Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Angoulême, Comics

Molly Crabapple, SCARCE At Angoulême

Published Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:54:53 -0600

Last updated Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:24:47 -0600

Bonjour à tous!

Angoulême is the largest comic book convention in the world, held in France. SCARCE is a French magazine, running quarterly since 1983 focusing on American comics, available through subcriptions (7€ per issue, 25€ for 4 issues, shipped worldwide).

Xavier Lancel is the current editor-in-chief and he will be providing Bleeding Cool with a look at the 38th festival and running commentary from the SCARCE crew at the show.

The magazine likes to invite prominent American comic creators to the show (and the occasional Brit too) and has conducted a series of profile questionnaires with their guests before the festival begins.

Who are you?

I'm Molly Crabapple, and I have a rather scattered career. I just finished The Puppet Makers, a murder mystery set in the court of a steampunk Louis XIV for DC Digital, and I just sold, along with partner in crime John Leavitt, my latest graphic novel to First Second Books. I've also drawn comics for Marvel and done illustrations for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Neil Gaiman, and Amanda Palmer. I'm also the founder of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a chain of alternative art salons that's now in 120 cities, including Paris. I like coffee

Is it your first trip to France, to the Angouleme Festival?

I've been to France many times, including working for several months at Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris (an experience that proved my lack of talent with retail) but I've never been to the Angouleme Festival.

I'm really excited and a little nervous.

What do you expect from it?

French comics are some of the most asskickingly badass sequential art ever done. Me and my boyfriend Fred Harper have been wanting to go to Angouleme forever, but we never would have figured out how if Abby Denson and Xavier Lancel hadn't taken us under their wing. I'm really excited to spend four days buying more comics than I can afford, catching up with friends, and
sitting in cafes drawing.

Are you ready? Any specific fear about it?

I'm bringing a bunch of copies of Scarlett Takes Manhattan and Dr. Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book, as well as flyers in French explaining what they are. The flyers were the good advice of Abby Denson. I'm mostly just stoked to wander around what I've been told is the anti-SDCC

Do you speak french?

Un petit peu, mais mon accent est atroce et mon orthographe est pire. Right now I'm trying to read a bunch of Joann Sfar in French to improve. If that doesn't work, well wine makes you speak foreign languages better, right?