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Joann Sfar Missionnaire

Back from Vacation. Well, its been a while and I must say that it was a grand tour. Ill spill all the details on the specifics as we go, theres just too much to tell and theyre all battling for primacy in my brain. Lets just get started. Paris was our last stop and we stayed for five days. I got a map from Stuart Ng which shows all the bookstores along and around St. Germain. Of course I lost my mind at Album right away. Ive got a post on that alone. This is just about a moment there.



The french Album store (I wandered into the American one first, whipped around to the other corner for the local stuff) is two floors of bande dessinée heaven. I pigged out. After my book binge (more on that later) I picked up several magazines for good measure. This cover above appealed to me.



I flip through it, theres enough stuff here. I should pick this up, and oh, hey! Joann Sfar is featured. Maybe its about his movie. Hey, its his journal on his site, isnt it? At about this fraction of a second I notice the drawing on the periphery of my vision. I let out a yelp, "Hah!?"



There we were! That day that Joann visited us at Pixar we all gathered for a group photo and darn if that isnt our Sfar sketch versions up there. Were famous! Well, in my mind we are. After all, how often do you go to another country to find you are part of an article in a magazine there. Of course I couldnt brag to anyone nearby, my french is still at zero.

Okay, I cash out. I walk out and it would take another hour before I would realize that I bought a Sfar journal at Album as well. There were at least two of them that came out at the same time. I root around my stash and find the book, "Missionnaire." And sure enough there it is, a drawing of the Pixar gate, him posing with the Parr Family mannequins of the Incredibles...and there we are! Man, thats awesome.


"Missionary gathers the notebooks of voyage held by Joann Sfar during his stays in Tokyo in 2005 and the United States in 2006, as well as an anthology of watercolours drawn in Edinburgh and in Morocco."

On the bottom of the page he scribbles about a project that he and I had been keeping under our hats for a couple of years. It became apparent to both of us that I would not have time to execute these lovely pages. I never let on with anyone about it. So, on the following pages he discloses whats been on my hard drive for a while now. I hope to really work with Joann someday, maybe even get our Princess story out there together. Hey, you never know. Im on a lucky streak here.

Joan Sfar website
The Rabbis Cat at Amazon
Missionnaire at Amazon France

Available link for download

Joann Sfar Japan Sketchbook

Ever notice my fixation with all things Japanese? No? Well, try to pay attention. This post combines a few of my favorite things. First, awesome artist sketchbooks. And to be even more particular, French travel sketchbooks--namely, BD superstar Joann Sfars sketchbook. Second: He went to Japan. And he drew everything he saw it seems during his stay (he has scanned 45 pages of it for online viewing). This guys got a reputation for being prolific and this should give you a clue why. He just does not stop drawing.



Third: Amazing, on-the-fly ink sketches. During our correspondence last year Joann reveals that he draws his books in the same way he draws his cafe sketches--in, well...cafes (He was very generous with insights into his stance on "album" making [over a hundred]. Hes a huge talent AND a nice guy, too? Whoda thunk?). One can imagine how hed be relaxed, espresso on hand and casually completes page after page of his many books. Man, I gotta get to that kind of spontaneity and looseness someday. As our late great Alex Toth once said: Think more, draw less. I do the thinking more part but havent gotten to the drawing less. Working on it still.



Link to Joan Sfars Japan Sketchbook.
Link to Joan Sfars website.

Tirade post on The Rabbis Cat

Link to com page on Joann Sfar books.

Available link for download

Joann Sfar visits Pixar

Joann drew the genesis of his characters, from the Rabbis Cat to lovesick Ferdinand the Vampire. A friend tells him one day that hes been drawing his grandfather. He tried a drawing of his grandfather and, well, wouldnt you know it, he was right.

Near Sfar. I knew about the visit for months and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, this is the worst week for it, weve reels to make ready for an imminent screening. That means late nights and running around trying to catch many spinning plates. I did manage to carve out one hour out of yesterdays schedule to be at his talk.

He was so entertaining and very gracious, self-effacing in spite of us knowing his place in the world of published author-artist. His philosophy was simple: he just goes straight ahead and writes/draws. Trusting that his characters will show him where they should go."It doesnt always work," he disclaims several times, though at his output strata these moments are likely negligible. He draws in cafes on a sketchbook and once he takes pen to paper, "That is what the character is doing." No going back. We ask if he has less inspired pages, he answers, "If I am unhappy with a page I just start the next one."

At the end of it I was lamenting that we wont be spending more time talking stories and drawing. He says that he will be at San Diego next year and maybe we can make that happen there. Likely, hell be scheduled to the hilt.

It was inspiring to us who are budding writer/artists who wish to make books(maybe even spend more time working on them, as opposed to the stolen fragments of days here and there). We got our Sfar books signed along with a lithe brushpen drawing and the feeling that we know him now.



It was an hour very well spent and the next day we were going on about what he was able to share with us. Made us want dive back in and start again. The late nights at work dont leave much for drawing for yourself.

Maybe next month. Yeah.


Wikipedia on Joann Sfar
Le petit monde de Joann Sfar
First Second Guest Blogger with drawings
Signing at Comic Relief tonight

Available link for download