The discussion on French nigh-mainstream comics continues! (scroll to the bottom for full linkage). Alex Holden, who chimed in earlier, returns with more comments: Hi Again Matthias- I have still been thinking about this discussion a bit. I can’t agree with your statements that Blutch (in particular) is not interested in exploration, since he has…
Just read Joe Sacco’s “Down! Up!” from the latest Harper’s. A new strip from Sacco is a relatively rare thing, and 16 new pages is certainly a welcome event, especially when they’re this good. Reporting from Iraq, Sacco has sat in on a couple of American officers training a group of Iraqis to be soldiers…
Jeg har før reklameret for Bennis website – www.benniboedker – her i Bunkeren, men nu har han lagt en række af sine artikler om børnelitteratur og tegneserier op i PDF. Blandt artiklerne om tegneserier, skrevet til Information, finder man hans kritik af en række af de nye tegneserier, Rackham har slået på tromme for de…
Whoa, I just discovered some more pictures taken at this year’s Angoulême festival that I’d forgotten all about. Amongst them are pictures of such luminaries as Alison Bechdel, Thierry Cappezzone, Sergio Toppi and Dan Zettwoch – check ’em out in our Angoulême album.
Back in Cambridge after a pleasant stay in Boston that even left time for a (very) brief trip to New York. Though family business and socializing was the main objective and thus had first priority, I did manage to eat some culture. What follows are some random musings on holiday reading, viewing and consumption.
The discussion of French comics continues here at the Metabunker! Xavier Guilbert, who previously took issue with my rather polemical essay, is back with more comments, and he brought a link to an interesting discussion of the argument with him. This has prompted me to write what I guess is almost a new version of…
If you’re in Paris, tomorrow’s the opening of my buddy, sculptor Paul Toupet’s latest gallery show at Galerie l’Art de rien in the 18th arr. He is exhibiting with painter Axel Kriloff. Go check it out: the opening is from 6-10 PM and the show runs till May 6. On April 20, there’s a special…
MC Cookiemonster doing the David Brent… Watch at your own risk.
More reactions to my article on French nigh-mainstream comics (read the first batch here): Hi Matthias- I really enjoyed your article on the French authors. After writing and erasing a zillion responses, I have decided to just think about it some more. In the meantime, I’d like to chime in and also recommend that you…
Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist behind the infamous bomb in the turban from Jyllands-Posten, revisited the controversy a few days ago when he illustrated the printed version of Norwegian writer Hege Storhaug’s speech to the editor responsible for the original printing of the 12 Muhammed cartoons, Flemming Rose when he was awarded the newly-instated, so-called Sappho…
There was some nice news waiting for me as I arrived here in Boston today: Rackham’s big Danish comics anthology BLÆK, published almost exactly a year ago, has been selected amongst the books of the year 2006 by the Association of Danish Bookbinders! Every year, the Association singles out a number of books published in…
It is sad to learn that somebody who brought you joy in your childhood has gone before his time. I dug Rogers’ work on Batman, and later Silver Surfer, a whole lot when I was a kid. On Batman he had a lot of the same appeal that Todd McFarlane would later have on Spider-Man:…
Time to head to Boston! Looking forward to seeing the city again — it’s always a pleasure! Looking forward to trekking along Beacon Street, basking in Brookline and trawling the Harvard Square area, and dropping in at one of my favourite comics stores, Million Year Picnic. Looking forward to seeing Europa at the Isabella Stewart…
Comics critic Xavier Guilbert (of the excellent du9) responds to my recent critique of aspects of contemporary French cartooning, I answer him, and we have a conversation. Read on! Hello Matthias, I’ve read with much interest your latest note on the Metabunker blog, and while you make an interesting point, I beg to differ. As…
Just read Christophe Blain’s latest comic, the western romance Gus. Beautifully drawn, well-told, cool 70s-style colouring, nice poetic mood, utterly unambitious. Blain is one of the most naturally graceful draughtsmen of current French-language comics and amongst the prime movers in what has been regarded as the revitalisation of the traditional album format over the last…