I'm boarding a plane to France later today. I'm going mainly to support Fin, the French edition of The End. But there's a ton of other stuff going on while I'm there. I'll be in Besançon January 22-24 for the PFC5 exhibition The Goat Without a Face and a few talks. Helping run PFC5 last summer in Minneapolis was a whirlwind, so I'm looking forward to getting to relax and get a new look, with clearer eyes, at some of the weird and wonderful collaborative drawings and comics that came out of that storm.

Then, next Tuesday I'm in Paris for the Drawn & Quarterly 25th Anniversary exhibition at Galerie Martel. It's the first time Big Questions originals will be shown in France, and I'm sending a few examples I don't normally let out of my flatfiles. Other reasons to go, if you're in Paris include original art by Julie Doucet, Lynda Barry, Genevieve Castree and a bunch of other ridiculously talented people.

Wednesday and Thursday I'm signing copies of Fin at Super Heros and Page 198, respectively, and then heading to Angouleme on Friday for a public talk with Jean-Pierre Mercier.

Busy couple of weeks.

On Being a Good Parent

The End was just translated into French and published by Atrabile. The life of that book has been curious. The first half came out in 2007 to fairly limited notice as part of Fantagraphics' Ignatz series. I'd promised them a book in the series years before my fiancee Cheryl had even gotten sick. in 2007 my time was up and I had nothing to give them. So I turned to various scattered ruminations on grief I was filling my sketchbooks with. When The End #1 came out it felt very much like half a book to me, even then. Material already existed for the follow-up, but I just wasn't psychically prepared to wade back into the material for a second issue yet. So I let it languish. But as an author, there is something pretty uncomfortable to me in knowing I have a kind of crippled, half-finished child out in the world struggling to get by without my full care and attention. It's not really a fair thing to do to a story. Time passed. In 2013 I felt like I had enough distance to go back to it.

And it's done pretty well, without its handicap. It's an unusual book, even so. But people seem to respond to it. Voices as diverse as Zak Sally and my own mother have ventured that it may be their favorite book of mine. Which is saying something – it's probably also the piece most likely to make you dissolve into a puddle. It was nominated for an LA Book award, and now for the Selection Officielle at Angouleme (along with like thirty other books, it should be said). It's remarkable to see one's work grow up, leave home and have a life of its own out in the world. As someone who started out self-publishing in runs of 20 or 50 it still feels magical and inexplicable to me that something so deeply idiosyncratic, made for my own reasons without an audience in mind finds that audience nevertheless.

Anyway, I'm doing my best to help it out, now. I'll be heading to France a week before Angouleme to be in Besançon for Goat Without a Face an exhibition of artwork from PFC5, the residency I helped organize at MCAD last summer (see below). Then to Paris to be on hand for the opening of an exhibition at Galerie Martel honoring D&Q's 25th anniversary (January 26th, I'll have pages from Big Questions in the show), and do a signing at Super Heros (January 27th). Then to Angouleme, where I'll be doing some sort of talk or workshop or something, (exactly what is yet to be decided).

Sort of Like Christmas

 Last week a box came in the mail from an undisclosed North American publisher. I opened it up and found inside ten sketchbooks and one box of loose drawings all lovingly wrapped in brown paper and bubble wrap. As part of Autoptic and PFC this summer I am curating an exhibition of work by some of the artists of PFC at Light Grey Art Labs. Laura Park's sketchbooks and loose doodles are going to be a part of that show. In case anyone out there doesn't already know how amazing Laura's drawing is, here is a small sample of one of those notebook's contents.
     Also slated to be a part of the exhibition: Charles Burns, Dominique Goblet, Aidan Koch, Helge Reumann and maybe one or two others. The opening on Friday, August 7th will serve as the kick-off for Autoptic. Mark your calendars.

The Interview Show

I'm in France at the moment at Pierre Feuille Ciseaux about which I'll have much to post soon. I also did a strip in my sketchbook about a conversation I had on the plane on the way here, but it needed some correction, so while the white out is drying there is this: I was on Mark Bazer's Interview Show at the Hideout a couple of months back (I posted a drawing I did of fellow guest Cameron Esposito's ear while I was there, back in September). Video of the event just came up at WBEZ.