Sketchbook

carnet at vancaf

This coming weekend, I’ll be VANCAF comics art festival in Vancouver, BC, promoting the new edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE. Saturday, May 19th, signing from 2-4PM. Sunday, May 20th, spotlight panel 1:30-2:30, signing from 3-5PM. Eager for some overlap with my old friends, Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim, who both share pages in CARNET! Hope to see some of you there!

VANCAF 01 VANCAF 02

craigcarnet at vancaf
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New edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE

Drawn & Quarterly‘s new expanded edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE is in stores everywhere as of today. 32 new pages, larger hardcover format, new cover, back in print after a decade! In Portland, FLOATING WORLD COMICS will be hosting a release party / book signing / presentation: Saturday, April 28th, 5PM! Hope to see some locals there! In the meantime, thanks to all you readers, internationally, for supporting this humble travel diary!CDV FWC

craigNew edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE
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rad snow

This snow sculpture of Radcliffe perfectly merges SPACE DUMPLINS with BLANKETS and CARNET DE VOYAGE. The sculpting is courtesy my friends and translators, who hosted me at that chalet in Argientières in the French Alps in 2004. (Thank you, Laetitia, Frédéric, Anne-Julia, Walter, and kids!)

snowrad 01

snowrad 02

In less than a week, I leave for a 6 week book tour in Europe. Details coming soon!

 

 

craigrad snow
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drawing brothers

Just returned from one month in France where I began a collaborative book with 72 year old French comics master Edmond BAUDOIN.

(A – Edmond with Cambodian cartoonist Tian, left. Amiens Cathedral, right.)

(B – Signing at the Palais du Commerce, left. Little Prince statue in Place Bellecour, right.)

After book signings at the A) Amiens BD festival and B) Lyon BD festival, Edmond & I retreated to his childhood haunts of Villars-sur-Var –
a mountaintop village near Nice to churn out drawings and write thumbails for our book.

Our timing aligned with village festival of their patron St. Jean – documented in Baudoin’s book LE CHEMIN DE SAINT JEAN.
Edmond has over 60 books in his bibliography, though zero are translated in English at this point.

Our collaborative project has just begun… the next step is Edmond visiting my stomping grounds in Portland & Wisconsin… BUT for the rest of the year, I plunge back into SPACE DUMPLINS to hit that deadline for a FALL 2015 release – the tenth anniversary of Scholastic’s GRAPHIX line.

craigdrawing brothers
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amiens et lyon

Related to the straight-to-sketchbook project mentioned in the last post, I’ll be spending the month of June in France. While there, I’ll also participate in the Amiens BD festival and the Lyon BD festival to compensate for my abbreviated French presence during 2011’s HABIBI book tour. As some may recall, the French edition of HABIBI was late from the printers and so I’d done press at that time, but no signings.

To prep for travel, my friend Lucie is tutoring me in French. Here’s a little excerpt from my study notebook — a homework exercise to “write (& draw) a dialogue with two (or ten) characters” in which Little Zacchaeus (from CARNET and SPACE DUMPLINS) interacts with references from some favorite bande dessinée – including PETIT VAMPIRE VA À L’ECOLE by Joann Sfar, LES OGRES by David B. & Christophe Blain, CÉFULUS by Ludovic Debeurme, and SALADE NIÇOISE by Baudoin. (Translated or not, it makes no sense.)

craigamiens et lyon
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color tweaks & carnet’s tenth

Just wanted to share some of the incredible work Dave Stewart’s pouring into the SPACE DUMPLINS colors.

We decided the palette was getting too muted & subdued, so he’s tweaking the pages just enough to infuse the grimy dinginess of outer space clutter with a burst of cartoony, kid-friendly levity. Previous incarnations on the left – updated versions on the right.

In other news, I realized that today is the exact ten year anniversary of my CARNET DE VOYAGE travel & book. To celebrate, I dug around for a photo or two, but they were sparse, because as noted in the back of the book, zero cameras were used in the creation of it. It is my unaltered travel diary begun March 5th, 2004 and ended May 14th, 2004. The week following, my buddy Frédéric and I scanned the three sketchbooks and layed out the book in Lyon, France – no edits other than a proofread from my non-native English speaking friends.


After spending 6-7 years on HABIBI, I can’t fathom that I created a book in less than three months. It helps to not make anything up, not edit, not use any photo reference, and avoid penciling as much as possible. First scruffy photo is in Morocco on the journey to Merzouga.


The second photo was provided by Lewis Trondheim – me drawing on the beach in Montpellier, France: young, naïve, skinny & shirtless.

craigcolor tweaks & carnet’s tenth
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laser boob army & scrambled seaweed

Springtime instigates spring cleaning of the art studio. Here’s a couple of goodies unearthed in the process. Above is a batch of unused illustrations created for a stage presentation at the 2005 ICON Illustration Conference. The general talking point of each illo is: a) preconceptions of comics, b) the obliviousness and/or coping mechanisms of arteests, c) SCOTT McCLOUD as a cult leader of sorts for my generation of cartoonists, d) the reality that most cartoonists pay the bills via illustration gigs, e) the debate over the label “graphic novel”.

Below is another except from the 70 foot scroll I created in fourth grade (1985 or 1986) when I was approximately the same age as Violet in the upcoming SPACE DUMPLINS. Wish I could scan this entire epic for you… in the meantime, there’s a little more on it here.

 

craiglaser boob army & scrambled seaweed
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home-back

Finally recovering from promotional travel. A token of carrying home on one’s back is this handmade Chunky Rice plush from Raquel & Ferran in Barcelona. Thanks, you two! And to Jordi & the other dedicated Spanish fans that made it out. Accompanying Chunky is a classic casualty of travel – the drowned sketchbook – reminding me of the age-old lesson to sketch in archival ink. Appropriately, most of the drawings are of airplane interiors that literally bled together after so many flights.

Along the way, I meet so many amazing people – too many to acknowledge in this small space – but foremost you readers! Seen here is my Spanish/Catalan editor Laureano & a new fave cartoonist David Rubin. Also, the charming Elvis Mitchell – an incredible interviewer that sets one at ease & draws out an honest conversation.

Some of you may recognize Laureano from my 2004 travelogue CARNET DE VOYAGE. Below, the view a block and a half from Laureano’s apartment. On the right is a snippet from my 2004 sketchbooks that never made it into print. But it’s another good reminder…

 

craighome-back
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