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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.

New review Jeux de mémoire

A very nice review on Jeux de mémoire by 'La Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image' from Angouleme, capital of comics in France.

Quote (translated): "a touching and original book, a brilliant artist to be discovered".

Read more here.

Tribute

During the seventies Sjef van Oekel was a TV-personality created by Wim T. Schippers. He was a clumsy, chaotic character that became very popular because of his jokes and typical way of talking. In 1976 he even got his own comic created by Schippers and the Dutch Klare Lijn artist Theo van den Boogaard. The comic also became very popular and was even translated to other countries, although the stories and jokes were very Dutch.

Next april a second collection of the Van Oekel comics will appear and the publisher asked several Klare Lijn artists -like Joost Swarte and Hanco Kolk- to create a tribute to the character and Van den Boogaard. I already can show you my creation, in which you can discover somebody familiar...

Review Jeux de mémoire

On the website wmaker David Fournol has written a very nice review on Jeux de mémoire.

Okay, it's in French, but since I can understand the language I can read that he is quite positive about the book. The most beautiful compliment (translated) for me:

"You have the same dream as Muis (=maincharacter) when he wants his grandmother to make him a Batman suit. You feel the same fear when Muis is hunted by a dog at a car-graveyard. You laugh together with Muis when he discovers his granddad's miracle-product to get muscles is a joke".

For those who like to read the complete review in French, click here.

Angouleme 2011

The last four days I was at the Comic-festival of Angouleme, invited by my Canadian editor La Pasteque. I arrived on thursday-night and joined dinner with the guys of La Pasteque, Martin and Fréderic, and the artists Liniers and Yves Pelletier.

The welcome was very friendly and after dinner we went for a drink at 'Le chat noir' where we met some artists from all over Europe.

The next morning I did my first book signing at the La Pasteque booth. As I it was my first visit to the festival, I could see now the enormous popularity of comics in France: what a lot of books, what a lot of people! I signed a good number of books and got friendly compliments from visitors.

In the afternoon I went to the Baru-exhibition, I saw the work of Dominique Goblet and looked for some new books at the store of the museum. That night -after a reception at the Belgium booth- I was invited for dinner by Hansje and Mara of Oog & Blik together with Joost Swarte and Willem (what a company!). We had a good meal, a lot of fun and I was informed about the interest for my books by foreign editors (I will let you know more soon!).

On Saturday I also had a signing-session and I experienced that the town was even more crowded than the days before. I also took some time to get a better look at some of the booths, but as I said, there was so much to see that it was hard to make a choice. In the evening we had dinner with the people of La Pasteque again, including the artists Liniers, Pascal Girard, Michel Rabagliati and Yves Pelletier. It was a good evening and we had a lot of fun and interesting discussions.

On the next day (sunday) I did an early signing session. La Pasteque was happy with number of my books they had sold. Around noon I went to the train station together with Liniers. He had to take a train to the airport to get a plane to Buenos Aires and I traveled back to Rotterdam.

It were great days and I found it a tremendous experience. Being in Angouleme made me feel that comics really matter, at least in France.