The Ephemerist

De Standaard and Le Soir, two of the best Belgian daily newspapers in Dutch and French respectively, are currently running a series of articles and debates on the relationships between the Flemings (the Dutch speaking Belgians, living in the North) and the Walloons (who speak French and live in the south). I don’t really care for the articles themselves, but I absolutely adore the illustrations that were developed for the series.

The above image is only the basic version - the papers’ websites feature variations on the theme, as these examples show :

Flemish world affairs magazine Mo seems to be the first one to ask current sensation Judith Vanistendael to do a regular strip. Vanistendael has been dubbed the new Satrapi with her debut graphic novel, “De Maagd en de neger” (”The Virgin and the Negro”, Oog & Blik), in which she tells the story of her love for an African asylum seeker, and of how her family came to terms with it. Her style is eerily reminiscent of people like Dupuy and Berbérian, and even though the story’s pace sometimes reveals of practice, the book is without doubt one of the major debuts in European comics this year.

(translation of the strip :
Acts of the Grandparents, 2
Nov, 2000 - Well, it fits like a glove !
Nov 2002 - And hup, on to the next one…
Wow, Grandma ! Completely my style !)

Flemish artist Lectrr drew this cartoon to illustrate an article on the World Bank in the latest issue of Mo, a Flemish World Affairs magazine.

Flemish theatre troupe “Skagen” currently is performing in “Winterkant”, based on Louis Ferdinand Céline’s “Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit”. They asked comic artist Phillip Paquet to create a back drop for the performance. Paquet clearly found inspiration in Jacques Tardi’s work for the illustrated edition to the novel.