ANGOULÊME 2023

By Frederic Du Chau

There has been a lot of activity around the Ameluna book. I went to Angoulême in France where one of the biggest comic book festivals in the world takes place every year to meet with local publishers. Being a huge graphic novel fan, I also bought a few books for myself. Maybe too many. My book, Ameluna Climate Detective Agency, is now also for sale in Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. A first shipment of books went out this week. And I am starting a promotional tour for the book across podcasts, bloggers and influencers. Since this is all new for me, we’ll see how this adventure goes.

Angoulême is in the Cognac region of France only an hour and a half outside of Bordeaux. Lots of good wine and food. And even though it is towards the south in France, surprisingly very cold at the end of January. The festival is overwhelming at first because a couple of hundred thousand comic book enthusiasts visit this tiny town so it’s hard to find parking, navigate to the various exhibits or find a table at a restaurant. But it’s the most inspiring place to be when you love art and books. Authors form all over the world are there and the books on sale are top of the industry. The accompanying exhibits are unique and so interesting.

This is the festival where I won a prize for most promising unpublished author in 2008. I guess it took me a while to get my first book out. Check out the 2008 pictures in an earlier blog below – notice the crappy quality in comparison with the recent one I took on in Angoulême.