The Festival plays home to another event not on the official program: an informal, annual meeting attended by members of the Platinum Age Comics mailing list. The list and the Angoulême event were both initiated by bookseller and researcher Bob Beerbohm. In 1998, Beerbohm came to possess a rare 1842 American edition of Rodolphe Töpffer's "The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck" (originally published in French as "Les Amours de Mr. Vieux Bos"), and, in December 1999, founded the Platinum Age Comics mailing list to discuss pre-Yellow Kid 19th century comics. In 2000 Beerbohm attended the Angoulême Festival and brought his copy of "Oldbuck" to a lunch meeting at the CNBDI cafe attended by about a dozen list members. "We spent the time getting on the same page regarding the origins of the comics," said Beerbohm. The unofficial event has since outgrown the cafe. "We [have] just begun to come to grips with the fact that last year almost 50 people showed up." This year, scholar and list member Thierry Smolderen has arranged for a larger meeting space at the CNBDI that will accommodate video and computer presentations. Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware (both list members) are expected to join regulars including Paul Gravett, Groensteen, Andy Konkykru, Leonardo de Sá and others. "I am not sure the festival organizers are even aware of our little comicon within the comicon," said Beerbohm. "We have been discussing on the list about getting listed in the 2005 program book because we have been growing."