The Ephemerist

Flemish cartoonist Tom Bouden, best known for his series of gay comics, recently published a quite lovely album called “Paniek in Stripland” (Panic in Comic Land).  It’s a book that pays hommage to everything that made classic Flemish comics great, and features every Flemish comics character that has been around since the sixties.

The storyline is quite simple : a plot by the united comics villains has resulted in the disappearance of all comic heroes.  After an urgent meeting by the united comics creators, two lesser-known hopefuls, Kroepie and Boelie Boem Boem are asked to come to the rescue.

While most of the story will be beyond everybody who wasn’t raised on a steady diet of Jommeke, De Rode Ridder and Suske & Wiske (not to mention Thomas Pips, Dees Dubbel and others), some of the scenes might be quite intriguing for those interested in Eurocomics.  Take the scene pictured above, presenting the cartoonists council mentioned before.  We see Hergé presiding over the meeting, but the careful observant also will recognize many more comics luminaries.

In the top-right frame the following cartoonists are present : Pom (of Piet Pieter & Bert Bibber fame), Marc Legendre (Biebel), Erik Meijnen, Marc Sleen and Jan Bosschaert.  In the frame directly below, we see, a.o. Jef Nys, Dirk Stallaert, Paul Geerts, Maurice De Bevere (Lucky Luke), Bob De Moor, Raoul Cauvin and André Franquin.  The older guy with the sideburns in the third strip is Willy Vandersteen, creator of Suske & Wiske and one of the founding fathers of Flemish comics.