I just arrived in Algiers for their Second Annual Festival International de la Bande Designee (FIBDA) – the Algerian Comic Con. I seem to have arrived at an unusual time, when their soccer team is on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup finals, for the first time in 24 years. They just won an important game and all the streets are clogged with rampaging celebrants, yelling, honking their horns, waving flags and blowing off flares. Here is a movie I shot of the street in front of my hotel. This is not a big street; it is just like every street tonight. The noise is a strange constant roar, punctuated by occasional blasts.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q43ZpOCZYm0&hl=en&fs=1&]

I’ll post more in the blog when things happen at FIBDA. They have invited an exotic collection of one hundred cartoonists from all over the world, and I’m told that half of them are political cartoonists.

Here’s an update from October 4th.  If you happen to be at the Algiers Comics Festival, this is where you can see me:

Oct 13 (time TBD): TV appearance on Bonjour Algerie (morning talk show)

Oct 15 @2pm: I’ll be on a panel discussing Comics and the Cinema discussion with Etienne Schreder, and Djilali Biskri at the Esplanade OREF

Oct 16 @3pm: Editorial Cartoons in the US (my solo seminar) at the Esplanade OREF

I just got word that the American Embassy in Algeria has scheduled me and Jan Eliot to go to an Algerian grammar school and paint a mural with the kids.  Has the world gone mad?

I’m also scheduled to give a speech to Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah.  I’ll be giving a speech at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem but I don’t know if that will be open to the public, they will announce something.  I’ll post more info here when I get the details.