Hello strangers, friends.
Been awhile.
Over on the Cold Heat blog, I posted some sketches from a train ride in Switzerland.
Quite an adventure.
Pittsburgh looks dirtier than ever. So what.
I like being back.
Fumetto was certainly a blast. Essentially the festival takes over the town of Lucerne, Switzerland, and mounts about a dozen exhibitions, holds panel discussions and demonstrations, as well as signings and tours. It’s a non-commercial festival, with one great store located in the festival center and that’s it. It was wonderfully well-organized, well programmed and just, well, kinda perfect. It’s also interestingly broad, encompassing illustration and art as well as more traditional comics. By the end, we were told, 150,000 people had been through the festival. For me, it was a great chance to be involved with a different vision of what a festival can be, as well as a fun international cultural exchange. After all, PictureBox was there in the form of an exhibition by Frank, Lauren and CF, as well as a show by Yokoyama. But so was Ever Meulen, with a wonderful little retrospective. And so was Blutch, the “artist-in-residence” who provided excellent new drawings everyday in his hotel lobby. Mark Newgarden mounted, for me, the best exhibition of the festival, with a conceptually tight showing of his original artwork and ephemera. Shary Boyle was there with a fantastic show, and so was David Shrigley, not to mention Daisuke Ichiba, Elvis Studio, Alex Baladi, and numerous others. Anyhow, here are some pictures from the scene and there is much, much more on Flickr. Thanks to Lynn Kost and the Fumetto staff for such a wonderful experience!
Elvis Studio’s show. 
Study for RAW cover and finish by Ever Meulen.
Newgarden made gorgeous large-format prints of Love’s Savage Fury.
Preggers Lauren is a great cook.
CF and Yokoyama bonded. 
Oh yeah, one day me and Frank went to see Lee Perry at his mountain retreat an hour from Lucerne. He and Frank collaborated on this Batman drawing.
At the feet of THE RULER.Here’s a quick look at what’s happening in Lucerne…
Group interview time! Santoro, Weinstein, me, Forgues, Yokoyama. Major topic: Hemingway and humanism. Also: war comics.
Very large painting by Yokoyama, circa 1994
Part of Frank’s installation.
Part of Lauren’s show.
Oh, there’s this.
Brinkman here in spirit but not body.
I do love Ever Meulen.
Mark Newgarden makes his presence known.
More later.
Well, two-thirds of Comics Comics will soon be in glorious Lucerne, Switzerland for the Fumetto Festival. That’s right, I’ll be there with Frank Santoro as well as Lauren Weinstein, C.F., Yuichi Yokoyama and others. PictureBox itself has a nice exhibition of work by these artists and the festival sounds pretty great in general, with shows and/or talks by Mark Newgarden, Mat Brinkman, Blutch, Shary Boyle and others. Frank and Lauren are already there and apparently Frank and Blutch had a drawing contest of some kind, resulting in a nicely Swiss “even draw”. Anyhow, I’ll be there from April 1 to April 6. Hey Europeans, come see us!
