Time for a quick report...
The best parts of my France trip were not necessarily seeing the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe or the Musée D'Orsay for the first time, or the fine meals I ate while in the various cities, but rather the terrific people I met along the way. Here are just a few of the fine folks I met on my trip to France.
Richard and Emmanuel (L to R), editors of Akileos. I had my first meeting with them in San Diego last year and between now and then they really stepped up to make the French edition of Rose and Isabel a terrific looking book. They have been great to work with and the book is a wonderful result of their collaboration. Huge thanks to them for making this whole experience happen!
(pictured here at Album in St. Germán.)
Dean and Barbara Yeagle (seated across from each other at far table position) and Jean-Jaques and Diane Launier (seated across from each other at middle table position). This was taken at dinner after an opening of
Dean's art at
Gallery Arludik in Paris. They are a very friendly couple and were a pleasure to hang out with during my stay. Jean-Jaques and Diane are the owners of Gallery Arludik and have been putting on shows by tremendous artists over the years. Their passion for animation as art was very inspiring and they were very gracious in showing us a fun time while we were in Paris.
I met Christopher and Brigitte while in Tours;
Christopher is a well established comic artist that lives and works in Tours. He was incredibly gracious in lending his day to translate for Bill and I, as well as taking pictures of us signing and showing us around. Brigitte is from Bédélire books, an amazing shop where we did our signing; Brigitte made sure that we were well taken care of and enjoyed our time in Tours.
Here I am at the Hotel Mercure in Angoulême with (L to R) Christopher, Ben Cornish and Nick Parry-Jones, who work for Diamond UK and Legends, two fine Brits who I had the pleasure of drinking some beers with. Very funny fellows both.
Nicolas Seigneret (Bannister) and his girlfriend Flora. Bannister and Flora are an artist/writer team who have stories in the Flight compilations as well as books published by Dupuis. I had chatted with Bann via email and the web over the years and we finally got to meet in person at Angoulême.
Here we are with Jean Giraud! at The Hotel Mercure. The Mercure was the spot to hang out and socialize with fellow artists and exhibitors after dinner. Jean Giraud was very kind to accept copies of our books.
Many thanks also go out to the people who facilitated our signings and those that came by to check out Rose and Isabel at the stores and the festival. I've said it before about the San Diego Con and will say it about Angoulême as well -- it's meeting people that's the most fun for me. Thank you all for coming by!
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