I got an email t’other day, one that I can’t say I ever expected to receive. It’s worth quoting in full:

This coming Friday, February 28th, marks fifteen years of the venerable Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge. Michael H. Payne’s Daily Grind and my own TRU-Life Adventures are still updating every weekday. Thought it might make a nice bullet point for you, maybe down in Spam of the Day.

That from Andrew Rothery, and therein, friends, lies a tale. If you’re new around here, you may not recall the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, a thing so old that its website has long since lapsed and been staked out by domain squatters¹. A thing so old that our first, offhand mention was in 2007, when it was assumed anybody reading this page would just know what we meant. Since that was a long damn time ago, let us recap:

In February of 2005, the denizens of a message board decided to see who could maintain a Mon-Fri daily webcomic schedule longest. There were rules: No posting of sketches, two panels minimum (but you could do a single-panel update every ten strips), your update must go up by midnight PST, and if your hosting went down you had to post somewhere by deadline and let people know where to find it. The contest would start 28 Feb 2005, it cost US$20 to buy in, and the last person standing got the pot, which amounted to US$112 (next to last would get the money raised from site ads, last thought to be about US$135).

There were names that you’d recognize in there: Natasha Allegri, Jennie Breeden, Tom McHenry, Scott Kurtz, John Campbell², Phil McAndrew. People that were prominent webcomickers and then weren’t and then were again: Steve Troop, Greg Dean, DJ Coffman. Ed Brisson, who is writing at half the comic book publishers, was one of the referees. Ali Graham does media marketing now; Dean Trippe teaches kids how to make comics.

By the time this blog started, half the field had been eliminated; heck, even Chris Crosby, who is presently on year twenty one of Superosity, was out by November of 2005. Seven remained at the five year mark; there were only three remaining at the end of 2014 (among them the very sexy Brad Guigar³) and only two on the 10th anniversary (Guigar ran three days worth of single panels close out the old year and ring in the new).

And there they have sat for the past five years: Payne and Rothery, here on the last day of Year Fifteen, ready for the first day of Year Sixteen tomorrow, continuing on out os a sense of pride and sheer cussedness. At this pint, I imagine it’ll be one of the two claiming the big purse and the estate of the other getting the small purse. Or, alternately, they both decide to celebrate having reached the milestone by getting blind drunk tonight, and both accidentally sleep through updating tomorrow, leading to a dual disqualification; after all, you can’t spell irony without Iron.

Spam of the day:

This coming Friday, February 28th, marks fifteen years of the venerable Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge. Michael H. Payne’s Daily Grind and my own TRU-Life Adventures are still updating every weekday. Thought it might make a nice bullet point for you, maybe down in Spam of the Day.

We aim to please.

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¹ The oldest instance of which was April of last year with an asking price of US$1888. Today’s asking price has gone up to US$94,888 which seems a tad unrealistic.

² That’s a sad story, one of bad choices and brain chemistry gone wrong.

³ At the start of the IMDGC, you’d have been hard pressed to find a stronger advocate of regularity in posting schedule than Guigar. Take a listen to him on ComicLab these days, it’s the furthest thing from a priority for him. Time changes us all.

I think we could use a little chill these days; what with the world’s single most gleefully vindictive ignoramus in charge of our country’s response to an incipient pandemic, chill sounds like a good idea.

• Few people that I’ve met are on a more even keel, less perturbable than Scott C; very nearly all of his art conveys a feeling of just take a deep breath for a moment, no need to get all excited, even when the topic is the most spectacular of spectacles. Mr C’s been working on several projects for a while now, we haven’t seen as many Great Showdowns as in the past, and fans are hungering for another collection.

  So Gallery 1988 (which, along with Nucleus, is the place for modern takes on pop culture) is have a weeks-long celebration of Scott C:

  With the HIGHLY anticipated return of the Great Showdowns exhibit from @scottlava opening on March 6th, we’re excited to share the calendar of events for the show. It’s action-packed and unlike anything we’ve done before. Get ready for the true Showdowns experience!!!

  Events include an opening reception on the 6th from 7:00pm to 9:00pm, complete with a mystery Showdowns trivia contest, a Scott C painting for the trivia winner (livepainted on the 7th at 1:00pm), limited edition toy and print releases, a daily scavenger hunt, a drawing party with pizza, and a closing party. Whew! See the graphic up top for all the stuff going on, and keep an eye on the exhibitions page at the G1988 site for details.

• Know who else just surfs through a sometimes turbulent world on a wave of comics, sometimes from one far corner of the globe¹ to another? Eben Burgoon. He was the inspiration of one of our earliest running gags here at Fleen, he holds down the fort of comics-making and evangelism in the Sacramento Sector, and he makes a habit of not only keeping me up with his goings-on, but also those of current and former collaborators. To that end, I received an email:
  

  D.Bethel — the illustrator and co-creator of Eben07 — has been making his opus of a webcomic in Long John. It’s a western-genre comic that focuses on a revenge story about a gunslinger left to die in just his long-johns by his former gang.

  Burgoon undersells the premise a bit, but he’s absolutely right that Bethel has constructed a slow-burn story that reveals itself in a deliberate manner, much like a classic ’60s splatter Western. And Burgoon himself is collaborating with Dean Beattie on Tiny Wizards, about french-fry sized wizards doing their wizardly battles as they struggle to survive in a sea of fast food joints in a road-side truck stop in the middle of nowhere.

  Remember what I said about mundane magic in a regular world yesterday? Magic hidden in the most ridiculous way from plain sight is also a great premise, and I’ll be interested to see how it turns out. In the meantime, I’ve seen a sampler that Burgoon sent along, and Beattie is channeling Skottie Young’s work on I Hate Fairyland; your enjoyment will depend on the answer to one question², which if you opt for the affirmative, you should definitely check out the Kicker³.

Spam of the day:

Military Source Exposes Shocking TRUTH About Coronavirus And The “1 Thing” You Must Do Before It’s TOO LATE

Hey. Emergency medicine/public health source here. The “1 Thing” is wash your godsdamned hands, stay out of public if you feel sick, and vote for somebody that will implement labor law/healthcare systems that allow people to go to the doctor and stay home from work when they’re sick. Everything else is bullshit.

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¹ This mixed metaphor is here only to annoy flat earthers.

² Do I feel that tiny, pink, derptacular unicorns should sport visible buttholes?

³ Which is a bit more than 50% of the way to goal, with 16 days to go.

That’s my dog, Thyla¹ Squirrelbane², who is normally very mellow after her breakfast, but who this morning was yipping and stomping her feet at me, demanding attention now now now now before sulking off to the couch. I couldn’t figure out why she was so cranky about needing pets and scruffles and skritches when normally breakfast is followed by a hearty 3-4 hour nap, a brief stretch, and then another 3-4 hours snoozin’.

This makes it easy to work from home (lot of remote class teaches), but today she was low key demanding and vocal all through lecture, and bouncy up in my face Hi hi hi look at me look at me LOOK AT ME every break I got — which is when I normally write these posts, which is why we’re late today.

Thing is, according to her registry papers — there’s an extensive paper trail on retired racing greyhounds, from a 55-point physical description to verification of her ear tats — today, 24 February, is her birthday. I’d forgotten until halfway through the day, but somehow she knows and needs to have it explained why she is not being spoiled rotten³ on her Very Special Day. None of this has anything to do with webcomics, but we can always use a dog story to keep the day lighthearted, right?

• Speaking of something that will lighten your heart, Magnolia Porter Siddell is having a good day, one of a string of good days for the past 10-11 months since she and Tom Siddell got hitched⁴. Specifically, she announced today that she and Maddi Gonzalez will be publishing an original graphic novel, Tiffany’s Griffon, with :01 Books. The deets:
  

  The book, set for 2022, is, the publisher said, “about a girl whose favorite fantasy book series comes to life, leading her to lie about her identity in order to steal the destiny of the Chosen One from a popular girl in her grade.”

  So teenage girl social hierarchy story à la Mean Girls, mixed with a Chosen One fantasy? That sounds brilliant, and I am entirely here for it. Congrats to Gonzalez and Porter Siddell, who will have the good fortune to be working with :01’s Kiara Valdez (who’s been doing good work in her time with the imprint, despite being tragically young.

• And since we’re here, Zach Weinersmith announced the next BAH!Fest dates in comic form today. Houston will be 7:00pm at Rice University (where Kelly Weinersmith — who will be hosting — does her teaching) on 8 March, and London will be at 7:00pm at Imperial College (where my wife did a semester abroad way back when) on 21 March. Those links will take you to ticket-purchasing options (the London show is being held adjacent to the Ig Nobel Prize recap tour), with a sliding scale for student/nonstudents/etc.

Not kidding — Thyla just harrumphed her way into the room and is giving me the stinkeye. I have to pay attention to her before she expires from lovelornness like a Dickensian character with consumption.

Spam of the day:

UecJtsjWFzRB wrote: zCAwIfEnrRqJNd

I affirm most solemnly, that is the actual text of a spam I got and not my dog pounding her nose on the keyboard to encourage pets. At least, it was this time.

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¹ Name courtesy of Yuko Ota, who was the first to comment (when we posted pictures of her from the greyhound adoption event where we got her) that she looks like a thylacine. She’s got these stripes down her tail that really do look that way.

² One so far, snagged in midair as it leapt from branch to branch. Coupla close calls with bunnies, too.

³ Or, to be fair, rottener.

⁴ I’ve never met anybody so overjoyed at the thought and reality of being married as Mags, except maybe Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett, who happens to be celebrating his 19th wedding anniversary today with his adorable wife, Gloria Calderon Kellett. Dave and Glo are awesome, and we at Fleen wish them all the happiness on their Very Special Day.

Because we can all use some positives in our lives these day, yeah?

• Something I neglected to mention yesterday in our discussion of the forthcoming movie musical adaptation of The Prince And The Dressmaker: Kristen and Bobby Lopez do not, at this stage of their careers, embark on poorly-planned or speculative ventures. There will be some money behind this production, and presumably Jen Wang is getting a chunk of it and that is an absolutely correct outcome.
• TCAF has started to announce their featured guests for this year’s show (9-10 May, mostly at the Toronto Reference Library), and they sent around an email to make sure we knew about their first announced guest from Japan. Kamome Shirahama is the creator of Witch Hat Atelier, one of the best manga to get an English translation is I’m not sure how long. It’s one that you can give to anybody, of any age, and it will appeal — there’s adventure, world-building, deep character development, a bit of danger, and a hell of a lot of heart.

  Oh, and it’s gorgeous. Every line is where it needs to be, every face is unique, every posture, every drape of clothing, every magical effect, all perfectly controlled — hardly surprising given the story is about magic brought about by precision in drawing. Those with an aversion to manga may be convinced to give WHA a try based on Shirahama’s extensive collection of DC and Marvel covers, for titles ranging from Squirrel Girl to Wonder Woman.

  Shirahama’s schedule is still being kept quiet, but is expected to include a live-drawing session, feature interview, autograph sessions, the debut of Witch Hat Atelier’s sixth English volume, and a month-long gallery showing of her work at The Japan Foundation Toronto. While TCAF remains free, tickets will be required for some of Shirahama’s events. All sounds good to me.

Spam of the day:

Pay A Ridiculously Low 1-Time Price to Create Stunning websites

Got one already, thanks. Jon built it.

Hey, how you doing? I’m a little slow on the uptake today. Remember how I got no sleep across the weekend and didn’t really post on Monday as a result? Turns out sleep is important! Once again I’m short hours of sleep from last night’s regular EMS duty night because (and I swear this is true) I had to haul my ass out at 3:15am to deal with a patient who was experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations because he hadn’t slept in three days. I’d totally nope out on you again, but I can’t do that twice in one week, so let’s do this quick and then I’m takin’ a nap.

• TCAF announced that volunteer signup for this year’s show (9-10 May, at the Toronto Reference Library¹ and other locations around Toronto) is now open. As well, they are looking for a new Volunteer Coordinator, an October-May gig of varying intensity; if you have strong people organizing skills, familiarity with conventions (especially TCAF), excellent communication skills, the ability to wrangle crowds, and open time across half the year, read the description and maybe apply.
• The Fourth Annual Prism Award nominations are now open, recognizing the best in queer comics (that is, queer subject matter and/or queer creators). The three nominees in each category will be announced at the Queer Comics Expo (16-17 May in San Francisco, presented in conjunction with the Cartoon Art Museum), with the winners announced at SDCC (23-26 July).

  Categories include Best Short Form Comic, Best Webcomic, Best Comic From A Small To Midsize Press, Best Comic From A Mainstream Publisher, and Best Comic Anthology; descriptions, requirements, and submission form may be found here, with a deadline of 18 March.

Okay, that’s it for now. See you tomorrow.

Spam of the day:

Bye Bye Barks incorporates an ultrasound system that prevents your dog’s woofing.

My dog is a greyhound and thus very quiet. She has these little snuffly sighs, and occasionally lets a yawn turn into a classic greyhound rooooo, and you are monsters for suggesting I should punish her with your sonic assault devices for being herself.

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¹ Although they aren’t happy about it, it’s too late to change venues for 2020 to someplace that doesn’t host open TERFery. If TCAF 2021 is held in a different main venue, it’ll be a momentous change, but very likely a necessary one.

Approximately half an hour ago, Kickstarter United won their election for union representation. I’m doing something I never do an posting this in an incomplete form, so I can get the word out but also go and think about the broader implications. Update to come.

Okay, update time. Things that have occurred to me since the news broke:

• This is a foot in the door; Kickstarter’s a small company¹, but one with an outsized brain share in the public mind, largely because Kickstarter (uniquely) has a direct relationship with people that much of tech doesn’t.

  With the big internet companies — Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google — you end using their services because they’re unavoidable, not because you want to. Other tech behemoths — your Microsofts, Oracles, etc — are at a remove, with your usage of them typically intermediated by somebody else that gets your ire when things don’t work². Tech companies related to the gig economy have lots of act-alikes (if Uber’s too creepy for your liking this week, there’s always Lyft — and your opinion on them will probably reverse in another week), and/or they only offer a service that already exists in the real world, but may be marginally more convenient.

  But Kickstarter is a tech company that people deal with an intermittent, voluntary basis; when you can afford something that looks cool, you go for it, and they’ve got a reputation for at least trying to get the most obvious scammers out, whereas their competitors either let in bullshit unbuildable projects³, or allow for less-than-goal funding, which practically invites cash grab scams. People use their discretionary income for Kickstarter, and have a relationship unlike any other tech company.

  So over the next year or so, as Kickstarter and the Kickstarter United reps hammer out their new relationship and find new ways of moving foward, as tech workers across the country start to see how their labor and interactions with the money end of things can interact in new ways, where will this spread? How many new startups that hit a certain size will have to factor in this is how large we think we can get without a union forming as part of their due diligence with venture capital?

  Nor will this necessarily stop with what we think of as pure tech workers. Once the coders behind — let’s say GrubHub as an example — unionize, how long before their very put-upon gig workers get the idea? How long before games companies can no longer persist in their cruel march of years-long crunch followed by mass layoffs when their two nearest analogues — tech companies like Kickstarter, and artistic endeavours like unionized animation shops — show that there’s another way?

  How long before the FAANG Five can’t come down on employees who object to their involvement in undermining democracy, caving to totalitarian regimes, enabling ICE, selling garbage facial recognition to the Pentagon/law enforcement, undermining efforts against climate change, and other things that offend the most basic ethical framework?

  And how long after the high-income coder population is even partially unionized before people making a hell of a lot less money start wondering why they don’t get to have a union? I truly believe that this could be the turning point that starts the overall levels of union membership in the country towards the first upswing since the ’50s.

• On the flip side of all those rosy futures, PR and law firms that specialize in union busting are celebrating today; they just got to up their rates because a bunch more employers are calling them in a panic.
• Creators can breathe a sigh of relief. A lot of them were fully prepared to walk away from Kickstarter as a platform, and some were holding off on starting projects, waiting to see how this went. That last probably wasn’t necessary (see the next item), but I’m sure it was noticed. Given the failure of Drip 2.0 to launch, there really isn’t an alternative to Kickstarter.
• Everybody that announced you were boycotting Kickstarter (despite the fact that the union organizers specifically asked that you not do so unless they deemed it necessary to bring management to the table), you’ll be coming back now, right? I’d hate to think any of that was performative outrage.

Spam of the day:

Magnetic GSM Mini SPY GPS Tracker Real Time Tracking Locator-Device

As I am neither an evil obsessive, nor a potentially murderous, controlling partner with a restraining order on him, I have no use for your stalker wares. Kindly go away, dispose of all your inventory in a large fire, then sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.

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¹ Fewer than 90 employees took part in the vote.

² What up, Tech Support?

³ At least in our universal of physical laws. I swear, it’s only a matter of time before somebody on Indiegogo promises an inertialess drive or overunity power generator.

I’ll leave it to the boss herself:

It turns out that sometimes if you and @ppcrotty, @WhitLeopard, @RoxieReads, and @jhautsethi work very hard, people bring you cake. Who knew?!

That from Gina Gagliano, head of Random House Graphic, at the party thrown to celebrate the first releases from the imprint, and a debut year that will see twelve graphic novels for kids released¹. She and her stalwart staff² — senior editor Whitney Leopard, designer Patrick Crotty, and publicist/marketer Nicole Valdez — talked about the books out now (and coming soon) that they really want you to know about. And since I accepted a piece of their cake, I feel like I should hold up my end of the bargain.

• Gagliano’s choice for favorite upcoming book is Witchlight by Jessi Zbarsky, which she described as a girl with swords meets a girl that does magic, they have adventures and fall in love and in the middle there’s food which is just … I’m in. Look for it on 14 April.
• Leopard wants you to read The Runaway Princess (out for the past three week) by Johan Troïowski, because it’s got an interactive element in each chapter, as the reader is asked to do or achieve something, and also Stepping Stones (due 5 May), the first kids book by Lucy Knisley, who is the best.
• Crotty, coming from a background of indie comics, particularly wants you to read Bug Boys (released three days ago) by Laura Knetzger, noting how many of the great comics we’re getting these days wouldn’t exist without the indie creators doing 8 to 12 page minis, never anticipating they’ll be collected in a print volume. The Bug Boys are for kids but have a Charlie Brownesque philosophical side, and Knetzger keeps cranking out the minis, so it won’t be long before the second collection arrives.
• Valdez allowed that there was some disagreement over who would get to talk about Bug Boys, but was enthused to talk instead about Aster And The Accidental Magic (coming in two and a half weeks) by Thom Pico and Karensac. This girl is me is the message she wanted to convey, an idea that underlies RHG’s mission — to put a graphic novel in the hands of every kid in America³.

They’re on their way. Gagliano talked about how she started in the industry fifteen years ago, how comics were regarded with suspicion but now schools and libraries are their biggest champions. There’s a lot of hands out there that still haven’t gotten comics, and lot of minds that still have to develop that higher level of reading, and she and her team are going to do their level best to fix that.

And yes, publishing is a very Manhattan-centric business, but the crowd was overflowing the aisles at Books Of Wonder, and not just because of the cake. There were younger folk there, mid-20s a lot of them, ready to answer that call and pitch their ideas and end up on some of those shelves. Here’s to finding out what makes it there in the coming years.

Spam of the day:

Your regular glasses can get lost, break or your prescription can change over time, resulting in expensive trips to the optometrist!

I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 19, and in the 30+ years since, I have lost exactly one pair (sunglasses, on my way home from Tom Spurgeon’s memorial), broken none, and yes, my prescription has changed because my eyeballs have changed. This is the definition of a straw man you’re propping up here.

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¹ Out of a total twenty four for Random House Children’s Books. No pressure, just got to make up half the output for one of the most storied publishing imprints in history in your first year, that’s all.

² Random House associate publisher Judith Haut, while not part of Gagliano’s staff, is the one that decided that there needed to be a RHG and found the right person for the job.

³ Quoting Gagliano, and echoing their tagline, A graphic novel on every bookshelf. Whoever that kid is, wherever that shelf is, Leopard told us back in July, they will have at least one title that makes that kid say This is the book I was waiting for.

What? No, not EmCity, although we will be talking about that presently.

Today I’ve got my eye on the SF Comics Fest, via the good folks at the Cartoon Art Museum. For those of you that haven’t seen it in past years, SF Comics Fest is an association of comics-related events (like Will Eisner Week) taking place in and around the Bay Area, in a sort of mutual non-aggression pact. This year’s events will run from 29 February¹ through 8 March and will include:

• 29 Feb: San Francisco Youth Justice Comic Con A free event for youth blending activism with comics, anime and pop culture. The event will feature zine-making, a drawing jam, a cosplay parade, exhibitor booths, and workshops facilitated by local artists and activists.
• 1-7 Mar: Will Eisner Week Read a graphic novel, encourage others to do so. Yeah, I know, for most of us this is better known as “every week”, but now’s your chance to get evangelical about it.
• 7 Feb: Eisner Edition Saturday Cartooning for Kids There’s monthly Saturday afternoon cartooning workshops (underwritten by the NCS Foundation) that run from 1:00pm to 2:30pm at the Cartoon Art Museum, and March’s will focus on the legacy of Eisner. You can get more information on the full Spring 2020 series here.
• 8 Mar: 35th Anniversary Spirit of Mini Comics Challenge It’s the 35th anniversary of CAM, and they’re marking the occasion by seeking to make 35 minicomics in one day. Demonstrations, creative coaching and materials provided at the event, which is free and open to the public.
• 8 Mar: 25th Anniversary of MUTTS Patrick McDonnell will be talking about his work and signing afterwards; in keeping with the theme of MUTTS, representatives of Muttville senior dog rescue will be there to talk about adopting older dogs. Muttville outreach from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, and McDonnell from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. CAM members free with RSVP, others US$10 and up, with book purchase and membership options, head over to Guestlist for all means of attendance.

There’s plenty of other events happening around the Bay Area, which you can catch up with here; if you want to host your own event, you can sign up here, which means the list of SFCF events will only grow from here on out. Anybody on the left coast in two-three weeks should keep an eye out for what’s going on while you’re there.

Spam of the day:

Request Pending… Cancel Your Subscription…

Hmmm, every “button” in your email leads to the same place, and you don’t actually tell me what I’m allegedly unsubscribing from that requires my information to be sent to Brazil. Next time, just tell me it’s LinkedIn. I’d do anything to get those bastards to leave me alone.

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¹ Also the 13th birthday of my evil twin, Howard Tayler. At last, he is a man!

Editor’s note: Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin attended the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in the midsized city of Angoulême in the southwest of France. The third largest comics event in the world (eclipsed only by Lucca Comics & Games in Tuscany, and the twice-yearly Comiket in Tokyo), Angoulême is the center of the Franco-Belgian comics style, with a healthy representation of work from around the world. He’s here to tell you all about it.

I had never been to Angoulême before, whether for the FIBD or any other purpose. The town of Angoulême has a few claims to fame, notably that it was the domain for a junior branch of the French royal family, up until the senior branch became extinct and its lord ended up becoming king under the name François Premier (the first), thus starting the Valois-Angoulême subdynasty. But regardless of its historical role, I had never needed to go there, until this week-end for the 47th edition of its world-renowned comics festival.

There are a few reasons why I decided to (finally) start covering the festival this year, but the main one is clearly the Grand Prix having been awarded to Rumiko Takahashi in 2019 as a definite proof of the FIBD sincerely correcting its course (unfortunately, neither Takahashi-san nor any showcase of her works could be seen at the festival¹ besides her poster, but as predicted the Grand Prix resulted in new releases of her classic works). Even then, the festival was the occasion for protest and other such activities, whether they were in relation to the impoverishment of creators², like creators taking to the streets or taking advantage of the awards ceremony to raise their concerns, or in relation to more general opposition, such as when president Emmanuel Macron posed along a t-shirt denouncing police violence during his visit, or the placards in town denouncing the same, using comics characters.

However, I do not feel comfortable reporting on such events since I did not get to witness them first hand. I much prefer, inspired by fellow Angoulême first-timers Spike Trotman³ and Deb Aoki to give you my impressions and advice for attending the FIBD, coming from someone more used to regular Euro comics festivals. Indeed, Angoulême from its sheer scale has to or can afford to act differently from the former, and may not be representative of them.

• It feels like Disneyland: the lines The legends did not mislead me: you must pad your schedule to account for the lines everywhere. Waiting for a signing is done in a line, of course, but as is waiting to enter a tent, waiting to enter an expo, sometimes for eating, etc. Fortunately, none of those were of the “one-off hard limit” variety: all of the spaces I waited in line for, I was able to enter, the worst being the Claveloux expo, set up in an old townhouse where I was told only about 25 people could be allowed in the ground floor at any one time, and only about 20 allowed in the first elevation. Yup, once you were done with the ground floor you had to again get in line for the first elevation …
• It feels like Disneyland: the marketing This is the main event of the year for comics publishers, and it shows, with the booths in the mainstream publishers tent seemingly trying to outdo each other. For instance, just like you can spot children coming out of Disneyland, everywhere in town you could see children holding balloons, except here the balloons were shaped like Titeuf’s hairdo.

  As for Editions Dupuis, they went as far as to feature performers wearing oversized costumes of some of their characters in their booth, Disneyland-style. At least the marketing is focused on comics, and possibly comics-related works (for instance, there were a few advance showings of the latest Ducobu movie).

• It feels like Disneyland: the scope Not only do the festival activities take over the town center with five tents, plus some buildings such as the Espace Franquin, resulting in an area that requires about 5 minutes to walk across, but an additional tent and a library were set up about a 15 minutes walk away from that, next to the train station, to which you have to add a cluster around the Musée de la Bande Dessinée, about a 20 minutes walk away from either of the other centers.

  And the center is on an elevation, so a bike might not be that helpful. Take good shoes, and one pair of socks for each day you’ll be there. Finally, they had a townwide PA system to remind of upcoming events and announce cancellations and the like.

• It feels like Disneyland: the price Okay, it still does not compare to Disneyland, but at 19€ for a regular day, 25€ for Sunday, or 45€ for all 4 days, this is 5 times as expensive as, say, Lyon BD.
• Plan in advance, or else The lodging situation is absolutely crazy, with every hotel room in the vicinity being booked months in advance; this is owed not just to the festival scale, but also to the fact Angoulême is not a big city like Lyon, and is not a beach resort like Saint Malo which finds itself with plenty of vacancies when the festival occurs, outside peak touristic season. I was able to get away with booking a B&B about 25km away a few days before and get there by train from Angoulême, but first I’ve been told I lucked out on being able to book so late, second this requires some faith in the reliability of the train service⁴, and lastly ties you to the train schedule even when everything goes well, which is an issue because:
• Expect long days Regular festival activities only end at 8:00pm; this is in contrast with other such festivals, which generally close at 6:00pm. As a result, I had to bail out of an interesting exposé on how a new wave of superhero-style comics are too using crowdfunding and other such techniques to fund themselves outside Diamond distribution, since the last train for my B&B was departing at about 7:00pm. Moreover, I can’t help but think of the ordeal this must be for creators, since the festival lasts 4 days, with the other festivals lasting at most 3 days.
• The footbridge does not give access to platform 3 This one is rather specific. There is a new footbridge over the train tracks, which is very practical to get to the side of the train tracks opposite the station, where the library and manga city cluster was, and to get directly to your platform, wherever you come from. However, you cannot go directly to platform 3 from it: it turns out you first have to get off the footbridge as if you wanted to get to the station building, walk the entire length of the building alongside it, and finally you will get to platform 3. No, I did not miss my train, but I had seriously started to worry at some point.

I also brought back a few more pictures:

• The bubble reads: I repeat my question: are you more interested in a career (a) in computing? (b) in mechanics?
• Nothing, just a projection of the Rumiko Takahashi poster illustration on the Angouléme cathedral …
• Two cosplayers, who I met in the Manga City tent.
• A few helium balloons ended up getting stuck under the tent entrance …

We at Fleen thank FSFCPL for his efforts, and look forward to his next dispatch from the world of BD.

Spam of the day:

“gary.tyrrell“ WelcomeTo “ProvideAuto“

Those are the most terrifying scarequotes I’ve ever seen.

_______________
¹ Here is a translation of the relevant part:

On May 30th the Fauve of the Grand Prix was given to Rumiko Takahashi at the French embassy in Tokyo. Upon deliberation and exchanges over the last months, and in coordination with her publisher, she eventually declined the traditional proposals from the Festival, such as a retrospective exhibition and a public appearance, which would have entailed a workload and availability incompatible with her ongoing workload and commitments. Furthermore, she deems her work to be best discovered through her books, rather than her original plates. The Festival is naturally understanding and respectful of her decision. Sincerely moved by the honor, she wished to create a poster symbolically and concretely representing the richness of her world-appreciated body of work. The Festival will honor the creator through a program of meetups and tributes.

“I once again thank the creators who voted for me and I was particularly moved by the professional recognition I was bestowed. It is particularly moving to realize how European creators have grown in contact with my works and how much they love them. I have particularly enjoyed and put my heart into the illustration for the Festival poster. It showcases the manga I admired with a lot of respect in my childhood. I hope you will like it.”
— Rumiko Takahashi, Tokyo, 2019/09/20

² Who had reasons to be upset, for instance a newly-released report on their situation contained a few bombshells on their pensions situation.

³ All of her impressions from her time there are worthwhile, but don’t miss her considerations on French food, which are relevant since the duck-based products she procured are typical of southwestern France where Angoulême is located.

⁴ I again lucked out on train issues, but my fellow first-timers were not so lucky; and before you think “strikes”, those issues can occasionally happen outside of any strike.

We at Fleen have been very excited for goin’ on two years now about the launch of Random House Graphic, and about Gina Gagliano being named to head up the imprint. We’ve followed the announcements, watched the first book hit release, looked out the next couple of years at what’s coming down the line.

Now it’s time to celebrate, y’all:

Come meet the Random House Graphic publishing team: GINA GAGLIANO, WHITNEY LEOPARD, PATRICK CROTTY, and NICOLE VALDEZ, as they discuss the launch of this new imprint, featuring The Runaway Princess by JOHAN TRIANOWSKI and Bug Boys by LAURA KNETZGER. [emphasis original]

That from the events page of Books Of Wonder, the venerable New York children’s bookstore. They’ll be hosting the imprint launch party on Thursday, 13 February, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at their 18th Street location, in the vicinity of Union Square Park. Both Bug Boys and The Runaway Princess will be available for purchase, and each copy sold will be matched with a donated copy to a children’s charity. Light snacks provided, but I’d grab an insurance slice beforehand if I were you.

There’s a lot of talk these days about how publishing remains overwhelmingly white, but if you kept an eye on the acquisition announcements, RHG is buying books from a lot of POC, and mostly from women. True, graphic novels take a long time and we won’t see a lot of them until next year or later, but it’s clear that Gagliano, Leopard, et al, have decided that they’re going to be part of a solution to books only reflecting a small percentage of the population, and I intend to thank them in person for it. If I see you there, say hi.

Spam of the day:

Are You __ gary tyrrell !!

I am, but possibly not the one you’re thinking of.