Angoulême. How it was......

If Angoulême 2011 taught me one thing, it was that there really aren’t enough hours in a day.
If it taught me two things, it was that you can get a sore throat from trying to speak French for five days.
But it is simply impossible to sum up what this event is like to experience.

For me, the event was also a chance to see my friends and fellow creators in France. But I also got to meet so many new people that now that I’m back at my desk in London, I shamefully can’t remember everyones names or where they were from. The 4 days are a little like a blur of piles of beautiful books and friendly people who welcome you into what felt like a real community of comic creators and readers.

Practically, the city is just small enough to be able to never be more than 10 minute walk from everything else.

I arrived on Weds and saw the sleepy little ville before the storm that was to come.

The next 4 days would see tens of thousands of people invade this little city and pillage it for all the comicy goodness it had to offer.
Thursday was understandably the quietest day and is considered 'Professionals' Day' because you have the best chance to go around and meet one another.
But 10am on Friday morning, the queues had begun already.

I’m struggling to really put into words all the great things that happened to me during the festival. Some hightlights included staying with my great friend Freddy Nadolny Poustochkine and the really fantastic Paul, Jonas and Matteau from Institute Posume who I also jumped around with to Britney Spears with until 3am in the morning at some strange party. Sharing a table with Scarce magazine and Tim Fish, Abbey Denson, Fred Harper and Molly Crabapple was cool as they were all really cool.

Catching up with people like Thomas Pirou, Gallium Bouzard, Giuseppe Camuncoli and more. Hanging out with my amazing French publishers Meme Pas Mal and finally meeting the whole crew and other creators like Groupil Anceique and Cha was great and so much fun.

It was a bit mind blowing to find myself amongst so many great people and I had many moments to reflect on what was actually happening.

Was it all really happening when at a 4am party, I was standing with the great Boulet to my right and the legendary Trondhiem to my left? Was I really discussing Monty Python with my heroes from Fluide Glacial? These amongst so many other things were just too cool to believe.

Was I really sitting at a table in Angoulême drawing sketches and signing books for people?

Thankfully this was all happening. And I hope to never forget it.
Many creators left on the last day but I stayed and saw the city return to it's quiet existence. Having been pillaged for 96 hours, it's little winding streets found their calmness again for another year. I learnt that is also an amazing little place which is full of creators all year round who receive grants and residencies to work on their graphic novels. Like a little BD haven.

My hugest thank yous to Xavier and Freddy because without them I may have missed all of this.

Now to get back to work!

(Oh, I must keep a promise and get everybody to go HERE!)