So, while the Lakes International Comic Art Festival was buzzing online over the weekend, we were off to France for a festival that was taking place (almost) as normal. The organisers in Périgord had decided to go ahead with the 31st Festival de la Bande Dessinée de Bassillac et Auberoche, though as they anticipated the footfall was greatly reduced. We were there to promote Louise Michel la Vierge Rouge, the French edition of The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia, alongside an exhibition in advance of the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune.

On Saturday afternoon we did a presentation, after which we went to view the Il y a 150 ans exhibition in the Archives départmentales de la Dordogne. The rest of the time was pretty much taken up with ‘dédicaces’ at our table  –  shifting every copy, which felt good –  and sitting at table in the agreeable company of the organisers and other guests, while eating course after course of local produce (it’s a tough job, but someone etc…).

Here are some pics from the weekend. First, the hall:

And the exhibition. It was in two parts: 1. 24 informative panels put together by Les Amies et Amis de la Commune de Paris and 2. artwork from Jacques Tardis’ Le cri du peuple, from the Communardes! trilogy illustrated by Xavier Fourquemin, Anthony Jean and Lucy Mazel and from our Louise Michel la vierge rouge:

In addition, there were two fragments of history, or rather of the Vendôme column, destroyed by the Communards in May 1871 and on loan from Périgord Museum. Here’s one:
And now we’re home and self-isolating. Thanks to Matthieu Druillole and all the other organisers for making us feel so welcome. Behind the mask, I’m smiling…

Three events are going ahead next month! The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is taking place online. And it’s free, folks! Bryan Talbot and the Locations of One Bad Rat, filmed last month, will be available to view online from 7pm on Friday 9th October. It’s one of a host of unmissable contributions to this year’s festival. Check them out here.

Durham Book Festival is also happening online in October. Our contribution, In the Studio with Bryan and Mary Talbot, is scheduled for broadcast at 12.30 on Friday 16th. And it’s also free! You can check out everything on offer here.

Meanwhile, we’re invited guests at the Festival de la Bande Dessinée de Bassillac & Auberoche, which is going ahead in Bassillac, Dordogne, 9- 11th October. There will be an exhibition of artwork from The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia. The French edition, Louise Michel, La Vierge Rouge, is being republished to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune.

Two more lovely covers! Ediciones La Cupola published their excellent Spanish version of Rain this summer. It’s available from them directly here. More of a surprise was a fine Norwegian edition of Dotter of her Father’s Eyes, just published by Solum Bokvennen and available from them here. We’d not heard about it for so long – about three years – that we’d completely forgotten about it. They’ve translated the title as ‘Fathers and Daughters’ and the cover design they’ve used is the same as the Spanish paperback version. I did an interview over the phone for the daily paper Dagsavisen last week. Dotter keeps dancing on!

Two superb new covers! The publisher of Louise Michel: La Vierge Rouge (the French edition of The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia) is putting out a soft-back edition later this year. It’s coming out in time for the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune next year and the cover is fabulous.

Back in January, an Italian edition of Dotter of her Father’s Eyes was published by NPE. It has a strikingly different cover from all the other versions. There was a promotional tour organised for early May: we were appearing as guests at Napoli Comicon, then doing various events with students in Sicily, where the book has been taken up for use in schools. We’ve had to cancel, of course. It’s possible that there’ll be alternative arrangements in October/November. We’ll just have to sit it out and see.

Take care, everyone.

#nousrestonscheznous #stiamoacasa

Happy new year all!

Our first event of the year is at the university here in Sunderland next week. If you’re in the northeast, you may be interested in attending. We’ll be doing a short presentation on our graphic novel RAIN and taking part in some discussions during the day. It’s free, with further details and tickets available on Eventbrite here.

Landscape is a professional journal for landscape architects and its latest issue is devoted to Climate and Biodiversity Emergency. In it, there’s a double page spread about our new graphic novel Rain, appearing straight after a feature on the work of Slow the Flow Calderdale entitled “Tackling flooding in the Calder Valley”. This happy connection has come about because the journal’s editor, Paul Lincoln, happened to hear us being interviewed on BBC World Service (yes, we were!) and contacted us. Slow the Flow Calderdale is a charitable organisation that’s led by volunteer professionals. As the article explains, it “works alongside statutory services to address flood events and works on practical solution, including Sustainable Drainage Systems and Natural Flood Management”. There’s a lot of clever work going on.