Les Baxter and the Eastern Bunny

The music by film composer and exotica specialist Les Baxter has always been an obsession of mine. I guess his music, especially from the early sixties Edgar Allan Poe films featuring Vincent Price, became part of my fabric as I have always been addicted to them. Baxter's face is only known to the public  from a couple of publicity pictures from the fifties. So an article in the magazine Zone 3500 I did a free interpretation of his face and fused it unconciously with Vincent Price's features.

Next to Les Baxter is a portret of the Eastern Bunny at work. 

Graphic Novel: Stad van Klei (City of Clay)

At this very moment I'm adding the final touches to the graphic novel Stad van Klei (City of Clay), 130 pages. While living in Cairo, Egypt for the last 4 years, I naturally set out to work on a story that enabled me to use all the impressions and experiences I have in this huge Middle Eastern city. The graphic novel is based on the novel Al-Khaldiya (Over the Bidge) by the Egyptian writer Mohamed el-Bisatie. It's about a civil servant and his descent into madness when he starts labouring on an elaborate scheme that involves the creation of an entire imaginary town and its police force. The graphic novel will come out in januari 2011 in The Netherlands (Oog & Blik/De Bezige Bij).

Magazine headers for Schokkend Nieuws



I do a lot of art for the Dutch film magazine Schokkend Nieuws.

These are recurring headers for some of the magazines regular features

(Bizar Bazar, Kerkdijk's Dark Rooms, Lebbing's Inferno, Video Basta, DVD Shift).

Gouache on paper.

The Academic Book Review - line Art

Two drawings for a Dutch review magazine of academic publications, De Academische Boekengids. Cartoons and illustrations by me appear regularly in this magazine. Ink on paper.

Lucker the Necrophagus

Lucker the Necrophagus is a Belgian slasher film by Johan Vandewoestijne from 1986. It's a highly odd film and it will surely gross you out. The actor Nick van Suyt was a nice inspiration when doing the art. Pencil, ink and photoshop.

Waking Up Scheherazade vol 2

The cover for a compilation of vintage garage rock from the Middle East and North Africa that came out a few days ago. This kind of music is very obscure nowadays and the music was carefully mastered from 45's found in the dustiest corners of the world. Brush, gouache and ink, colorized in Photoshop.

Here's the first volume too. Plus the cover for a similar record that compiled psychedelic rock from Iran. These are from a year or so ago. Gouache on paper.

Animated short: Magic Show

Magic Show (Cineventura) appeared in 2009 and is an 11 minute animated short. It's about a magical variety act in which a couple of spectacular acts are actually explained to the audience. The explanations are more unlikely than the acts themselves and towards the end nothing is what it seemed.

You can watch a short clip at Imdb.

Magic Show premiered at the Imagine film festival and played in Dutch theaters as an accompanying film with Let the Right One In. It has played inernational animation- and film festivals since, in both digital and 35mm format.

The film consists entirely of handpainted characters, props and backgrounds. This was animated by way of cut-out technique. Multiplane effects,blurring and extensive shading give it a spaceous feel but there is no 3D animation involved whatsoever. The layouts, paintings, animation and editing took me several years to complete. The story was written by Ruud den Drijver who also produced the film.

Magic Show's screening list at Short Film Central.