April 2009 Archives

TODAY BRINGS our tour of some of the many murals of popular international comic strips and their characters that can be found up and down the streets of Brussels to an end.

I'm sure they've produced as much pleasure to the eyes for you as they have me, and you join me in thanking Norman and Val Baxter for sharing their (c) photographs.

WE'RE NEARING the end of our tour round the city of Brussels and its fabulous murals of comic strips, but I'm sure you'll agree it has been a fun time.

Photos courtesty and (c) Norman and Val Baxter.

MORE MURALS of comic strip characters and antics from their books, as seen in Brussels.

Photos courtesy and (c) Norman and Val baxter.

MORE SCENES from the city of Brussels, where comics are quite literally a part of everyday life!

The pictures this time should be pretty familiar, after all Asterix the Gaul has been published in England for decades, and Lucky Luke has been around too, most notably from Cinebook of late.

Writer Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo created Asterix and it has been continued by Uderzo since Goscinny passed away. We've featured book reviews previously that you can find in the Speech Balloons archives.

Morris created Lucky Luke and that had its most popular run when Goscinny was on board writing it. A review of the series is due soon here.

Pictures courtesy and (c) Norman and Val Baxter.

MORE COMICS Murals from the streets of Brussels.

Photos courtesy and (c) Norman and Val Baxter.

IMAGINE DOING your Saturday shopping round town and being confronted these fun comic book murals - The townsfolk of Brussels get to do it everyday!

Photos (c) Norman and Val Baxter.

HERE ARE three more murals depicting characters and scenes from European comics that can be found throughout the streets of Brussels.

I'm sure you'll agree they're a delight to see, and must bring a smile to the face as you turn a corner to be greeted by the ingenius novelty of some of them.

Imagine seeing something similar in Birmingham? Would the British penchant for grafitti foul them before a week was out? I'd love to be proved wrong.

Again my thanks to Norman and Val Baxter for allowing us to feature their (c) photographs.

THE BELGIUM town of Brussels is a popular tourist site and has unexpected delights in store for the comic book enthusiast.

Belgium is where Tintin was first published, created by Herge whose clean blue line style remains influential in comic strips across Europe. Belgium is itself similarly influenced by its neighbour France, where the comic book, or bande dessine as they are called, are often referred to as the ninth art.

Brussels has taken its enthusiasm and acknowledgment of comics to the extreme, and across the city, even in the oddest of back streets, you can turn a corner and find yourself confronted with some character from the funny pages contorted climbing up a drainpipe or simply standing there quite literally larger than life. For the city is filled with murals of scenes from comic books.

Once upon a time I used to work at The Birmingham Post & Mail's National Exhibition Centre office, and there had the pleasure of working with Mr Peter Baxter, or Norman as he preferred to be called! I've had the pleasure and privilege of remaining friends with him since.

Last year, while on family tree fact finding mission Norman and his wife Valerie were in Brussels and came upon the comic murals, and impressed took many a photograph of them.

Over the next few days we will be featuring the photographs for your entertainment. Alas, I don't know all the characters featured, but if you do, please let us know here at Speech Balloons. I am also considering gathering a party to go see these comic book sights for myself, if you fancy a trip across the sea let me know.

Above: The Scorpion, created by Marin and Desberg - an absolutely excellent flashing blade thriller translated for the UK market by Cinebook.

Above: the popular character of Gaston, created by Belgium's Andre Franquin. Rarely published in English, in fact the last time I can recall it being so was possibly in Prime Cuts, an anthology published by Fantagraphics in America many years ago.

Again, my thanks to Norman and Val for the use of their © photos, more soon.

WEREWILF, THE British comic book character that was rebooted for the recent Crazy Comics! appearing in Toxic #137 has faired strongly in Toxic's online voting poll.

Here is a rare glimpse at the rough layouts produced for the strip by artist John Erasmus.

To see the detailed full-colour fun John produced for the finished version you'll have to se if your newsagents still has copies of Toxic #137 and see the latest voting scores or possibly vote yourself at www.toxicmag.co.uk/vote.

WONDERCON 2009 took place in San Francisco between 27th February and 1st March. Mel Smith kindly forwarded me some photos from the show to share with you.

Above: Dead Ahead creator Mel Smith.

Above: Gumby's Gang writer Michael Aushenker

Above: Former Megadeth bass player Marty Ellefson with Mel Smith.

Above: Gumby Comics co-publisher Clark Castillo.