The Constant Garage

articles and essays, comics and cartooning, commentary and criticism


The following essay was originally written for, and published in, The Comics Journal #300 in 2009, as a special instalment of my Euro-Comics column “Continental Drift”; it was subsequently published on TCJ.com, but on a particular iteration of that website which is no longer online. I therefore now reprint it here in minimally edited form, on the occasion of our recent episode of Radio Rackham on Moebius’ Hermetic Garage.

Spanning more or less exactly the life of the Journal, Moebius’ greatest invention, the Hermetic Garage, has been a constant in his creative life. A set of concepts to which he has returned intermittently through his career and which has found new life in his most recent book—an exhilarating return to form.

Quai d’Orsay i Informeren

comics and cartooning, commentary and criticism, hype & linkage


Så er min anmeldelse af Abel Lanzac (alias Antonin Baudry) og Christophe Blains nøgleromantiske komedie Javel, Hr udenrigsminister, eller som den hedder på originalsproget, Quai d’Orsay, offentliggjort i Information. Hermed et uddrag med fejl rettet:

Javel, hr. udenrigsminister er således en nøgleroman, der løfter sløret for den hektiske hverdag i og omkring Quai d’Orsay i Paris, hvor det franske udenrigsministerium holder til, samt blandt andet Kreml og selvfølgelig FN-bygningen i New York. Baudrys stand-in er en mandlig udgave af den klassisk franske ingenue, med permanente skægstubbe og ustrøget skjorte, og en gnistrende smuk kæreste hjemme i sengen, som langsomt, men også meget stille, glider ud af hans liv. Selvromantiseringen er mistænkelig.

Læs anmeldelsen her, hvis du har abonnement. Hvis ikke, er der min kritik af serien for The Comics Journal fra dengang den vandt prisen for Bedste tegneserie i Angoulême eller vores nylige anmeldelse af tegneserien i Radio Rackham.. Javel, Hr udenrigsminister er udgivet på dansk af Forlaget Fahrenheit.

Radio Rackham: Den hermetiske garage

comics and cartooning, commentary and criticism, hype & linkage

Den her har vi længe taget tilløb til, for det er virkelig en af de store: Moebius Major Fatal, eller Jerry Cornelius’ Hermetiske Garagge, eller slet og ret ‘Garagen’. Vi fik endelig indspillet på et tidspunkt hvor vi kort var i samme tid og på samme sted og her er vores tanker i al deres rodede vælde. Vendingerne ‘fuuuuck’ og ‘groteskt fedt’ bliver brugt lidt oftere end normalt… Lyt!

Aretino in Print Quarterly

commentary and criticism, hype & linkage, pictorial arts


In the latest issue of Print Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 1, I review three publications — an exhibition catalogue from the Uffizi and two scholarly anthologies — around the Venetian writer, polemicist and literary activist Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), with a specific view to their treatment of Aretino’s relationship with prints and printmaking.

Aretino was involved in printmaking throughout his career, employing it as a way of self-promotion but also encouraging creative engagement in the medium on the part of his friends, not least Titian. In the review, I reattribute the design of an engraved portrait of Aretino of around 1534 by Jacopo Caraglio, and a woodcut frontispiece based on the same model, to Titian. Consult the issue at your local art library!

Publications reviewed: Anne Bisceglia, Matteo Ceriana and Paolo Procaccioli, eds., Pietro Aretino a l’arte nel Rinascimento, exh. cat. Florence, Uffizi, Florence 2019; Anne Bisceglia, Matteo Ceriana and Paolo Procaccioli, eds., “Pietro Pictore Aretino”: Una parola complice per l’arte del Rinascimento, Venice 2019; and Anne Bisceglia, Matteo Ceriana and Paolo Procaccioli, eds., Inchiostro per colore: arte e artisti in Pietro Aretino, Rome 2019.

Raphael at the National Gallery

culture, hype & linkage, journal, pictorial arts

It is here! After six years of planning: the great Raphael exhibition that I’ve co-curated with Tom Henry and David Ekserdjian has opened at the National Gallery in London. It presents a comprehensive overview of Raphael’s entire career and charts his creativity across media and art forms, beyond drawing and painting to architecture and to design for tapestry, print, sculpture and the applied arts, as well as his activities as an archaeologist and art theorist. Even his essays in poetry are included. Need I say that the loans we have received from across Europe and the United States are incredible?

Radio Rackham: Daniel Clowes’ Caricature

comics and cartooning, commentary and criticism, hype & linkage

Den her blev lang, men det var fantastisk at genforenes over tegneserier med Andreas Gregersen og bare tonser derudaf. Vi valgte på indskydelse Daniel Clowes’ mesterlige tegneserienovelle “Caricature” fra 1995, da den forekom os righolding på tanker, præcision og betydning. Det holdt stik — vi snakkede i godt to timer om de 16 sider, der udgør tegneserien. Et nøgleværk fra midt i en karriere, der hører til blandt de mest markante i nyere tegneseriehistorie.

Lyt med og hæng på — jeg lover dig det er tiden værd! Og, som altid, læs mere på Nummer9 og følg os på Instagram.

The Sistine Chapel In Our Time

commentary and criticism, culture, history, hype & linkage, pictorial arts


I participated in the venerable In Our Time with Melwyn Bragg in an episode on the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo, alongside Catherine Fletcher from Manchester Metropolitan University and Sarah Vowles of the British Museum. It was a lot of fun and, I hope, an informative discussion. The brodcast was yesterday, but you can download the extended podcast version via BBC Sounds and, eventually, on other podcast platforms.