Fellow Ever Meulen fan Stijn Dams points out that the new masthead for the letters column that Ever created for the new Humo Design, was quite flawed, as the illustration was positioned in front of the title. Since then, Humo has been using a revised version for a while, with a newly alineated title (as shown above). So, that’s settled.
Just for completeness’ sake, here’s the original version.
Thanks for the tip (and the scan), Stijn !
My mom took a subscription to Humo Magazine, and I got her complementary Ever Meulen Lamp.
Thanks, Mom !
Last week I visited the Ever Meulen exhibition again, this time with my mom (who got me hooked on Meulen in the first place). And this time I took some pictures. They’re not that good, as I used a cameraphone and all artwork was behind quite reflective glass. So you’ll see me lurking here and there. We started off, by the way, with a quite nice self-portrait à la Française from 1999.
For thirty years now, Ever Meulen has provided the posters and imagery for Humo’s yearly rock concours, the Rock Rally. On the Rock Rally Website this is celebrated with an overview of (tiny) pictures, showing the most memorable of those thirty posters (scroll down on the page for the link). For larger versions, go to Brussels concert venue AB, where a selection of them are on display in the restaurant until march, 23.
For this year’s poster, Ever harkened back to his style of thirty years ago, and more particularly to his “Rocket Boys” illustration, as shown below. The car, by the way, really exists, and can be seen at the Ever retrospective in Leuven.
(artwork © Ever Meulen)
Over the years, Ever Meulen has done a zillion covers for Humo magazine. Some of them are plainly recognizable, for others you need to know it’s actually him. Here is an example of a hidden Meulen somewhere in the eighties, adding all kinds of details to a picture of television presenter Paul Muys. Including a Tintin quiff.
Last year Belgian media and culture magazine Humo completely overhauled its layout (well, maybe not completely). This involved different, whiter paper, a new, bolder type for titles (by master typographer Gert Dooreman, who previously also did the new typography for the flemish daily De Standaard), and new title illustrations for the features that return in every issue. Ever Meulen, who also did the previous versions, provided new graphics which clearly refer to the old ones but also are quite contemporary in their use of color. Remarkably, Ever’s illustrations for the TTT pages, which cover music, games, the internet and other “youth oriented” stuff, were replaced by new work by Jeroom.
(click on for more - all illustrations © Ever Meulen)
This is a nice illustration by Ever Meulen from Humo’s 2007 books special. The topic of that issue was writers and their fears and phobias. I particularly like the atypical use of washed colors on this piece.
This week’s Humo features a cover by Jeroom combines references to articles on near-death experiences and on the attitudes of Belgians towards money. It’s not a subtle cartoon (after all, this is Jeroom), but it’s a good one nevertheless.
Not so according to Disney’s local legal eagles. They are investigating if and how they can take action against this cover, which “goes to far”, according to spokesman Gil van Laer (in De Morgen).
(just to be on the safe side : cartoon © 2008, Jeroom; Winnie The Pooh, Tigger, Eyore and Piglet, their likenesses and representation © Disney)
Over the years, Tintin has inspired Belgian magazine cover designers to come up with references, parodies or paraphrasings of almost iconic images from his adventures. In this post, one from a Pourquoi Pas issue from 1988 and three Humo covers from 1985 and 1992. Pourquoi Paswas running an article on the difficulties of living as a Chinese in Belgium, and this take on the Blue Lotus cover, with a rather stereotypical Chinaman replacing Tintin, and a Belgian lion instead of the dragon, was a nice evocation of that subject.
The Humo images after the break are by Ever Meulen and Jan Bosschaert.
Morgan “Super Size Me” Spurlock is at it again with “What Would Jesus Buy ?“, in which he follows the reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse. Judging from the trailer, this reverend Billy is one over the top character (I can hear critics all over the world sigh, “well, only in America…”), but his message is true nevertheless : shops and stores all over the world have gone bonkers with Christmas. Flower shops in my community have been putting up decorations since september !
Spurlock is not the only one who feels this has gone too far. Flemish radio hosts Peeters & Pichal have launched a campaign, together with media weekly Humo, to motivate shop owners to leave off the cheer until December 15. And cartoonist Jeroom created a sticker for that purpose, shown above (saying “For God’s sake, no Christmas stuff until December 15 !”).
I for one couldn’t agree more, and so, here’s an English version. Put it on your website, and spread the word.
