Monday 6 February 2012

Angouleme

Spent last weekend in Angoulême, France at the the bandes dessinees or comics festival. 250,000 people descend on a town of just over 40,000. It's quite a sight. There was an incredible variety of comics on display, virtually all European and excluding the small American stand, thankfully not a superhero in sight. Some of the artwork and creativity at the event is just mindblowing and in french comics there's always a good representation of thoughtful storytelling alongside the fantastic and the humerous.
The main exhibition was of Art Spiegelman and his work - Maus of course, but also some of his less well known comics. There was also a major exhibition in the permanant museum of bandes dessinees - of work that inspired and influenced him.
I spent most of the weekend checking out stalls and catching up with friends so had few opportunities to sit down and do lengthy sketches. Below are a few that I managed to fit into the pauses between browsing and carousing.


View across the ramparts at Angoulême - click to enlarge


At Rosaline's house with Ale, Dag and Artur at breakfast


Downtown Angoulême with the tower of the Hotel de Ville in the background.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

These are great.

I'm glad I'm not alone in abandoning my sketchbook in favour of friends and entertainment.

Chee Hao said...

Thaanks for sharing