The Ephemerist

Used to be a time when you could find stamps with US comic characters from countries all over the world, except from the US themselves. Since 2005, the US Post Office is finally catching on. Brilliant move, although I think the choice of characters is a bit too much driven by marketing, and the art is not that representative. Personnaly, I would have had one artist doing all the portraits (Darwyn Cooke, or Alex Ross). Still, it beats licking the back of a president…

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Just compare these posters for episodes of 1940’s Superman movie serials. It would seem that trademark and styleguide enforcement was a new concept back then…

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Here’s a neat activity for rainy days : create a Tintin puppet on a string ! Click for the full sized image, print on heavy paper, and have fun for, oh, at least half an hour…

(from the web somewhere, but I don’t remember exactly which site)

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Over the last few years, I’ve come to many conclusions, and had to change them all almost immediately. One of them, though still stands : James Kochalka is the best elf in contemporary comics. And although I’ve read better books than “Watchmen” since 1990, it still ranks quite high in my opinion. So there…

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I had the honor of spending an evening with Peter Van Dongen, creator of Rampokan and acclaimed “ligne claire” illustrator. Not only did he turn out to be an incredible sketcher (you should have seen what he drew in the restaurant’s golden book), but he was also a very well-read, kind and emphatic conversation partner. Now, if only he weren’t so modest…

These illustrations were published in 2004, in the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland, and accompanied a piece about the best bookstores in the Netherlands. Tintinophiles no doubt recognize the policeman.

Incidently, a bookstore from Maastricht, which is quite close to where I live, won.

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The son of Frank D Foster II (aptly called Frank D. Foster III) claims his father is the true creator of the Batman, and he has the art to prove it. Of sorts.

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More stamps. The Hulk, from Madagascar. ‘Nuff said…

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A couple of years ago I won an Ebay auction for some envelopes, featuring art from Al Capp’s Advice Fo’ Chillun. Little did I know that they proved to be customised envelopes, with the art lovingly glued to them by some doting family member who from 1937 until 1938 frequently exchanged letters with one Frances Ann Skillins from Portland. When necessary, the captions in the cartoons were changed to suit the occasion.

Which made them even more valuable to me…

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In the late 1970’s, the French department store La Samaritaine held a competition in which contestants could buy sealed envelopes containing one of four sheets of specially designed Tintin stamps. They could also win bikes and stuff, but the stamps themselves proved to be a big enough incentive to have people storm the stores…

Later, the same art was used on a single stamp sheet issued by the chocolate maker Côte d’Or to celebrate Tintin’s 50th anniversary.

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