[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-b-is-for-belgium-is-for-books":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Whenever I go to Brussels, I always go nuts over the French-language picture books and comics. This trip was no exception!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/jadorebruxelles-8c58043392.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nMy parents, Stuart and I stayed with our friends Mags and Manoëlle, and the first morning, I volunteered for breakfast duty. Which means going down to the local beautiful patisserie and buying pastries for everyone, then nipping across the road to buy a copy of the weekly comics magazine, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirou_%28magazine%29\">\u003Ci>Spirou\u003C/i>\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/patisserie_bxls-3a61f355c5.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt was my parents' first time to Brussels, so we showed them around the Grand Place (pronounced 'grahn plass'), which fortunately is very close to my favourite bookshop! It's \u003Ca href=\"http://tropismes-appartement.blogspot.co.uk/\">Tropismes\u003C/a>, and you can find it in the gorgeous \u003Ca href=\"http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerie_des_Princes\">Galerie des Princes\u003C/a>. And I was very pleased to see one of \u003Ca href=\"http://alextsmith.blogspot.co.uk/\">Alex T. Smith\u003C/a>'s books on display! His 'Claude' turns out to be a 'Léon' in French. The new name suits him well! (Here's \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/CLAUDE_and_SirB\">Claude on Twitter\u003C/a>).\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/tropismes_bruxelles-84632a4ddc.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's what I found this time! I'll give you a peek into a few of them.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/tropismes_books_1-079ab6644c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nMy studio mate \u003Ca href=\"http://www.garynorthfield.co.uk\">Gary Northfield\u003C/a> first introduced me to the \u003Cb>Poncho & Semelle\u003C/b> books by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.actuabd.com/Hugo-Piette-J-ai-toujours-eu-envie-de-dessiner-une-ligne-claire-c-est-ce-qui-me-correspond-le-mieux\">Hugo Piette\u003C/a>. They're outrageously funny, completely madcap, but the drawing and colours are almost painfully beautiful. Real eye candy. (Does anyone know if any of the books are translated into English? If they aren't, they really ought to be.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/poncho_et_semelle-5d30f22f9d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd more eye candy, \u003Ca href=\"http://lambiek.net/artists/g/guibert_emman.htm\">Emmanuel Guibert\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.heartagency.com/artist/MarcBoutavant/gallery/1\">Marc Boutavant\u003C/a>'s \u003Cb>Ariol\u003C/b> books. They have a lovely gentle atmosphere, with a humourous, well-observed sense of what kids are like when they're playing. I first met Marc Boutavant at the \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/83907.html\">SCBWI Bologna conference in 2008\u003C/a>, and Emmanuel Guibert very briefly \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/148500.html\">at the French Institute\u003C/a> the same year.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ariol_1-22af2ca374.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAriol's now a cartoon on television and you can see lots of clips on YouTube. Here's one with English subtitles:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"1456\"/>\\r\n\\r\nI'd never heard of \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philippe-coudray.com/Pages/albums%20scenarios%20et%20dessins%20Philippe%20coudray%20.html\">\u003Ci>L'ours Barnabé\u003C/i>\u003C/a> (Barnaby the Bear) by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philippe-coudray.com/\">Philippe Coudray\u003C/a> before, but the little wordless comics made me laugh.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/loursbarnabe-4fd2aadf60.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYou'd think that, being so central, the Galerie des Princes would be hopelessly touristy, but Mags and Manoëlle knew of a brasserie just across the corridor, \u003Cb>Mokafe\u003C/b>, and we had an excellent lunch.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/mokafe_brxls-363f8ee870.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe were walking along one of the main roads near the Grand Place and saw a little archway entry we'd never noticed before. And when we went through, it turned out to be a gorgeous gallery with a whole collection of wonderful bookshops! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/galerie_bortier_bxls-77976eefaf.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt's called the \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerie_Borthier\">Galerie Bortier\u003C/a>, and in a shop that sells mostly books for adults, I found a box of children's stuff with treasure in it: two volumes by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.alaingree.com/en/main.htm\">Alain Grée\u003C/a> from 1965 and 1969:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_1-be3c7025b2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nGrée's colour palettes and use of clear, simple shapes instead of line are amazing, and his characters are very cute. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_6-bcd0ddcffa.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYou couldn't get a book like \u003Ci>Le Pétrole\u003C/i> these days. It's a joyful book about the wonders of oil, oil drilling, all the amazing things we can do with oil, and a praise to the earth for giving us endless quantities of it. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_3-212a784d21.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nReading it makes me quite nostalgic, like Alexander in the film \u003Ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIjSaHUKD5I\">\u003Ci>Goodbye Lenin\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, when he's trying to recreate for his mother (but also for himself) the space-age optimism of the German Democratic Republic. (\u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_lenin\">Synopsis here\u003C/a>.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_5-d0d4607f50.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's a beautiful oil refinery:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_8-ed868cab99.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIsn't this the most fabulous illustration? So modern! So cosy!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_2-0bdb74cdb3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd look at the lovely way Grée has simplified the complicated lighting structure in this film studio. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_4-2ac23b2429.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI was all aglow after finding these books, and a few doorways further along in the galerie, I saw a display of old medieval-themed comics. \u003Ci>What is this?\u003C/i> The five other people with me all groaned. Not ANOTHER bookshop! \u003Ci>Just one more, oh, come on...\u003C/i> (I am a rather irritating person to travel with, if you haven't guessed that already.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/la_crypte_tonique-761faf4f53.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nInside the shop/gallery space, I met its lovely manager and curator, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.bdparadisio.com/scripts/detail.cfm?Id=3004\">Philippe Capart\u003C/a>. He's an storyboard artist with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.crocodino.com/sites/arfarf/site2.html\">Studio Arf Arf\u003C/a>, but he's set up \u003Ca href=\"http://www.lacryptetonique.com/\">La Crypte Tonique\u003C/a>, which is both a printed magazine and an exhibition of the collection of a man named \u003Cb>Michel Deligne\u003C/b>, a 'cow-boy pionnier' of comics. For each edition of the magazine, Capart selects a theme from Deligne's collection, prints samples and articles in the magazine, then displays them at the gallery.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/philippe_capart-e0efb1cf32.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHe calls Deligne the 'cow-boy pionnier' of comics, and I caught a glimpse of why this is, when Capart showed me this photo of the man in front of his Brussels shop where he sold both comics and guns. A real character. (That's Capart's drawing of Deligne on the front cover of the magazine he's holding.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/michel_deligne-615028f5df.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nLa Crypte Tonique was full of its own curiosities. I only had a brief look (must return!) but here you can see \u003Ca href=\"http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_b%C3%AAte_est_morte_!\">\u003Ci>La Bête est Morte!\u003C/i> by \u003Ca href=\"http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond-Fran%C3%A7ois_Calvo\">Edmond-François Calvo\u003C/a>. And here's Capart showing us an old Catholic newspaper with comics and religious articles. If you look at the \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Canyon\">Steve Canyon\u003C/a> comic, you can see a flash with nothing in it, where he says the editors censored the kissing scene, or whatever was happening there.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/la_crypte_tonique2-2d9522a64e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIf you're ever in Brussels, do be sure to stop by the Galerie Bortier. Here's another beautiful shop, Genicot:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/genicot_bxls-a3eb324a09.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nGenicot had some lovely old children's books on display.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/genicot_bxls2-5de8186972.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here we are, back home with Mags and Manoëlle, our marvelous hosts. The sketch I made on the left is Mags trying to work out the best way to get into the city centre since the whole city's transport was on strike. Tricky, but we managed to get there by car and two bicycles. And the photo on the right is us having \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette\">raclette\u003C/a> for dinner, a Swiss do-it-yourself cheesy meal, a bit like fondue, but with a gril, little pans and wooden scrapers.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/raclette-17c056d509.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks so much to our friends for hosting us!! After Brussels, we took the train to Amsterdam (but I'll tell you about that in another blog post).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alain_gree_7-c2ac8b3cfb.jpg\">","2012-04-17T08:15:00.000Z","b-is-for-belgium-is-for-books",[],"B is for belgium is for books",1776628721662]