wound up as Éric’s associate in 1982 when Jack left.

Éric gave me full responsibility for pre-paring the colors and I became a jack-of-all-trades at every stage of produc-tion. On the rue Abbé-Carton, we had all the equipment necessary to carry out our work!

Upstairs, there was a drawing studio that was often taken over by Éric’s friends, including Claude Richard, and there was a kitchen and dining area for enter-taining and brainstorming. Anne-Marie began to work with us part time. I spoke to Éric about my project for a poster of a Japanese robot box. By experimenting with filters, he extracted the four colors of the box on the small photographic chamber, from which I was able to make the final proof. I was so happy!

The Robots portfolio was finally launched, and my collector friends quickly found all the documentation for us.

Armand Hui Bon Hoa, a big collector of robots and original comics, introduced me to his friend Louis Bothorel, an art collector and bibliophile. He worked in the field of antiquarian books in which he was highly respected. I went to see Yves Chaland and Frank Margerin with Armand... later I went back to see Yves Chaland with Éric.

1983: Having just finished the last plate of Benito’s Chic ou Voyou, we hung all the prints in the workshop to enjoy looking at the finished work. At that moment, Christian Desbois from Décalage Éditions chose to come by to see us. He was completely won over and offered to be the distributor. He was consider-ing getting a booth at the Convention de la Bande Dessinée (Comics Convention), which was the ideal place for present-ing our work. Anne-Marie and I then

convinced Éric to get a booth there as well. Christian Desbois readily accepted that we show Chic ou Voyou at the Convention.

The salon was such a success that from then on L’Atelier would exhibit every year at the Convention de la BD, the Angoulême Festival and later at the Saga. This first Convention was successful not only for our sales, but in a single week-end L’Atelier made a name for itself in the world of comics! We met collectors, booksellers, journalists, distributors, pub-lishers and many artists captivated by screenprinting. Our address book filled up, and many of those interested became our customers.

Feeling encouraged by this enthusiasm, I contacted Marc Caro and proposed that he make a print. I made and printed the final proof so quickly that Éric implied that he would have liked to be more involved in the process. I could see each of us having our own collection, and I let him know.

1984: Working at L’Atelier was becoming exciting. Of course, we still took on work that would help us pay the bills, but our reputation as printers was established, not only in the art world, but also with comic book artists and advertising agen-cies. A whole milieu including artists and collectors would come to visit us, which ultimately brought us work.

Pierre Ouchacoff began working with us part-time, like Anne-Marie. There was a good atmosphere at the workshop.

Things were going all around in my head. Prints had their advantages... and their inconveniences. The portfolio for-mat was a good compromise. I wanted to make pop-up books using screenprinting