Back!

We are back from Skim Tour España 2009.

Thank-you to Ediciones La Cúpula, our Spanish publisher, for doing a great job on the production and promotion of the book. I assure you, Barcelona citizens will be quite sick of us in the next month or so when our newspaper interviews/tv/radio spots come out, such was the blitz. A super special thank-you to Montserrat Terrones, who very graciously toured us around the city. I shall miss the coffee but not the omnipresent cigarette smoke.



The Salón del Cómic de Barcelona was good but very different from North American comics festivals (at least the ones that I've been to). I was surprised to see alternative comics freely mixing with erotica, manga (LOTS of manga), cosplayers, and children's fare. And videogames and fantasy stuff and knick-knacks. And drinking.

I met lots of nice people, including some fellow illustrators! I will say, however, that I was not terribly happy about some of the signing culture over there. I got the feeling there was a bit of a sense of entitlement amongst some of the fair attendees... that simply because you are sitting there with a pen you can be asked to draw pictures in sketchbooks and loose paper. Many of the people who asked for drawings didn't even know who I was. I am more than happy to spend some time creating a nice picture in a book or for an illustration fan that comes and visits me, but a random person who wants a "free drawing"? Very irritating.

Anyhow, enough griping. Back to work!