One of the best things to come out of the Belgian comics scene these past few years, is Pieter De Poortere’s Boerke. This strip, drawn in a ligne claire-meets-Hello Kitty style, chronicles the continuing trials and tribulations of an all-too-recognisable everyman, who is egocentric, petty and materialistic, and at the same time heroic, empathic and [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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Several quite good pieces of news popped up recently about comics from my neck of the woods that are now making it around the wider world (well, the English-speaking part of the world, at least). Our editor Joe pointed out to me that the English edition of Judith Vanistendael’s De maagd en de neger has [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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Our fair city of Brussels, which doesn’t really have a shortage of comics-related venues, now boasts yet another comics gallery. Gallery Champaka is the latest venture by comics afficionado and activist Eric Verhoest, who also founded the publishing house by the same name and as such, amongst others, published one of the most beautiful books [...]
Continue reading...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 includes television [...]
Continue reading...Monday, January 4, 2010
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There are nicer ways of starting the new year than by announcing the death of yet another mainstay of European comics. As the Flemish comic blog Strip Turnhout announced on Sunday, cartoonist Tibet passed away during the night of Saturday, January 2nd, at the age of 78. (Tibet at the 1989 Angouleme Festival, pic borrowed [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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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 little girl [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Just what is the deal with Nick Rodwell, husband to the woman who used to be married to Hergé (deceased), the creator of Tintin? Why do I need to use such an awkward phrasing, instead of just saying that he’s the second husband of Hergé’s widow? Because I would rather not have my private life, [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, July 23, 2009
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Via Wim’s Ephemerist comes this clever piece by Karl Meersman for Focus magazine, celebrating two very different but famous and celebrated artists who have both had museums dedicated to their work open in Belgium recently, René Magritte and Hergé.
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Friday, April 23, 2010
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