Phileas Fogg Agency

16/01/2025

The winner of the first edition of the Bologna Portfolio Award is Mariana Alcántara!
Those familiar with the catalog of the Mexican publishing house Alboroto have come to appreciate her for her sensitivity, quality, and uniqueness. We are very happy about this well-deserved recognition for an artist who has already received numerous international awards.
I am grateful to represent Mariana’s titles published by Alboroto around the world: some have already traveled to other languages and countries, while others will soon find a new home.

20/12/2024

We are all running, jumping from an online meeting into another one, writing as fast as we can, thinking again and again.

My wish for you is some well-deserved “empty” time.
And then we will all be ready for 2025!

🎄🎄🎄

Image from “Would you rather” by Louise Drul, published by

14/11/2024

❄️ It’s cold and rainy here but thanks to the mailman my desk is blooming 💐

Printed copies of latest releases by Tate Publishing and Raum Italic

Originally published by Tate:

📕”Portrait” and “Pattern” Activity Book by James Lambert and Kathryn Box

📗 “Lions learns a lesson” by Alice Horn

📘 “Grandma’s Locs” by Karen Arthur and Camilla Ru

📙 “The Gift” by Jii and Nikos Park Trepkas

📓 “Moose on the Loose” by Alex Willmore

From Raum Italic’s catalog:

🏘️”Flâneuse! The art of walking through urban spaces” by Andrea Wandinger

⚫️🟡🔴⚪️🌈 “The Small Animal Books” with all their colors, by Halina Kirschner, Gerlinde Meyer, Nadine Prange, Katja Spitzer.

29/10/2024

October flew by in a blink:
🧳 Liber at the beginning of the month, then Frankfurt, plus ongoing online meetings and follow-ups. 💻

This month’s selection feels personal, as it reflects my desire for a brief pause to enjoy the things I love most: exploring and walking, contemplating nature, wandering through new places—maybe by bike—
and finding time for gardening.

Here we go with:

🚶🏽‍♀️“Flâneuse! The Art of Walking in Urban Spaces” by Andrea Wandinger, published by Raum Italic – I didn’t realize there was actually a term to define my personal love for aimless city wandering! It turns out this practice, enjoyed by many famous devotees, has social and political impact as well.

🪻“Botany of Perfumes” by Nicoletta Ramella Pezza, illustrated by Gaia Cairo, published by Guido Tommasi Editore – an atlas of perfumes hidden within flowers, roots, and seeds, each creating a strong emotional impact.

🚵‍♂️“The Illustrated Giro d’Italia” by Albano Marcarini, 2Bros Creative, and Gino Cervi, published by Quinto Quarto – a history of the Italian bike tour, its people, their stories, and a celebration of the beauty of the landscapes crossed during the race.

[post cover image by Andrea Wandinger for “Flâneuse!”]

15/10/2024

The Frankfurt Book Fair is starting, and there are various things happening that I am very pleased with:

1️⃣ For those attending the fair, there is a wonderful selection of illustrators curated by Accademia Drosselmeier and Bologna Children’s Book Fair under the title ‘From Illustration to Comics: Pencils in Talented Young Hands,’ where you will find:

✴️ Eliana Albertini, who made her debut with Franco Cosimo Panini Ragazzi with a very tender illustrated book, ‘Cosa c’è fuori’

✴️ Lucia Biancalana, making her debut in the Edizioni Clichy catalog with ‘L’inventore di idee’ - World rights available

The exhibition opens at the Caffè Letterario on October 16 at 1:30 p.m.”

2️⃣ “Literature as a Driver of Change” is an exhibition curated by Ibby Italy: it includes 65 outstanding children’s books published between 2023 and 2024.

🎉 Among them you’ll recognize Giovanni Colaneri witht “Blob” (available in Italian with Hopi edizioni!)

Where?
BCBF stand – Hall 5.0 A98
from 16 to 20 October 2024
:::

See you there!

10/10/2024

It seems that the Catalog is finally ready. Link in bio! 👆

[illo by Marina Montero, for a forthcoming title you cannot miss to be published by Quinto Quarto!]

30/09/2024

Back to Barcelona to attend - thanks a lot for the invitation!
Back on Thursday night, so, if you receive my OOO you know why.

Three days of intense meetings ahead, only 20kg of books with me, and tons of emotions rolling inside.

20/09/2024

When started working at a large agency in Milan in 2008, I used to spend my lunch break browsing through the archive, looking at foreign editions of their books. This love for the archive has stayed with me, and I often reorganize mine, stop to look at it, and flip through books in two, three, four languages. This produces two results: I’m happy with what I’ve done, and I’m curious about what will happen.

Here with four foreign editions of:

1️⃣ “La nuvola” by Angelo Ruta, Carthusia edizioni (Italian) ➡️”The cloud”, published by Ulysses Press (English)

2️⃣ “El espacio entre la Hierba” by María José Ferrrada and Azul López, Alboroto (Spanish) ➡️ “Zwischen dem Gras”, published by Hagebutte Verlag (German)

3️⃣ “The girl who was afraid of everything” by Aurora Cacciapuoti, Tate (English) ➡️ “La bambina che aveva paura di tutto”, published by Rizzoli (Italian)

4️⃣ “Croco” by Azul López, Alboroto (Spanish) ➡️ “Les larmes de Croco” published by Casterman (French)

09/09/2024

For those who think summertime is meant for relaxation: I am NOW (tentatively) on holiday after three months of intense work. While everyone else was enjoying seaside views and mountain getaways, I spent the past few weeks planning, thinking, and trying to organize administrative and scheduling tasks.

So:
✍🏼 Got my Frankfurt agenda - almost full

👀 Decided the design of the catalog and how to handle it - it is always an Odyssey

👍🏼I closed some deals! Yes! And good ones

✈️Planning my first Liber after decades - back to Barcelona after 14 years or so

🤪 Tried to face the mess of my bookshelves…

🤯 Made some general reflections on how the agency is doing, as I needed some time away from social media to focus on the ‘inside’ rather than the ‘output’ of my daily work.

Feeling ready and excited to start these last months of work.

[illustration: “Cosa c’è fuori” by Eliana Albertini, published by Franco Cosimo Panini Ragazzi]

14/04/2024

05/04/2024

They are ready.
I am not.
20 years of for me!

Covers:
“The Great Sadness” by Olga Tranchini
“And Now Fly” by Angelo Rita (Carthusia edizioni)

27/03/2024

countdown, day #10: Marina Montero, “Mechanics of everyday life”, soon ready for Quinto Quarto.

I am personally testing each spread of this. Like an editing, but in real life.

26/03/2024

countdown, day #9.
“The 3 little alligators and the ghost horse” is the debut picture book by Lorenzo Gritti.

I love how Lorenzo faced this project, studying, trying to find the right path, out of his confort zone, diving into toddlers’ books and picture books to understand the rhythm, the language, and how he feels about that. This story changed, the characters changed. Projects need time to grow, and I am honored to represent it!

24/03/2024

countdown, day #7: “Secret animals”, illustrated by Mariana Alcántara, written by María José Ferrada and published by Alboroto ediciones.

Body, eyes and movement create words. Paper, colors, images and light count a story.

23/03/2024

countdown, day #6: Elena Odriozola, “Lessons of things”, text by Gustavo Puerta, one of the gems of Ediciones Modernas el Embudo.

Spring arrived.

22/03/2024

countdown, day #5: Stefano Ascari, Evelyn Daviddi and Christian Lodesani, “Time? It’s Us!”, first a three-titles series for Franco Cosimo Panini Editore.

“There are secret hours you can’t see, ever. Those when you close your eyes, and dream”.

I would need more than 24 of those funny-little-red-puffy balls!

21/03/2024

countdown, day #4: “The Wandering Knight”, written and illustrated by Alice Piaggio and published by Edizioni Clichy.

[Dedicated to all knights out there who overestimate themselves, thinking they are saving the world]

20/03/2024

countdown day #3: “This story is about me” by Marcos Farina, published by Boycott books.