Author Archives | Wim
Wim - who has written 224 posts on The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log.
From our continental correspondent – the Smurfs at the World Fair
The Flemish comics blog Strip Turnhout just announced that the Smurfs will be present at the coming World Fair 2010 in Shanghai, China. The little blue men will be the official mascots of the Belgian-European pavillion, which will open on May 15th. They were selected because of their Belgian roots (they were created by Belgian [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Wasco cuts in Amsterdam
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Dutch illustrator and cartoonist Henk Spoel (better known as Wasco) has traded his pencils for a pair of scissors and created a series of paper cuttings that remind us of similar shadow portraits from the 19th century, but also seem to refer to the illustrations that Blexbolex is doing these days in his Imagier Des [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Moomin at the Belgian Comic Strip Centre
Monday, March 8, 2010
At the Brussels Belgian Comic Strip Centre, a nice little exhibition has been put up about Moomin, Finland’s best known contribution to comics. Originally, creator Tove Jansson (1914-2001) wrote and illustrated a series of illustrated novels featuring the white, hippopotamus-like creatures. Over the years though, the world of the Moomins expanded and currently [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – the Clear Line conquers Europe
Friday, February 26, 2010
In 2008 the European Commission organised a competition to create a comic that would illustrate how Europe contributes in fighting suffering and injustice in the world. The winner turned out to be then 43-year old Erik Bongers, who had never published a full-fledged comic book before (even though he is a regular contributor to the [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Netherlands to be the guest country at Ficomic Barcelona
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
From May 6th to May 9th this year, the 28th edition of Ficomic, the Salón Internacional del Comic will take place in the Feria de Barcelona. Not a lot is known as yet about the programme: a recent press release only revealed that among the confirmed guests were Gilbert Shelton, Jeff Smith, Liberatore, Lewis Trondheim, [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – 24 heures de la BD, a quick selection
Friday, February 12, 2010
This year’s edition of the 24 heures de la BD, a competition of 24-hour comics that is organised in the margins of the Angoulême Festival, is especially interesting for non-French speakers, as one of the constraints was that the story had to be totally wordless, or “muette” as the French put it. It also should [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – comics in crisis: BD sales part II
Thursday, February 11, 2010
This piece continues my review (see yesterday’s post) of Xavier Guilbert’s analysis of sales figures in French comics for 2009, as published in the French comics magazine Du9. In this part, Guilbert looks at the role of manga in the French market, and at the success stories of 2009. When you walk around in comic conventions [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – crisis hits comics: BD sales part I
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
At the end of last year, the French Association of Comic Critics and Journalists released its Bilan, or annual report on the state of the industry (rather than the art, even though we are in France). They were rather optimistic, seeing many new publishers and publications, and a growing number of authors working in the [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – crisis hits comics festivals
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
As Tom Spurgeon noted earlier this week on Comics Reporter it’s all fine and dandy when governments and other official bodies start recognizing comics for the artform that it is, and start getting involved in the organisation of comics festivals, as long as they have the money. As was discussed marginally earlier, there were some [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Next in comics: the commentary track
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Marketing boys never stop. In the US, they’ve tried to flog you multiple copies of comics by using different, “exclusive”, covers, while in France they typically add limited edition prints and ex-librises to them, or whip together a “dossier” to go along with the album. And sometimes they actually succeed in creating something nice, like [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Monsieur Hulot a Bruxelles
Thursday, January 28, 2010
With his exquisitely subtle wit, his relentless eye for contemporary absurdity and his distinctively modern visual language, Jacques Tati is doubtlessly one of the most original voices cinema has ever produced. Add to this the character of Monsieur Hulot, the modern everyman, forever amazed and never really involved, and you also get one of [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – What I Will Miss In Angoulême This Year
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
It’s end of January again, and in comicsland that means that the French town of Angoulême will once again be invaded by comics creators, publishers and fans, celebrating their favorite artform in all its glory (over the weekend of the 28th to 31st). As much as I would have liked joining in the festivities, that’s [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Jacques Martin, a personal reflection
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Last week, Jacques Martin died in his home in Switzerland. As the creator of Alix and Lefranc he was one of the founding fathers of the Tintin style of Franco-Belgian comics, particularly predominant in the magazine of the same name, and in terms of graphical language and subject matter quite the opposite of the Spirou [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Get well-read in under an hour!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
For some reason those who are dear to me have the impression that I would love to read more, but that I simply don’t have the time. My godson gave me a copy of Twitterature, a compendium of classic books and other literary works, retold in the limited format of Twitter posts. The authors, Alexander Aciman [...]
Continue reading...From our continental correspondent – Adele teaser online
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
It’s only four months to go until the premiere of Luc Besson’s eagerly awaited film, The Strange Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (which we first mentioned around this time last year), starring Louise Bourgoin, Gilles Lellouche and Mathieu Amalric (best known to non Francophone audiences for playing the villain in the last Bond movie, Quantum of [...]
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- Somersault – when two cartoonists meet
- Talking To Strangers
- From our continental correspondent – the Smurfs at the World Fair
- BICS 2010 confirmed
- Dave Gibbons hosting free Manga Studio Webinar
- Boba Fett busker
- Andy Diggle on Blockbuster Buzz
- Filmish – comics meet film theory
- New Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec teaser
- UniComics Festival
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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