sempé

One of the freebies I scored at ALA last weekend is this awesome Nicholas pin from over at the Phaidon booth. Nicholas is a series of children's books drawn by the great French cartoonist, Jean-Jacques Sempé. I first came onto Sempé by way of the many covers he illustrates for the New Yorker. Then, a year or so ago, I discovered Phaidon was reprinting many of his books in English translation. So, when I can, I've been scooping them up and thoroughly enjoying along the way.

Over the holidays, my Mom gave me a collection called EVERYTHING IS COMPLICATED. Here's one of the single panel cartoons from this one that I found particularly funny (it's full of single panel as well as strips). And it was one of the easier ones to scan. Some run pretty close to the gutter. His linework is amazing. It can be very fluid, very loose at times, but then at other times, extremely tight and anally detailed. Vive le France!