Carnet de Voyage | Craig Thompson

Mini Ha Ha Ha

August 14, 2018 craig Carnet de Voyage, Misc, Travel, Upcoming

In Minneapolis this weekend for the AUTOPTIC FESTIVAL! Store event at MOON PALACE BOOKS (3032 Minnehaha Ave.) on Saturday the 18th, 1PM, moderated by Eric Lorberer of RAIN TAXI. And signing at Moon Palace’s booth in the Aria Center on Sunday the 19th, also at 1PM. Hope to see some of you there!

carnet at vancaf

May 13, 2018 craig Carnet de Voyage, Misc, Sketchbook, Travel, Upcoming

This coming weekend, I’ll be VANCAF comics art festival in Vancouver, BC, promoting the new edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE. Saturday, May 19th, signing from 2-4PM. Sunday, May 20th, spotlight panel 1:30-2:30, signing from 3-5PM. Eager for some overlap with my old friends, Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim, who both share pages in CARNET! Hope to see some of you there!

New edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE

April 24, 2018 craig Carnet de Voyage, Sketchbook, Upcoming

Drawn & Quarterly‘s new expanded edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE is in stores everywhere as of today. 32 new pages, larger hardcover format, new cover, back in print after a decade! In Portland, FLOATING WORLD COMICS will be hosting a release party / book signing / presentation: Saturday, April 28th, 5PM! Hope to see some locals there! In the meantime, thanks to all you readers, internationally, for supporting this humble travel diary!

chunky rice & kimchi

July 13, 2017 craig Blankets, Carnet de Voyage, Chunky Rice, Habibi, Travel, Upcoming

After laying dormant for far too long, I’m touring again – this time to South Korea for the Bucheon International Comics Festival (their twentieth year!) July 19th-23rd, 2017, and a store event at Book By Book in Seoul on July 22nd, and plenty of promotion for the Open Books/Mimesis editions of my books. Hope to see some of you there!

rad snow

February 27, 2016 craig Blankets, Carnet de Voyage, Friends, Misc, Sketchbook, Space Dumplings, Space Dumplins, Travel

This snow sculpture of Radcliffe perfectly merges SPACE DUMPLINS with BLANKETS and CARNET DE VOYAGE. The sculpting is courtesy my friends and translators, who hosted me at that chalet in Argientières in the French Alps in 2004. (Thank you, Laetitia, Frédéric, Anne-Julia, Walter, and kids!)

snowrad 01

snowrad 02

In less than a week, I leave for a 6 week book tour in Europe. Details coming soon!

digital pencil & analog ink

May 1, 2014 craig Carnet de Voyage, Misc, Space Dumplings, Space Dumplins, Upcoming

Thanks for the reminder about the Cintiq post, Dan. As mentioned back in August 2013, I’ve been experimenting with the Wacom Cintiq as a way to shake up & expand my working methods. The 13″ felt too cramped & claustrophobic, so early this year I upgraded to a 22″ Cintiq on an Ergotron arm – inspired by Fiona Staples, whose work on SAGA I admire.

For the past couple of months, I wrestled with the machine & have settled on a compromise common among comics pros – I pencil the pages digitally, then print out blue lines and ink on actual paper.

The advantage of digital penciling is I can see a chapter all at once (top right photo), cut&paste, zoom in close, edit on the fly, and work standing up (top left photo, avec Momo). But digital inking still looks too slick to me — I prefer the flawed & tangible qualities of fussy sable brushes on paper. Foot in both worlds!

Finally, my advice to young cartoonists is to keep it organic & raw and not get bogged down by plug-in devices. In a month, I’ll be starting a direct-to-sketchbook project like CARNET DE VOYAGE to relearn working on the fly outside the studio.

color tweaks & carnet’s tenth

March 5, 2014 craig Carnet de Voyage, Friends, Misc, Sketchbook, Space Dumplings, Space Dumplins, Travel, Upcoming

Just wanted to share some of the incredible work Dave Stewart’s pouring into the SPACE DUMPLINS colors.

We decided the palette was getting too muted & subdued, so he’s tweaking the pages just enough to infuse the grimy dinginess of outer space clutter with a burst of cartoony, kid-friendly levity. Previous incarnations on the left – updated versions on the right.

In other news, I realized that today is the exact ten year anniversary of my CARNET DE VOYAGE travel & book. To celebrate, I dug around for a photo or two, but they were sparse, because as noted in the back of the book, zero cameras were used in the creation of it. It is my unaltered travel diary begun March 5th, 2004 and ended May 14th, 2004. The week following, my buddy Frédéric and I scanned the three sketchbooks and layed out the book in Lyon, France – no edits other than a proofread from my non-native English speaking friends.

After spending 6-7 years on HABIBI, I can’t fathom that I created a book in less than three months. It helps to not make anything up, not edit, not use any photo reference, and avoid penciling as much as possible. First scruffy photo is in Morocco on the journey to Merzouga.

The second photo was provided by Lewis Trondheim – me drawing on the beach in Montpellier, France: young, naïve, skinny & shirtless.

world comics

June 24, 2013 craig Carnet de Voyage, Friends, Travel

My Korean publisher OPEN BOOKS translate my work with incredible attention to design & production. Check out their edition of CARNET DE VOYAGE with a 3/4 jacket.

In the upper right is a “LASER QUEST” jam with Lewis Trondheim. I’m reminded that Kim Thompson
was the first to translate & publish Trondheim’s work in the US.

Also, this news is late now that Hassan Rohani has been elected president of Iran, but my dear friend Amir co-orchestrated a very cool presidential campaign for the star of his & Khalil’s book ZAHRA’S PARADISE. (author photo by Michael Macor)

http://vote4zahra.org/ If you haven’t yet read their book, you must! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22803971

mange ta viande!

April 22, 2013 craig Blankets, Carnet de Voyage, Friends, Misc

BOINGBOING recently posted my interview with Blutch – an inspiring & influential cartoonist to myself and many others. The first of his books to be published in English – SO LONG, SILVER SCREEN – is debuting this month from Picturebox! Below is the the only photo I could find of Blutch and myself – at Angoulême festival in January 2005. And there’s a smattering of Blutch’s prolific bibliography.

While working on Blankets, I poured so devotedly over Blutch’s pages that it emerged as unconscious swipes in my own work. Here’s just one sample where I mimicked him without even realizing – a common affliction in young, impressionable cartoonists.

And here’s a couple of portraits of Blutch from CARNET DE VOYAGE. That 2004 visit to Toulouse, France is referenced often in the Boingboing interview. Treat yourself to Blutch’s new book finally in the US!

zach & mo & krejg.

March 7, 2013 craig Carnet de Voyage, Misc, Space Dumplings, Space Dumplins, Upcoming

During my March 5 – May 14, 2004 travel diary CARNET DE VOYAGE, this little bean-bodied critter invaded my sketchbooks as a conscience to counteract my whining & sentimentality. Nine years later, it’s satisfying & familiar to revisit the character in the pages of SPACE DUMPLINS, though I seriously envy how off-the-cuff I used to churn out the pages. The critter has a name now – Zacchaeus – after a favorite wee little tax-collector from the Bible.

There’s a new presence in my work studio that shares the same energy as Zacchaeus – frisky & distracting & never tolerating the whining – a kitty, name of Maurice (no Biblical reference). Here she is surveying new and old appearances of Zacchaeus. To the right, she protects the drafting table from her throne of crumpled jackets.

In other news: A) I’m participating in an exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco with an amazing cast of illustrators. I SEE WHAT YOU SAY opens March 23rd.
And B) the latest foreign edition of HABIBI to debut is from my Serbian publisher Komiko. I wanted to mention it, if for no other reason because I like seeing my name spelled “Krejg”.

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