If you've been in Angouleme, France recently

© FIBD, Jorge Fidel Alvarez... then you most likely were there for the now-wrapped-up 39th annual Festival International de la Bande Desinée. For three giddy days high-ranking cartoonists are borne on floats through Angouleme's medieval streets and the populace cheers, throws flowers, smothers them with kisses and makes them hold symposiums. From the photos I've seen, these are people with interesting faces and they can wear hats and scarves with great aplomb.

by Matthias Wivel, I think Or something like that. Last year the formidable Art Spiegelman won the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême , an honor that brings with it all kinds of responsibilities, like putting together most of this year's show. So in 2012 he was honored for a lifetime of work in comics' inky vineyards with a career-spanning show of his original art; pages and pages of Maus, New Yorker covers, Garbage Pail Kids, Raw Magazine, etc. And, with the able help of Bill Kartalopoulos, Spiegelman curated a Private Museum of cartoons that inspired him or that tickles his fancy. In this show were gems like Justin Green's epochal Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, works by Rodolphe Töpffer, Chris Ware, Walt Kelly, George Herriman, Bill Watterson, Daniel Clowes, Jack Davis, Loinel Feininger, Ernie Bushmiller, Caran d'Ache, Patrick McDonnell, Los Bros, Hernandez, and on and on. In fact, the list went on so far it reached me, and the cartoon below was slipped into the show.