To commemorate the centennial – on May 27th – of Hergé, creator of Tintin, the Metabunker asked a number a Danish cartoonists to contribute commentary/tribute drawings, which we posted daily the week following the day itself. These are now scattered around our archives as individual posts, so we thought it helpful to collect them all in one place. Here you go.
This is the collected edition of my four-part review from last month of the Madrid Tintoretto show. Everything is now here, in one place, for you reading leisure, and – hopefully – pleasure.
If you’re in Copenhagen, there are two exhibitions of interest opening today: one is Gaze.Space.Desire (yes, the title is as stereotypical as it gets, but indulge us…) at Den Frie udstillingsbygning, the other is Parfyme Deluxe: The Tent Show at Nikolaj. There’s even a special Rackham/BLÆK-connection, since the terrible trio Ingen Frygt is participating in both.
Gaze.Space.Desire runs till July 1, the opening is today from 5-7 PM; The Tent Show is there until November 11, while the opening coincides with the one at Den Frie.
Danmarks ældste og bedste filmtidsskrift Kosmorama er ude NU, med et stort temanummer om animationsfilm. Bladet – eller retteligt: bogen – er spækket med spændende og indsigtsfulde artikler om det gamle og det nye, om det kendte og det obskøne, det fede og det, der bare er forgæves. Sidstnævnte tager denne skribent sig bramfrit af i publikationens afsluttende indslag, hvor tegnefilmen som udtryksform slæbes gennem mudderet : strengt men retfærdigt. Klik her, og læs første halvdel af svadaen ganske gratis. Kosmorama forhandles bl.a. af Filminstituttet, og kan købes i Cinematekets boghandel.
Tak i øvrigt til redaktionen, som var så letsindig at give mig lov til at supplere mit essay med ovenstående, barnlige skribleri (her gengivet let modificeret).
All right, so I finally read Joann Sfar’s latest sketchbook comic, Greffier, which collects his comics form transcripts of the Charlie Hebdo trial at the Parisian Correctional Court earlier in the year (February 7-8, to be exact). This was the trial in which three Muslim organizations, the French Union of Islamic Organisations (UOIF), the International Islamic League, and the Great Mosque of Paris, sued the venerable weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for defamation of a religious group by having published the infamous Danish Muhammed cartoons, as well as adding to the mix a cover by Cabu showing the Prophet, in January 2006. Charlie Hebdo, whose lawyers asserted their right to publish the cartoons under the principles of free speech, was — thankfully — acquitted of any wrongdoing.
Sfar writes in his introduction to the volume: “I’m neither a journalist, nor an editorial cartoonist. I wanted to take notes as a comics author. To document the entirety of the debate. Not just the essential parts”. He wants to convey the entire experience of a courtroom trial. Unfortunately, he fails quite egregiously at this.
Commercial break: The latest issue of The Comics Journal, issue #283, contains my in-depth, career-spanning interview with master cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. It’s probably going to hit stores within the next few weeks, depending on where you are, so be sure to check it out! In the meantime, there’s an excerpt up on the Journal website. Enjoy!
When Rackham’s Danish comics anthology from last year, BLÆK, was recently selected amongst the books of the year by the Association of Danish Bookbinders, it turned out to be in the ‘cover’ category. Besides acknowledging the fine work done by our designer, Frederik Storm, this is, of course, first and foremost a recognition of cover artist Jan Solheim. To mark the occasion, I asked to him to talk a little about his ideas for, and work on, the cover, and he also coughed up some of his preliminary sketches. read on…
In more sad news, Darma Beck passed away yesterday. She had been married to art historian James, who died on Saturday, for 51 years. Makes you ponder the vital interdependence between us people.
Deepest condolences to the Beck family.
Wrapping up our week-and-a-half-long celebration of Hergé’s centenary is Danish cartoonist’s cartoonist Jan Solheim. He is known for a large number of at times hilarious, at times touching, and always dazzlingly drawn anthology contributions, two of the best of the more recent ones in BLÆK, for which he also did the amazing cover. His grand epic “Lava,” serialized in the anthology Fahrenheit in the 90s, remains unfinished but is nevertheless considered classic. American readers might remember him from the story “Drive-By”, written by Steven T. Seagle in ONI Double Feature a good number of years back. Check out his website here, an old archive of his work here, and his Lambiek entry here.
Thanks for staying with us! Hope you enjoyed the drawings and all the rest. Long live the work of Hergé!
Also, check out the artwork in the previous instalments, by Mårdøn Smet, Miwer, Johan Krarup, Peter Kielland-Brandt, Ole Comoll Christensen, T. Thorhauge, Simon Bukhave and Peter Becher. And be sure to read our freewheeling discussion of Hergé’s work.
Over the last couple of days, a few things related to a couple of my last posts have come up:
First of all, ArtWatch director Michael Daley has written a fine obituary of James Beck who passed away on Saturday.
Secondly, back in February, Neil Cohn posted content about the 5.000-year old Persian comic that has just gone on display at the National Museum in Tehran, including an animation of the strip and a link to a number of pictures of it and the goblet it’s painted on.
Chekkit.