Comics academy to start next semester
The Artez art academy in Zwolle, Overijssel, will offer a programme in drawing comics starting September, writes De Pers (Dutch). Head of the school’s Art and Design department, Wilhelm Weitkamp, told the paper: “Comics used to be seen as low culture in this country. That is changing.” (Sounds like code for: nobody’s buying comics anymore.)
The idea originated with comic artist Hanco Kolk whose inimitable Beauregard, see illustration, I regard as one of the best Dutch comics ever made. Kolk told NOS (Dutch): “I started as a comics artist during the time of the major comics magazines. When you were done, the other 24 artists would put your strip through the grinder. You could say we were teaching each other. When the big magazines fell away, this coaching aspect also disappeared. And you notice this in the work of new talent. They’re not good enough.”
Illustration from Hanco Kolk‘s Beauregard, the first part of a series about the capital of decadence, the city Meccano. Beauregard is a gossip reporter with an eye for scoops: “June 12, 12:30. I unravel the double life of baron De Lagnac.”
[…] 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 […]