Recap
Hello friends! I hope you're doing well. As I write this, the darkest 10 weeks of the year are behind us.Thank god because to tell you the truth, I’ve been going through a LOT of personal turmoil in the last few weeks. Someone, somewhere, thought my life was boring and decided to hire a script doctor to punch things up a bit without telling me. But like… that’s enough now.
Through the chaos of it all, I spent the month of January organizing my trip to Angoulême, a small French town which hosts a gigantic comic book festival. On January 23rd, my editors and colleagues at Front Froid/Nouvelle Address and I, along with 60 other Canadian authors, flew to France. And what an adventure it was; imagine tents as big as Walmarts full of authors, publishing houses and above all, PEOPLE! 200,000 people invade the city in the space of four days; luckily, I'm not agoraphobic. I had a great time, I saw lots of exhibitions, including one on food in comics (appropriate), I ate 50 pounds of cheese and bread, I met a bunch of authors, including Zerocalcare (!!!), I laughed, I was moved to tears after seeing original inked pages by Franquin, Goscinny, Morris, Peyo, Hergé and such. It was an unforgettable experience and I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to attend the Angoulême Festival once in my life, with such a large Canadian delegation. C’était fou!
Not a lot of art this month, because life, etc. etc. I still made a banner for the Mastodon server of one of my long-time followers. The instance focuses on traditional hobbies and I decided to draw one of my favorite motif, the cluttered work table.
Announcements
Big, big news in my store: I put up signed copies of my own books on sale! It is now possible to get the complete collected edition of Hiver Nucléaire (in French), Utown in French and Utown in English, signed by me. All you have to do is tell me the name of the person to whom the book will be dedicated in a note at the time of purchase and I will take care of the rest! If in doubt, I will do a neutral/open dedication. Everything is still in progress, so I only ship to Canada and the United States at the moment. If you wish, it will be possible to pick the books up at my place in Montreal and save on shipping with the code PICKUPBOOKS at checkout.
This fall I illustrated a cover for a book called Le Fantôme Bleu which will be released with Fides Jeunesse on January 19th. Pre-order here! Here is the final illustration without the title:
Cool stuff
If you happen to pass through Verdun, visit the Pulp Bookstore. It’s a great space, with a lovely café!
I saw the Barbie movie and I liked it. Did you know that one of the particularities of the film's photography direction is that the characters are pretty much always lit from behind, no matter the angle or where the sun is. I don't know, that's the kind of info I really find interesting.
The word of the year 2023 is enshittification, a concept I have already talked about here. It’s a fantastic neologism, which helped me understand why I increasingly hate spending time online (and why I’m writing this newsletter) (and why it will have to migrate shortly).“Enshittification is a sadly apt term for how our online lives have become gradually degraded.”
I've said it often, but Ryan Broderick, who writes Garbage Day, is still pretty much my to-go source on anything that has to do with online trends. His comparison between AI-generated art and fake Chanel bags is really on point: “But I actually think we’re beginning to finally get an answer: The only real use case for AI art is flooding social media with a bunch of worthless garbage. And the only reason to do that is to advertise something or scam people.”
Good music full of raw emotions: Letters to Self by Sprints and Moments of Clarity by Narrow Head. Also, Wall of Eyes by The Smile is out and maaaaaaaan.
My life is dictated by breakfast cycles come and go. My oatmeal cycle is over and I've pretty much exhausted all the Western options, so it's the perfect time to try some new things! Right now, I'm enjoying some tamago kake gohan, white rice with a raw egg beaten in it and seasoned with furikake and whatever I have on hand. Next purchase: a rice cooker!
Cool artist I discovered at Angoulême: Wauter Mannaert.
I'd probably be the same way if I saw those inked pages. The way I draw ears comes from Peyo! The Smurfs were crazy popular when I was in second grade, so the influence came naturally.
I've been trying to avoid the use of "enshittification," but I think it'll eventually get a hold on me...just like "bucket list" did.
The breakfast part of your post made me realize my Duolingo Japanese lessons are taking hold. I was like, "Gohan! That's rice!" Imagine my surprise when I put two and two together and realized that Dragon Ball's protagonist was named after rice. I knew of other food-named characters, so the moment of clarity was akin to a facepalm.
Somewhere I read that the movie starts when the main character’s life gets an unexpected twist. So always remember to thank yourself for getting you all the way here and keep going while the action is happening.
The fake Chanel bag and ai comparison is a great treat, glad I’m following you so I could know about it.
Congrats on the trip!