Archive for the 'Stamps' Category
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Belgian cartoonist and illustrator François Schuiten has been quite productive lately. On January 18th, the Belgian Post Office issued a commemorative stamp on information theorist Paul Otlet (the man who wanted to classify the world, and one of the founding fathers of information and classification theory), which was designed by Schuiten (above).
Meanwhile, on February 12-20, the animation festival Anima 2010 will be held in the famous Flagey building in Brussels. For this event, too, Schuiten provided the illustration which features the characteristic Flagey broadcasting tower (below).
Both designs are quintessentially Schuiten, in that they each feature enormous structures of knowledge and architecture, two recurring themes from Schuiten’s and writer Benoit Peeters’ graphic novels.
(illustration © De Post; François Schuiten/Folioscope)
Posted in Illustration, Stamps | No Comments » | Tags : Francois Schuiten
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
The French Post Office announced a new set of stamps yesterday featuring illustrations from the well-loved Petit Nicolas books by author and comic writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé.
The stamps were launched to coincide with the premiere of the Petit Nicolas film, later this week.
Le Petit Nicolas was first published in 1959. In that same year Goscinny, who had already gained notoriety thanks to the Lucky Luke stories he wrote for Morris, would become editor of Pilote Magazine, and would create the famous Astérix Le Gaule series with Albert Uderzo. Jean-Jacques Sempé, who had already started publishing in Paris-Match, would later become quite famous in the US as well for his cartoons and covers for the New Yorker magazine.
Posted in Illustration, Stamps | No Comments » | Tags : Jean-Jacques Sempe, New Yorker, René Goscinny
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Norvic Philatelics announces a new issue by the Royal Mail, featuring depictions of mythical creatures by none other than Dave McKean. This set features: a unicorn, a mermaid (legends about which are very common around the UK coast and the northern isles of Scotland), a giant (inspired by Finn McCool associated with the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland), the fairy queen (in a chariot pulled by birds), a pixie (which feature in Cornish folklore), and a dragon (emblem of Wales).
The sad part, of course, is that Dave McKean is introduced as “who worked on the Harry Potter movies”. And Andy Warhol was a window dresser.
(via Cartoon Philately)
Posted in Illustration, Stamps | 4 Comments » | Tags : Dave McKean
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Posted in Comics, Stamps | No Comments » | Tags : Asa Ekström, Cecilia Torudd, Charlie Christensen, Joakim Pirinen, Lars Mortimer, Martin Kellerman, Nina Hemmingsson, Ulf Lundkvist
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
In 1980, DC wanted to make some fuzz about the extra content pages they were adding to their books. The back-up stories were supposed to feature a whole stable of regular also-rans (if you don’t count Batman and Robin), and for some reason, it seemed like a good idea to sell all this as a stamp collection. You’ll want to own all backup stories, just like you want to have your collection complete, get it ?
I don’t know whether the inspiration for this were the Marvel Value Stamps of a few years earlier, but in any case, it was only an ad campaign. With cheesy copy to boot.
(via Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin)
Posted in Advertising, Stamps | 1 Comment » | Tags : DC Comics
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
While waiting to post some christmas cards, I picked up these new Duostamps from my local post office. Duostamps are typically standard value stamps that have a second stamp attached with a certain topical image. In this case, from left to right, the following themes are used :
- The smurfs, with elements from several Smurfs albums (rather shoddily cropped, if you ask me). It would seem that these stamps were issued just in time for the 50th anniversary of Peyo’s characters, which will be celebrated this year.
- A set of five stamps with characters by Hergé, branded with the “Une Vie, Un Oeuvre” logo. These stamps feature Totor, Leo et Lea, Quick et Flupke, Jo et Zette and Tintin, respectively.
- A second set of stamps with Hergé art (featuring Tintin and a portrait of Hergé himself. This set too is branded with the “Une Vie, Un Oeuvre” logo.
These stamps are available from Belgian post offices, and (most probably) also on the De Post Eshop. (Smurfs © Peyo; Totor, Leo et Lea, Quick et Flupke, Jo et Zette and Tintin © Moulinsart)
Posted in Comics, Music, Stamps, Toys | No Comments » | Tags : Smurfs, Tintin
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
In 1990 the Deutsche Post celebrated the 125th Geburtstag of seminal German comic heroes Max Und Moritz by publishing one of the very few comic-related sets in their history. Four stamps were published, featuring scenes from the comic book by Wilhelm Busch in 1865. Above is a self-addressed envelope from the day these stamps were published, featuring the First Day Cancellation. I won it on Ebay around Christmas, and it was a bargain as well.
An online version of a 1925 Max Und Moritz reprint can be found at Children Books Online.
Posted in Comics, Stamps | 1 Comment » | Tags : Max Und Moritz, Wilhelm Busch
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Ever Meulen has a long history of illustration related to books, reading and writing. These stamps are the latest in that line. They were issued earlier by the Belgian Post Office, and deal with all forms of writing (with the motto “What’s written, stays”). I like the fact that Ever didn’t limit “writing” to books, but also included music, letters and even emails. In fact, he focuses on letter writing – after all, this is the post office. On that note – check out the sad git in the last stamp : is it any wonder that the only person in these stamps using a computer is crying his eyes out ? The Post Office needs your business, people, so stop emailing and start writing letters !
Also, check out the git’s t-shirt on the last stamp. This is a reference to the comic series “Stamp & Pilou“, which the Belgian Post Office has been publishing for quite a while now. I don’t really care for it much myself, but it has introduced a lot of kids to stamp collecting, which is a good thing.
Finally, a little philatelist phact. These stamps are among the first to be issued in Belgium without an actual monetary value. Instead, they have a “1″ in a circle in the top right corner, indicating that they can be used for all regular mail, regardless the rise in tarriffs in the future.
(artwork © Belgian Post Office)
Posted in Stamps | No Comments » | Tags : Ever Meulen
Monday, May 21st, 2007
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…
Posted in Stamps | 1 Comment » | Tags : Batman, DC Comics, Superman, Wonder Woman
Monday, May 21st, 2007
More stamps. The Hulk, from Madagascar. ‘Nuff said…
Posted in Stamps | No Comments » | Tags : Hulk
