This epic bloggery comes because, after a 15 hour layover in Zurich, I’m home! Me and Fred just got back from Angouleme (ie best comics convention in universe, soon to be written up for Chinashop) and Paris.

Let the vacation photos commence!

When I was 17, I spent some months working at Shakespeare and Company, the legendary English language bookstore across the river from Notre Dame. “Tumbleweeds”, as the owner called us, could work an hour a day in exchange for sleeping on the couches he had hidden between piles of books. It was one of the best times of my life. Every time I’m in Paris, I make a pilgrimage back to the place that taught me about creative dictatorships and DIY legends, and was responsible for so much of my later work.

Abby Denson hooked me up with my trip to Angouleme, a place I had wanted to go for years, but that I had never been able to figure out how to approach. Here she is at Angelina with the impossibly elegant Jeff, Xavier Lancel, editor of SCARCE, who’s booth I signed at and painter Miran Kim.

In Paris, me and Fred stayed at Hotel du Petit Moulin, which was designed by Christian Lacroix and has the most photogenic walls ever

In between eating copious amounts of duck fat and plotting grand schemes, me and Fred idled all day drawing in cafes

Paris, I miss you!