Manila Signings - Sputnik

Some views from the signing.
Sputnik is a nice tiny shop selling mostly U.S. and Filipino indie comics, some local zines, as well as toys and figurines.
Definitely a cool place to hang out on week-end evenings if you happen to visit Metro Manila.
Some samples of the Philippine fanzine production...

Manila Signings - Comics Odyssey

After a two months hiatus, think its time to update this blog a little bit...
Here's a few pictures from the First signing at the Comics Odyssey bookstore In Ortigas.
Thanks to the people who came and bought the albums, thanks also to Rowena and Sandy Sansolis for making it possible.
If you're curious, some more pictures of the event can be found here.

Aside from that, i will be attending the Grand Salon festival in Lyon this week-end, doing a mural painting and presenting some old canvases there. Saturday 14th and Sunday May 15th.

Book Signing in Manila

Can't really update this blog for the moment. But thing is there will be two book signing sessions planned in Metro Manila, Philippines.

First one will be happening at Comics Odyssey, third floor or Robinson's Mall at Ortigas, on Saturday March 26th.
Second one occurs the next week at Sputnik, Cubao X, formerly known as the Marikina Shoe Expo, on Saturday April 2nd.

There will be copies of No Comment and War Songs sold there, unfortunately in very limited supply.

Here's a small vid that was broadcasted on the French TV back in January 16th, even if it lasts 2 minutes and sixteen seconds, it may take some time to load on some computers...

Book Signing

Everything went well, thanks for the people who came for the signature and the Bachi-Bouzouk store owners for making it possible.
I will be attending the Angoulème comics festival this week-end. I'll be signing copies of "No Comment" and "War Songs" at the Glénat stand Saturday from 17h to 20h and Sunday from 14h to16h.

Crimen

Back on track for 2011 with some new ongoing projects.
This illustration was done exclusively for an ex-libris printed at 200 copies by the the Bachi-Bouzouk comic bookstore.
There is an exhibition of my pages going on there until March 13th.

Sex och Krig pt.2

Excerpt from the Alt Com comic festival program...




Illustrations done for a little anthology pocket book especially printed for the festival.
Printed at one thousand copies and distributed for free. A good initiative for sure.

Gathering contributions from Ho Che Anderson, Ville Ranta, Ina Korneliussen, Karolina Bang,
Moacir Martins, Amalia Alvarez, Howard Hardiman, Adam Boman, Rauni Maneo & Sonja Or, Mika Lietzen, Simon Petersen, Cav Bogelund, Dennis Gustavsson, Emre Özdamarlar, Sofia Lindh, Bo Ashi, Helena Hellman, Samuel Larsson, Ainur Elmgren, Mattias Elftorp, Danijel Zezelj, Sarah Kläpp, Jirki Heikinnen, Jakob Orsted & Soren Mosdal, Lisa Ewald, Spyros Verykios, Nicolas Krizan, Nik Neves, Chad Verril, Meme Zabratta Studio, johanna Rojola, Aino Sutinen, Lucas Holmqvist, Elise Rosberg, Ofog, Henri Gylander, Mina Svensson, Oskar Aspman, Nedzad Maksumic and Valerio Bindi.
it features diverse approaches on the Sex and War theme, done by beginner comic artists and more confirmed professionals altogether.

Some local press coverage of the event:
http://www.sydsvenskan.se/malmo/article1296943/Sex-och-krig-pa-festival.html


That painting was quite huge as you can see...

Sex & Krig

This painting, sizing approximatively 265cm high on 380 wide, was realized within two days in Malmö, Sweden, for the Alt Com independent comics festival. The main theme of the festival was titled "Sex & War", then the content presented dealt mostly with socio-political or gender issues.
That painting is a parodic comment about the Eden Abergil case.

War Songs

War Songs is finally out. Did hit the bookstores shelves last September, Sept 8th to be precise. This book is dull, harsh and monotonous, it's been a deliberate decision as i wanted to depict war stories from a different angle. This is definetely not an action packed war comic. Good thing is the album is selected for the next Angouleme International Comics Festival. If not, this album would have been drowned and thus been totally unnoticed amidst the 1200 ( more or less ) comic-books thrown on the French publishing market between September and December 2010.

Strong As Ten

Lil' summer illustration work.
This is an artwork for a split seven inch vinyl record featuring two French hardcore bands Strong As Ten and Koenigstein Youth. As both bands are coming from cities with a great industrial past from the 19th century to the late seventies, and both share mutual interest for late 80's "thrash", then i took inspiration from Bernt & Hilla Becher post industrial photo work and mid eighties "splatter-core" bands visuals such as Septic Death, Fear Itself or Negative Gain record covers to get this result.

Cover Study, at last...

Finally, i nailed it.
that will be the cover for my upcoming comic book, which is under the presses right now, and will be officially released in bookstores for September 8th to 10th.
Unfortunately, the multinational logos appearing on the camouflage jacket won't be shown on the printed version. To my regret, because i think the drawing loses a lot of its sense and its impact by removing these. This is mainly due to copyright infringement issues and fear of litigation from my publisher, fine with me... After drawing many scenes of murder, rape and torture without any problems as long as my material is aimed at mature readers, it seems i passed close to the ultimate taboo in terms of drawn representation. While corporate logos are polluting our visual environment in public spaces, and while were subjected daily to hundreds of advertising messages, i came to realize we are forbidden as simple citizens or artists to fight back by scratching their image.
Desecrate and create...

State Poison

Record cover illustration for the ear-damaging French punk band State Poison. Haven't seen the printed result yet, unfortunately the release had been delayed due to some vinyl pressing issues...
The lucky State Poison guys are now boarding a plane going to Japan for a twenty days tour, playing with great local punk bands like Crow, Nightmare, Death Dust Extractor, Isterismo, NK6, Slang, Conga Fury, attack SS, D-Clone, Unarm, System Fucker and lots more i didn't listened to yet or never heard about...

Extortion

Four pages published in the July issue of "L'echo des Savanes".
Note that the small pictograms i'm generally using in the speech balloons had been replaced by words.
The magazine chief editor feared that the pictograms were way too intricate and confusing for the vast majority of the readers, so he suggested replacing them by single words.
That's a brilliant idea for sure, and i think i will be working in that direction in the near future...

Nevertheless, you can try reading the unaltered version of that complicated, undecipherable little story below.
It was directly inspired by real facts regarding security issues in Iraq.

Finished Product

The Zerocratie CD and the Mexican pressing of the Coche Bomba CD are finally out. Regarding the printing quality and color reproduction, everything went out fine.