Portfolio of comic artist Cab

Shoeghosts

Category : Art

J’essaie de reprendre un peu le contrĂŽle sur mon site web. Voici donc une illustration crĂ©e juste Ă  temps pour l’Halloween. J’aime ça, le shoegaze 😛 Le print est en vente dans mon shop (le lien est dans le menu de gauche).


Recap

Salut les moineaux! Je sais pas si vous avez remarquĂ© Ă  quel point tout est vert en cette fin d’étĂ© pluvieuse. Les carrĂ©s de fleurs Ă  MontrĂ©al ont pris des allures de jungle et les ruelles sont touffues comme jamais. C’est quand mĂȘme nice. Je suis moi-mĂȘme sur une diĂšte particuliĂšrement verte car qui dit temps des concombres locaux dit temps des pickles de frigidaire (le mien et celui de mes ami.e.s). Je suis Ă  une portion de salade sunomono de me transformer en cucurbitacĂ© dotĂ© de parole. 

J’ai pas mal dessinĂ© ce mois-ci, toujours pour le plaisir. Voici donc une autre Ă©tude basĂ©e sur une photo de Michael Carlson, un Marco en scooter des neiges et un stĂ©gosaure trĂšs chill. Faut pas essayer de chercher le lien entre tout ça, ce sont souvent des envies trĂšs spontanĂ©es.

Ça faisait un bail que j’avais pas dessinĂ© de façade MontrĂ©alaise et je notais des idĂ©es depuis le dĂ©but de l’annĂ©e sans trop de conviction. Le Wilensky me tentait mais j’étais tannĂ©e de faire des restaurants. Puis en passant devant la petite cabane jaune de Paul Boutique, j’ai eu flash: des friperies! J’adore les friperies et les magasins de cossins usagĂ©s! Et si j’étais pour faire une sĂ©rie, j’avais pas le choix: la devanture massive du Eva B allait en faire partie . C’est de loin l’illustration de façade la plus ambitieuse que j’ai faite Ă  date et j’adore le rĂ©sultat. Avec tout ça, je pense que j’ai fini de faire des prints pour le reste de l’annĂ©e.

Annonces

Vous l’aurez devinĂ©, si je montre des prints c’est qu’ils sont disponibles sur ma boutique. La sĂ©rie s’appelle “UsagĂ©â€ et les illustrations sont en vente sĂ©parĂ©ment ou les trois ensemble. Pour les amateurs de gugusses et d’architecture qui ont, disons
 beaucoup de vĂ©cu.

Boutique Eva B  | Paul Boutique | Encore Livres et Disques

Autre annonce de merch: mon artbook Doigts Noirs, dont la version papier est sortie l’an passĂ©, est dĂ©sormais en vente en format digital Ă  5$. C’est vraiment l’équivalent de feuilleter mon (mes) sketchbook(s), sans les rendez-vous notĂ©s Ă  la va-vite et les faces ratĂ©es. Doigts Noirs va donc rejoindre son petit frĂšre Cab Sketchbook (je sais, original), Ă©galement mis en ligne l’an passĂ©e. 

Surprise! Je vais ĂȘtre au Salon du Livre de Saguenay du 28 septembre au 1er octobre. J’ai pas encore mon horaire mais je vais poster tout ça sur Patreon dĂšs que ça se prĂ©cise. Aussi, avez vous vu cette affiche de fou? Boum, c’est la meilleure.

C’est tout pour le mois d’aoĂ»t! Mangez des lĂ©gumes frais pendant qu’il en est encore temps car n’oublions pas que le film Soylent Green se passe en 2022


Portfolio | Boutique en ligne | Patreon

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Coups de coeur

Je regarde: 

La deuxiĂšme saison de The Bear, un chef d’Ɠuvre de storytelling et de montage. J’ai vraiment apprĂ©ciĂ© le fait que le dessin soit incorporĂ© dans l’élaboration des plats du restaurant.  

Beaucoup de plaisir Ă  voir Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem au cinĂ©ma avec les amis. La fin Ă©tait un peu trop longue mais sinon, l’humour, les dialogues et les performances m’ont charmĂ©. J’aurais aimĂ© le voir en pas 3D faque j’ai hĂąte qu’il arrive au club vidĂ©o!

Je lis: DĂ©lices de Lucy Knisley, sur la place de choix que la bouffe a eu dans sa vie. Je prend des notes. J’ai aussi FINALEMENT lu Ghost World de Daniel Clowes et j’ai capotĂ©. Par contre, je l’ai lu en français et c’était une erreur. Vivement trouver la version originale!

J’écoute: 

J’aime beaucoup la playlist Britpop du Hard Times News. J’ai aussi pognĂ© Float back to You de Holy Hive, un band qui fait du folk, avec des grosses vibes de soul dans le drum. C’est doux et confortable.

Artistes cool:

À 24 ans, j’avais pas le talent et l’audace de me faire un gros site web loud avec une info de contact et demie. Mais “Chan” a 24 ans et quand t’es bon de mĂȘme, tu fais ce que tu veux, comme avoir flesh.png comme nom d’utilisateur et URL de portfolio.

Plug du mois: Je vais ĂȘtre honnĂȘte, je connais pas 95% de la musique dont parle Alex Rose dans son infolettre hebdomadaire Tout ce que j’écoute, et c’est ben correct. En 2012, j’imaginais le personnage de Marco dans Hiver NuclĂ©aire et je lui donnais une job floue de critique/Ă©rudit musical parce que ça m’impressionait ben gros, les gens qui pouvaient Ă©crire un paragraphe complet sur un album et garder ça intĂ©ressant. Faut croire qu’en 2023, c’est encore vrai!


Récap

Salut les moineaux! Ce mois de juillet tropical donne du fil Ă  retordre Ă  mes tomates et Ă  ma motivation Ă  travailler. C’pas mĂȘlant, mĂȘme mon clavier gondole! 

Ça a Ă©tĂ© une bonne Ă©dition du Comiccon de MontrĂ©al, mĂȘme si je me rends compte que mes trucs rĂ©cents rĂ©sonnent un peu moins avec la clientĂšle de l’évĂšnement. Ça me motive Ă  prendre une table Ă  moi au FBDM l’an prochain je pense. À suivre


Utown est sorti en anglais! C’est vraiment la fin de la cassette pour Utown. J’ai fait toute la promotion qui Ă©tait humainement possible pour ce livre, de l’annonce initiale du webcomic en 2019 jusqu’aux posts de photos du livre physique. Il vit maintenant sur les rayons de librairies Ă  travers le continent. Ça grandit vite ces p’tites bĂȘtes-lĂ !

Le mois passĂ©, j’ai pluggĂ© un photographe dont les images des villes de la “rust belt” amĂ©ricaine m’ont vraiment inspirĂ©. À force de zyeuter son travail, j’ai dĂ©cidĂ© de faire une Ă©tude de couleur sur la photo qui m’a fait le dĂ©couvrir. C’était extrĂȘmement relaxant et j’espĂšre pouvoir refaire l’exercice. J’ai fait un beau post sur Patreon sur tout le processus.

Oh, et je me suis sauvĂ©e Ă  la campagne quelques jours. On s’est imaginĂ©s en personnages fantastiques autour du feu et bien sĂ»r, ce qui devait arriver arriva. Mon alter-Ă©go a un familier raton-volant et est accompagnĂ©e d’un barde qui annonce tous ses exploits. Je serais la rogue la moins subtile du royaume.

Annonces

Pour fĂȘter l’arrivĂ©e de la version anglaise de Utown, la chouette librairie Crossover Comics dans St-Henri organise un Ă©vĂ©nement de lancement le 19 aoĂ»t, Ă  15h. Venez jaser et faire signer votre copie si vous ĂȘtes dans le coin! 

Des entrevues et des tables rondes:

  • A Whole New World: une table ronde avec Gabriel BĂ  et Wes Craig, animĂ© par mon Ă©diteur chez Oni, Zack Sotto, dans le cadre du FBDM. Ce fĂ»t un immense honneur de pouvoir discuter avec ces deux auteurs que j’admire Ă©normĂ©ment. En anglais, plus ou moins raboteux selon les intervenants (incluant moi).
  • J’ai Ă©galement Ă©tĂ© invitĂ©e Ă  parler de la vie de conventions avec mon camarade Olivier Carpentier au micro de BenoĂźt Mercier. Il s’agit d’un Ă©pisode de Bifurcations des MystĂ©rieux Étonnants, donc disponible exclusivement sur leur Patreon.
  • On parle de Utown Ă  l’émission Aux Quotidiens sur le Canal M.

Ma vente d’étĂ© sur ma boutique se poursuit avec une couple de nouveaux items dans la rotation.

C’est tout pour juillet! Savez-vous que c’est correct de manger vraiment plein de mini sandwiches Ă  la crĂšme glacĂ©e? Sont p’tites, ça compte pas!

Portfolio | Boutique en ligne | Patreon
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Coups de coeur

Je regarde:

“Tear along the dotted line” et “This world can’t tear me apart”, deux adaptations animĂ©es du travail de l’auteur italien Zerocalcare. Je le connaissais pas pantoute et en l’espace d’une semaine, j’ai Ă©coutĂ© les deux mini-sĂ©ries et lu Kobane Calling. Bref, je suis devenue obsĂ©dĂ©e. La sĂ©rie met en vedette l’auteur lui-mĂȘme; il nous parle de ses millions d’angoisses, de ses amis et de son quartier dans un genre de monologue quasi-ininterrompu. C’est drĂŽle, politique Ă  souhait, trĂšs kinĂ©tique, et aussi trĂšs, trĂšs touchant. Bonus: l’animation dĂ©chire. À voir.

Je lis:

Comme un Frisson de Aniss Hamouri. J’ai rarement lu une BD avec autant d’émotion Ă  l’état pure, autant dans le dessin que dans le propos. Tous les personnages sont Ă  fond, sans retenue et le trait ultra-nerveux fait juste ajouter Ă  l’énergie. Je l’ai recommencĂ© dĂšs que je l’ai fini.

Je lis et je fulmine:

Le roi du Airbnb Ă  MontrĂ©al : quadrupler les loyers et remplacer les locataires par des hĂŽtels fantĂŽmes. Ce genre de type sans scrupule devrait ĂȘtre mis dans une fusĂ©e vers le soleil, ça presse. Soutenez le travail d’enquĂȘte de Ricochet/Pivot sur AirBnB si vous pouvez. 

Truc cool hyper-local:

La bibliothĂšque Maisonneuve est ouverte aprĂšs 3 ans de travaux d’agrandissement bien mĂ©ritĂ©s. J’ai passĂ© beaucoup de temps dans ce sublime Ă©difice Ă  l’intĂ©rieur gĂ©nĂ©ralement brun, kaki et un peu poussiĂ©reux, Ă  emprunter des BDs du Marsupilami et des Stephen King quand j’étais jeune. En plus, en ce moment, y’a un petit morceau de l’expo de photo “Hochelaga – MontrĂ©al en mutation” sur les murs de la bibliothĂšque, agrĂ©mentĂ©e de poĂšmes par des gens du quartier. 

Artiste extrĂȘmement cool: Pour moi, ZĂŻlon faisait parti de l’ADN visuel de MontrĂ©al. Quand j’Ă©tais assez vieille pour aller au centre-ville toute seule, j’aimais spotter ses murales dont les personnages regardaient souvent directement les passants. Ça m’évoquait un cĂŽtĂ© nightlife glam-punk de MontrĂ©al qui me fascinait et m’intimidait. C’est un gros morceau de la contre culture qui nous quitte. 


Recap

AllĂŽ les moineaux! On est semaine sept aprĂšs l’opĂ©ration et la quincaillerie que j’avais dans la bouche est toute partie. Je peux manger des “vrais repas” et j’ai maintenant l’alimentation que j’avais quand j’étais au secondaire: du Kraft Dinner, des beurrĂ©s de margarine sur du pain blanc et du pudding au chocolat Ă  volontĂ©. Ma convalescence est quasiment finie et je peux maintenant me concentrer sur les projets Ă  venir. Fiou!

Au dĂ©but du mois j’étais pas assez en forme pour recommencer Ă  bosser mais assez pour dessiner pour moi. J’aime beaucoup les bĂ©belles vintage faque j’ai dĂ©cidĂ© de dessiner ça plutĂŽt que de me battre avec des personnages. C’est tellement plus relaxe. Il me reste deux camĂ©ras Ă  dessiner et qui sait, peut-ĂȘtre qu’une sĂ©rie de prints existera dans le futur.

Le 8 mars, j’ai assistĂ© au lancement du recueil de textes des femmes de la Marie Debout, un organisme d’aide pour les femmes dans Hochelaga. J’ai fait une BD pour eux par l’entremise de la maison de la culture de Maisonneuve. Tout le monde impliquĂ© Ă©tait extraordinaire et les textes Ă©taient vraiment touchants. Une super belle expĂ©rience!

Annonces :

Okay, il se passe beaucoup de choses en avril. Je serai au Festival QuĂ©bec BD cette annĂ©e, du 14 au 16 avril. Vous pourrez me trouver au stand de Front Froid / Nouvelle Adresse si vous voulez faire signer Utown ou l’intĂ©grale d’Hiver NuclĂ©aire. Voici mon horaire en dĂ©tail:

  • Vendredi – 14h30 Ă  16h
  • Samedi – 10h Ă  11h30 et 16h Ă  17h30
  • Dimanche – 11h Ă  12h30 et 15h Ă  16h

Parce que des fois la vie est weird, je vais participer Ă  une table ronde au MusĂ©e McCord (!!) le 19 avril.  Ce sera dans le cadre de la FABULEUSE exposition de la photographe Joannie LafreniĂšre sur Hochelaga. Qui aurait pensĂ© que ma BD de bums m’amĂšnerait Ă  parler dans un musĂ©e! L’entrĂ©e est gratuite mais il faut rĂ©server ici: Table ronde: Imaginer Hochelaga

Le Festival de BD de MontrĂ©al a aussi annoncĂ© qui faisait l’affiche du festival cette annĂ©e pis ben, c’est moi! Quel honneur quand mĂȘme. J’espĂšre que les gens vont l’aimer et j’ai surtout hĂąte de la voir un peu partout dans la ville. Oh et je suis en nomination pour un BĂ©dĂ©lys! Yayyyy!

C’est tout pour le mois de mars. J’ai hĂąte de sortir mon bĂ©cyke pis pouvoir prononcer mes “P” comme du monde. On se revoit au dĂ©but du mois de mai, alias LE MOIS FOU. Prenez soin de vous les amigos!

Si vous aimez ce que je fais, vous pouvez me trouver ailleurs sur le web:
Portfolio | Boutique en ligne | Patreon

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Coups de coeur

Dans mes yeux:

  • En tant que fille de la gĂ©nĂ©ration PĂ©russe, j’aime beaucoup les bonnes parodies. Je cite encore des rĂ©pliques de Le cƓur a ses raisons, faque c’est pas Ă©tonnant que je braille de rire en Ă©coutant ComplĂštement LycĂ©e, la parodie quĂ©b’ de drames d’ado Ă  la Dawson’s Creek, Degrassi et autres.
  • Dans un style un peu plus pince-sans-rire, Cunk on Earth est une parodie des grands documentaires sur l’histoire de la BBC. Ça emprunte tous les codes du documentaire sĂ©rieux, comme les entrevues d’experts, les grands plans de dĂ©cors Ă  couper le souffle et la musique inspirante Sauf que lĂ , l’animatrice est vraiment, vraiment nouille. C’est trĂšs drĂŽle.
  • Le Plongeur. J’ai adorĂ© le roman et j’ai quand mĂȘme apprĂ©ciĂ© le film. La rĂ©alisation est un peu dĂ©routante des fois mais j’ai apprĂ©ciĂ© la prise de risques. Fun fact, la derniĂšre scĂšne est tournĂ©e en face du resto oĂč j’ai lavĂ© de la vaisselle pendant un Ă©tĂ©. 

Dans mes oreilles:

  • Toxic Planet de Cobra Man, pour quand t’as besoin d’une soundtrack pour pratiquer tes katas dans un gym Ă©clairĂ© aux nĂ©ons. Ça kicke des culs.
  • Je revisite des albums qui ont 20 ans cette annĂ©e. Les meilleurs albums de quelques-uns de mes bands prĂ©fĂ©rĂ©s sont sortis cette annĂ©e-lĂ  et pas mal toute mon budget de cĂ©gepienne y est passĂ©.  C’était aussi l’annĂ©e d’Evanescence; vous serez avertis.

Je lis:

Je suis en train de finir Gentriville, un essai touffu mais essentiel sur l’histoire, les mĂ©canismes et les impacts de la gentrification sur les quartiers centraux. C’est une des rares fois oĂč je me permet de surligner des passages direct dans un livre tellement ça me touche (et me fĂąche). Je le recommande chaudement. 

Artistes cool:

  • Des fois je tombe sur des artistes pis je me dis “MOI JE VEUX DESSINER COMME ÇA BON” et ça me consume pendant 2-3 jours. Ben c’est arrivĂ© avec Mongy.
  • Ce que j’aime le plus de Brahm Revel ce sont ses sketchs de tronches. Vive les  tronches.

Analog Luv

Category : Art

J’avais pas le goĂ»t de dessiner des bonhommes faque j’ai dessinĂ© des bĂ©belles! Je possĂšde une couple d’appareils photos qui sont sont dans divers Ă©tats de fonctionnement et je les trouve jolis. Et j’ai un vieux Apple Classique pour aucune raison valable.


Recap

Bonjour! Au moment oĂč j’Ă©cris ces lignes, ça va faire 18 jours depuis que j’ai subi ma chirurgie pour mon apnĂ©e du sommeil. Je me rĂ©cupĂšre bien, aprĂšs avoir passĂ© une semaine sous la bonne garde de mes parents. Les premiers jours ont Ă©tĂ© vraiment inconfortables et j’avais l’air d’avoir reçu toute une volĂ©e, face enflĂ©e, Ɠil au beurre noir pis toute. MalgrĂ© tout, ça en a valu la peine et je suis vraiment contente de l’avoir fait, mĂȘme si c’est l’une des expĂ©riences les plus dĂ©sagrĂ©ables que j’aie jamais vĂ©cues de ma vie. Les radiographies de mon crĂąne feraient une bonne couverture d’album de Tool. Pensez vis dans les gencives et plaques de mĂ©tal dans les os. TrĂšs hardcore! Tout ce Ă  quoi je peux penser maintenant, c’est le prospect de la nourriture solide (j’ai rĂȘvĂ© Ă  des chips au barbecue la semaine derniĂšre). Manger comme une personne normale, sans en crisser partout, me manque.

À part me prĂ©parer pour l’opĂ©ration et passer le reste du temps Ă  faire des dodos de morphine, ce dernier mois a pas Ă©tĂ© trĂšs productif. J’ai rĂ©ussi Ă  squeezer quelques commissions avant l’opĂ©ration, mais c’est Ă  peu prĂšs tout. J’ai trouvĂ© le temps de dessiner mon nouveau personnage/scout de DnD et les gens semblent VRAIMENT l’aimer. Oh, j’ai aussi dessinĂ© mes outfits de l’automne/hiver. Ouin, j’ai plus travaillĂ© que je le pensais finalement!

Annonces :

PremiĂšre annonce Ă©vidente: j’ai changĂ© le look et la langue mon site web et par consĂ©quence, les posts de blog pour du FRANÇA’. Ça va ĂȘtre weird un boutte parce que toute mon archives est en anglais mais ça va finir par se tasser.

Avec Twitter sur le point d’imploser, je me suis inscrite Ă  Mastodon. Comme d’habitude, je n’ai lu aucune documentation, faque je sais pas pantoute ce que je fais  Vous pouvez me trouver Ă  @cabtastic@mstdn.social si ça vous branche.

C’est tout pour fĂ©vrier. J’espĂšre que d’ici la fin du mois prochain, je pourrai parler!

Oubliez pas pas que vous pouvez recevoir les rĂ©capitulatifs du mois dans votre inbox sous forme d’infolettre. Inscrivez-vous ici!

Coups de coeur

Sur le petit écran :

  • La saison 5 d’Aggretsuko est intense. Je dĂ©teste quand  ils introduisent une intrigue B deux Ă©pisodes avant la fin, mais je devrais ĂȘtre habituĂ© rendue lĂ .
  • Last of Us est Ă  la hauteur de mes attentes, et plus encore. Le troisiĂšme Ă©pisode m’a Ă©mu aux larmes. Je remercie la sĂ©rie d’avoir fait ce choix.
  • J’aime pas mal Lockwood and Co. sur Netflix, pour son ambiance gĂ©nĂ©rale et son design de production. C’est ridiculement YA mais je me fais avoir par ce genre d’adaptations Ă  chaque fois.
  • Riez pas de moi, j’écoute IndĂ©fendable en mangeant de la potĂ©e Ă  la seringue. J’aime ça les quotidiennes quĂ©bĂ©coises, bon!

Dans mes oreilles:

  • Le nouvel album de Gorillaz m’a pas jetĂ© Ă  terre mais New Gold est l’une de leurs meilleures chansons depuis longtemps. C’est dit!
  • J’adore dĂ©couvrir des sĂ©lections de chansons faites par des artistes que j’aime. Chris Geddes de Belle and Sebastian choisit ses morceaux Bandcamp prĂ©fĂ©rĂ©s. C’est une bonne playlist soul/folk.
  • J’ai dĂ©couvert Samuele par hasard, Ă  travers une chanson sur Hochelaga. Ce sont ses paroles qui ouvrent Utown! Elle a un nouvel album qui s’appelle Une paillette dans l’engrenage.

Je lis:

J’tais trop destroy pour lire, faque Ă  la place, je check des scans de catalogues de meubles des annĂ©es 80

Artistes cool:

Pierre Roger, un photographe montrĂ©alais dont je m’inspire!

Edouard Delandre, un autre peintre local. Il doit y avoir quelque chose dans l’eau potable (du plomb, genre) qui explique tout ce talent !


Recap

Hello everyone! As some of you know already I’m getting jaw surgery in less than two weeks and preparing for this has taken up a lot of my time. Between going to various appointments and setting up a donation fund for the procedure’s uncovered costs, I felt the month go by in the blink of an eye. The surgery is scary of course, but I’ve been waiting for this for a really long time. It’s gonna be a weird month.

Thankfully, some of the freelance work that carried over from last year is done. After my current batch of work is done, I plan on starting a new comic project. It’s still in a very early development stage but I find myself thinking about it more and more often. It’s a good sign! 

I barely had time to draw this month but I did this fun little meme for my own enjoyment. Sam is a known lighter kleptomaniac but he’ll never admit it. 

Announcements:

The English-language version of Utown is done and sent to print. Crazy, right? It already started popping up online and even has its own Goodreads page. I try not to think about the reviews too much for now. Here’s the very flattering picture that’ll be next to my bio at the end of the book. Needless to say, I’m pretty pleased with myself.

So that’s it for now! I don’t know which state I’ll be in by the end of February but I’ll try to stay active. A huge thanks to people who have donated or bought prints; you are the best. Also, if you rather get this post in French, it exists on Substack. Subscribe to the newsletter while you’re there!

Cool stuff

On the small screen

  • The Makanai – Cooking for the Meiko House. A cute, feel-good show about two teenage girls and their daily life in a meiko (apprentice geishas) house in Kyoto. It features a lot of close-ups of carefully-prepared food, basked in sunlight. I won’t be able to watch this while on a soft diet for eight weeks so might as well do it now!
  • I finally caved in and watched Chainsaw Man, despite my aversion for all matters of body horror. It’s gross and kinda dumb, but it has a lot of heart. And that ART!!
  • Even though I liked the first Knives Out more, Glass Onion was also extremely good. A shout-out to the set design team for nailing that out-of-touch, tech billionaire bad taste aesthetics. I loved hating the house.

In my ears

Good thrift store haul this month! I’m slowly filling gaps in my “collection” and getting albums of bands I was too young to really get into, like Lush’s Lovelife and The Breeder’s Last Splash. Kim Deal is pretty cool (The Dandy Warhols think so too). I also found a brand new, still shrink-wrapped copy of Arcade Fire’s Everything Now and I’m ashamed to say my moral compass goes out the window when faced with $2.95 CDs in a Renaissance bin.

Go listen to Love is Yours by Flasher. It’s a great alt-rock album from start to finish, nothing outrageous, just good songs. 

Reading

I’ve done it! I finished the entire Green Bone Saga, you know, the books I’ve been babbling about for the last months? It’s been decades since I mourned at the end of a book series. The last brick– I mean book– felt a bit rushed but I’m willing to forgive pretty much anything in front of such a writing feat. Since my friend Jessy lends me her books, I give them back with a hand-written review. I’m curating my human algorithm!

<curation>

Speaking of which, I learned of the term “enshitiffication” or why and how certain online platforms/websites go from being pleasant to downright nearly-unusable. Artists online who sell books or merch, are amongst the first to feel its effect. Most of the platforms I use are close to being terminally enshittified, thus prompting me to keep moving my art and my writing at an increasingly faster pace. Fascinating read: Tiktok’s enshittification via Pluralistic.

Cool artist

I went to see Jean-Michel Basquiat’s exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine arts and I’m still thinking about it. The amount of bits and pieces he left behind, from humongous artwork to polaroids and notebooks, is what struck me the most. This and the $85 shirts they sold in the shop at the end
 It’s on until February 19th so you still have a chance if you’re in town!


Hello hello!

As it became tradition, here is my end-of-year recap. It’s been, for all intent and purpose, a crazy year. I’ve never put out so much work, so many drawings and comic pages. Sometimes, I felt like a JPG factory! It’s been a year of incredible highs and bitter lows, opportunities and experience. So without further ado, here’s the year’s recap!

January

  • I start off the year strong (and tired) and finish inking Utown and produce the biggest Pile of pages I’ve ever done for one book.
  • Bertrand et Moi, a 4-book series I illustrated, comes out.

February

  • It’s uncharacteristically cold in Montreal, I turn into a human popsicle.
  • I finish a comic on local expressions forLes trĂ©sors de la langue française. It’s my favorite one-page comic of all time.

March

  • I catch Covid and I watch a TON of basketball anime. Thanks to this dumb show, I actually kinda understand the rules of the game, just in time for the NBA finals!
  • I finish the Utown cover and send the final files to Oni Press for the English version.
  • Because I’m a grown adult, I illustrate and do the layout for a book on weed with my long-time stoner friend. Life achievement!

April

  • We reveal the cover for Utown and set the launch date. It’s finally happening!
  • 420 grammes, the aptly-named book on weed, comes out. We make the best/most obnoxious playlist for the event.
  • I write a bittersweet post-mortem Patreon post on what it was like, publishing a webcomic in 2021.
  • I start a French-language newsletter!

May

  • Utown arrives in stores! We have a party in my favorite coffee shop and I’m absolutely ecstatic. One of the best days of my life, no question asked.
  • MCAF is back as a proper outdoors festival on St-Denis street this time. It’s INSANE. I sign one million books, it’s my birthday, I’m all over the place, it rules.

June

July

  • Frustrated with Etsy, I launch my own print shop, hosted on my website.
  • Oni Press, my English-language publisher, is in turmoil and rumors run amok on the internet. I freak out (everything turns out okay but–damn.)
  • I table at the Montreal Comiccon for three entire days. My body disagrees with that whole idea.

August

  • I bike around town a lot, take pictures, and dream of a city with no cars.
  • Mentally, I’m not doing so hot. The Utown hangover causes me to say yes to a ton of freelance work as a way to keep myself busy.

September

  • For the first time in my life, I give therapy a chance.
  • I start scanning sketches for a future artbook.

October

  • The Hiver NuclĂ©aire collected edition launches!
  • The ceiling of my home office starts to cave in and we discover the roof has been leaking inside for weeks. I move everything out, the room is sealed to reduce the smell of mold and it generally sucks.
  • Clearly, I need to draw for myself so I decide to do OC-Tober, a 31-day drawing challenge.

November

  • I’m now working from my dining room, surrounded by mountains of stuff.
  • I get slapped with a copyright infringement notice from Etsy and a lawsuit from Sega. I lose access to my Paypal account and I call around town to find some legal advice. It’s super stressful.
  • My new artbook arrives and I start the holiday sale marathon in my shop.

December

  • After two months, the roof is fixed and I’m back into my new and improved home office! Yay!
  • I make a new set of holiday cards and for the first time, bring them into comic shops for consignment. Take that Etsy!
  • It’s time to make a best of 2022 end-of-year playlists and look back on the year!

And it’s been a great year, art-wise!

Highlights of the year:

  • Without a doubt, the release of Utown. I kinda still have to pinch myself once in a while.
  • I know I talk about it often, but investing time and effort into photography has done wonders for my morale. I think I was missing a real hobby. By the way, I put together a page for my favorite photos!
  • Migrating my shop, starting a newsletter and thriving to stay independent is more important for me than ever. It’s hard work but it’s worth it.
  • Seeing live shows again and splurging on merch!
  • Therapy works.

And the lows:

  • I got sick more times this year than I ever did since like, elementary school.
  • The roof leaking into my office was an added layer of stress I didn’t need.
  • The sobering realization that the Internet is more hostile to artists than ever. Between having my name in a lawsuit, my Etsy and Paypal suspended, AI art and the Twitter breakdown, it’s been terribly irritating. But it also mobilized artists, online and in real life like never before and that’s encouraging.

Goals for 2023

  • Yoga! I used to hate it but since starting again, it’s really what I needed all this time.
  • I’m getting over the Utown hangover and for my own well-being, I need to start thinking of a new comic project. Once I’m done with freelance stuff, I’m gonna start writing. I’d love to have a solid project to pitch by April/May.
  • Promote the release of Utown in English and let this book go afterwards.
  • Revamp my website because it is OLD! Find a way to make it bilingual without having to translate it myself.
  • Grow my mailing list in French. Start one in English?
  • Figure out what to do with Patreon, now that it’s no longer used as early access for a webcomic.

Final thoughts

Writing this recap has made me realize that releasing four different titles in the span of one year probably won’t happen to me again anytime soon. It’s also been a weird year online and I’m feeling the weight of the combined betrayals from the platforms that had, until now, allowed me to make a bit of extra cash and put my work out there. But on the other hand, it pushed me towards trying new things, like a newsletter and such so it wasn’t all that bad! The entire AI made me ponder about my role as an image maker and what I can bring to the world that a computer can’t– and whether or not I want to keep feeding social media with what I do. The Utown phase of my life is also mostly over (!!!), and I’m actually looking forward to new comic projects in 2023. Drawing for myself is still my favorite way to spend my time but I’m also ready to take better care of my head and my body. And you know what, writing these monthly blogs and recaps is a wonderful way to keep myself accountable. So thank you for reading, sticking by and giving feedback, it really means the world to me. I’ll see you in 2023!


Hello everyone! The year is almost over and it was ripe with great music, books and discoveries.

Initially, I wanted to send out one big yearly recap/recommendation list but it kept growing and growing so I decided to cut it in two. I found new bands and read books through friend’s recommendations and samples from Bandcamp’s great lists and articles. You might find something you like in there!

Best albums:

More of the music I liked on Bandcamp.

My Best of 2022 Playlist on Spotify. Be warned, it gets a bit emo 😛 

This is also the year I made an official Utown soundtrack, which I obsessively curated from the big list I kept when I was making the book. It follows the mood and the pacing of the comic and features deep cuts and gems from the 80’s-90s as well as more recent tracks. It’s REALLY good.

Best stuff on screen (series or movies):

  • The Bear
  • Never have I Ever
  • Everything everywhere all at once
  • RRR
  • Turning Red
  • The Owl house
  • Heartstopper

Coolest artists:

  • Adam de Souza, aka Kumerish and his fantastic, ongoing comic Blind Alley.
  • C.M. Thomas, a great photographer with an eye for the eerie and the familiar.
  • Alariko for their stunning, unique background illustrations.
  • Violaine Briat and Rodney R. Rodney, the weirdest/ most endearing webcomic out there.

Coolest people:

  • Aubrey Gordon and Micheal Hobbs for their podcast Maintenance Phase on diet culture, body image and fatphobia. It’s both informative, researched and incredibly funny and it helped me in ways I didn’t think I needed.
  • Struthless, just a cool illustrator giving out art/life advice on Youtube. I wanna be friends with him. Bonus accent!
  • KingJvpes, a San Francisco film photographer who shares tips and tricks online. I’m really grateful for people who take the time to explain their craft.
  • Kathryn Nikolai, the writer and narrator of Nothing Much Happens, the bedtime story podcast that has gotten me through the worst nights of CPAP insomnia. If you can’t sleep for various reasons, I HIGHLY recommend giving it a listen.

Best books:

  • The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee. My favorite books of the year. Fantasy Chinese triad clans with MAGIC POWERS. Ambitious, lore-heavy universe.
  • The Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhano. Super driven protagonist claws her way up a cruel and patriarchal society. She fights giant alien bugs in Qi-powered mechas, she’s angry most of the time and really wants to smooch.
  • It’s Lonely at the Center of the Earth by Zoey Thorogood. Zoey’s autobiography comic breaks the form all throughout the book. The tools she uses changes. The way she draws herself changes. It’s weird and gut-wrenching and totally mind-bending.
  • The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. There is something incredibly satisfying about putting a word on a feeling you could never explain. The book itself is a beautiful little object that fits the whole sad, dark academia aesthetic perfectly. Has to be read in the dark, while staring longingly at the rain-covered window.

So there you have it! What did you enjoy this year? Favorite movie, favorite book or favorite comic perhaps? I’d love to know 🙂 


Hello world, I hope you’re all doing good. Each time I do one of these recaps, I start out by looking at my calendar to see what I’ve done during the month. I think November barely had any days without appointments, events or guys in work boots walking around my apartment. It’s been busy. But there is light at the end of the tunnel! My ceiling is fixed and by the time I post this, I’ll hopefully have moved back into my office, after almost two months of working from my dining room. I’ll miss eating in front of the computer even though it’s a terrible habit.

Between the ongoing freelance work and book fairs, I’ve been hard at work on my online shop. My Etsy account is still suspended and since this is normally the most lucrative period of the year, I went out of my way to make my shop as nice as possible. It’s the kind of task that I always dread, but as soon as I start making banner ads and other promotional material, I get 100% in the ZONE. There’s a part of my brain that really likes “playing shop”! And this year, not only did I open my own store, but it’s stocked with items that I’m really proud of. It’s a good feeling!

This page is probably incomprehensible in English but it’s the illustration of a local expression “Y aller aux toasts”, meaning “to go all in/fast”. You can see what the other 24 cartoonists came up here.

Book fair season is officially over! Thank you Rimouski, thank you Montreal, you’ve been great. I’ve seen enough carpeted convention centers and stacks of books for a while! Thanks to everyone who came out to get their books signed and have a chat. It’s always such a treat.

Announcements

As mentioned above, there’s a huge sale going on in my shop right now.I only do one a year, during the holidays so now is the time to get some sweet printed goodies. This year, there are new raccoon holiday cards, three new prints and the artbook I’ve been talking about non-fucking-stop for the past two months. Just go wild, I say! The little space I have left has been transformed into a warehouse/post-office and I am LIVING. I did mention I loved playing shop, didn’t I? 

And for the local crowd, my holiday cards are on sale at PlanĂšte BD and la Librairie le Renard PerchĂ©. As soon as I find a minute to travel all the way to the nether regions of St-Henri, I’ll drop some at Crossover Comics on Notre-Dame. Okay, it’s also an excuse to go eat at the Greenspot!

And whatever I have left in stock by this time will be on my itsy-bitsy tiny table at the Atomic Café Kermesse on December 11th. I might have a few copies of Utown and Hiver Nucléaire to sign, depending on the space available. See you there!

Until then my friends, I hope you have a great holiday season with your loved ones, whoever they are or in whatever form they might come. Stay safe, stay good and stay toasty! I’ll be back in December with a best-of-the year list, maybe? Take care <3

Cool Stuff

Reading:

  • I finished Jade War this week, and I’ve been having LOTS of dreams about it.
  • My favorite newsletter of the moment is Garbage Day. It’s a casual but clever newsletter about what’s happening on the Internet (hint: it’s weird). It’s pretty tongue-in-cheek and I’m always happy when it lands in my inbox.

On the small screen:

  • The Crown is back! Everyone’s miserable and Diana’s gloomy side-stares should get their own name in the credits. MORE.
  • So after being chased out of my home office by water and gravity, I was the target audience for this video: How space can improve (or destroy) your life. It’s full of nice little insights and research results on why we should very much care about the spaces we inhabit and spend 90% of our time in. Full-time, at home freelancers, I’m looking at YOU.

Playing: 

Children of Morta, a Diablo-rogue-like with gorgeous art. The kind of game where I can switch my brain off and kill hordes of pixelated monsters without a single care in the world.

Cool artist:

  • Peter D. Harris paints very slick, very realistic scenes that feel both familiar and slightly off-putting. I love his series of liminal spaces with no one in them. Shoutout to the Montreal metro making various appearances!

Cool account:

Office: “A Love letter to the Golden Age of Corporate Kitsch”. I’m old enough to remember the mood of these pictures but not nearly enough to have worked there. There are weird shots of nerds in basements that I don’t really get, but this collection of optimistic, corporate lifestyle pictures is wonderful.


Recap

Hello everyone! Spooky month is over and boy was it eventful, both good and bad. It all started when the ceiling in my home office started caving in after heavy rains. I’m gonna spare you the details but I had to move everything into the dining room, in which I’ve been working ever since. Since then, I’ve had just the worst luck with everything, from losing my phone (and finding it again), to breaking rolls of film in my camera, getting two flat tires in one week, breaking my CPAP mask, getting suspended from Etsy and other irritating mishaps. But at the same time, I had just the best time with my friends, who treated me to the Gorillaz show and a weekend in the woods. I long for a “normal” week


And with all of that, who’d be dumb enough to do an art challenge like OCTober/Inktober, right? Me, that’s who! Hahahaha! Even though I’m in the middle of a big freelance contract, nothing is more compelling than to draw 31 portraits of imaginary people for my own self-indulgence. And growth as an artist, of course. You can see them all on Patreon or Instagram. Here are my favorite ones!

The Hiver Nucléaire omnibus (French) is out in stores! The launch event went great. Thanks to everyone who showed up!

Announcements

The artbook is here! It’s called Inky Fingers and it looks really good, you guys! 40 pages of crispy black and white art, exclusive drawings and maybe the best Naruto fanart that’s ever been made? That’s just my opinion. It’s already up for sale! I would really like it if you’d check it out because
uh, I’m gonna be real for a minute: I love making and selling prints but last week, Etsy closed my account for an indefinite amount of time. So now, mere weeks before the holiday season starts, I can only rely on my own little store, which has no marketplace to drive traffic to. So if you’re looking for a place to buy prints, stickers, holiday cards or this new artbook for yourself or someone you care about, this is the place to go. Expect new raccoon cards and big sales starting next month. Thank you!!

This is for the local crowd: I’ll be signing books at the Salon du Livre de Rimouski and the Salon du Livre de MontrĂ©al. Check out the French version of this post for the list of hours or better yer, subscribe to my newsletter!

That’s all for this month (thank god). I have fewer recommendations that usual because of *points at everything*.

Reading:

  • “Welcome to Hell, Elon.” The Verge has a few heads up for the millionaire man-child who bought Twitter and will likely ruin the very few last good bits of this cursed platform. Which I still very much enjoy, thanks to a decade of curating an artist-oriented timeline. “You break it, you buy it.”

On the small screen:

  • I finished Never have I ever and really, really enjoyed it. Three seasons was just the right length for this wonderfully witty and touching teenage rom-com series.
  • Not for the faint of heart, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was uh
 a lot. It’s visually stunning at moments, followed by long shots of no animation whatsoever and overall, a bit much for me. Maybe I’m getting soft, but man, was it ever bleak. Studio Trigger be Triggerin’!
  • And on the opposite animation spectrum, I’m liking the new Bee and Puppycat installment a lot. The pacing is super weird, there are tons of sequences of things turning into other things, everything has a cute face, and Puppycat is ugh, the best. I wish the characters were less oblivious to everything but I suppose the lightness of the show draws from this aspect a lot. I’ve been trying to track down the soundtrack like crazy!

In my ears:

  • Toronto-based Alvvays has released their third album called Blue Rev. Power dream-pop cranked on 11, with layers upon layers of sound. Shoegaze at time, but with a spine. Pressed is a Smiths-reminiscent, jangly two minutes of pure bliss. Fantastic.
  • King Gizzard released 3 albums in October, because why the fuck not. Changes is my favorite one so far, and it’s on its way to becoming one of my favorite album from them (out of the freaking 23 they already have).

@