David Ziggy Greene, SCARCE At Angoulême

Published Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:00:01 -0600

Bonjour à tous!

Angoulême is the largest comic book convention in the world, held in France. SCARCE is a French magazine, running quarterly since 1983 focusing on American comics, available through subcriptions (7€ per issue, 25€ for 4 issues, shipped worldwide).

Xavier Lancel is the current editor-in-chief and he will be providing Bleeding Cool with a look at the 38th festival and running commentary from the SCARCE crew at the show.

The magazine likes to invite prominent American comic creators to the show (and the occasional Brit too) and has conducted a series of profile questionnaires with their guests before the festival begins

Who are you?

Me? I'm David Ziggy Greene. I'm a illustrator and cartoonist based in chilly old London, UK.

In 2010 I released my book called Swimming With Shoes on. It's a 70 page collection of short stories and bits.

It did pretty well and I was moved by reaction from critics how some of my favorite creators like Peter Bagge, Gabby Schulz, Thomas Herpich endorsed it.

It will hopefully come out later this year in a French version with more stuff packed in.

I've had stuff published in the UK (like Stool Pigeon music newspaper), US (Anthologies from Slave Labor Graphics) and I'm a reporter for the ultra cool French newspaper (Charlie Hebdo).

My comic blog is www.pourlafrime.blogspot.com but I also run this comic retail site

Is it your first trip to France, to the Angouleme Festival?

I visit France a few times a year. Sometimes for work. Sometimes to relax. Every time to visit their book shops!

But this is my first Angouleme thanks to Xavier at Scarce. We met at another festival back in May in Montargis and I'm thrilled he has invited me to tag along. Very cool guy.

I've been warned and told it will be an intense experience by everybody.

Top tips so far:

– Pace yourself
– Pace yourself
– Get sleep.
– Pace yourself

What do you expect from it?

I been a guest at a French festival before and attended another so I have a decent idea of what to expect.

Really friendly people who respect what you do in comics. Stupidly good food. A beautiful city.

And way too many books to spend your money on.

Are you ready? Any specific fear about it?

No. I've taken time come down here to the Ritz and speak to you lovely people at Bleeding Cool in person (nice tie by the way) despite being days behind in my preparations.

I'm still touching up pages on a new comic I've created for the festival. A few late nights from now on.

What I fear? The end of the world before I manage to even sit behind the festival table.

Do you speak french?

Badly. I've studied it 3 hours a week for almost 2 years. I can read and write ok but once a French person starts speaking to me, my brain turns into a block of butter.

But, seriously, I can survive if I have to. I know the most important phrase when you meet important people is "Ma citrouille aime à monter en amazone." So I'll be ok.

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