There’s this guy who’s so wrapped up in his daily cubicle life that he treats his electric appliances as his children. And then there’s the racist skinhead who is at a loss when a black woman asks him a simple question in the flowers stall where he works. Oh, and then there’s the [...]
Continue reading...20. March 2009
Kim Duchateau is one of the standard bearers of the absurdist comic tradition in Belgium. In series like Esther Verkest or Aldegonde, and in countless topical cartoons, illustrations and strips in newspapers and magazines, he allows his readers glimpses in the consistently weird world of his mind, filled with sadist midgets, blooper machines, mummies and [...]
Continue reading...11. March 2009
A few days before Christmas in 2003, Marzena Sowa told her partner, cartoonist Sylvain Savoia, a story of how the people in Poland buy a live carp for Christmas and keep it in their bathtub until they cook it for the festive dinner. Savoia was struck by the vividness of the story, and asked her [...]
Continue reading...29. December 2008
For this latest in the Translation, Please series, where Wim highlights some of the excellent and highly respected works from the Continental comics community and asks why no UK or US publisher is translating them for the English language market, we have something of a special post as Wim talks to one of the creators [...]
Continue reading...3. December 2008
How we forgive our fathers… In 1978 Joseph Pollmann, writer, journalist, and father of underground cartoonist Peter Pontiac, disappeared from the face of the earth on a beach in Curaçao. He left a rented Volkswagen, with the keys in the ignition, along with some personal objects, but was never seen again. Pollmann’s life at that time [...]
Continue reading...17. November 2008
Imagine a story about a Jewish cryptozoologist who has to flee Germany when the Nazi’s gain power, only to battle his successor at the university over the fate of the last Furox, the flying, fire-breathing but not-that-fearsome dragon of legend. That is the story of The Furox, a graphic novel series by Belgian cartoonist Simon [...]
Continue reading...28. October 2008
If you are completely lost in Heroes, or think that Jack Bauer’s antics are a bit too graphic for your kids, here’s a tip for you: Seuls, by Bruno Gazzotti and Fabien Vehlmann, combines all the exciting action, recognisable characters and bite-sized delivery of traditional Franco-Belgian comics, with the penchant for a broader subtext that [...]
Continue reading...30. September 2008
Yes, Welcome to Boboland, home of all the, well, bobos! If you spend most of your days in our modern-day cities, chances are you already know your way around. Most likely you know a good deal of bobos yourself. It may even be the case, but I wouldn’t want to cause offence, that you are [...]
Continue reading...6. August 2008
Two men are running. One of them says: “Between mates, friends or relations, what do you think is the best word to describe us?” To which the other answers: “I think mates implies a degree of intimacy that we don’t reach. That’s largely due to the fact that our relationship is only young, and that [...]
Continue reading...17. July 2008
Ludo is a little kid, an only child who lives in a small apartment in a big city, goes to school and dreams of a grand and adventurous life. His dad is a cop, and Ludo fantasizes about him solving all kinds of dangerous crimes, even though reality is much more banal. Ludo [...]
Continue reading...30. June 2008
I don’t want to sound posh or anything, but whenever I find a wonderful comic in French, or German, or any language besides English, I feel like I can hype it all I want, if it doesn’t get translated, most of you Brits and Usonians will probably never get a chance to read it. That’s [...]
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25. August 2009
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