XIII 2010 World Tour!

[XIII]

Hoorah, Fall is here and Fall means gastroenteritis for everyone.... And then Winter is coming with more gastroenteritis.

I hate gastroenteritis. I get it every fucking year.

[jedispyder]

In the US we just call that The Flu. Everyone quakes in their shoes upon hearing someone has The Flu. We pass out new Flu shots like it's candy. I'm getting my shot in December. Last year I had a mixture of a sinus infection and flu at the same time, was pretty horrible

[XIII]

I don't know if it's really the same. We don't have any shot for this, here.

[jedispyder]

Yeah, I took a look again. Your thing is clarified as a stomach flu whereas the stuff we get shots for is Influenza. We do get stomach flus but we just call it a "24 hour bug" or something similar to gracefully indicate that you spent a full day puking and shitting your guts out. Sucks big time!

[Stocky Boy]

Several times a year? Fuck.

I had in once last year actually. Not fun crapping and puking at almost the same time for several times in a day.

[MGM]

So, how is Comicon Paris supposed to be?

[XIII]

It's the same one we went to together. The feedback I hear is that it's shit when it comes to comics. Impossible to have signatures because there are few guests and the schedule is crap.

[MGM]

Oh right, I completely forgot!

Just eyeing it for Eliza Dushku, honestly. But €250 for a dinner seems a bit much. And to go there just to grab a photo is not gonna happen on that con (I remember how shitty it was indeed).

[wolf_2099]

And, I got you a couple things I thought you might like at the con this year.
Are you still on Jasserson?

[XIII]

Ooooooh, that's very nice of you.
Yes , still Jasseron until next October I think.

[wolf_2099]

It's nothing big, but I thought you'd appreciate it!

[MGM]

So, it kinda slipped my notice the past few days, but how's Fillon doing? Is he expected to recover from the current situation? And if not, is there any chance Le Pen won't win?

[XIII]

He is not giving up, keeps saying his wife worked for real, that it's a conspiracy and blablabla. Meanwhile, Le Pen is keeping quiet. Don't know if she'll win. Macron is going stronger, but he lacks something quite important: a program.
All in all when the dust settles in May , we will be in la merde.

[MGM]

Macron also lacks experience. The news here kinda says that Le Pen would be chanceless against Fillon, but in all likelyhood would win from Macron. And also that Fillon basically is done, even though he's not giving up.

Le Pen winning would be the downfall of the EU.

[XIII]

Update!
We moved. It's been 3 months now but we've moved to a bigger flat just 2 blocks away from the previous. It took a while because the previous owner had bought the thing when the building was built 45 years ago and never really did any refurbishing. You can imagine what the kitchen or bathroom looked liked and the wallpapers everywhere. So we had almost everything redone to our liking. And we now live in this big-ass 100m² flat with 3 bedrooms, a gigantic (at least for us) living room and 2 bathrooms. Kids are loving it. Strangely enough, with all the extra space, Malorie still feels like there's not enough room for more comics and Legos...

And yesterday, I attended a Lee Bermejo signing at my local comics shop. I don't know how they managed to have him there. He's not touring in France for the launch of a new book, he was not attending a convention nearby. They just arranged for him to travel from Italy to Lyon for a one-day signing and sketching sessions. When I heard from the shop owner, my jaw dropped. Told him I'd be there at 5am, he said that was way too early. I said "6am, then". He thought I was crazy.
But damn it, I wasn't going to miss that chance and yes, I was there at 6:10am. There was of course no one so it secured my being first in line. The second person arrived at 7:30 and at 8am, there was still just the 2 of us. Crazy French people... But at 9am, the line had started to grow and was actually going strong. Lee arrived at 10am. He expected a turn-out of 10-15 people and he muttered a "Holy shit" when he saw that close to 40 people were already waiting for him. So he went straight ahead to the sketching table and started working.
He was very nice, got to chat a bit about his next project which a Batman book with a writer he can't reveal. Got a great sketch of Grifter (see Facebook for a picture), signed 3 comics (Batman Noel, Batman black & white vol 4 and Suicider #1) and bought 2 prints from him, one of them being exclusive to this signing and printed to only 25 copies. Well worth the 4 hours wait.
When I left the shop, the line was stretching round the block but he did a sketch for everyone. That's close to 80 sketches and 200 comics signed.
Next for the shop will be the Lyon Comic Con that they organize every year. I'm hoping for some good artists.

[MGM]

Good luck with the new place! Got any pics of it?

Nice haul with the signing. Awesome how they got him there just for the one shop.

[wolf_2099]

I am very jealous, that seems awesome. I love those little shop signings, they are fantastic

Whats the print look like?

[XIII]

Well, that's a very late reply.
The print is actually a variant cover of Wonder Woman that he had done before. So not that exclusive.

Here is what it looks like : https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbookart/c ... e_bermejo/

In other news, I'm getting fatter as I grow older, my hairline is receding even faster, I've taken up squash, I've bought a Mini Super NES and I'm bound to make monthly business trips to Barcelona and Munich. And maybe Birmingham in the next year.

[MGM]

Go bald!

What're the trips for?

[XIII]

To bring support to the agents working for our call centers there. Answer their process questions.
Sleep in nice fancy hotels.