Mourrain doesn't show up in LBK or BDT yet, but it's clear that he does lots of illustrations for childrens' books. The style we see above seems to be his most common, but he also works in a more monotone, shade-heavy approach. More of his work can be seen here.
I don't know if this little collection appears in any particular book (I couldn't find it), but in any case it appears to involve three children visiting these famous places:
Pyramid entrance to Le Louvre.
Opéra Garnier’s grand staircase, with the Phantom of the Opera just visible under the stairs. EDIT: thanks to "troglodyte_mignon" in comments for the info!
That's The Brooklyn Bridge, of course.
And finally, Le Jardin des plantes, which I understand to be headquarters of the National Museum of Natural History, which also includes a zoo! :D
Btw, I found that statue pretty cool, both in spectacle, and due to the fact that Lamarck was an early proponent of evolution. (I'd never heard of the guy)
Layout of Le Jardin, showing its four main galleries, greenhouses (it was originally a royal garden for medicinal plants), and all the smaller buildings.
I've only been to Paris once as an adult, and certainly regret not spending time here(!)
BONUS: Maybe a theme song-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN64qgptQQA
Nice, reminds me of a sketchcrawl an artist did where they walked around the town they lived in with a friend and stopped for half an hour in each spot to stretch wherever they were and exchanged sketches.
naturally, i can find neither the artist or said sketchcrawl.
i thought it may have been craig thompson, but no dice.
IIRC Craig, and people like Lucie Knisley & Natalie Nourigat have at least done cool travelogue sketchbooks, but I like your original idea just as much.
oh cool, i love travelogues.
you must have read habibi?
Ill save yourb content so I can look into nourigat and knisley.
I also love daily journal comics or autobio comics, i started with The Journal Comic by Drew Weing, do you have any journal comics you recommend?
Argh, a long time ago. I really need a proper re-read.
I've only read his first one, Set to Sea. So, what would his journal comic be called, then?
Guy Delisle often works in a 'journal-ish' style, and I found Shenzen & Pyongyang the best of those. James Kochalka is pretty hilarious and playful, and IIRC "American Elf" was quite nice. Manu Larcenet's "Ordinary Victories" was very good, and almost-kinda fits in there. Rabagliatti's "Paul has a summer job" and Vera Brosgol's "Be Prepared."
Sorry, I'm kinda blanking on the 100% pure 'journal' stuff, but maybe something else will come to me.
I'm in the same spot with habibi. beautiful, alluring, have read it once a decade ago, haha.
Weing's was either plainly called The Journal Comic or Journal Comic, but unfortunately he took down the archive some years back and i don't think it's been seen again.
i actually archived the entire thing but the drive died, sadly, and i lost aaaaa lot of arvhived favorites that way.
he hasn't responded to my queries about it, although i haven't tried in years, maybe he's nostalgic now, it was his first work in know about, many years before set to sea, documenting hai time as a fresh young adult and led right up to the point he met his wife Eleanor.
I love all things Brosgol since "I Wish" in the Flight collection, i might still have Be Prepared tucked beside Jellaby in a box somewhere.
I got into American Elf also but don't know the other names and will have to do a dive, I'm very interested in East Asian travels so Shenzhen and Pyongyang are calling my name.
Saved this comment for when i can dig in, thanks!
Hey, I think we're in luck with Weing's old journal! I double-checked various archive dates, and it appears the entire run had been finished and archived by 2004-2005 at least. So for example:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050403162830/http://www.drewweing.com/journalcomic/
EDIT: Hmm, some comics are missing here and there from that archive date. Possibly accessing an earlier or later archive date could be used to fill those in.
ah great idea!
i might make this my first reread then, haha, i read it annually back in the day.
fantastic!