Monday, June 11, 2007
Bandes Dessinées
I've just come back from Paris. This is a snap of me up the Eiffel Tower.Me and Jenny (my wife) went to Paris from the 8th to the 11th of June. We stayed at the foot of Montemartre, and could see Sacré Coeur from our hotel window...cool.
On the 9th Jenny and her ker-azy fellow INXS fans (a lovely bunch of people, it has to be said) decided to queue outside the Cigale venue all day, in order to secure themselves front row places. Me? I wasn't having a bean of it, seeing as it was my first time in Paris, so I went on a little trek, for the thing that Paris is most famous for. Yes, that's right...comic shops.
Armed with a copy of the Rough Guide (circa 2001...oh, what a twat) I ventured onto the Metro, and after about 20 minutes in headless chicken mode, I eventually sussed out the system of finding a landmark near a shop via the guide's maps, looking at the Metro chart for the landmark, then finding the right colour/ number for the line, heading in the direction of that line's correct terminus in the process.
The first one on the list (in order of probable importance/ usefulness) was the much vaunted 'Album' at 60 Rue Monsieur-Le-Prince.
Shut down. Closed. Totally bloody deserted. Not a good start.After that I hit Boulevarde St-Michel, searching for the mighty Boulinier at # 20.
Fine and dandy if I'd wanted to discuss financial matters with a French clerk. By now I was starting to question the usefulness of the 2001 Rough Guide's data. I had another to look for called Libraire D'Images on St Germain...but I seriously couldn't be arsed to embark on another journey ending in more anti-climax, so I started to walk back up St Michel, gritting my teeth in readiness for a trek to the Latin Quarter's market stalls. But, as it happens, I passed a rather grotty looking bookshop (grotty as in 'bargain basement tat stylee') called 'Gilbert Joseph'.
I walked in on the off chance....And inside was this colossal Bandes Dessinées section, full of graphic novels. The selection put anything Ace Comics in the UK has to offer totally to shame. I headed to the Moebius section, and plucked 5 hardbacks off the shelf (not the pikey Epic paperback novels) and a Bilal book too...Bilal is quite similar in style to Moebius, when he tackles sci-fi.All in all a very successful spree, as I've been hunting down Moebius stuff since the convention, and have so far been thwarted by Ebay bidding gone mad.
One of the cultural events in Paris that caught my eye was a Chinese Circus called 'Monkey, Journey to the West'. the poster was plastered all around the Metro, and I would have loved to have found a smaller printed version to frame as a memento of our trip to France. The artwork was absolutely gobsmacking, and remeniscent of Bolland's Forbidden Planet bag art, with a hint of Manga thrown in.
It turns out, on investigation a la Google when I got back, that it's a Damon Albarn/ Jamie Hewlett collaboration...the 'Gorillaz' people, in fact...and that it's showing in England at the moment! MUST check this out in more detail!Finally, on the Sunday, when Jenny had finished with INXS, and I'd tired of comics, we did the tourist thing, heading for the Eiffel Tower (check the picture above for proof) and the Louvre. Proper Culture Vultures, we were. :)
Can't wait to go back to Paris tbh. There's so much to see and do, and I absolutely loved the artistic atmosphere of the city. I might even start learning French in readiness.Anyway, back to the UK grind....2 more pages of Chickenheads to ink, then 6 to colour. Plus I'm going to be revamping 'Jack in the Box' after getting loads of inspiration for it while travelling around Paris.
posted by Tony at
6:15 PM
1 Comments:
Nice one Alfred, nice one son, nice one Alfred, let's have another oneeeeeeeeeeeahhhhhhhhhhh. Doin' the Lambeth walk-aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh.
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