Rendez-Vous de la Bande Dessinee d'Amiens

June 7-8 I was a guest at Rendez-Vous de la BD d'Amiens, a large festival in Amiens, France, an hour north of Paris.  My friend Nico lives in Amiens, and he told me great things about the festival for years.  I was really looking forward to seeing it, and looking forward to returning to Amiens in June to see the difference from my visit in January.

The convention treated artists SO well.  I got a taste of the French convention model at St-Malo, Angouleme, and Bulles de Neige, but this was really special.  I felt pampered and informed from arrival to departure, ate fantastic food, and had plenty of time to meet the other guests and enjoy the city...it was amazing.  The festival volunteers and employees were phenomenal.

The city was gorgeous!  It was sunny and hot, tourist season was starting, and people were milling around the streets of downtown.  I got to visit the Cathedral with a group from the festival, and a couple of our dinners were on the river in areas I hadn't made it out to yet.  Each evening after the festival we had snacks and drinks on a big terrace of the university looking out over the old town and canals.

At the festival I adopted the French dédicace model of signing books for free with nice, 20-ish minute drawings, and letting the festival handle sales for me at their big bookstore at the entrance.  It was nice not having to sell my own work like I do in the US, where I have to be constantly engaging multiple people and dropping other conversations when someone wants to make a purchase.  I had a decent line of people patiently waiting for that time with me, and we sold out of books on Saturday!

Some engineering students were exhibiting 3D scanning and printing technology at the festival, and asked to scan my head and shoulders so they could make a bust from them!  I sat in a swivel chair and one person pointed the handheld scanner at me, while another slowly spun the chair around in a circle.  I tried not to move, but my eyes looked at different things as I spun, so the color version of the 3D image was hilariously cross-eyed.  But I was AMAZED at the accuracy of the scan, how quick it was, and what it could mean for product design, digital animation...you name it!

Result: mini me!

 

Monkeybrain Comics publishing my Amsterdam sketchbook! Also, meet me this summer in Spain, France, or New York!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 4 -- Monkeybrain Comics is publishing a 19-page collection of my sketches from Amsterdam!  Life drawings, doodles, and comics, all completed while on the trip, in one clean digital comic file.  If you like process and sketchbooks, I think you'll enjoy this.

Yes, the cover for this digital release is where my new banner for the blog came from! ^_^

Meet me in Spain, France, or New York!
I have quite a bit of travel ahead of me, and I wanted to list it out for any readers who might be interested in a meet-up in one of these cities.  I'll try to go to cafes (and maybe bars) to life draw in each city, and give some warning on Twitter before I do.  If you'd like to join me and chat or draw, I hope you will!

June 6-8 Amiens, FRANCE (I’m a guest at the BD festival, but I’ll be around town in the evenings)
June 9-14 Annecy, FRANCE (I’m attending the Film Festival, but should have lots of free time)
June 28-29 Granada, SPAIN
June 30-July 1 Madrid, SPAIN
July 2-4 Barcelona, SPAIN
July 16-21 New York City, USA

What's new?
I had a really nice mention on the Forbidden Planet blog last week.

I animated a thing I was very happy with.

Recently I've had a flurry of meet-ups with friends and readers in Paris.  It's been really fun!  I met a couple of American backpackers on their gap year in the Tuileries Garden for a picnic and a long talk about traveling in Europe.  A reader living in France introduced me to a fun bar with French slam poetry in Belleville.  My sorority sister Kayla and friend Alyssa are on a big Eurotrip together and we met up for dinner and drinks near the St-Martin Canal.  Author Isabelle Bauthian met me for a drink and a nice talk about language, comics, and American vs French styles of acting.

I was also lucky enough to attend my first two French concerts last month.  Both venues were beautiful, old concert halls with chandeliers and decorated ceilings.  And both had seating for this old fogey!  People stood up near the front, but it was possible to enjoy the show (and my drink) from a seat.
Manu, previously of Dolly, played an intimate show at the Resevoir.  She performed new material (including a song in Japanese off of her new album!!), but also a lot of big hits from Dolly.  I even knew some of them, thanks to Nico introducing me to the band back in January. 
I also got to see Renan Luce in concert at the Trianon.  We got to sit in the center of the balcony.  This show was really fun--Renan's music is playful, and I like trying to follow the stories he's telling.  Check out La Boite if you haven't yet!

I took the B2 DELF exam this month and that was...interesting.  The 2.5 hour written exam felt fine, actually, but the oral exam was terrifying.  We had 30 minutes to read an article and draft an argumentative speech meant to last 10 minutes.  I only had my introduction and bulletpoints for the rest of my speech when we ran out of time and had to go off to our examiners. @__@ I'll find out July 8 whether or not I passed; fingers crossed!

 I went to the Arts & Metiers museum for the first time last week.  It's free every Thursday night!  The museum is dedicated to scientific tools from the 1750s to the present (everything from telescopes to looms to computers).  I love the way the instruments are presented as artwork in addition to their scientific context.  Recommended!

I got to visit another French cartoonist studio in May.  That's such a pleasure for me--I love seeing how people work, especially groups of cartoonists.  It's surprising how much we all have in common!  This studio houses a lot of cartoonists I admire, and I felt a little like I was walking on hallowed ground.  I drew a little but I mostly walked around admiring the space. :)

I got to attend the Paris premiere of Godzilla with Boulet at the Grand REX Theater, and we made reaction comics after. :) On my movie review blog, I posted about 10 new reviews in the last 3 weeks for readers who requested movies for me.

I visited Bois de Vincennes again with some friends for a picnic.  It was PACKED; I couldn't believe it.  My friend Emilie took us back into downtown Paris on foot via La Coulée Verte: a 4.7km long park built on top of an obsolete elevated train track.  VERY pretty and a nice, green break from downtown.

Last but not least, I attended the Other Writers' Group at Shakespeare & Co last night, and that was a great time.  About 20 English-language authors met to share works-in-progress and give each other rigorous constructive feedback.  I couldn't believe the meeting really took place in the picturesque second-story front room over the bookstore.  Well worth the 6 Euros, and I'm sure I'll be back.  Maybe with print-outs of my next comic if I'm feeling brave!

 

He who must not be named

...Guys, proceed with caution. I know you are adults and you can choose for yourself what you do and do not want to expose yourselves to, but...René la Taupe cannot be unseen. This is the 2 Girls 1 Cup of joke songs. It will haunt you.

Anyway, for the brave, here is a LINK.

Nico says it was impossible to escape this song for about 6 months. People set it as their cell ringtone, and it played on the radio, in the grocery store, when you went shopping... x_x I realize that I may be spreading the infection by even making this comic, but...ugh. It's too horrible not to share.
 

You could never make me pick up the phone

France! :D Yeah, I've been pretty doctor-shy since I went in for my annual physical exam in the US last year.  It was supposed to be fully covered by my insurance, but I made the mistake of asking the doctor a "problem-related question" ("Can I ask for your advice about ___?").  I got slapped with a $300 bill for that.
My friends in London were SHOCKED when I told them about the shiny new options for freelancers in Oregon to self-insure for around $200/month.  That won't fully cover you, by the way...you'll still pay a percentage whenever you have a medical bill.  And yeah, that's still loads better than it was.  I just turned 26, and though Obama saved my butt by extending my coverage on my parents' health insurance for 3 years, I'm currently uninsured. (-_-)

Woof, I'm still a little tender today after that surprise stomach flu attack.  I was lucky it happened while I was at Nico's; he kept me alive while I was useless on the couch for 24 hours.  He says it was inevitable to get sick eventually in a new country, and I have to build up my immunity to France. :P

We had a nice surprise today -- Periscope Studio sent a holiday care package!!!  Chocolate, tea, coffee, Mexican food ingredients, peanut butter, mac & cheese mix, drawings, cards, homemade jam, photos, mp3s...you should have seen us shrieking like little kids over each new item. :) Of course we ripped that mac & cheese open and cooked it immediately.