Leave it to Vacature, Belgium’s biggest free job ads paper, to come up with some exquisite illustrative work. This artwork (by Jan vander Veken, above, and Lode Devroe, below) ran in the magazine in the month of August, alongside articles on music while you work and incentives by banks for new recruits.
(artwork © Jan vander Veken and Lode Devroe, respectively)
Flemish illustrator Ief Claessen has published new illustrations from various projects on his blog. These include artworks like the one above, totally different children’s books illustrations and amazing sketchworks (after the click), all of which aren’t even remotely comparable to the editorial illustrations he’s mostly associated with.
I got hold of a nice scan of Four Color Comics #1328 from 1962 recently. Dell’s flagship series had been running for quite a few years by then, and the material had not won in gravitas and importance. Most of the books were mere tie-ins to TV shows or films, such as “The Underwater City”. Not a classic, that one, even if you call it that on the cover.
Anyway, I like these comics from a different era, because they represent a time (in my view) that was less dangerous, for children at least. Or was it ? Judging from the “modifications” on this page (probably the work of an overprotective and zealous parent), even in these safe comics, deprivation lurked…
Strangely, though, the pages on Greek mythology were left untouched…
(artwork © Dell Publishing, 1962)
This great piece of comics criticism was lifted from The Spirit #19, written by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés with art by Paul Rivoche (DC Comics, september 2008). I don’t think Scott McCloud could have put it better. And it doesn’t end there…
Listen to the man !
(The Spirit © Will Eisner Studios. Quoted for review and comment purposes)
This car is a 1956 Buick Centurion, a concept car as shown on the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance (Wired article). If you look at its hood logo, and compare it to this, it’s clear that this is indeed the first Vaillante, three years before Jean Graton created his heroic race car driver and his family’s brand.
On a similar note, Jade Miniatures has produced an exquisite line of miniature cars inspired by the Michel Vaillant comic book series, while Seat presented an Ibiza Vaillante model in 2006. If papa Vaillant had seen this model, he would have given Jean-Pierre a right slap around the head, methinks.
These ads by Maruri Grey from Ecuador are for Teratos cough syrup. The message is clear : Teratos banishes coughs from your voice (even when you’re yelling). The execution is a bit eighties for my taste, but efficient nonetheless.
(from Ads of the World)
I’m currently leafing through all the magazines that we seem to have amassed over the past few months, to see whether there’s anything worth keeping before they go in the bin, and I found this beautiful little illustration by Flemish artist Pieter Van Eenooghe. It was published in Humo a while ago, to go with an article on what famous people read during their holidays.
A few years ago, this type of assignment would doubtlessly have been given to Ever Meulen, but for some reason, Van Eenooghe was given a break here. I like the way he refers to Ever’s style of choice, but not resorts to emulating or copying. It’s good stuff.
And since this picture involves a guy reading, this one goes to my mom.
(illustration © Pieter Van Eenooghe)
With the Olympics finally over (and while we’re waiting on the reports on their doubtlessly disastrous long-term effect on the Chinese people, their environment and economic situation), here’s a nice cartoon from De Morgen by Flemish artist Kim Duchateau about a new Olympic discipline, the 100 meters free speech.
Besides the fact that this cartoon uses traditional cartoon elements like word balloons in a nice, formalistic manner, I particularly liked Kim’s implicaiton that free speech automatically entails uncouth language and verbal abuse.
(artwork © Kim Duchateau)
Over on his group blog Blog Flume, cartoonist Jonathan Bennett shows what a nice guy he is by reposting high quality jpegs of the strips he drew for this weekend’s Washington Post.
They’re quite to the point in what they talk about, but also very funny (just look at Françoise Mouly as an Al Capp heroine, below). And the cover illustration, with Bennett’s versions of other people’s book covers, is a true testimony of his craft.
Welcome back, by the way. Don’t thank me, thank my wife.
Hello all,
It’s been a while since I last posted anything here. I could blame laziness, or holidays, and that would all be very true. The main reason, though, is that I’ve been feeling quite burnt out lately.
I just received my first cease and desist letter, and it’s bugging me. It’s to do with a character that I have loved for as long as I can remember (I even learned to read with those books), that I’ve spent time, money and love on, and now I get this slap in the face.
I think I’ll go under for another two weeks. I’ll see what happens.
The Ephemerist will be at the Angoulème Festival from Wednesday January 28 until Saturday January 31. If you want to meet up, let me know.
