December 1, 2010

Please remove the jet fighter from your garden

Filed under: Art,Aviation,Comics,History,Weird by Orangemaster @ 3:09 pm

Artist Marte Röling (often misspelled Martha) has a Lockheed F-104 starfighter in her garden in Uithuizen, Groningen that apparently has to be removed if she hasn’t removed it already. Although it has been sitting there since 1989, some boffins at the Ministry of Defense now think it could be slightly radioactive. Röling received the starfighter as a long-term loan art project. This reminds me of some Peter Tooms in Schoonloo, Drenthe who has a Russian MiG in his yard, although maybe it has been removed as well.

Back in 1976 Prince Bernhard (husband of Queen Juliana) cashed a US$1.1 million bribe from American aviation company Lockheed to ensure that the Lockheed F-104 would win out over France’s Mirage 5 made by Dassault for the purchase contract. Long story short, Bernhard refused to admit it, but after his death in 2004, it turned out to be ‘highly plausible’, but I don’t know if proven is the right word. Lockheed deposited large sums of cash into an account of some guy called Victor Baarn, a person that could never be traced. Co-blogger Branko tells me that Dutch comic strip artist Martin Lodewijk has been milking that story for ages, as in almost every Agent 327 comic book (a character loosely based on James Bond) the secret identity of Victor Baarn threatens to come out.

UPDATE: This was our 1,500th posting, hurrah!)

(Link: rtvnoord)

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November 15, 2010

New monthly comics magazine Por Dios

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 1:29 pm

Eppo publisher Rob van Bavel has added a new comics mag to his stable, called Por Dios.

It will contain the same sort of comic strips that adorn his other publication, with a twist: the comics in Por Dios have been published before. Every issue of the monthly will contain one complete long story. The upshot is that Van Bavel can now publish stories by authors that are dead (Don Lawrence, De Smet) or retired, and that new generations can be introduced to the classics.

The name comes from the tag line of Eppo precursor Pep: “Por dios, what a magazine!” The price per issue is 5 euro, while a 12 issue subscription can be had for 50 euro.

(more…)

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November 8, 2010

My newsagent puts comics mag Eppo in its logical place

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 9:54 pm

I was looking for Eppo magazine at the Primera Heijm newsagent’s today, but at first could not find it with the rest of the comics.

If you see Eppo for what it is though, a ‘re-imagined’ comics magazine for thirty and forty somethings, you ought to look in the grown men’s section.

Although truth be told, I still think it ought to be put with the rest of the comics. That way kids can also reach it.

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November 3, 2010

Comics are mostly forbidden in government publications

Filed under: Comics,Photography by Branko Collin @ 9:01 am

According to the 2009 Guidelines for Photography and Illustrations of the Dutch government (PDF, Dutch), the government should not use comics in its publications.

The government wants to communicate in a clear, accessible and unambiguous manner, by introducing a single style guide, and by using only a bare minimum of style elements. This suits the adult image the government wants to project. Within that style there is no room for a wild mixture of symbols, comics and shapes, i.e. frills.

and

In government publications comics and fantasy characters should not be used.

This style guide is the brain child of Studio Dumbar, the design studio that had already managed to make a name for itself by charging the tax payer 60,000 for telling the government to keep using the same logo. (Not necessarily something I disagree with, sometimes what you have already turns out to work the best.)

The same style guide seems to suggest (in examples rather than words) that you should leave in the watermarks of photo stock agencies.

(Link: Hans Aarsman. Image from the style guide: Rijksoverheid/Photoq.nl/gettyimages—see the top left corner.)

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October 20, 2010

Dick Bruna miffed by Japanese copy of Miffy

Filed under: Comics,Design,General by Orangemaster @ 4:09 pm

Dick Bruna, the man who introduced the world to Miffy, one of the Netherlands’ biggest export ‘products’ some 50 years ago, is sueing Japanese company Sanrio for its Japanese Miffy, called Kathy. For the record, Miffy is the English name of Nijntje, a shortened, affectionate name for ‘bunny’ in Dutch (konijntje).

At 83 years of age and basically world famous, Bruna is surely not trying to gain status with this case, but simply make the point that you can’t just make lesser copies of his work and get away with it. We’ll keep you posted if we hear more.

“Japan’s ‘Kathy’ is drawn with the same simple lines, wears an almost identical dress and has very similar ears. The main difference is that Kathy wears a bow.” It really does look like ‘Hello Kitty’ went ‘Hello Bunny’.

(Link: rnw.nl, Image: nijntje.nl)

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October 18, 2010

Zone 5300 autumn edition 2010

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 8:45 am

In the latest issue of Zone 5300 (‘Comics, culture and curiosa’) two different essayists attack the phenomenon known as ‘graphic novel’. One of them is Editor-in-chief Tonio van Vugt:

“What does it matter?” you may think, “Let them label comic strips as graphic novels in order to boost sales.”

It matters because somebody who has not read comics since their childhood and who has heard of this new wonder medium called ‘graphic novel’ might accidentally pick up a copy of Jummie! or De Urbanisten. A disillusioned reader like that will go back to ‘real literature’ and miss out on new classic adult comics like Ergens waar je niet wil zijn by Brecht Evens, De ruwe gids by Hanco Kolk, Scherven by Erik de Graaf or De maagd en de neger by Judith Vanistendael, and that would truly be a pity.

Other features of this issue:

  • A horror comic by Milan Hulsing and Michiel de Jong.
  • An interview with Barbara Stok, the first woman to win the Stripschapprijs, followed by one of her comics.
  • A four-page comic by Spanish atom style giant Daniel Torres (illustration).
  • The Fool’s Gold editors showcase their collections of Soviet matchboxes, Indian 1970s paperback covers, and future female fashion visions by Egyptian designers of the 1960s.

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October 10, 2010

Parool newspaper doesn’t want to pay for its daily strip

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 11:25 am

A row in Dutch comics land! About a month ago newspaper Parool called for fresh cartoonists and then told them that it would not pay them for their work.

Comics artist Sandra de Haan did not like this one bit and started a Facebook page called “Stripmakers zouden geen gratis strips aan kranten moeten leveren” (Comics makers should not let newspapers publish them for free), and fellow Zone 5300 editor Michael Minneboo wrote about the whole brouhaha.

Turns out that Parool was looking for amateur comics artists who could use a leg up in the big bad world of publishing. Editor-in-chief Barbara van Beukering admitted the mistake to Minneboo: “The text in our call [for comics] could definitely be called misleading, for which I apologize.”

Parool has since then changed the wording of its advertisement.

You would think that with the funk that both the newspaper industry and the European comics industry are in, the two groups would treat each other with a bit more understanding.

At the least the affair led to another Brom & Vlieg episode which can be read—absolutely free of charge —at Sandra’s website.

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August 8, 2010

Gr’omnibus, Groningen’s underground comics talent collected

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 10:54 am

Martin Wisse has got a good tip:

A can’t miss bargain to be had at De Slegte in Amsterdam right now: copies of Gr’omnibus, a treasure trove of sequential art from Groningen, the Athens of the North; an invaluable treasure now yours for only two euro fifty! Why you should bother? Because you get to sample some 40 odd (some very odd) Dutch (as well as the occasional furreign) cartoon talents, culled from the pages of one of the most consistent of Dutch underground comix zines, Gr’nn.

Groningen (Grunn in the local dialect) is one of [the interesting cities outside the Randstad], a university town big enough not to be overwhelmed by it with a decent local art scene and night-life, a city in which over the years a thriving alt-comix scene has been established.

In 1996 a few of them started Gr’unn, which since then has published a lot of up and coming cartoonists. People like Barbara Stok, Mark Hendriks, Amoebe, the Lamelos collective, Marcel Ruijters, Reinder Dijkhuis, Berend Vonk, all had strips in Gr’nn. […]

So if you’re in Amsterdam and you want a cheap way to sample a huge chunk of the contemporary Dutch comix scene, go get Gr’omnibus from de Slegte. It’s in the middle of Kalverstraat so even tourists should be able to find it.

He is right you know, and today I grabbed myself one of the last four copies. You guys need to hurry!

De Slegte is a chain store for second hand and remaindered books, and very popular in this book-mad country.

Illustrations: cover artist unknown, Vlerk, Jan Krol, and Nico Visscher respectively.

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July 5, 2010

Anne Frank’s diary in comic strip form

Filed under: Comics,History by Branko Collin @ 2:37 pm

The Anne Frank Foundation will publish a comic version of part of the diary of Anne Frank this week.

Written by Sid Jacobson and drawn by Ernest Colón, the 160-page-long graphical biography will be sold for 15 euro. There are also editions planned for English, German, French, Italian and Spanish speaking countries.

Link: RTL Nieuws. Illustration: annefrank.org.

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June 26, 2010

Zone 5300 Summer 2010

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 2:03 pm

Figure 1: De Wit during his Virgil Partch period.

At the end of its 15th anniversary celebrations, glossy underground mag Zone 5300 decided to publish a humour special. Comic strips, what a concept! Dutch comic giant Peter de Wit accepted a guest editorship, and included the first long story of his flagship gag strip Sigmund in the magazine.

Lots of space is devoted to what De Wit likes and how De Wit thinks. (“Mocking the diminutive psychiatrist and his patients day in day out doesn’t work. I stopped doing that after six months because it became too predictable. Now I let the jokes do the heavy lifting.”) De Wit also visits the Heinz Museum in Amsterdam, all about the local cartoon cat, and talks an interesting five pages long about his favourite cartoonists (1).


Figure 2: “Dammit! Todd’s woman is hotter than mine! That is just wrong, Debs…”

Also: Pennsylvania-born Groninger Charles Guthrie’s De Sporters (The Jocks) follows the sadistic adventures of Luke Skywalker-lookalike Dick Quick and his blonde bombshell girlfriend and punching bag Debbie Doe. (2)


Figure 3.

Robert van Raffe’s four-page comic God’s Pupil uses a wide array of visual techniques in just a few frames, but the bland colours and pencilled background also give the strip an unfinished look. Two people on their backs in the grass, gazing at the moon, while one draws a lazy finger over its surface to outline a rabbit that he says is what the typical shape of the moon’s face stands for: this is the start of a succinct exploration of the nature of God. It is also a clear invitation to explore more of Van Raffe’s work. (3)

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