Angouleme Pt. I

So, here we go again. This was my fourth (or fifth?) trip to Angouleme. Very much the same as the previous trips so I might take a year "off" to make it feel new and exciting again.

Lets start this photo post with some pics taken one of the mornings while walking uphill to the center of the town. Trust me when I say it's steep and that you need to make your legs work hard to survive this festival.
The blue thing in the second pic is actually a giant airship with a sleeping Smurf. Turned out that the Smurfs celebrated 60 years (or was it 50?) this year so there were quite some Smurf stuff around town.



Then we have a typical street scene *before* the big masses arrived. Later it was way too crowded to walk the mainstreets. On this street we also saw this nice storefront displaying Hugo Pratts Corto Maltese Swatch watches.


Naturally there were plenty of exhibitions and original art on display and for sale. Here are some of it.
First we have three pages of Peyo art. Me want. :)
Then a gigantic Barbarella page and a huge Valerian spread.




There were a Bottaro exhibition featuring plenty of his originals and there was also a new book on him featuring reproductions of the originals. (The second of these pics is actually "only" a colored photocopy of the art he gave to Barks.)


Gotta go now, but I have more (Including some irresistable Totoros for you Sofia.) to come tomorrow.