Some of the readers of this blog might remember me mentioning a while ago I was writing some short Jazz stories for my friend P. Well, the results are in!
Mr P is better known as Philip Paquet, a Belgian comic book author who often finds inspiration in the world of Jazz music, resulting in such albums as Louis (a Louis Armstrong biography) and Snapshots (a collection of short stories). He also created a series of adventure stories set in Japan called Yume and collaborated with Adriaan Van Aken on the two part Over naar jou/Weer over naar jou.
I’m planning a more extensive post dedicated to P somewhere in the near future, but today I’ve got a sneak preview of his new album: Playin’Smilin’Fightin’Cookin’. Again, this is a series of jazz short stories, one of which (Playin’) is written by Stéphane Daniel and Tim Vendaux, another (Smilin’) by Philip himself and the others (Fightin’ and Cookin’) by yours truly. As you can see, the design of the book is inspired by the famous Blue Note albums and in fact consists of a real double-LP record sleeve, opening up to display the two booklets.
Take a look at these (the first time ever we have those lovely ISSUU embeddable book-thingies on Monsieur Bandit, by the way…). The first gives you a peek at excerpts from the four stories, the second is the complete 5-page story Cookin’.
Oh, and before I forget, yes, the musicians on the front of the record sleeve are us. Philip is playing bass (which he actually can) and I’m the drummer (only in my dreams…). Tim on trumpet and Stéphane on sax. Ladies and gentlemen: The Vertigo Quartet…!
Philip and me are doing a little signing session to launch the book on Thursday the 24th of June at cafe Vertigo, Draakplaats 3 in Antwerp (Belgium), from 8pm ‘till 10pm. You are all very welcome to drop by…
Also, Philip is having a nice little gallery show called Monkism at the moment, at the Print Gallery, Muntstraat 8 in Antwerp. Watch out, the gallery is only open on Friday from 1pm ‘till 6pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 11am till 6pm. It runs ‘till the 20th of June.
And if you want to check out the other albums of Philip Paquet visit the site of comic book publisher Bries.
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