Recently, I’ve found myself very reluctant to travel for any reason, though honestly it’s more a matter of laziness than fear. Somehow travel has become even more unpleasant and less convenient than it was before – an impressive feat. However, when I saw mention online of an autobio comics artists residency led by Gabrielle Bell, I started thinking that maybe a little travel might be worthwhile. France is right next door, afterall, so how bad could the travel be, right? So I registered and went to sleep. I woke up in the morning to an e-mail welcoming me and listing all the outdoor gear I would need while at CAMP. Being more of the “indoorsy” type, I immediately sent off a panicky reply, regretting my spontaneous enrollment and wondering what I had gotten myself into. Luckily, within a few hours, a CAMP representative had sent an encouraging e-mail, so I had nothing left to do but book my travel…

…which turned out to be far more complicated than I expected! Due to summer travel and a number of other factors, I would be taking the train there and then flying back to Switzerland after camp was finished. I took the train to Toulouse where all the CAMPers would meet up and be driven to the residency, located in Aulus-les-Bains, about two hours south of Toulouse. It was the middle of the first heatwave of the summer and it was HOT when we arrived. As we all piled in the van, conversation was flowing, but as we continued along twisty mountain roads, the van got quieter as many of us succumbed to varying degrees of car sickness. Once we arrived, though, it was all worth it – CAMP was beautiful! A former hotel built around the 1850s in a tiny one-bar, one-grocery French town on a crystal clear river.

The main focus of comics CAMP was on thinking through how and why we make autobiographical comics. As I have been making them for around nine years now, this is a topic to which I’ve given much thought and it was such a treat to have the luxury of a week to do so with other cartoonists. Attendees came from a handful of countries and each brought different traditions, techniques, considerations, and goals to the CAMP. Days started gently with breakfast and coffee then “lessons” and drawing on-and-off until everyone started to wander off in the late afternoon, whether for a cold drink outside the grocery or for a walk or to battle through the horseflies for a quick dip in the river. Later in the evening, we would often find ourselves back at the dining room table, chatting and drawing more over wine.

Our main goal was to create two single-page comics based on two different difficult moments in our lives. Never one to leave well enough alone, I also did my best to keep up with my regular diary during CAMP.  You can read these pages over in the Ongoing Diary in the archive. I found it very nice to spend the day learning to take my time, trying to work slowly and really think through a single page of panel-based comics, and then to spend the evening loosening up in my diary as I attempted to capture the moments of the day. By the end of the week, I felt like I had broken out of my rut and I headed home, excited to continue making comics.

One fascinating result of casting the nine of us headlong together into the crucible of “trauma comics” was the quickness with which friendships and bonds formed. Though we only spent six days together, many of us left feeling like we had known each other for years. I was so pleased to have a chance to meet up with one of my CAMP buddies the following month as I was passing through Edinburgh. CAMP friends, if you are reading this: come visit!