According to SudPresse, Michael Jackson was a big fan of Belgian illustrator Marcel Marlier’s art for the Martine books he created together with writer Gilbert Delhaye. These books, which have been published by Casterman in their immensely popular Farandolle series since 1954, tell the daily adventures of an ordinary girl in a world populated with lovely fluffy animals, happy friends and sunshine after (light) rain.
Marlier’s art has always been loved by young girls and loathed by their parents for their combination of almost photo-realistic rendering and sugar-coated sweetness. The stories themselves are typically non-threatening and quite sociologically conservative and conformist in nature, placing them, along with Barbie, right in the firing line of many a generational class in so-called progressive households in the 70’s.
(one of Marcel Marlier’s illustrations so beloved by Michael Jackson; in the interests of our reader’s health we must warn you this image contains 125% of your RDA of sugary goodness)
In the SudPresse interview, Marlier tells how he and his wife met Michael Jackson a couple of times. The first time, he received a phone call late at night, and neither of them actually knew who Michael Jackson was. But they listened to his music and watched some of his video’s, and the couple met the King of Pop in Paris, where they were greeted as old friends.
Marlier showed some of his original paintings to Jackson, who sat down caressing them and telling Marlier he was a true artist, “gifted by God”. Jackson offered to buy all of Marlier’s art for an immense amount of money, but Marlier refused, having rigorously guarded all his artwork since the 1950’s. Marlier’s wife remembers that, “when he was shown the Martine paintings, he was all over the room. It was a bit of a childish reaction, – C’était une réaction un peu enfantine – but Michael was a very touching person, very close to the people he met.”
The Martine books are published in English by Ward Lock, with the title character rechristened “Mary” (two Nintendo DS games, based on the first and eighth book of the series, talk of Emma, however).
(via Belgian literary blog De Papieren Man)
Wim Lockefeer often confuses the ‘moonwalk’ with ‘cakewalk’, which has lead to a mess of flour and baking soda on the dance floors of Belgium; you can read more from Wim on his Ephemerist blog.
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