Kerascoët: Jolies Ténèbres

Dust jacket for the book. Links to a Youtube simple ad for it.

Compelling and terrifying. Not for the faint of heart or for kids. "Don't be fooled by the cuteness," Sebastien warns me over dinner when we were in Paris for our show. I wondered about that for while until I got back to my hotel. I leafed through it. I can't read french, mind you, but the images are enough to get a sense of what's going on. This book found the edge where it becomes dangerous and runs past it full speed. I am humbled by what Kerascoet--Marie Pommepuy and Sébastien Cosset--along with writer Fabien Vehlmann have unleashed on an unsuspecting public.


Myself and Sébastien Cosset at the Arludik show for Three Trees in Paris. He hands me his only advance copy of this book the publishers sent him. That was such an honor.

I cannot talk about this book more. I came back to work talking as if I'd gone to a haunted island. I had to see the faces of each one who was intrigued enough to peel pages back one at a time. The look of sheer admiration for the artistry but soon after a wincing at the unexpected. I am having a good time--I must have looked just like that.



We met with Dupuis, the publisher of Jolies Ténèbres, and got to talk to Sergio Honorez (Head of Publishing) about this book which is just about to come out this month. He says that once he saw the book proposal he just knew, "We have to publish this." Kerascoet is also published at Dargaud for Mis Pas Touche, a book I've mention in this blog before. In France artists can have as many different publishers for any one artist. Neat, eh?



If you look at the work it is astoundingly beautiful. I put in a reservation to grab this page at Galerie 9 art. And if you're not careful you'll find even more stuff all over that website.



I love finding stuff to rave about and even more gratifying is to meet these wonderful creators (Marie was not well during our visit but next time). That trip to Paris and Angoulême was so amazing. I'm hoping it won't be too long before we find ourselves back there again. If only to grab more books. Sigh.


Kerascoet
Dupuis
Galerie9art.com for Kerascoet

Joann Sfar: Missionnaire

Back from Vacation. Well, it's been a while and I must say that it was a grand tour. I'll spill all the details on the specifics as we go, there's just too much to tell and they're all battling for primacy in my brain. Let's just get started. Paris was our last stop and we stayed for five days. I got a map from Stuart Ng which shows all the bookstores along and around St. Germain. Of course I lost my mind at Album right away. I've got a post on that alone. This is just about a moment there.



The french Album store (I wandered into the American one first, whipped around to the other corner for the local stuff) is two floors of bande dessinée heaven. I pigged out. After my book binge (more on that later) I picked up several magazines for good measure. This cover above appealed to me.



I flip through it, there's enough stuff here. I should pick this up, and oh, hey! Joann Sfar is featured. Maybe it's about his movie. Hey, it's his journal on his site, isn't it? At about this fraction of a second I notice the drawing on the periphery of my vision. I let out a yelp, "Hah!?"



There we were! That day that Joann visited us at Pixar we all gathered for a group photo and darn if that isn't our Sfar sketch versions up there. We're famous! Well, in my mind we are. After all, how often do you go to another country to find you are part of an article in a magazine there. Of course I couldn't brag to anyone nearby, my french is still at zero.

Okay, I cash out. I walk out and it would take another hour before I would realize that I bought a Sfar journal at Album as well. There were at least two of them that came out at the same time. I root around my stash and find the book, "Missionnaire." And sure enough there it is, a drawing of the Pixar gate, him posing with the Parr Family mannequins of the Incredibles...and there we are! Man, that's awesome.


"Missionary gathers the notebooks of voyage held by Joann Sfar during his stays in Tokyo in 2005 and the United States in 2006, as well as an anthology of watercolours drawn in Edinburgh and in Morocco."

On the bottom of the page he scribbles about a project that he and I had been keeping under our hats for a couple of years. It became apparent to both of us that I would not have time to execute these lovely pages. I never let on with anyone about it. So, on the following pages he discloses what's been on my hard drive for a while now. I hope to really work with Joann someday, maybe even get our Princess story out there together. Hey, you never know. I'm on a lucky streak here.

Joan Sfar website
The Rabbi's Cat at Amazon
Missionnaire at Amazon France