Comic-art Fair, 10th of september, Design museum, Breda

Coming saturday I will attend The Comic-artfair Breda (at the Designmuseum). I will bring all kind of different stuff: my books, which I will sign personally for you. All kind of signed prints, framed prints and sets of postcards. Hope to see you there!

Tribute to Yves Chaland 2

I discovered Yves Chaland through his detective-story Bob Fish. A good looking guy dressed like a real P.I. Also two of his other characters: Le Jeune Albert, a sometimes mean little boy from Brussels and Adolphus Claar, the scientist. This is my tribute to them and their creator.

Comic-art Fair, 10th of september,Design museum, Breda

On saturday 10th of september I will participate at the Comic-Art Fair at the Design museum Breda. The Art Fair is part of the 'Breda-Stripdagen' and artists will sell and sign their work.

I will bring my books, prints and postcards (I will be more specific about that within a couple of days). The Design Museum will also show the works of Peter Pontiac and is located at the Boschstraat 22, Breda and opens at 10 o'clock. See you there!

Tribute to Yves Chaland 1

My great example and inspirator as a comic-artist has always been Yves Chaland. When I saw his drawings for the first time I thought: "that's how comics have to be drawn". I have collected all his books, portfolio's and some statues of his characters.

I felt really sad when he died in 1990 on the peripherique of Paris: one of the greatest French comic-artists had passed away. During my summer-holidays I have made some tribute-illustrations of his characters. First Freddy Lombard, Sweep and Dina.

On Facebook!

Erik de Graaf Comics is on Facebook now! Become a fan here!

Memory of Holland to Beijing Bookfair

Together with 19 other contributions 'Memory of Holland' -based on the poem of H. Marsman- is selected to be exhibited on this years Beijing Bookfair. The project 'Mooi is dat' will travel to Asia and 20 contributions will be shown, together with the sketches made by the artists, as part of the promotion of Dutch literature. The bookfair takes place from august 31th till september 4th.

Graphic Novels in Vrij Nederland

You can find an interesting special about Graphic Novels in this weeks magazine 'Vrij Nederland' with an interview with Joe Sacco and a lot of book reviews. Also Scherven is reviewed and gets 3*** out of 5*****.

Grebbeberg for 'X was hier'

Finally I can show you the comic I have made for the 'X was hier' project of the National History Museum. The website is ready and you can take a look at all contributions.

The one I have done is about the 'Grebbeberg', part of 'the Dutch Waterline', which was a defending line against enemies. During the first 5 days of the Second Worldwar there were heavy fights between the Dutch and German army. I have combined the landscape of 'the Grebbeberg' -put under water as a part of the defending system- and images of every day in may 1940 during the fights. If you go the 'X was hier' website and click on the thumbnail of my comic you also can zoom in on the details.

Scherven will be published in Spanish!

I'm proud to announce that Sins Entido will publish Scherven in Spanish. Sins Entido is publisher of f.i. Mariscal, Seth, David B., Gipi and Posy Simmonds. The Spanish edition of Scherven is planned for 2012.

Comic for Dutch National History Museum

Every year the Dutch National History Museum has a special project. This year's one is about water and land, called 'X was hier'. Initiated by comic-intendant Gert Jan Pos, 45 artists were asked to contribute a comic about one of the places that is enlighted in the project. My choice was the 'Grebbeberg', well known because of the hard fights during the first days of the Second Worldwar.

The 'Grebbeberg' was part of a defense-mechanism against enemies used for ages that was called 'the Dutch Waterline'. The mechanism was simple: when there was a foreign threat, dams were opened to let in the water, some 40-50 centimeters, which made it impossible to invade the country. The 'Grebbeberg' was a hill in that 'Dutch waterline'.

During the mobilization in 1939 the land was put under water and when the Germans invaded Holland in may 1940, soldiers from both armies fought for 5 days on the 'Grebbeberg'. Fights in which more than 400 Dutch soldiers were killed. This story inspired me and this is my final sketch.

Within a few days I will show you the final comic. The work of all artists will be shown on the website of the museum and there are plans for a book.

Presentation Scherven coming thursday

Next thursday, 28th of april, I will give a presentation with slides about Scherven in Amsterdam. It's part of a so-called Ignite evening about 'resistance' initiated by Mediamatic, a cultural organisation.

You can read more about this evening here. Doors open at 8pm and the first speaker kicks of at 8.30pm. Location: Mediamatic Bank, Vijzelstraat 68, Amsterdam. Tickets: € 7,- Enjoy!

Ex Libris

A couple of months ago a reader of my books asked me to make an Ex Libris as a birthday present for his wife. He prefered something with her first letters (C M S), high heels and of course books. As her birthday was on the 31st of march I can now show you the result, printed in warm grey and supported by two different colors.