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All the Tintin you need

21. October 2011

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The Adventures of Tintin from James Curran on Vimeo. This delightful unofficial animated title sequence for the upcoming Adventures of Tintin movie was created by James Curran and rather cleverly manages to include references to all of the Tintin albums, from Pays des Soviets to L’Alph-Art, all in a brilliantly stylised, fairly minimal yet perfectly [...]

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Frederic Magazine 4

19. October 2011

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Since it started in 2004, Frédéric Magazine has been an online podium for all things illustration and drawing.  On an almost daily basis, Frédéric presents work by artists, no matter what their frame of reference, technique, medium or country of origin.  Next to the five founders of the site (Isabelle Boinot, Frédéric Fleury, Emmanuelle Pidoux, Frédéric [...]

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Professor Balthazar in the 21st century

17. October 2011

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When I was a kid, many of the cartoons on TV here were made in Eastern Europe.  Popular opinion amongst well-meaning educators would have it that US-made cartoons and children’s programmes amounted to nothing more than crass commercialism, whereas animation from Yugoslavia and other countries in the Eastern Bloc at least had an artistic, and [...]

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Cartoonia in Bucharest

14. October 2011

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Coinciding with Animest (7th to 16th October), the international festival of animation which currently takes place in Bucharest, the Jumatatea plina comics bookstore organizes its own comics event for the 4th time this year.  This edition focuses on the creators which are allied with the international Stripburger magazine. Stripburger created a special exhibition called Greetings from [...]

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From our continental correspondent – China ups the ante on comics museums

3. October 2011

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In the competition for the design of the new China Comics and Animation Museum in Hangzhou, China, the spectactular proposal by Dutch design firm MVRDV was selected by the local planning bureau.  The design starts from eight voluminous speech balloons, each of which house a special sphere or volume, dedicated to a specific comics-related theme.  [...]

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From our continental correspondent – Translation, please : Polina

28. September 2011

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Polina Oulinov is a very young girl who is taken on as a special pupil by the famous ballet teacher professor Bojinski.  He is a very demanding educator, who refuses to adapt his standards to the talents of his pupils, and Polina has to work hard and make great sacrifices in order reach the level [...]

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From our continental correspondent – RIP Minck Oosterveer

26. September 2011

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Over the previous weekend it was announced that Dutch comic artist Minck Oosterveer had died in a motorcycle accident. He was only fifty years old. (Minck Oosterveer, photo by Jim Bella) Oosterveer will be remembered as a fervent activist for the appreciation of the continuity newspaper comic serial. With ‘Nicky Saxx’ in the Dutch daily [...]

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From our continental correspondent – are comics bad for literacy ?

23. September 2011

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A recent report by PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reviews the impact of literacy on student proficiency.   One of its focus points is the influence of the material that students read for pleasure, and their reading performance.  It turns out that reading novels and [...]

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Tillieux in Brussels

20. September 2011

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The Maison de la Bande Dessinée in Brussels, near the Gare du Midi, may be less well-known than the Belgian Comic Strip Museum, but it is equally deserving of your visit.  That is, if you are a comic buff who is mad about original art.  Don’t expect any animation activities (except for some lone colouring [...]

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From our continental correspondent – Les BD’s invade the Cinéma!

16. September 2011

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OK, let’s all calm down after that total abomination that was The Smurfs movie (does anyone have the name of a good therapist? I think our poor Wim needs help to get over the Smurfs movie – Joe), which still reaped in record figures at the box office. There’s more, and much, much better film [...]

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From our continental correspondent – September is comic month in Amsterdam

13. September 2011

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If you’re a comic buff and you were planning on a weekend in Amsterdam, September might be a good time to do so. The city which always has been associated with illustrators and cartoonists (and which since 1968 has been the home to one of the best comic stores in the entire world, Lambiek) has [...]

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From our continental correspondent: 20 years of Reprodukt

12. September 2011

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Highly respected German comics publisher Reprodukt is celebrating its 20th anniversary in style. This is the German publisher of people like Charles Burns, Craig Thompson, Max, Adrian Tomine, Posy Simmonds, Dupu and Bernerian and basically everyone who’s anyone in the world of literary comics. They’re also the native language publishing house behind names like Mawil, [...]

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From our continental correspondent – JC Menu us alive and kicking

7. September 2011

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After having been ousted as director of L’Association, one of the most important independent comics publishers in France, JC Menu did not simply go away to die in some corner quietly. He mainly regrouped and is now returning to publishing with a new venture, strikingly called “L’apocalypse”. In a short note, reprinted at Stephen Betts’ [...]

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A very animated Max

31. August 2011

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In 1992, Spanish cartoonist Max (creator of the fantastic Bardin The Superrealist) created a video clip for the song Tierra by Spanish pop group Radio Futura.  Thanks to La Cárcel de Papel‘s Álvaro Pons, and while we’re waiting for the new Max book, which has been announced for the end of the year, we can [...]

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From our continental correspondent: Translation Please – Zazie

23. August 2011

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When the mother of young Zazie wants to spend a weekend with her new boyfriend, she asks her brother Gabriël to look after the little girl.  Zazie looks forward to spending time with Gabriël, because he lives in Paris and she loves the Métro.  Much to her chagrin, though, the métro drivers are on strike.  [...]

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