

Overall, a great exhibition, showcasing the ground-breaking work of one of the best comics artists of her generation. As well as Les Homme-Loups, Goblet also published another book this year – a beautiful book from L’Association, which simply shows portraits that Goblet and her daughter have done of each other over the last 10 years (they even did dédicace together at the Freon table on the Saturday of the festival). This is a truly experimental comics work – clearly there is no traditional narrative, although there is a meta-narrative of how she and her daughter have grown together. Is that enough for it to be comics? I think by a McCloudian definition it is.

Finally, Goblet was also showcased in the exhibition of Belgian comics work in the Espace Franquin (back with its traditional monicker, after several years as the Espace Manga). This was another outstanding exhibition, with work from many Belgian artists, probably the most artistically creative country for comics of the last ten or so years.

Hong Kong provided the newly discovered international comics this time round. It was a fascinating glimpse. The exhibition itself had something of an industrial feel, with the stands incorporating screens and headphones for watching anime, and metal drawers to pull out containing pages of comics, as well as action figures and other ephemera. It was certainly engaging if you were willing to put in the effort, although I imagine that some people would have been put off and not discovered the treasures hidden therein. And there was lots there of interesting stuff. Old Master Q, showed an early daily strip of an everyman, suffering life’s strains a and delighting in its minor victories. The Fashion comics too were very cool. Naturally, the Hong Kong artists are also looking to their neighbours. Acceptance in Japan brings a lot of kudos, but they are of course also eyeing the lucrative Chinese market too. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition claims that Hong Kong is the third largest comics market in the world, after Japan and the US, a statistic that I’d like to understand a bit better.

We also spent quite a bit of time at the Luxe et Beauté gallery, by the Maison des Auteurs. They had lots of (very affordable!) silk-screen prints by young artists. The reason we returned so often, though, was that they also had parties every evening – drawing a younger and hipper crowd than our more traditional hang-outs. Ellen and I happily bumped into Choi Juhyun there one evening.

Other exhibitions of note included that for the new edition of the anthology Clafoutis and the Parodies show at the new museum. This exhibit, curated by comics scholar Thierry Groenstein, essentially illustrated how central works of parody are in comics culture – whether imitating paintings, lampooning traditional characters, or simply ripping off copyrighted characters. It was an interesting and enjoyable exhibition. In particular, it was great to see some work by Bob Sikoryak, such as Action Camus, dropping Superman into Camus’ existential writing and Poor Ol’ Gregor Brown, setting Kafka’s Metamorphosis in the world of Schulz’s Peanuts. Sadly the Peanuts exhibit, just outside the museum, wasn’t quite so impressive – just consisting of a bunch of all-weather stands. It was fine, but not the comprehensive review that Schulz’s work deserves. Still, there must have been a million photos like this one taken in the course of the festival:

Angoulême certainly seemed very busy this time around, particularly on the Friday and Saturday (thus curtailing any last-minute purchasing I may have done). I think something will need to be done for the layout of the Nouvelle Monde tent if those numbers are repeated in future years. It can quickly become one long bottle-neck. Finally, as many festival goers were making their tired journeys back, the announcement of the prizes came through. It looked like a good list to me – I was particularly pleased to see Manuele Fior’s Cinq Mille Kilomètres Par Seconde win the best album. Congrats also to David Mazzucchelli, Joe Sacco, Brecht Evens and Ulli Lust. You can see the complete list here (although I’m not sure that link is permanent).

Of course, the president is announced along with the prize-winning books, and this year Art Spiegelman has been awarded the Grand Prix. This has been well-covered elsewhere, but it’s particularly good to see the run of more alternative, experimental artists attaining the presidency continue. Now a great president is no guarantor of a great festival, but nonetheless I definitely do have high hopes for 2012.

So Angoulême 2011 is just about here! I’m leaving for the Festival International de la Bande Desinée tomorrow morning.

So what’s everyone looking forward to? I’ve never seen a Schulz exhibit, so that’s good. The Hong Kong Stars exhibit also sounds interesting,

Anyone know who’s going to be in the Rencontres Dessinées ? Anyone excited by the Petite Histoire des Colonies Françaises ?

Génération Spontanée looks right up my street, but haven’t we seen a lot of these artists shown in recent years? But honestly I’m not complaining…

And what else? Le Cabaret de Bande Bessinée Aléatoire sounds… intriguing.

And of course I’m assuming Baru’s Debout Les Damnés De La Terre  will be a highlight.

I’m aiming to go to the Paul Karasik talk on adaptation in comics at 4.30pm on Friday: http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/please_consider_going_to_paul_karasiks_angouleme_presentation/

And that’s not even mentioning books! I’ll be referring to Paul Gravett’s guests’ best international comics of 2010 extensively.

With any luck, I’ll be tweeting the festival again – I’ll use either #angou2011 or #fibd, perhaps both. I’m hoping to do more photo tweets this year – we’ll see what the connectivity’s like in Poitou-Charentes.

And I hope to run in to some friends of Comix Influx there. I’m sure I’ll be in Le Chat Noir at some point most evenings!

Following news of a strike at French comics independent giant L’Association, Jean-Christophe Menu has responded with a combative press release:

which roughly translates as:

The indefinite strike follows redundancies, which themselves were precipitated by the collapse of _ Le Comptoir des indépendants_ the main distributor of independent comics publishers in France (of course, very bad news for many other publishers, smaller than L’Asso).

The employees are complaining both about the redundancies, but also the manner in which they’ve been handled (for example, that they were announced by an outside agency). They call for a general meeting to clarify the situation, which Menu’s communiqué seems to accede to, but his sign-off “the book projects simply must continue” may be read as remaining pretty resolute.

Our friends at Ego Comme X have started selling print-on-demand books with LES SŒURS ZABÎME by the late Aristophane.

This is a great move, particularly for smaller publishers who can’t always afford to keep their back catalogue in print. As you probably know, Ego Comme X are the far-sighted publishers that have put English translations of Émile by Fabrice Neaud, and La Meilleure du Monde by Pauline Martin up on their site (using, as I’m sure you also know, the Comix Influx translation by Travis Mcgee and by Ellen Lindner respectively, which we are immensely pleased about).

Hopefully Ego Comme X will continue with their POD ventures, maybe even making their translated books available.

Very exciting news from Ego Comme X – they have just published an online version of La Meillure du Monde by Pauline Martin. They have used the Comix Influx translation by Ellen Lindner, and it is fantastic to see our translations being used in a way that makes them really accessible to a wider audience, and crucially making Martin’s comic available to an personal international audience – the mission statement of Comix Influx.

This of course follows up from Ego Comme X’s online English edition of Émile by the amazing Fabrice Neaud, using a translation by Travis Lealand.

I hope that Ego’s pioneering and farsighted use of our translations are a big success for them, and garner them many more readers and also co-editions of their books. Other publishers and authors should take note!

I spoke to the excellent Kenny Penman at the recent Thought Bubble festival in Leeds, and he too said that he found Comix Influx translations very valuable for discovering new works for his publishing company, Black Slate Books. It’s extremely heartening to see Comix Influx really helping publishers find new books, and thereby helping creators to reach a larger audience. And of course helping readers to find great works from other countries.

Anyone in London! Hear this! The amazing Argentinian cartoonist and illustrator Carlos Nine is in conversation with Sylvia Libedinsky and Paul Gravett at the London Print Studio this evening.

Find out more about Carlos Nine at the excellent Lambiek Comicopedia

The event runs from 6.30-8.30pm, LPS can be found at 425 Harrow Road, London W10 4RE, and tickets are £4.

Official details here

It should be a great evening!

If you can get to London on Thursday (22/10/2010), why not come along to the opening of That’s Novel, a Comica exhibition at the London Print Studio. There are loads of fantastic cartoonists involved, including

Karrie Fransman

Darryl Cunningham

Carlos Nine

Philippa Rice

Metaphrog

Charlie Adlard

Will Bingley

and many, many others. As you can see, it’s an impressive line-up. The opening runs from 6-9.

Details here

The London Print Studio is at
425 harrow road london w10 4re

Closest tube is Westbourne Park. Here’s a map, and another.

Please check out this fundraising drive for Whores of Mensa issue 5 on Kickstarter.

As it says on the Kickstarter page: “Whores of Mensa has published great cartooning by women since 2004. For our blockbuster 5th issue, we’re collecting work by all of our cartooning pals. We want to make this one – The Party Issue – a gathering to remember.”

The video features Ellen Lindner, who has coordinated this issue of Whores of Mensa, as well as contributing a story of course. Ellen is a Comix Influx contributor, and happens to be married to me!

Confirmed partygoers include:

Howard John Arey
Francesca Cassavetti
Richard Cowdry
Jeremy Day
Peter Lally
Ellen Lindner
Cliodhna Lyons
Sarah McIntyre
Tanya Meditzky
Emily Ryan Lerner
Maartje Schalkx

as well as recently confirmed special guest, Patrice Aggs!

Any money raised through Kickstarter will go toward keeping the Whores of Mensa 5 in print. Contribute $10 and receive a personalized copy and a badge; contribute $25 and additionally get a limited Gocco print as well!

Please check out the project, and if you feel so moved donate some cash to help get the party started.

Leith’s article was an interesting but slightly disjointed article, covering the death of Harvey Pekar, and bemoaning the fact that even in trying to escape genre work comics just seems to then invent new genres (for example, all the Watchmen-inspired antihero comics, or the navel-gazing of Ware, Clowes, Seth and Tomine).

I’m not sure that holding up Cerebus as an antidote to these twin genres works, as it is itself a reaction to genre work, but still Leith’s point about the self-referentiality of comics is an interesting one. So many modern comics (in the anglophone, world anyway) are consciously and overtly reacting or referencing earlier works. Whether it is super-hero reboots, or genre subversion (the most obvious progenitor being Watchmen, as noted in the article), or the interweaving of caped heroes in Jimmy Corrigan. As Leith says, many comics are “either fleeing superhero silliness (to become a sort of dour antiheroism) or nervously playing off it.” The message is all about the medium.

Given the eulogising of the aardvark, I’m surprised at the exhortation for comics to cheer up. Still, some interesting points made.

• Just today, Jonathan Ross interviews Jim Steranko. In Comix Influx-relevant, Steranko mentions that as a youth Federico Fellini translated American comics, particularly Flash Gordon, into Italian.

I saw on Reprodukt’s blog that Uli Pröfroch’s excellent comics store, X Für U, is 25 years old! Badische Zeitung, the regional newspaper of Freiburg (where X Für U is based), has another interview, as does fudder.de, which has also published a history of X Für U. Very exciting!

Uli has been a massive figure in my comics education. Along with Christiane Markowitz and Kai Wilksen, Uli’s frequent and long-time collaborator (and also Bart Beaty, who introduced me to them) he showed me the extensive and byzantine ropes of Angoulême – both the town and festival – and has introduced me to so many people, and comics! I can’t really express my gratitude to all them adequately, but I can wish X Für U a happy Silver Anniversary!

With a little help from Google Translate, here’s a translation of Reprodukt’s blogpost:

25 years for X Für U, Freiburg

Such a great comic shop like X Für U is rare to find – so go and buy!

And from the fudder.de site, here are Uli’s top 10 comics

• George Herriman: Krazy Kat

• Will Eisner: The Spirit

• Hugo Pratt: Corto Maltese

• Carl Barks: Absolutely everything! “About the creator of Duckburg, nothing needs to be said.”

• Andre Franquin: Spirou and Fantasio

• Moebius: Jerry Cornelius / Airtight Garage

• Chris Ware: Acme Novelty Library

• Neil Gaiman: Sandman

• Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon Preacher

• Jiro Taniguchi: A Distant Neighbourhood

Photograph © Thomas Kunz, Badische Zeitung

Comica Argentina is on! In fact it’s so on, that the exhibition has closed for general admission (but read on if you still want to see it…), and the first talk (of three) is unfortunately finished as I type. But – better late than never – there are still two talks on this weekend. Check out the Comica website for details, but on Saturday, at 4.30pm, there is a screening (and talk) of a documentary about El Apóstol, a lost 1917 animated film written and directed by Quirino Cristiani. Then on Sunday at 6.30pm Paul Gravett talks to cartoonist Oscar Grillo and director / animator Gabriele Zucchelli about their work.

Both talks are on at King’s Place, the home of leading UK newspapers, The Guardian and The Observer – these are also your last chance see the Comica Argentina exhibition, brought to you by Sylvia Libedinsky, Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury.

Check them out :

Good luck to those nations left in the World Cup!

I believe this is going to be a semi-regular thing, so don’t despair if you miss this one! Check out the Comica Social Club Facebook page.

It’s organised by Peter Stanbury – of Comica, Escape and the Good News is No News group.

Joe writes:

“Toon from the Stripgids comics journal in Europe did an interview alongside Hec Leemans with Guy Dessicy, one of the last of the folks to be there at the original Studio Hergé and that golden age of European comics. He apparently doesn’t do many long interviews, but Hec is a friend so he did one with him and Toon. As with the Leblanc one a couple of years back they’ve very nicely let us post up an English language edition translated by our regular Euro comics correspondent, Wim. First past went up yesterday: http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/guy-dessicy-the-last-witness-herge-leblanc-and-abdallah/ and second part is up today: http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/guy-dessicy-the-last-witness-part-2-publiart-belvision-and-vandersteen/. Third part will go up, yes, you guessed it, tomorrow, so if you’re up to your eyes in it as usual you can always kick back and enjoy reading it when the holiday weekend hits.”