Hey everyone, I hope you're all doing well. We got half as much sunlight hours as we usually do in Montreal and I felt it in my mood. I guess my inner goth finds it inspiring; I found myself wandering in the Mont-Royal cemetery to take photos a lot more often.

Recap’

I completed another photo study of the Longue-Pointe rail yard. Do I like trains more than the average person?

The entire process is, as usual, on Patreon.

Cleaning out my art supplies made me want to play with pencils. An afternoon later, I had a very pretty greeting card illustration.

Even though I only had two book signing sessions at the Salon du Livre de Montréal, it was an eventful edition. Under the initiative of illustrator Pascal Colpron, a group of illustrators and comic book artists gathered on the main stage of the show floor with protest signs and pins. We were denouncing the increasingly widespread use of generative artificial intelligence in publishing. It's deeply insulting to see piles of books with AI-generated covers at the Salon, knowing that these contracts were snatched from hard-working artists. To add insult to injury, many of these books and publishing houses are funded by public funds. I am grateful to the Salon’s director for allowing us on stage, and to all my colleagues for mobilizing with only three days' notice. We even made the news!

It’s about time we demand more transparency from unscrupulous publishers who mass-produce book-shaped objects on which nobody is actually working on. On the other hand, publishers, magazines, festivals and other entities that continue to believe in human-made work, have showed great support for our cause on Facebook. That is truly heartwarming.

Announcements

Some of my facade prints are now on sale at the ArtPop store on Mont-Royal Avenue. This is my first ever in-store print consignment, I hope it pays off.

I launched a huge holiday sale on my online store.

- I’ll sign and doodle in the books for free

- Every order comes with a small greeting card and a mystery sticker

- There is a new CLEARANCE section containing very cheap prints

- The artbooks/sketchbooks are now available in digital format (PDF)

And to top it all off, there's a 20% discount on everything with the code CABFÊTE2025 at checkout

Now is the perfect time to give personalized gifts!

I also want to take this opportunity to encourage you to shop local and independent during the holiday season. For many artists and creators, it's the last monetary push of the year and it makes all the difference. Here's a short list of local creators, which will surely be expanded in the future :)

THE MARKET

That's all for November! See you at the end of the year for the 2025 recap!

This newsletter is and will ALWAYS be free. If you like what I do, I suggest visiting my online shop or hunting down my books at your favorite bookstore or library. I also share my illustrations, tips and tooks, writings and reflexions on Patreon, using a monthly “pay what you want” method. Maintaining my little corner of the internet is a lot of work; any support or purchase is appreciated!

• Website and portfolio

• Online shop

• Patreon

• My books (CA) (US)

Cool stuff

• How New York's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, won his campaign with visuals reminiscent of old-fashioned, hand-painted bodega signs. Never underestimate good typography. Via Curbed.

  

• I went to the new one by chance V.J Taylor Stationery in Saint-Henri and I made a scene in front of the stamps and the Blackwings pencil display. IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

• Is there a difference between an artist and a creator in 2025? We know there are fine artists, tormented painters on one side, client-driven illustrators and designers on the other side. But there’s also an entirely new class of “image creators” who don’t have clients but audiences. As someone who navigates between all four quadrants, I thought this was a very enlightening read. What’s the difference between an artist and a creator?

• “Art is valuable precisely because it is not easy to create.” AI makes “art” out of thin air, much like alchemists dreamed of making gold out of lead. We’re now drowning in it. Alchemy 

• Artiste cool in memoriam: Goodbye to Frank Pé, a great illustrator and comic artist. I really liked his interpretation of the Marsupilami in the first volume of La Bête.

  

Wisdom of the month:

“The strength is in being yourself, being human, being accessible, being able to talk on a one-to-one basis to the people who patronize your business and making something that you want to see in the world but don’t currently.”

Charles Broskoski - Personal business