Re: A Certain Tendency in French Comics VI
Oh, yeah, it ain’t over muthafuckas! Pepo and the Con C de Arte crew are back with more commentary on the state of French nigh-mainstream comics.
Enter: Cav Bøgelund
So, some of you will probably have noticed that a new head has entered the Bunker, dropping us at a very special Copenhagen crossing, and for the non-Danes out there I want to take the opportunity to present him. Cav is one of the new voices in Danish comics and animation; after several years in the underground – with the story Necropolis, written by Simon Petersen being the crowning achievement – he debuted last year with Blodbryllup, an adaptaton of GarcÃa Lorca’s Bodas de sangre, and was also featured in our anthology BLÆK last year, done in collaboration with Henrik Rehr, and he has recently submitted his final project at animation line at the Copenhagen Film School. Check out more of his work at his (other) blog, as well as on the site dedicated to one of the films he directed last year, Lucky Strike.
A great talent poised to take it to the next level. Watch him!
Also, check out Rackham‘s reviews of Necropolis and Blodbryllup. Image from Blodbryllup.
Back in this Green and Pleasant Land
After a rather washed-out trip to Spain, where Emma got her bag stolen to boot (ahem, we’re trying not to think too much about that now), we’re back in sunny England! Somehow, it seems to me that there’s something wrong with that picture. But there it is.
Anyway, it was a great trip, all things considered, and the impressions amassed will be percolating and appearing in this space over the next few days or so. In the meantime, here’s some graff and street art from around Madrid.
The Rain in Spain
Sorry about the string of no updates lately. We’re in Madrid where it’s raining cats and dogs. Doesn’t matter too much though – the city’s always great, and at this time we’re treated to a big Tintoretto show at the Prado – the first retrospective since 1937. It’s unfortunately slightly underwhelming, especially since in the adjoining galleries, you can check out the cream of Titian, El Greco, Rubens, Velazquez and Goya, while all Tintoretto’s best work is stuck to walls and alters in Venice. He is never uinteresting though, and it’s great to be given this kind of walk-through of his career in the wonderful central gallery of the Prado (more detailed review to follow).
Also, at the Thyssen there’s an astonishing portrait shows that starts out with a trio of masterpieces – selfportraits by Gauguin, van Gogh and Munch – and just doesn’t let up – wonderful work by almost all of the 20th Century’s greatest painters.
Other than that, the tapas are nice as always, and today we’re headed to the Escorial. Pictures and more to follow upon return – the machine we’re using here is only intermittently available and also an antique.
Re: A Certain Tendency in French Comics V
No, I’m not continuing my diatribe against all those talented, boring French cartoonists here. Just wanted to note that the inimitable Bart Beaty touches upon the issue in his review of Christophe Blain’s Gus over at Comics Reporter. Go, read.
Tangentially related: the press kit strip by Joann Sfar Thomas mentions in his Persepolis-at-Cannes post below reveals that the superstar cartoonists has been hired by the festival to do his comics reportage “Greffier”-style (no haven’t read it yet, but will do. Soon) daily and directly from the festival. And he’s been granted special access to go where no journalists go. Wow.
Palme d’Or to ‘Persepolis’?
Marjane Satrapi’s animated feature film Persepolis (based on her comic of the same title, as everyone should know) has been selected for the Official Competition at the 60th Festival de Cannes. Persepolis (co-directed by Vincent Paronnaud) will be facing hard competition though, since the Palme d’Or-line-up features new films by Wong Kar-Wai, Joel & Ethan Coen, Kim Ki Duk, Emir Kusturica, David Fincher, Alexander Sukorov and Quentin Tarantino. May the best film win!
The Festival’s official press release in English is right here. The French version features a strip by Joann Sfar (scroll to the bottom), BTW.
Hogarth’s Chicken Fat
Last week, I finally got the time to check the Hogarth show at the Tate. A very egalitarian and attractive retrospective of his career and oeuvre with equal attention paid to the bourgeois and the burlesque, the benevolent and the biting. Almost all of his most important work is assembled there, and it is a unique treat. One of the things I most enjoyed was observing and enjoying the richness of his visual ideas : the enormous amounts of ‘chicken fat,’ to use that maddest of Mad-artists Will Elder’s apt term, lining his pictures.
Re: Memento Mori
Lest we forget, tragedy is nigh universal, and today a bomb exploded in Sadriya, Baghdad, killing at least 140 people, while other bombs around the city brought the day’s total up to over 170. A nasty reminder that our thoughts tend to stray from there.
Hype: OCX 07
The weekend of May 4-5 will see inaugural edition of Oslo Comics Expo in, well, Oslo. In contrast to its older, distinguished cousin, the Raptus festival, which has been held yearly in Bergen for a good number of years now and this year unfortunately presents what may be its most anachronistic programme, OCX will focus on the new trends in Western comics for adults. Among the guests we find the Norwegians Jason, Lene Ask, Lars Fiske, Mads Erisken and Steffen Kverneland, who will be joined by Andreas Gefe and Kati Ritenbach from Switzerland and Leonardo Manco from Argentina. Looks promising!
I will be there, participating in the panel ‘Tegneserieakademiet,’ on our common understanding and contextualization of comics, on Saturday afternoon. Looking forward to it.