I started 2011 with a trip to France for the comics festival, Festival International de la Bande Desinée, in Angoulême, France. While there, Andy Beall, the animation director forHappiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown, and I visited with cartoonists and animators in Paris before heading on to Angoulême. One of our evenings in Paris was spent in the company of French cartoonist, Charles Berberian, and his wife, Anna Rosen. This past week at the Museum, Charles and Anna repaid us with a visit to Sonoma County. I toured them through the Museum and they joined me and some of the staff from Creative Associates at the Warm Puppy Café for lunch.

We were also visited by Robert Read and Laurent Duvault from Dargaud Publishing and the French animation studio that produces Garfield programs for children’s television. I toured them around the Museum as well, and they joined me out at Creative Associates to meet and talk with the creative people there.

 

It was wonderful to once again share Sparky’s legacy with cartoonists and animators who continue to create in the similar veins. Walking through the Museum with Robert and Laurent, we discussed Sparky’s original drawings, and the process by which he worked. I relished the opportunity to have Charles, Anna, their daughter Nina and friends and Robert and Laurent travel to see what we are doing here, and in doing so continue to share Sparky’s legacy with the world.

 

 

—Jean Schulz