Recap
Hello peeps! Welcome to the very first newsletter in the Cab Post! I’m really glad you’re here 😀
I ’m officially allowed to eat real food so yes, I have fully recovered. It's only a matter of time before my teeth and onions sour cream-flavored Ruffles are reunited. A touching moment without a doubt.
Being able to feed myself like an adult was the cherry on the delicious sundae (enough with the food references!) that was the Quebec BD festival. The weather was nice, everyone was in a good mood and Boum won a Bédéis Causa award for her book La Méduse. What more could I ask for, if not having the chance to see Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault at karaoke night in a dodgy St-Roch dive bar? Nothing, I think.
On April 25, we unveiled the posters I made for the upcoming Montreal Comics Arts Festival. Finally the cat was out of the bag! The theme this year was “Creation: From Imagination to Reality.” I wanted to illustrate the various cartoonist crafts and give a little nod to my fellow pen and pencil geeks. The sketches and the creative process are available on Patreon.
Every year I do a dumb drawing for 4/20 because I'm a serious adult. Rather than drawing Sam, the king of fictional stoners, I thought it would be fun to imagine Étienne starting to take a liking to Utown’s more laid-back lifestyle.
Announcements:
As usual, I'm going to attend the Montreal Comics Festival from August 26 to 28. Here is my signing schedule:
Friday May 26:
4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Front Froid
18h-19h at Oni Press
Saturday May 27:
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m
2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Front Froid
Plus a round table at 12 p.m. entitled “A whole new world” with Wes Craig and Gabriel Ba.
Sunday May 28:
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Front Froid
2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Oni Press
You read right, Oni Press has a booth this year! If it all goes well, they should have English-language copies of Utown. I got my very own copy last week and hot diggity, it looks AMAZING. It’s hitting me just now, how real this all is.
On Thursday May 4th, there’s a Special Drink and Draw at l’Orbite, in Old Montreal. I'll have some merch and sketchbooks. It’s gonna be fun!
Last announcement: my two art books are for sale as a bundle on my shop. This deal is only available online or until the first art book sells out. Which is like, pretty soon.
Cool stuff:
In my ears:
Good plastic haul this month, from Quebec and Montreal thrift shops. I found Green Day’s Dookie, the album that is, for all intents and purposes, Utown's Big Bang. Even the inside booklet fascinated me when I was a teenager.
Entrenched in a resolutely 90’s but very assumed alt-rock sound, Household Name by Momma is on repeat at home.
Big, big sound and big emotions from Elder’s Innate Passage. The part of me that goes “this would make a good soundtrack for the ambitious fantasy-sci-fi animated series that has been living in my head for 20 years” likes this very much.
Reading:
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I really enjoyed the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix but I didn’t expect to be sucked into the book that much. The heist storyline really elevates the characters. Great read!
The Age of Average or why everything looks the same nowadays. I’m finding myself more and more drawn to places that stand out in this sea of white brick walls and light wood furniture.
Cool artist:
Levi Prewitt, aka Levitzo on Instagram. He started a comic called “Opening Band” and I’m really digging it so far.
Cool stuff:
The Highrises Collection is a website that features hi-res, drone photos of famous skyscrapers “flatten” to look like technical drawings. It’s a great resource for anyone who wants to draw interesting buildings or just learn a little bit more about architecture. Pretty neat!
The April Cab Post
I'm overdue in saying this, but those festival posters are brilliant. Fantastic!