Every weekend during the summer, the Belgian daily Le Soir offers its readers a satirical supplement in which a bunch of cartoonists and comic creators give their take on current events and the state of the world. El Rios, as it is called, is a production by the new graphic studio, Coiffeurs Pour Dames, set up by former Spirou editor Olivier Van Vaerenbergh with cartoonist Steven Hermans, multimedia artist Claude Milan and graphic designer Totodernoncourt.
(page from a recent issue of El Rios, featuring a particularly good cartoon/caricature of Balkan war criminal Radovan Karadzic which works pretty well across any linguistic or cultural barrier)
This all-round studio offers services in the field of comics and topical cartoons, multimedia design and infographics. So far they have collaborated with people like Xavier Lemmens, Libon, Hugo Piette, Capucine, Nix and Gabrion to create graphic projects for outlets like Le Soir and a comic page on music festivals in the weekly Le Vif / L’Express (see the Coiffeurs blog). For more information, see an interview with Van Vaerenbergh over at Actua BD (in French).
(some lovely art from the Coiffeurs blog, in this case ‘Les FESTIVAUX #3 Gent Jazz’, promoting, as you might guess, a Jazz festival; Very atmopsheric, I can almost fancy myself sitting in a dimly lit, smoky jazz dive right now. Art by Ramon Navaro)
Even when you don’t speak French, or are not quite up to speed with Belgian politics, you may want to try El Rios on its website, if only to marvel at the intricate graphics the Coiffeurs use.
Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium and when not contemplating the philosophical ramifications of the world of Plonk he writes extensively on comics culture and art; you can read more of his work on his own Ephemerist blog.
Wed, Jul 30, 2008
Comics and cartoons, From our Continental Correspondent