François Vigneault's Blog, page 2

TCAF 2023: Greeting from Montréal Panel & Portfolio Reviews

I have the immense pleasure of hosting a group of truly talented cartoonists for the panel “Greetings from Montréal: BD and Comics from Québec,” part of the programming at Toronto Comic Arts Festival on April 29th at 11:00am! If you’re at TCAF don’t miss this roundtable discussion with some of Montréal’s top creators: Lee Lai, Ariane Cloutier, Boum, Julie Delporte, and Tania Mignacca for a discussion of the Montréal scene and Quebéc comics and bande dessinée!

Greetings from Montréal: BD and Comics from Québec

How well do you know your neighbors? Home to some of the top publishers of comic books and a thriving self-publishing community, Montréal boasts one of the most vibrant comics scenes in the world, bar none! But barriers still remain, and many curious readers just aren’t sure where to start exploring the world of Québec bandes dessinées. Come meet some of the incredible creators who make up the diverse Montréal scene as they discuss what makes for a good comics city, the intersecting cultures of francophone BD and anglophone comics in Québec, and what the future holds for an increasingly interconnected comics community throughout Canada and beyond. Presented in English.

Boum (Boumeries, The Jellyfish)

Julie Delporte (This Woman’s Work, Corps vivante)

Lee Lai (Stone Fruit)

Ariane Cloutier (It’ll Be Alright?, I’m Still on the Road)

Tania Mignacca (Ponto)

Moderated by François Vigneault

TORONTO COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL
Saturday, April 29th at 11:00am
Hinton Room

Pow Pow Press will also be doing two sessions of portfolio reviews during the Festival, with either myself or publisher Luc Bossé giving creators feedback and constructive criticism of their work. If you are a budding creator or know someone who is getting started in the comics world, feel free to send them our way!

Saturday, April 29th, 4:00 – 5:00
Sunday, April 30th, 1:00 – 2:00
First Floor Study Room

The post TCAF 2023: Greeting from Montréal Panel & Portfolio Reviews first appeared on Tour de François.

“We Never Learned That We Shouldn’t Be Doing This” — A Conversation with Los Bros Hernandez

I recently had the pleasure of chatting via video call with Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez to discuss the recent 40th anniversary of their seminal sci-fi/punk/indie/Latino/everything series Love & Rockets and the release of the massive Love & Rockets: The First Fifty box set from Fantagraphics. I’ve been reading Los Bros’ work for about three decades now, and they had a HUGE influence on my view of what comics could be and what kind of stories the medium can encompass. As a young punk (and comics nerd, and mixed-race kid) coming of age in Southern California, their modern, multi-cultural, multi-genre stories really spoke to me, and solidified my burgeoning desire to create my own work in the medium (I also eventually went on to write my undergrad thesis on Jaime’s Locas stories). It was a real delight and an honor to talk with these comic book giants, and our conversation touched on all kinds of subjects, from where to start with their sprawling narratives (“Just follow the girls”) to the Bros’ occasional frustrations with “small-minded nitwits out there that are running things.”

Below is a short excerpt from our conversation, for the full interview head on over to Broken Frontier!

Photograph by Carol Kovinick-Hernandez

GH: What I think is really special about what Jaime did, is Jaime started out with a lot of detail, a lot of just, likability of looking at a comic book. He just had that going on, and it was science fiction-y and this and that, with light humor. What I think is remarkable is that he didn’t go that way, to be a big famous artist. He went inside to the characters and used that skill that could’ve worked at Marvel or wherever else if he wanted to. But what he did was he used that skill to tell human stories. And that’s something that was not encouraged in comics. To have Jaime’s skill to draw, you know, as well as he did, and use it for humanistic stories and not be, you know, whoever’s doing the new Spider-Man or whatever. I think that that took a lot of strength in a way that he may not have been aware of at the time.

JH: Yeah. It always seemed more important to me, like he said, to use my strengths to tell what I wanted to tell. I never thought of really using it for someone else, you know? It was always for me, like, “Oh, okay, I have this gift of drawing pretty well, so I get to draw what I want.” So it was always, for me, my stories. It’s something I had never really thought about, ‘til he brought that up. It’s almost like I didn’t know that “I coulda been somebody!” you know? 

GH: But you would’ve been miserable though.

JH: Oh, I can imagine. Yeah. 

FV: It’s a cliche to say it this way, but it’s very much, like “Don’t sell out,” right? We all wanna make some money, but both of you have been true to your artistic vision, for 40 years, you know, straight up doing what you want to do, no matter where that takes you. If that’s popular or not, you’re following your muse as it were, wherever it might go. To me that seems very connected with the DIY ethos, the artistic ethos, the punk ethos. 

JH: And here’s another funny side note. The few times I did try to sell out to make money, they didn’t want me. 

GH: Yeah. That’s the truth of it. 

JH: I was like, “Oh, okay. When I’m outside of my Love & Rockets world, I’ll just be used for something.” You know, it’ll be, “Go over there and draw three straight lines,” and stuff like that.

And I go, “Oh, I thought you wanted my ‘genius!’” Apparently not, you know? 

Read the rest of the interview on Broken Frontier!

The post “We Never Learned That We Shouldn’t Be Doing This” — A Conversation with Los Bros Hernandez first appeared on Tour de François.

Announcing Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing

Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing is a seasonal collection of words and images designed to inspire a connection with the small wonders of the natural world.

A downloadable calendar, ready to print or use on screens, each month of Look, Listen, Learn features a short text and an illustration, along with a prompt encouraging readers to create their own reflections on the world around them.

A collaboration between myself and the wonderful author Jaimie Franchi, new updates of Look, Listen, Learn will be released seasonally, with instalments of three months coming out on each solstice/equinox throughout 2023. The first instalment, Winter, is available now.

Winter (Jan/Feb/Mar) OUT NOW
Spring (Apr/May/Jun) | March 21, 2023
Summer (July/Aug/Sep) | June 21, 2023
Fall (Oct/Nov/Dec) | Sep 23, 2023

Each season is pay-what-you-like (even $0 is fine), with any proceeds benefiting Nature Conservancy Canada.

The post Announcing Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing first appeared on Tour de François.

Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing

Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing is a seasonal collection of words and images designed to inspire a connection with the small wonders of the natural world.

A downloadable calendar, ready to print or use on screens, each month of Look, Listen, Learn features a short text and an illustration, along with a prompt encouraging readers to create their own reflections on the world around them.

A collaboration between myself and the wonderful author Jaimie Franchi, new updates of Look, Listen, Learn will be released seasonally, with instalments of three months coming out on each solstice/equinox throughout 2023. The first instalment, Winter, is available now.

Winter (Jan/Feb/Mar) OUT NOW
Spring (Apr/May/Jun) | March 21, 2023
Summer (July/Aug/Sep) | June 21, 2023
Fall (Oct/Nov/Dec) | Sep 23, 2023

Each season is pay-what-you-like (even $0 is fine), with any proceeds benefiting Nature Conservancy Canada.

The post Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing first appeared on Tour de François.

2022 in Review

Catching up on my reading near Joshua Tree

We’re at the end of another calendar year, which can only mean one thing: Time for me to do a little round-up of my creative projects from this last celestial go-around. I started writing these little “Year in Review” posts eight years ago, and I have to say I strongly recommend it… I don’t have the patience or mental energy to keep a journal or even a sketchbook these days, but I am glad that I’ve been forcing myself to write down a few notes about my creative projects and the occasional reflection on the passage of time, it’s both a pleasant reminder of the things I accomplished and also a metaphorical kick in the butt when I contemplate the things that I didn’t get done (I’m looking at you, Blue Moon… I’m coming for you in 2023!). As our Latin friends once said, ars longa vita brevis.

As it happens, the final months of 2022 are feeling like a bit of a capstone of the last few years for me, professionally and personally: I wrapped up drawing Volume 3 of Orcs in Space in July, bringing to a close a big ongoing project that dominated my creative output over the course of the the pandemic, and now I feel like I am finally transitioning to concentrating on the aforementioned Blue Moon, which will be my next “all me” graphic novel and will hopefully appear in French in 2024 and in English not long after. 2023 will also see me taking on a role consulting with Pow Pow Press (the English-language side of Éditions Pow Pow, who published the French edition of TITAN) with the goal of getting more of their fantastic books into the hands of readers in the USA and around the world. Overall if feels like the new year is looking to be a new chapter in my creative career and I’m excited to see where it goes from here!

Somewhat coincidentally, the transition from 2022 to 2023 also sees me making a pretty big change in my lifestyle as well… After many years in Montréal, my partner C. and I have decided to pull up stakes and move out of the city. We are moving into a lakeside cabin in the Laurentian Mountains, just an hour-and-a-half drive from Montréal but quite a different vibe from the urban lifestyle we are both so used to! After lots of hemming and hawing about it, we decided that as much as we still love Montréal, what we value most at this point in our lives is camping, canoeing, birding, and otherwise being in the natural world. Very excited to spend even more time in nature throughout the year… And we definitely get to indulge our taste for renovations and DIY projects as well, seeing as the place is about a half-century old… Expect the occasional “This Old House”-style update in my email newsletter in the coming year.

As always, many thanks to all the amazing people who have supported me in my creative endeavours throughout the year. Regardless if you are a bookseller who stocks one my graphic novels in your shop, a client who thought my style would work for your project, a reader who enjoyed something I wrote or drew, or someone who just follows along with me on Instagram or Patreon, I can only say a huge “thank you” for your continued interest in my work in its various forms and for your support of what I am doing. I’m truly humbled that I am lucky enough to make my living exercising my creativity, and I never take it for granted. I am truly lucky to be able to connect with people around the world through my art and craft and I will continue to do my best for you!

Here are links to my “Year in Review” posts from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, in case you are curious about what I’ve been up to in years past. As has also become a tradition more recently, I also posted my “Year in Books” and “Year in Movies” lists, so you can see what I have been reading and watching in the last year. As for what I got up to myself in 2022, well, without any further ado…

Food for Thought: Apples to Giraffes

2022 saw me throw myself in to the podcasting game, with the launch of Apples to Giraffes. Created with my longtime friend (and excellent cartoonist) Jonas Madden-Connor, Apples to Giraffes takes a look at the art of adaptation: On each episode we take a deep dive into a work of narrative art, look at failures and successes with any past adaptations, and let the reader know what our take on it would be if we were in charge. We released a total of 13 full episodes (plus a couple of bit-sized bonus ones), covering works from Richard Stark’s 1962 revenge classic The Hunter to the 2020 fantasy Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, with many stops in between (some of my fave episodes include The Secret History by Donna Tartt, “The Tripods” by John Christopher, Black Hole by Charles Burns, and of course our special “Casting Call” episode on my own graphic novel TITAN.

It’s been a definite challenge to try out something in a totally new medium for me (I’m still getting used to the sound of my voice after all these years), but this has been a ton of fun… The best element of all, unsurprisingly, is just getting to talk with my old pal Jonas on a regular basis! We’ve been friends for over 30 years now (!!!) and we’ve always loved discussing the ins and outs of comics, movies, and novels, so this has been a real pleasure. We are on a short break between seasons one and two, but we’ll be back in early 2023 with new episodes, including some cool interviews with creators and more. Some books on the docket for season two of Apples to Giraffes include the “First Law” books by Joe Abercrombie, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, and Matt Wagner’s Grendel comics, with special co-host Zack Soto of the “In This Episode…” podcast.

Out with a Bang: Orcs in SpaceWall-to-wall action is the name of the game in the final volume of the series!

All good things must come to an end… Orcs in Space Volume 2 was released back in April of this year, and in July I drew the final pages of Orcs in Space Volume 3, which will be hitting stores in February 2023. That will be the final instalment of the orcs’ tale, and it is a wild and wooly adventure for sure! It has been a rocky road, releasing these books during a pandemic, but I have to say that I consider myself very lucky to have had the chance to do this series and quite proud of myself and my collaborators for creating it. A bittersweet ending to be sure, I and the rest of the creative team are going to miss these characters (and who knows, maybe you haven’t heard the last of Gor, Mongtar, Kravis and the rest of the gang… I’ve got some ideas!) and working together to bring you silly and action-packed comics in the old-school funny book tradition. The story ends (literally) with a bang, and it was a lot of fun to create this little universe! Over the course of 2022 I posted some behind-the-scenes materials, like character designs and cover process posts.

Nothing like a new book to get you motivated… To make another book!

A big thank you to everyone who made this book happen. Naturally, big ups to my talented creative collaborators Justin Roiland, Abed Geith , Rashad Gheith, and Michael Tanner for creating the orcs and writing their adventures, DJ Chavis and Dave Pender for their vibrant color work, Amanda Meadows for heroically bringing the whole project together, Gabriel Granillo for getting the series over the finish line, James Lucas Jones for so much, Zack Soto for putting my name out there for this project in the first place, and the entire team at Oni Press past and present for their hard work. Blessings on you all.

Translating TalliTalli’s adventures begin…

I had the pleasure of translating and lettering the fantastic (in every sense of the word) manga/bande dessinée series Talli: Daughter of the Moon by the talented French/Laotian cartoonist Sourya this year. Volume One was published by Oni Press back in November, and this high adventure fantasy series is just getting started, with new volumes planned every year. I have been loving this immersive fantasy adventure, and I can’t wait for anglophone folks to visit the charming universe Sourya has created. The reviews for the book have been great so far, the Library Journal gave Talli a starred review and Erik Cheski at Fanbase Press said “…the only way that I can describe the feeling of this book overall is delight.” I also had the pleasure of chatting with Sourya over on Broken Frontier, his first-ever interview in English, I believe. You’ll be hearing more from me about this series next year and beyond, for sure… On the subject of translation, I recently posted an interview translator Edward Gauvin did with me about working together on the book Letter to Survivors, and 2023 will also see the publication of my translation of Notes by Boulet, too!

Lettering LemonadeWho is the mysterious Pink Lemonade? Not even I know for sure…

Another fun gig I took on in 2022 is lettering Nick Cagnetti’s  retro-tinged comic book Pink Lemonade. This monthly series is pretty much a one-man show, with Nick tackling the writing, art, colors, and hand-lettered sound effects… So what the heck is my name doing on the cover? Well, I was brought in to do some additional lettering for Nick, and honestly this series is a lot of fun to work on… Nick’s work feels to me like a quirky mix of Mike Allred’s Madman with the slightest touch of Death Ray-era Daniel Clowes, an earnest, super-sweet vision of old-school superhero comics with a unique point of view. As for my lettering I really hit my stride in the upcoming issue #5, which features a ton of “special effects” lettering that travels across a panoply of eras and visual styles… Keep your eyes peeled for that issue in shops in early 2023 and the collected edition of Pink Lemonade next July!

Dep’t of Ephemeral Art: Vicoli et ruellesMany of my urban animal buddies, from squirrels to alley cats, made appearances.

Vicoli et ruelles was a multi-artist exposition focused on representations of urban life in the comics of Italy and Québec, which was presented by the Montreal Comic Arts Festival at the Institute of Italian Culture in Montreal from April 28 to May 31, 2022. The show focused on the ways that urban life, and specifically the vibrant life of alleys in Québec and Italy.

I didn’t have any pieces in the show itself, BUT I had the pleasure of creating all the incidental illustrations for the show, which adorned the walls of the gallery, creating a life-size, immersive environment! It had been a long time since I had done a project like this, and it was a ton of fun… So strange that it’s all gone now! I did manage to take a few quick pics during the instalation of the show and posted them up on my blog recently.

Three Cheers for JackalhopA sour IPA with mango notes… Perfect for a beach day!

Early in 2023 I was contacted by Jackalhop, a Québecois microbrewery that was expanding their line of beers and needed labels designed… I’ve always wanted to do some illustrations for beer labels, so I happily said yes! I joined a rotating crew of talented artists (including Étienne Poisson, Catherin, and Thom) and created my own interpretation of the company’s mascot, Jack the Jackalope. I just counted and in total I drew a total of ten designs for Jackalhop in 2022! Quite a few haven’t seen the light of day yet and I’ll be posting up about them in the new year, naturally.

Book Designs: Boat Life and Five-Finger Rock“So put another dime in the jukebox, baby…”

I always like designing books, and I had the pleasure of working with two of my favorite, long-term design clients this year:

I’ve had such a fun time working with composer, musician, and educator Brock Chart of My Melodies Publishing on his “Five-Finger Piano!” series over the last few years. He just released his newest sheet music collection, Five-Finger Rock! Books 1 & 2, growing the library to six volumes, with more on their way. Each of these slim books is jam packed with original songs composed by Brock and designed for beginner to intermediate piano students, in styles like rock & roll, blues, pop, RnB, hip-hop, jazz, swing, and more. Brock is such a fun, creative dude and it’s a pleasure to work with him again and again to help get his creations out to the world! 

A lovely, meditative, and occasionally wacky book.

Next up I worked with Jason Levian over at Floating World Comics to design the the cover for Boat Life Volume 1 by Tsuge Tadao, with a fantastic translation by Ryan Holmberg. This book is a melancholic, philosophical, down-to-earth, jaded, and ultimately beautiful look at one man’s slow-motion midlife crisis, and the surprising ways that simply being present in the world can change one’s outlook. A great read for anyone who has ever wanted to get away from it all, but wasn’t sure they would like what they found when they got there. Floating World will be publishing Boat Life Volume 2 in 2023 and the design of these two books are gonna look just great together!

And Finally, Out Now: Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing

All this talk of the coming year and the passage of time reminds me that I ought to mention a fun seasonal project that I just launched, a special collaboration with Montréal author Jaimie Franchi: Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing is a printable, nature-themed 2023 calendar, a monthly collection of words and images designed to inspire a connection with the small wonders of the natural world. Jaimie and I will be releasing the calendar a season at a time, with Winter (January, February, and March) out now! Look, Listen, Learn: A Year of Noticing is a pay-what-you-like download (even $0 is just fine), with 100% of proceeds being donated directly to Nature Conservancy Canada, a conservation nonprofit that is near and dear to me. If you haven’t done so yet, make sure you sign up for my monthly newsletter (and Jaimie’s too!) and you’ll get the download link sent straight to your inbox on the first day of each season.

The post 2022 in Review first appeared on Tour de François.

My Year of Movies 2022

I watch less films than I used to (about 60 or so by my count, including rewatches, I also threw in a couple of TV series in the list, too), but I still like to keep track of what I am watching and occasionally jot down my thoughts on  Letterboxd. As was the case last year, I pretty much only watched movies at home this year, with at least a couple notable exceptions: I caught Top Gun: Maverick at the drive in, and it was excellent on the big screen (it played in a double feature with the latest Scream reboot/sequel, which was unsurprisingly not great). I also caught Nope in the theatre and it was also well worth catching in the cinema, an excellent riff on an old-school summer blockbuster, and my fave from Jordan Peele yet.

Looking through this list has me realizing that I end up watching too much crap (films or series I end up giving one or two stars to) just because it is on Netflix or what have you, and I’m not taking the time to seek out better, more challenging, and more interesting cinematic content. I’m going to make an effort to push myself to spend a bit more quality time with films in 2023. I’ve recently discovered Kanopy which is a great source of free film loans, provided in arrangement with your local library, I really recommend it. I might also renew my subscription to the Criterion Collection or try out Mubi again (unfortunately there aren’t gonna be any video rental places in my (literal) neck of the woods).

Also, I’ve definitely been feeling liberated since I pretty much stopped watching superhero stuff. The two big ones I checked out this year, The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home, were fairly disappointing (tho’ I much preferred Matt Reeve’s clinically depressed but stylish take on the Dark Knight to the multiversal mashup of Spider-Man). For me personally it was a case of exceedingly diminishing returns and I’m happy to have some of that mental space back (in fact it feels exactly the same as when I stoped caring about following X-Men comics or what have you about 25 years ago!). The fandom was fun while it lasted but I’m happy to be disengaged (for now).

A couple of highlights of things I watched in 2022: The aforementioned Top Gun: Maverick and Nope, The Power of the Dog, The Northman, Licorice Pizza, the hidden gem The Clovehitch Killer, and Basic Instinct, Bicycle Thieves, and His Girl Friday (saw those last three for the first time, about 30, 70, and 80 years after they came out, respectively!). Some rewatches I particularly enjoyed include Inside Llewyn Davis, Out of Sight, and Eastern Promises. Special mention to the documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror which had me scratching down notes for several dozen old-school folk horror movies I wanna check out in the years to come!

The movies below are roughly in the order I watched them. If you’d like to see more of my ratings and reviews or chat about movies throughout the year, please connect with me over on Letterboxd!

The Unforgivable ½

Don’t Look Up Review
“…Overall this got worse and worse as it went along. Once it hit the one hour mark and the abortive attempt to stop the comet I was largely clocked out and rolling my eyes. There was a good film to be made here, but just like the vapid society it attempts to skewer ,”Don’t Look Up” doesn’t have the capacity to tackle a big problem successfully, the film is great at satirizing the superficial and rather crap at criticizing real power.”

Light From Light ½ Review
“Very quiet and actively anti-dramatic story that was still affecting and interesting.”

Out of Sight (rewatch) Review
“The perfect combo of crime and romance, comedy and action, irony and sincerity. I think this slim, sexy, charming little film might be my favourite movie of all time.”

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ½ Review
“Finally caught this nearly 20 years after its release and… It’s pretty good!”

Non-Stop

Passing Review
“…In total I found this film to be too stiff, too mannered, too parsimonious with detail and backstory and emotion. All this is certainly by design, and the film’s direction underlines the various levels of acting and falsity (racial, sexual, economical) that are on display in the structured social order of 1920s New York (Tessa Thompson in particular feels like she is acting from the inside of a too-small bird cage), but the overall effect is rather dull and mannered.”

Maria Chapdelaine ½ Review
“Despite the bizarre fact that the main character barely has any lines, the young actress playing her somehow pulls it off, and I left the film with a sense of Maria as a whole, if very enigmatic, entity… A bit of an “iceberg theory” approach.”

The Power of the Dog ½

From Up on Poppy Hill ½

Inside Llewyn Davis (rewatch) Review
“A pitch-perfect dream of a film, full of exceedingly well-realized set pieces and period details.”

The Last Duel Review
“A totally brutal portrait of a woman caught in a hellish position between two men who hold her fate in their hands.”

The French Dispatch ½ Review
“A lovely, meticulous, and often entertaining diorama of a film, hermetically sealed, expertly constructed, full of terrific details and lovingly polished surfaces, but lacking any real life.”

Backdraft ½ Review
“Pure cornball melodrama, yet this is somehow still fun and affecting filmmaking. The performances, the score, the action, its all over the top and yet I still cared what was happening to these hard-charging Chicago firefighters.”

Kimi Review
“Can any other director do it all, and do it all so gracefully, better than Soderbergh? Kimi is another low-key gem, a fast-paced thriller which nails the contemporary pandemic paranoiac moment with aplomb, with everything from the pitch-perfect set designs to the on-point dialogue making this a mirror of our bizarre moment.”

Point Blank Review
“A weird, awkward, and deeply disappointing mash-up of American thriller and French New Wave mind trip that never took off for me. Lee Marvin is one of the most passive figures imaginable, a barely-there presence who lets the film’s action wash over him like the waves of San Francisco Bay… Many scenes are seemingly played for laughs but nothing made me chuckle, but the few moments of action are so sad and flaccid they are inadvertently amusing.”

Copycat

The Long Kiss Goodnight Review
“The movie misses several chances for the action to be more awesome (the ice-skating assassin moment should have been unforgettable and cool, instead it just sort of happens; the knife throwing bit from early in the film could have been paid off several times in key moments but is instead brought back as a dumb gag, etc) but the action is fun, the explosions are ridiculously over-the-top, and the overall feel is just different enough to make this easy to recommend if you are in the mood for an old-school action flick with a bit of vim and vigor.”

Kiki’s Delivery Service (rewatch) Review
“Interestingly, this wasn’t my favorite Miyazaki/Ghibli film when I first watched it, I preferred the more epic works like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, but over the years I find it Kiki’s Delivery Service is the one I enjoy returning to again and again. It’s perfectly cozy and charming, a paean to the dignity and purpose of work and the importance of community, but also has some serious and difficult things to say about growing up, the difficulties of managing our lives, depression, anxiety, and the ability to bounce back again.”

Midnight Mass

Squid Game

The House ½ Review
“For the first two-thirds of this film I thought it might avoid the curse of anthology films and be rock solid from start to finish, but the final section let me down. A strong conceit (a strange and disturbing house makes life a nightmare for its occupants past, present, and future) and excellent character and scenic design make this film well worth a watch, but I found that everything from visual style to narrative sophistication got more pedestrian as it went.”

In the Line of Fire ½

The Green Knight ½ Review
“I know that some of the looping, picaresque qualities of the story can be traced back to the medieval source material, but this is an adaptation (as is made very clear by the winking title cards), and I think that it’s not to much to expect the director/screenwriter to bring all the elements together in a way that engages the audience’s mind and heart a both more than they were here. This feels like a clear case of style over substance, and while the film looks appropriately fantastic, it feels quite superficial.”

The Cider House Rules ½

She Dies Tomorrow ½ Review
“California Nihilism.”

Out of the Furnace ½

Apollo 10 1/2 ½ Review
“The quotidian details of life in the outskirts of Houston in 1968 were superb, and were surprisingly in line with my own memories of youth in Southern California 20 years later; from the rhythms of broadcast television to the disturbing omnipresence of playground violence.”

Taxi Driver (rewatch) Review
“Nearly 50 years old and still absolutely cracking. Depressing, brutal, funny as hell, and horrifyingly prescient.”

The Batman Review
“A really glum, 3-hour slog, featuring a clinically depressed Batman who is pretty miserable at being a detective, at acting like a human being, at stopping villainous schemes… This seems like an almost post-modern, parodic, nihilist vision of the Dark Knight, leeched of all the fun and charm… Perhaps this is The Batman for our times, but I found it pretty uninspiring.”

Malignant Review
“Fully absurd and over-the-top, ridiculous but occasionally enjoyable and funny.”

Basic Instinct Review
“Well, it took me 30 years to finally see this (I think at 14 I was too prudish and easily-embarrassed to watch such a sexy adult film) and I have to say it pretty much shines all the way through, and I understand why it is a classic. Sharon Stone is the ne plus ultra of femme fatales, fascinating, brilliant, flirtatious, commanding, manipulative, and flashing a million-dollar smile (not to mention other things), her star power is off the charts.”

Hail, Caesar! (rewatch) Review
“Incredibly nuanced and comedic performances across the board, and dozens of fantastic, memorable moments… my absolute favorite is the set-up date between Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) and Carlotta Valdez (Veronica Osorio) where their natural chemistry and star power turns an artificial, commercial construction into something surprisingly special, a lovely metaphor for the magic of movies.”

You’ve Got Mail Review
“A fairly apocalyptic rom-com where female lead loses everything, apologizes constantly for the slightest showing of anger, and finally gets low-key swindled into falling in love.”

Old ½ Review
“I didn’t have high expectations, but this didn’t rise even to those. I figured the writing would be poor but was surprised how lack-luster the direction is here… It’s been a while but I can recall some of Shyamalan’s pervious efforts having a little visual energy.”

The Juror Review
“A very average yet satisfying film… In fact I am starting to suspect that the baseline 1990s film is a bit better than the baseline contemporary film… Naturally I know there’s no arguing matters of taste.”

Eastern Promises (rewatch) Review
“A window into an absolutely hellish underworld that is extremely convincing, full of intense tragedy, with some twists and turns I definitely never saw coming.”

Top Gun: Maverick Review
“Just as the film’s title character sets exacting, perhaps impossible standards for his students, Top Gun: Maverick sets an extremely high bar for the legacy sequel, expanding (and, very often, improving) on the on the original film in almost every way.”

Scream (2022)

Candyman Review
“At first I felt that the framing of the film in the context of the gentrification cycle and the culpability of artists in that process was killer, but ultimately it didn’t deliver anything truly damning or thought-provoking on that front, giving creators an easy out. Watching (and re-watching) the original is truly a shock, this sequel is much more standard (if still entertaining) fare.”

Spider-Man: No Way Home Review
“The ending is totally nonsensical, it ostensibly fixes some of the glaring problems this iteration of Spider-Man had from the jump (which begs the question of why they went down this path in the first place) but I can’t imagine wanting to come back for more.”

The Clovehitch Killer ½

Valley of the Dead ½ Review
“The script here is quite strong in an old-school fashion, plenty of zingers, insults, and patter, the characters are well fleshed out with their own quirks, snappy performances, a superficial but effective utilization of the setting, and overall it just works.”

Oblivion Review
“By turns intriguing, entertaining, and frustrating, Oblivion is an overly complicated but overall fairly solid sci-fi flick. Don’t think about it too much and you will probably have fun on the ride.”

The Void ½ Review
“Pointless and derivative creature feature with awful acting and plot (but the creatures are pretty good if that is your thing).”

Spiderhead Review
“The plot twists are laughably absurd, the “sympathetic” characterization is maudlin, and the tone veers wildly. The film also manages to transform a (modest) critique of the carceral system and the pharmaceutical industry into a story of a lone villain wrecking havoc on some poor souls.”

Killing Them Softly (rewatch)

X ½

Last Night in Soho

The Gray Man ½ Review
“Do I generally prefer a more grounded approach to this sort of tale? Yes. Can I just turn my brain off and enjoy a bunch of men (and women) of action beating each other to a pulp? This time around I definitely could.”

Nightmare Alley ½

Nope Review
“My favorite film yet from Jordan Peele.”

Licorice Pizza Review
“An oddball hustler romance that left me smiling all the way through.”

Porco Rosso Review
“Light as a feather, perhaps the most pure expression of Miyazaki’s love affair with aviation and the promise of freedom from a cruel world in the escape of flight.”

Bicycle Thieves Review
“Finally saw this, it certainly deserves its reputation as a classic and has aged wonderfully. Idiosyncratic and surprising, depressing and life-affirming.”

Black Tide ½

Blow the Man Down

Memory

The Northman

Old People

Lot 36

See How They Run ½ Review
“To call this film ‘deeply indebted’ to the filmography of Wes Anderson would be a major understatement, but I’m fine with that.”

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror ½ Review
“A deeply engrossing look at a sprawling cinematic genre/mode/vibe that is almost overwhelming in its breadth and depth. The earlier chapters focusing on “classic” English folk horror (both famed and obscure) were the most engaging for me, with really strong analysis and deep reflection, and I basically wanted to make notes about every single film and watch as many of them as I could.”

His Girl Friday Review
“Highly entertaining and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it’s Rosalind Russell’s party the whole way through.”

Don’t Worry Darling ½ Review
“Olivia Wilde’s sophomore feature is all dazzling surfaces, a visual treat that unfortunately doesn’t have quite enough substance underneath the inventive styling to support the weight of the film as a whole.”

Peninsula Review
“This is a great example of the possibilities in taking video games aesthetics, world-building, and mission design and bringing it to a film, however it also clearly shows the limits of that approach.”

The post My Year of Movies 2022 first appeared on Tour de François.

My Year in Books 2022

2022 saw an uptick in the overall quantity of books I read, I blew through my goal of 50 books with a couple months to spare. I’ll set my goal to next year to 60, which should be very do-able.

The increase in books read is certainly connected to the fact that I launched Apples to Giraffes with my old friend Jonas Madden-Connor, we released a season of 13 (mostly) biweekly in-depth book discussions along with a couple of bonus episodes, so that added quite a few books to the pile, including books that were new to me as well as rereads. Some of my fave books I read or reread for the show this year include the first two “Parker” books by Richard Stark, Replay by Ken Grimwood, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, the “Tripods” novels by John Christopher, and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (totally charming). I also read a couple of books for the show that wouldn’t have usually been on my radar, such as the gymnastic thriller You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott and the comedy-horror novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix; much like a book club the podcast sometimes got me reading outside of my comfort zone, and even if I didn’t always love those books it was interesting to see what was out there.

Between “required” reading for the podcast and other picks, 2022 saw me catching up on several classics that had slipped through the cracks for me, including Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin, A Kiss Before Dying and The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison, and The Secret History by Donna Tartt (not my fave).

Probably the single best book I read this year was a reread, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. It is pretty much a perfect book, and diving back into it about 20 years after I first read it is making me want to read or reread Nabokov’s other works. I’ve still got so many older novels on my theoretical “to be read” pile that I have resigned myself to the fact that I’ll be catching up less and less on contemporary fiction in the coming years, there’s just so much coming up that I am getting more and more comfortable with the fact that I’ll never “catch up” (always an impossible goal, but less and less feasible with each passing year). I did read Pastoral by Andre Alexis and started another novel by the same author as well.

I did read more contemporary (or at least somewhat recent) graphic novels as well this year, with the return of festivals like MCAF and TCAF I picked up quite a few books and also made an effort to catch up on books from local authors, some books I particularly enjoyed included Stone Fruit by Lee Lai, For as Long as it Rains by Zvianne, Blind Alley by Adam de Souza, and Soon by Thomas Cadène and Benjamin Adam, Talli Daughter of the Moon Volumes 1, 2, & 3 by Sourya (which I am translating) and Boat Life by Tsuge Tadao (which I designed the cover for). 2022 also saw the conclusion of Sammy Harkham’s serial The Blood of the Virgin in the pages of his comic book Crickets and that was pretty special to finally get to read the finale in that format, Crickets is about the only comic book I am still consistently reading individual issues of and it’s fun to have a complete run of it (watch for the collected edition of The Blood of the Virgin to show up early in 2023). I definitely bought quite a few graphic novels that I haven’t gotten the chance to read yet and I’m looking forward to cracking them open in the new year, like Keeping Two by Jordan Crane (which I have been waiting years for). All my physical books are currently packed up in anticipation of a move to the woods (!!!) so those will have to wait until they get unpacked.

I have quite a few books that I started this year (or in 2021, or even before) that I still haven’t finished, and as always hope springs eternal for 2023. Some I am hoping to finish relatively early in the coming year include The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, The Candy House by Jennifer Egan, 2666 by Roberto Bolaño (I still dare to dream I’ll finish this massive tome I have been stalled out on for 3 years!), and also wrapping up The Gold Coast, to finish Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Three Californias” triptych, which I am quite enjoying. I also still need to get around to the The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie before I forget what happened in the first two books! I also am embarking on a mission to finally read all of C.S. Lewis’ “Narnia” books and fill in a massive lacuna in my reading history!

I’m still logging books over on Goodreads in case you wanna follow along throughout the year (I’ve been seeking an alternate to Goodreads and still haven’t really found one, lemme know if you have a fave), and I occasionally post longer reviews to Tipped In… and of course I also am the co-host of Apples to Giraffes now!

Below are the books I read in 2022, including excerpts from my reviews, links to episodes of Apples to Giraffes, and links to buy the books on my Bookshop, where I get a small commission. Enjoy and happy reading!

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin Review
“A cautionary folktale in modern dress of half-hidden evil bubbling under the surface… At times nearly unbearably tense, with enough twists and turns to please the most jaded reader of thrillers and true-crime tales, this is still as fresh as can be nearly 70 years after its release! Recommended.”

Talli Daughter of the Moon Volumes 1, 2, & 3 by Sourya Review
“I am the translator of these books, but in my (obviously biased but fairly honest) opinion this fantastic (in every sense of the word) manga/bande dessinée series is definitely designed to get its hooks into the reader, and you’ll want more as soon as you turn the last page. I’ve read the next two volumes of Talli already and I can definitely say that the story takes some awesome twists and turns.”
Click here to read my interview with Sourya on Broken Frontier.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett Review
“Not my fave Dashiell Hammett nor my fave hard-boiled detective story, but still well worth the read. As a former San Franciscan, I’m both ashamed I hadn’t gotten around to this until now, and had a lot of fun going on a mental tour of the locations throughout The City.”

Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin Review

The Hunter by Richard Stark Review
“A wild ride in the company of the professional thief and cold-blooded killer Parker, a nasty piece of work if ever there was one.”
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on The Hunter.

Camp Spirit by Axelle Lenoir

Nuclear Winter Volume One by Cab
“While a nuclear power plant melting down and blanketing the metropolis with irradiated snow might seem like a horrible situation, Cab plays this apocalypse for laughs.”
• Part of my list “The Best Graphic Novels from Québec (No Matter What Your Taste)” on Shepherd.

My New York Diary by Julie Doucet
“Doucet’s maximalist, punk-inflected art packs each and every claustrophobic panel to bursting, a perfect fit for this tale of a suffocating, toxic relationship playing out in the shadow of the Cold War.”
• Another book on “The Best Graphic Novels from Québec (No Matter What Your Taste)” on Shepherd.

The Man With the Getaway Face by Richard Stark Review
“The Parker we find in these pages is almost likeable compared with his first appearance in “The Hunter,” and while he’s still a stone-cold killer and thief he’s quite a bit less blood-thirsty, which is a nice development if, like me, you found his company a bit unpleasant in the first novel.”

Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson Review
“Slim but satisfying, this book feels like Kim Stanley Robinson working out ideas that he would further flesh out in subsequent works, from the general (the focus on using legal change to create a revolution in the way global society is structured, as seen in The Ministry for the Future) to the extremely specific (after Aurora I don’t think I thought I would ever read another book that ends with a life-affirming scene of body surfing!).”

Soon by Thomas Cadène and Benjamin Adam

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin (Reread)
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on The Left Hand of Darkness

Hell is the Absence of God (), The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate (), & Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang () (Reread)
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on Ted Chiang

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on The Secret History

Replay by Ken Grimwood (reread)
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on Replay

Free Billy by Don Winslow Review
“There’s nothing revolutionary here, but as a little audiobook this is a fun, old-fashioned story with some nice details.”

The Free World by Louis Menand Review
“Nothing mind-blowing here but this could be a good springboard for further reading on subjects you don’t know much about (for me that included the sections on Betty Friedan and Jackson Pollack), or a refresher course on things you do (the Beats, the rise of rock and roll, and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement).”

Vagues de peur (I Saw You That Night!) by R.L Stein, trans. by Marie-Andrée Warnant-Côté Review
“I have to say I enjoyed this goofy YA thriller, and I loved the way each chapter ended with an absurd cliffhanger that would be resolved within the first page of the following chapter. Very silly and fun. Read in French.”

Now and On Earth by Jim Thompson Review
“The novel comes most to life in the neo-realist depiction of the frustrations, squalor, and occasional moments of joy in Dillon’s family life, it is his position as a father, husband, and son which makes this stand out from the pack.”

Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters Review
“A very slim idea, but marvellously executed. The internal logic of this book is far from airtight, questions abound and various theories are proffered but no concrete explanation is given for the bizarre events on the beach, much to the graphic novel’s credit…”

No One Else by R. Kikuo Johnson

The Fall Volume 1 by Jared Muralt
“A gorgeously rendered portrait of a family and a society teetering on the brink, as a global pandemic (sound familiar?) transforms the familiar cityscape into a dangerous battleground.”

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (reread) Review
“Still holds up very well, many of the scenes and individual lines had lingered in my memory which made this a bit like visiting with old friends.”
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on A Visit from the Goon Squad

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino (reread) Review
“I’ve read this before and enjoyed it more this time around, I think that I appreciate the references more (I am certain I didn’t catch many the first time around, and I’m also sure I certainly missed many this reading as well), and more importantly I think that getting older I can more deeply understand the bittersweet, achingly nostalgic tone the later half of the novel takes. Beautifully translated.”

Blind Alley: The First Year by Adam de Souza Review
“De Souza’s drawings are instantly engaging, with a casual, sketchy quality that makes everything feel cozy yet authentic.”

The White Mountains (), The City of Gold and Lead (), & The Pool of Fire () by John Christopher (reread) Review
“Rereading this for the first time in about 10+ years, and it still holds up wonderfully. A perfect adventure tale, grounded in a recognizable but bizarre world, rife with symbolic heft, and with extremely tantalizing hints of a deeper lore to be found just under the surface.”
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on The Tripods Trilogy

Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison Review
“I had heard that Jim Harrison could write the hell out of a sentence, and that is very much true. Intense, bold, and sharp writing, a bit like a more approachable and crowd-pleasing version of Cormac McCarthy. While the craft and power of the storytelling is absolutely wonderful, Harrison is firmly entrenched in a “man’s man” literary universe and it can honestly be a bit off-putting if, like me, you are coming to his work for the first time in the 2020s.”

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang Review
“The setting of the story in a real time and place (early 20th-century Paris) unfortunately creates some glaring problems with both the believability of the situation and its resolution as well as unnecessarily introducing some extremely touchy historical context (this story would have been much, much better served in a wholly fictional universe), but I think most readers can ignore this shortcoming and focus on the core story here, which is full of grace, emotion, and spirit.”
• Included on our list “The Best Graphic Novels that are Just Begging to be Brought to Life on the Screen” on Shepherd

The Thing: Brand New Thing by Walter Mosley & Tom Reilly Review
“The story, which at its best feels reminiscent of Charles Soule’s run on She-Hulk, can honestly be extremely difficult to follow at times, overpacked with character cameos and sideways transitions; in some ways this feels like the writer Walter Mosley just went wild playing with a bunch of beloved action figures, mashing them together until he tossed ’em all back in the toy box at the end.”

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on The Fifth Season

Stone Fruit by Lee Lai Review
“A remarkably self-assured debut graphic novel that announces the arrival of a major talent, with a refined style that synthesizes a range of influences into a wholly unique aesthetic and narrative vision. Poised on a razor’s edge between ferocious play and fraught emotional labor, Lee Lai’s characters must negotiate family life, queer romance, and mental illness in a world with few guideposts or role models.”

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on You Will Know Me

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin Review
“A fast read, full of pitch-perfect period details and disturbing ideas that make it well-worth reading today and tomorrow. Like me, you may think you already know this novel by reputation alone, but there’s a lot to unpack here, as they say, and plenty of surprises along the path to the final denouement.”

Pastoral by André Alexis Review
“A quiet novel full of surprise and delight, twisted miracles, lovely writing, and very funny moments… So glad to have come across Alexis’ work by happenstance last year, and looking forward to reading more of his work soon.”

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (reread) Review
“A magnificent book, a stunning achievement in style, a laugh-out-loud literary comedy, a terrifying look into madness, a meta-fiction to beat the band. Even better the second time reading it, about two decades later.”

Black Hole by Charles Burns
“A striking tale of a sexually transmitted plague running rampant amongst a community of teenagers in suburban Washington in the 1970s, all illustrated in creator Charles Burns’ almost inhumanly precise and and dark art style.”
• Included on our list “The Best Graphic Novels that are Just Begging to be Brought to Life on the Screen” on Shepherd
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on Black Hole

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on Piranesi

Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 1: The Tarantula () and Vol. 4: The Scorpion () by by Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle, & Guy Davis (reread)
“This two-decade-old series is shockingly ahead of its time, foregrounding thorny issues of racial prejudice, violence against women, and the rise of fascism that are more resonant now than ever. “
• Included on our list “The Best Graphic Novels that are Just Begging to be Brought to Life on the Screen” on Shepherd.

Une soeur by Bastien Vivès

Le chemisier by Bastien Vivès

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix Review
“There are definitely some good moments sprinkled throughout this book, and the scenes of violence, gore, and general grossness are appropriately grisly. But the book is ploddingly paced, with everything taking about twice as long as it should and a surprising turn of events in the middle that effectively cuts the tension out of the novel completely.”
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on SBCGSV

Boat Life by Tsuge Tadao Review
“A melancholic, philosophical, down-to-earth, jaded, and ultimately beautiful look at one man’s slow-motion midlife crisis, and the surprising ways that simply being present in the world can change one’s outlook. A great read for anyone who has ever wanted to get away from it all, but wasn’t sure they would like what they found when they got there.”

The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson Review
“The author excels at depicting the foolishness of both youth and age alike, and the down-to-earth rhythms of daily life in the shadow of a great and terrible fallen kingdom are beautifully rendered.”

Vile and Miserable by Samuel Cantin

Going Under by Zviane

As Long as it Rains by Zviane

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (reread) Review
“…If the novel had ended at the natural climax of the action I would have marked it down a bit. But the bittersweet and dark final section, which casts everything that has come before with an atmosphere of regret and sorrow, it pitch-perfect, and ensures this sprawling novel a place in my personal pantheon of great literature and great science fiction.”
• Listen to our Apples to Giraffes episode on The Bone Clocks

Crickets #7 & 8
and Blood of the Virgin Color Special by Sammy Harkham Review
“Issue #7 is probably the best issue yet of Crickets and the best chapter of ‘The Blood of the Virgin,’ this double-sized issue is both vast in scope (including a silent flashback that encapsulates one woman’s horrific experience of the Holocaust) and intimate in its particulars (the drunk and drugged excesses of life in Dunedin in New Zealand). Wonderful.”

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton Review
“The author does an able job weaving in a range of threads (personal, social, ecological, economic, etc) into the story, and I think the final result is a quite rich text. I’ve read it several times now and it definitely has lots of powerful emotional beats and works great as a ‘Portrait of the Cartoonist as a Young Woman’ bildungsroman.”

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis Review
“They don’t make ’em like this anymore.”

Lonely Boys by Sophie Bédard Review
“Lonely Boys brilliantly captures life as a twenty-something in all its pain and glory, showcasing the ups and downs of work, sex, romance, and most importantly of all, friendship.”

The post My Year in Books 2022 first appeared on Tour de François.

Vicoli et Ruelles

Vicoli et ruelles was a multi-artist exposition focused on representations of urban life in the comics of Italy and Québec, which was presented by the Montreal Comic Arts Festival at the Institute of Italian Culture in Montreal from April 28 to May 31, 2022. The show focused on the ways that urban life, and specifically the vibrant life of alleys in Québec and Italy.

I didn’t have any pieces in the show itself, BUT I had the pleasure of creating all the incidental illustrations for the show, which adorned the walls of the gallery, creating a life-size, immersive environment! It had been a long time since I had done a project like this, and it was a ton of fun… So strange that it’s all gone now! But I did take a few quick pics while the show was being mounted, so I thought I would share them here for posterity.

The post Vicoli et Ruelles first appeared on Tour de François.

Interview with Sourya on Broken Frontier

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Sourya, the creator of Talli: Daughter of the Moon (which I translated). The interview went up today over on Broken Frontier and it’s a fun little chat (and I believe Sourya’s first interview in English).

Sourya and I get into his inspirations, his secrets for drawing action scenes (“They always have to serve a purpose”), his favorite character pairing (“Sometimes, I even feel like their relationship is what drives me the most to continue the series!”) and much more:

FV: Where did your creative process start for Talli? With the characters, the plot, the world, or something else?

Sourya: The root of Talli, what was important to me at first, was to create a journey, to have that feeling of traveling, with strangers that would become a family at the end of the adventure. I would then build my story around that feeling.

I first created Talli, the main character. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted her to look like, physically, but also her personality. I then had to find the plot. One part that was difficult for me to find was to figure out “What is her power?” That went hand in hand with the creation of the lore of the world. Creating a fantasy world isn’t easy for me, especially because you’re basically allowed to create anything you want. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, to focus on the plot, and less on extensive lore.

Read the full interview on Broken Pencil.

Talli: Daughter of the Moon Volume 1 is out now. I think I can safely say that if you like “Princess Mononoke” or “Naussica of the Valley of the Wind” you’re gonna dig this book. Perfect for ages 12+, with a great female protagonist who slowly grows into her formidable powers and a charming, low-magic fantasy world, “Talli” makes a perfect gift for the manga lover in your life! Talli is available wherever you buy comics, manga, or graphic novels, including Bookshop (where I or your favorite indie bookseller gets a small commission as well).

The post Interview with Sourya on Broken Frontier first appeared on Tour de François.

Precedent

Cover and illustration package for Precedent magazine (2020).

The post Precedent first appeared on Tour de François.