Angouleme, Mon Amour (UPDATED)

Today the Angouleme comics festival starts. It's one of my favourite festivals of the year and I don't get to go to it nearly enough (invite me as a guest, damn you!). Typically, I'm not there now, but a lot of friends are. Sigh.


To add insult to injury, the documentary that I was interviewed for last summer in Paris, Sex in the Comix, has a special preview tomorrow night (Friday 27 January) at 20:00 at the festival, and airs on on ARTE on Saturday 28 January at 22:30 in France, and at 22:00 in Germany. There's some previews to watch here.

SEX IN THE COMIX - documentary from Les Bons Clients on Vimeo.

Here's what the press release has to say (badly paraphrased from the French!):

"Comics and sex? There's so much more to the history of eroticism! A new wind is blowing in this universe, and journey could be full of surprises... Leafing through the beautiful pages of an erotic comic, Molly Crabapple, a young New York artist, takes us on a discovery of the greatest erotic comic artists: Milo Manara, Robert Crumb, Zep, Maruo, and also investigates rising young talents, such as Aude Picault and Bastien Vives [Whose graphic novel, A Taste of Chlorine came out from Jonathan Cape last year]. We discover that sex makes excellent bedfellows with humour; that erotic comics have been driven by social protest with artists exploring intimacy and flirting with censorship. This examination reveals this art in a new light and explodes some myths, such as the role played by the women, which is more central than one might imagine."

Above: Some of Bastien Vives erotic work focuses on the manga fetish Bakunyu or "Bursting breasts."

Above: Aude Picault's sweet and saucy sketches are a delight! 

So, if any Erotic Comics fans out there manage to catch this do let me know what you thought of it, as I haven't seen it myself, and I can't get ARTE in the UK!
Hopefully the lovely production team, Les Bon Clients, or director, Joëlle Oosterlinck, will send me a DVD. In the meantime below is the original French press release and a picture of the gorgeous Molly Crabapple (founder of Dr. Sketchy's) who acts as a guide for the show.

Above: The delightful Ms. Crabapple

UPDATE: I just discovered the poster advertising last night's screening on Molly's blog featuring me with some seriously big names! Very honoured by such company and not to end up on the cutting room floor!