Last year the Belgian Post Office dedicated their annual “Youth Philately” issue to the hit comic XIII, a long running political action mystery by Jean Van Hamme and William Van Cutsem. It’s currently being published in the US as well. Especially the first story arc (roughly albums 1 to 6) are a good read, but overall it never surpasses run-of-the-mill spy thrillers. Nice stamps, though, and a nice sheet too.
As promised earlier, here are the Summer stamps Ever Meulen created for the Belgian Post Office in 2005. I kinda like the sideways orientation.
Back in 2005, the Belgian Post Office issued a set of special stamps to be used on letters an cards announcing the birth of a new baby. Ever Meulen created two very nice stamps : one for girls, and one for boys. Later that year, Ever would also create two special Summer stamps. I’ll post those later.
In 1931, Hergé’s second Tintin album was published. Even though Herge would later on continue to recognise ‘Tintin Au Congo‘ (and rework it for color print), this book suffered from the same ailment as ‘Tintin au pays Des Soviets‘, which Hergé would later denounce (and only allow to be reprinted in the 1980’s). Rather than the result of meticulous research, it was a roller coaster of an adventure set in a Central Africa that told the adventures of the young reporter in a Central Africa made up of caricatures and fragments of hearsay and missionaries’ memories.
In 2001 both the Belgian post office and the République of Congo issued stamps to commemorate this. Which was quite a unique event.
In 2004, the Belgian post office issued a special sheet to commemorate the Tintin story “Objectif Lune” and “On A Marché A La Lune”. The stamps featured scenes from the albums, along with two interesting reference documents. One of them is a picture of Hergé with a model the studio constructed in order to maintain a correct perspective in the drawings.
Overall, a very nice issue, which is still widely available on Ebay and other sources.
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 :
I like collecting stamps, the way I like browsing for old comic books : if I find them, it’s a good day, but I’m not going to track all kinds of outlets to score. And I’m sure as hell not going to hunt for “limited editions”.
Brother Mike sent this clipping from this month’s Previews. I mean, what’s the added value in this ? When every dog and his master can create stamps in a limited edition, what’s the fun in stamp collecting ?
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.
