Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr. – An American in Paris
Beginnings are always blurry to me. I can’t really remember how I got in contact with Jim. Wait, he answered a question I had posted on the DCM forum and
helped me identify artists from the 1950s. Cause I was knee deep in researching pre-code horror comics back then.
Next, he offered me a free version of a Photoshop software program to make my own scans at home (and make them good)! This was July 2011. A lively correspondence about artists ensued. Only weeks later
he invited me over to Paris (France) to discuss a batch of comic books by publishing house ACE. So I went with my wife and daughter to a short holiday in Paris – and I do remember very well what happened next.
We arrived on the doorstep of Rue Legendre on the 24th October 2011, his birthday! Pure coincidence, but we came with a bottle of cheap champagne and toasted with Jim in company of his long-time fiancée Karen. Both were the sweetest couple and Jim a perfect gentleman. We ‚hit it off‘ (as you Americans say) instantly and become comic book buddies.
Soon we
developed a ritual: Jim would be flying back and forth to the US and bring me boxes of books from his collection stored in his house in Palo Alto, California. I then would come to Paris (usually twice a year) and we would thumb through each single book page by page identifying and writing (indexing) down the artists. Data I later punched into the
Grand Comics Database.
We had some fine French bread, cheese and wine to keep us alert in those hours he trained me to ‚spot art‘. I was kind of his apprentice in this detective work. A dynamic duo, indeed. Jim let me crash on his couch and we kept going for days.
We called this ritual
‚playing comics‘ and enjoyed it both enormously. Happy days. Of course we went out for walks, for meals, for tours around the city. Gentleman Jim striding along the streets in his fast gait, me keeping up as much as possible. An American in Paris, friendly to everyone and open-minded.
I remember his vexation with wine. We used to visit his wine dealer, who owned a wine cellar, a true cave underneath the city. There he bought old wines, because he only drank those from before 1970 (I think that was the cut-off date). And, man, can they be expensive. We opened bottles close to 200 dollar apiece and he shared generously.
Jim always was
a person who sought contact with others. He talked to his neighbours in Paris, to the crew from the bakery around the corner, restaurant owners, comic book store owners, gallery owners, tourists, resident artists etc. etc.
Through him, I got the chance to meet Frederic Manzano (author and editor of a string of gorgeous art books) and Patrice Louinet (a Frenchman and whaddaya know: the world’s leading authority on Robert E. Howard)! He also introduced me to the wonderful Karen Green, the curator from Columbia University, NYC.
(I was a bit miffed that he didn't introduce me to the French comics pioneers he got to know: Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Florence Cestac. He was acquainted with the great Moebius, too …) But then again, I was only for a few days at a time in his company.
Jim strolled through every corner of that enormous city, knew every subway stop and every bus line.
He photo-documented Paris in thousands of pictures in hundreds of hours walking from Sacre Coeur to the Musee d’Orsay and around all the numerous flea markets. He loved that city!
We continued our visiting, art-spotting, indexing and book-scanning activities for some years – until the pandemic cut off all ties. No, we were done with the books before, but we didn’t see each other again after 2018, I think.
I fondly remember that (around that time) he came to visit ME twice and crashed on MY couch. No wine, though, just beer.
I do not miss Paris. I miss Paris with Jim. To me, Jim was the main attraction over there.
Now he’s gone and I feel empty, but it’s like in that famous movie (you know the one): „We’ll always have Paris!“
Annex 1:
By the way:
All the books Jim brought me can be found on our beloved DCM, under my nom de guerre‚ 'tilliban‘. I can’t find the exact number of books I scanned and uploaded, it’s gotta be around 500. Our contribution to posterity. Cheers, Jim!
Annex 2:
‚tilliban‘ is in reality
Tillmann Courth, a German journalist living in Cologne – writing and talking about comics.
https://tillmanncourth.de/ He’ll go for a beer anytime.
