In 2004, the French and Belgian Post Offices worked together on a unique issue, consisting of two stamps dedicated to Edgar P. Jacobs‘ Blake Et Mortimer.
On the Belgian side, these were accompanied by a special sheet and a separate stamp with a portrait of Jacobs himself :
Sometimes licencing just goes too far. As far as I know, Valentine’s Day is a celebration of romantic love (albeit a commercialised one). This, I fear, is not expressed by DC’s Batman and Superman Valentine’s Day Cards…
Here’s an older ad by Brian Biggs, arguably one of the best stylists around. This one was sent to me on my Comics Ephemerist Yahoo Group, by an anonymous benefactor…
For the completetists, the ad was published in the Washington Post on january 31, 2005.
This one was sent to me today, and I like it ! However, I haven’t got the faintest idea where it’s from. If you know, tell me !
!! Update !! Apparently, this is an artwork by the French artist Gilles Barbier, about whom Kim Levin writes in The Village Voice (july 28, 2003) :
“Or look left, at Gilles Barbier’s equally ambivalent and hilariously deadpan take on the American hero. In this French artist’s life-size tableau, Nursing Home, our beloved comic-book superheroes have been aged since the year of their tabloid births, as if fictional archetypes of invincibility were subject to mortality, too. The Incredible Hulk, flabby and in tatters, vegetates in a wheelchair. Catwoman dozes. Superman leans on a walker. Mr. Fantastic dangles his overstretched limbs. And Captain America lies comatose on a gurney, attended by a decrepit Wonder Woman. The TV plays, but the sound is pure golden oldies from the Platters. This piece isn’t subtle. But it’s deserved: An artist from “Old Europe” has succeeded in suggesting (tempus fugit, sic transit gloria mundi, gotcha!) that others may have a more sophisticated understanding of superpowerdom than we have ourselves.”
(Thanks, you-know-who)
As an illustration of my definition of ephemera (it doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t add anything to human progress or otherwise, but it is way cool) : here’s what you can do with a scanner except scan…
Time for another repost from the Comics Ephemerist, the Yahoo group I’ve been involved in for a couple of years.
These are the four interconnecting covers that Alex Ross did for the issue of TV Guide that showcased the new Smallville show in 2001. Scans by Svlyn. Enjoy..
I was browsing around for a way of using YouTube without the branded player (you know, the one with Youtube splashed all over the image). Turns out that YouTube has a form for feedback, a.o. for “Business”. So, I quickly whipped up a small email.
Much to my surprise, this is what I got in my mailbox :
Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
Subject: Business Inquiry
Sent: 16/01/2007 15:06The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
business@youtube.com on 16/01/2007 15:06
The e-mail system was unable to deliver the message, but did not report a specific reason. Check the address and try again. If it still fails, contact your system administrator.
< sjl-smtp2.sjl.youtube.com #5.0.0 X-Postfix; host sjl-mbox1.sjl.youtube.com [208.65.153.154] said: 550 : Recipient address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table (in reply to RCPT TO command)>
Guess they don’t need our business, now that they’re swimming in Google cash..
Clemens Kogler has created a very funny movie dissecting the meaning and secrets of life. While the overall tone never goes beyond the ironic and even sophomoric, the film also contains some very undeniable truths. Just think : the easter bunny is the first cause of religious doubt, and hamsters are the best way to teach children about death. Watch “Le Grand Content” and ponder it for the rest of the day…
(Thanks, Information Aesthetics)
Ok. Here’s a question for you. Would you buy a car because a diminutive blue cartoon character praises it ? OK, fair enough, but would you also buy it if that very same cartoon character attests that he hates the car ?
Hmm (from 2003) …
No, this is not a post about the Atlas Editions line of collectible die cast cars based on the adventures of Tintin. This is about Tintin’s preferences when driving a car.
You see, in 1978, Tintin drove a Citroen :
By 1994, however, he much more liked a Honda :
Finally, by 2001, he returned to a French brand, settling on a Renault (for now)…
The last scan was a full page ad in De Morgen, a Flemish newspaper. I had some trouble fitting it on my small A4-scanner, so the image suffers from some ghost shadows…
All scans are from Belgian magazines, so they’re in Dutch. If you’re really keen on knowing what the ads say, feel free to contact me.
