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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
See You in Angoulême!
Posted: January 24, 2012
The 39th Angoulême International Comics Festival gets underway this Thursday, January 26th, till Sunday, under the auspices of Grand Prix winner and 2012 President Art Spiegelman. This is my 27th trip, my annual pilgrimage and I can’t wait. This year, I’ve been asked to interview special guest Eddie Campbell, whose collected Alec is amongst the nominees for the Essential prize. That International Encounter takes place on Friday, 28th, 11.30-12.30 in the Salle Bunuel of the Espace Franquin in the town centre. Who would have thought nearly thirty years after Alec began, including episodes in Escape Magazine and the first three Alec collections also released by Escape, that Eddie’s autobiographical comics would be recognised in France?
My other engagement this year is on the Saturday 29th, 1.00-2.30pm, at the Conservatoire Fauré, where I will be talking (in French!) about ‘le making of’ the massive guide I edited, 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, which is coming out in French as the 1001 BD You Must Have Read In Your Life from Flammarion on March 14th to coincide with the Paris Book Fair. Here’s the cover and you’ll see that author and authority Benoît Peeters has written a brand new introduction, which I’ll be sharing with you in English on publication. Also French liaison and contributor to 1001 Comics, Nicolas Finet, with his colleagues, has revised the selection, replacing around 100 entries unknown in France with extra French entries, all of them fascinating gems of bande dessiné. Find out what’s missing and what’s been replaced. I’m also hoping to meet up with many of the 1001 Comics co-writers attending and share a toast to our communal achievement of this ambitious reference work as it spreads around the world (the Spanish and German editions are already underway).
So if you’re in the ‘International City of Comics’ in the coming days, do come to these events if you can (though there is so much going on, it’s a dizzyingly rich programme). And otherwise I hope we’ll have the chance to meet. I’ll be reporting on the Festival in full shortly. A bientôt!
Read The Blog At The Crossroads here.
