On 17 October, all the hard work of Dice Tsutsumi and Gerald Guerlais, and 71 other artists globally, will finally be rewarded. Four years ago, Tsutsumi and Guerlais had the idea of getting a sketchbook and sending it to a range of leading comic book artists around the world. Each artist would sketch something in the book, and then mail it on to the next one on the list.
At long last the sketchbook is complete and is ready to be auctioned for charity, bound in a special wooden case. In truth, each artist has done much more than a sketch, and many of the images have been finished off in inks and paints. Inside you'll find original works by creatives as diverse James Jean, Quentin Blake, John Howe and Hayao Miyazaki. On 17 October it goes on the block - certainly a unique, one-off for the comic and book illustration art collector. Details of the aution will go live on the Sketchtravel website soon.
Bids are likely to be stellar, but luckily printed edition of the book can also be ordered from Amazon France for €28.40. The proceeds will go to the child literacy charity Room to Read, to support its South East Asia activities.