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.

Jef Nys made this illustration in 1996 for a campaign about media awareness that the Flemish catholic weekly Kerk en Leven was organizing. Remark how this was before the internet (or PC’s for that matter) invaded the living room.

This is the last illustration I’m posting from the Jef Nys book. If you want to know more about Jef Nys and his illustrous carreer, I would advise you to have a look at the book itself, as it is a real treasure of lesser known material.

(Source : ‘Jef Nys, Ongekend Veelzijdig’ , Mezzanine, 2005 - illustrations © Jef Nys)

During his formative years, Jef Nys did a lot of work for the Flemish satirical right-wing weekly ‘t Pallieterke. He provided illustrations for film reviews, like the one above (more after the break) and political cartoons, like the one above about marathon sessions in the Belgian parliament (also, after the break) .

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Yesterday I wrote about Jef Nys being turned down by the Disney Studios and eventually creating one of the most succesful comic series in Belgium.

Before that, however, Nys experimented with styles and influences. The illustrations on this page are from experiments with a more realistic style, which Nys developed in the late 40’s and was very much influenced by his admiration for American newspaper strips.

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In 1947, a young Flemish cartoonist, who had been drawing storyboards since he was 7 (above) wanted to make his dream come true. A life time admirer of Walt Disney, Jef Nys, then 20 years old, sent a selection of his work to the Disney Studios. Even though they were quite impressed with his work, there was no room in the studios for an artist from Belgium.

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