Nudism in Angouleme, France - 27/01/08

I am a nudist.

I have always believed in the power and beauty of the naked human form moving guiltless and unencumbered through the contours of the world. But I still live in a world that does not question the necessity--nay the primacy--of clothing. To question is to invite ridicule and suspicion, distrust and even anger. Yet, question I do and my cause I continue to champion. Day in and day out: "Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to think about a world without clothes," the chuckles begin, the snide remarks whispered in a friend's ear creep, "Or remember, if you will, a time when you didn't need, want or even see the necessity of clothes: your childhood. Remember that sense of freedom? That grace?"

So there I am, the voice crying in the wilderness.

Then one day, I travel to a little town, and here everyone's already naked. Yup, every man, woman and child is stark fucking naked and I am speechless. In fact, to merely point out the fact that everyone is naked to to reveal just how enslaved I have become by the clothed society in which I live and the sin it believes the naked body to be.

Okay, so maybe I'm not a nudist.

I'm a cartoonist who's just gotten back from a trip to Angouleme, France for the 35th Festival International des Bandes Desinées––the French term for comics. And nudity is, in this case, the wider acceptance of comics as anything other than a youthful amusement that one stops engaging in when one puts away childish things.

One sidewalk advertisements, one sees poster ads for comic albums; on news stands one can peruse comics-related magazines and buy the latest hard cover books (few comics are actually not sold in hard cover).

What makes the whole thing so refreshing, is the laissez-faire (pardon French to describe the French) attitude about it all. Here there aren't the furtive glances over one's shoulder at the world at large waiting to be ridiculed--something that still pervades conventions like Comic Con in San Diego. There is also a complete lack of the American thought that comics are merely the unrealized precursor to better means of making a buck (movies, figurines, video games, lunchboxes, character-themed orthopedic inserts, or whatever is the hot thing to be selling these days). The show is centered around a love of making, reading and appreciating comics.

It's lovely but hard not to feel like it's my first day on the nude beach and all the locals don't understand why that guy over there looks so nervous and hasn't gotten his kit off yet...

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Yes, in Angouleme, the street signs are in fact speech balloons.

And yes, the girl of your dreams could just be painted on a wall waiting for you to chat her up...

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