Bonjour!

Quick thoughts from Paris

Me, as a statue in a Parisian cemetery.

Hello hello hello from my Airbnb in Paris. I am at the tail end of a European trip that started in Barcelona for the Primavera music festival, and had a lovely chapter in the south of France near Aix-en-Provence, and will end in London, where I am going to check out the ABBA voyage show because I deserve it.

Many many many many thanks to Jenny Lewis and Vanessa at Rilo Kiley HQ for getting me in! That fest is so well-organized and was so much fun, I’ll be saving up money to go for a full weekend in the years to come.

JL, being the coolest.

The reason for this trip has been to promote the French language edition of Ghosted in LA, and it’s been a total blast! I already did a signing in Aix, where the folks at La Bédérie took such good care of me, and I got to make real connections with the most awesome comic book readers. I packed light on my way over here, because I knew I’d be coming home with LOADS OF BOOKS and I made a huge dent in my wallet at that shop.

Your boy, with his small stack of comics he’s gonna buy, and a copy of ghosted he’s figuring out how to sketch in.

Today’s time was split visiting Pere Lachaisse cemetery and doing some promo for the book at the Delcourt offices. The editorial and social media crew were super sweet and enthusiastic. Being here, and seeing the culture around comic books makes me want to try and get more of my stuff translated to French (and Spanish, and Italian, hahaha). I walked into a library last week, and the first thing I saw was a beautiful display of graphic novels, followed by three different sections dedicated to comics (grownup books, kids books, and manga, natch). Tomorrow I will be signing at Momie BD in Paris, which is truly a pinch-me Carrie Bradshaw moment: I have a book launch in PARIS.

While at the cemetery, I ended up getting intensely emotional about a thought that has been sitting with me the whole journey: I’m sick of AI. I’m tired about the threat it poses, I’m tired of people using it, and I’m tired of thinking about it. The first few days of being in Europe, I was carrying this malaise and I didn’t know why… after being properly removed from the American PR/ chatter/ ennui surrounding artificial intelligence, I was able to put my finger on the shift in mood. At Pere Lachaisse, I solidified a resolution on how to deal with these feelings.

I’m making a comic!

Literally one single comic. I’m not going to put it online. I’m not going to draw it digitally, I’m not going to talk about story elements with friends on the phone. I’m going to draw the entire strip by hand, construct it physically, and either go to a local print shop to produce the copy, or do it at home using simple zine-making practices. This will be my small protest. I sat down and wrote the bulk of the story at the cemetery, and I hope to have this thing drawn and produced by comic-con. The only way someone can read the story is by seeing me in person.

Maybe it’s stupid, but I felt so energized coming up with an idea that won’t find its way online, and would be something that ai could never predict from me. I want to make a reminder to myself of what being human is about, and do something that inspires connection with others.

(And, saying it now: I’m allowed to publish/ release this story in a future where this anxiety dies down or if the urgency to say “I’m a human and I love doing human things” goes away.)

Anyway, you heard it here first! I usually like to keep things a secret, but I want a little accountability on this notion because I don’t want to lose steam when I get home and am sucked back into the day-to-day drama of LA life.

While I have had a bite of some croissant here and there, it’s not my preferred pastry, and thus I have been gorging myself on many other delights, see below.

10 Belles is my favorite cafe/ bakery in Paris… so far!

Lots of love!

-Sina