Dark and Unnatural - 100 illustrations - New Book!

 

Donker en onnatuurlijk

Donker en onnatuurlijk (Dark and Unnatural) is a book compiling over 100 illustrations that were done in majority for film magazine Schokkend Nieuws. Concertobooks published it and the printing is gorgeous.

 

 

As a bonus it contains the animated movie Magic Show (2009) on DVD, written by Ruud den Drijver and animated and directed by yours truly.

Two new pages for Naomi Tales #2

Some of the many drawings I did for readers this year. Especially during the pandemic this was a nice way to be in touch with you.

 

Try out

 

There's one story that has been developing in my mind for some 17 years. Whenever I go on long hikes the story bubbles up. I enjoy spending time thinking it over. I never wrote it down. One day I will draw this story. It'll feature some biographical elements in an otherwise fictitious plot featuring the usual bunch of forgers. Last December I felt like trying out a style and mood to see if it would fit the story. It doesn't, at all. Back to the drawing board!

Meeting Pascal Rabaté

 

Drawings made for readers

 

Old work: The Bloodless

A picture book I drew as a young man around 2000 and self-published in a run of 4 copies a few years later. I couldn't find a publisher for this surreal, bleak tale about - I guess - the blurring of the lines between capitalism and socialism in our times. It did end up as a short story in the anthology Wat Fred niet wist (2004).

 

The story shares some themes with the movie Goodbye Lenin (2003), as was pointed out by people when the story appeared in 2004. My protagonist and his mother haven't left their appartment since the Berlin wall fell and fill their days by reading old communist newspapers and him dressing up as his father. I guess the feeling of 'ostalgia' was in the air then.

 

 

I was immodestly and foolishly under the spell of people like Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Joseph Lada, Picasso and obviously Frans Masereel. I was living in Peshawar, Pakistan when I made this as my girlfriend Tessa worked with Afghan refugees there. I remember bringing the art along on a long trip we did in Pakistan and India and me drawing further panels in the night trains we took. I got the idea for the drawing above at an art show in a church in Goa that warned against the abuse of alcohol. I'd like to see that Goan picture again sometime.

Paul Verhoeven

A new cover for film magazine Schokkend Nieuws. A portrait of our favorite Dutch director.

 

 

Some old work: Cloud, Castle, Lake

Some drawings from my first attempt at a long story, done while still studying at the art academy in Rotterdam in 1995 or 1996. Done as an exercise as of course I didn't have any permission to rework this Nabokov tale. It is interesting for me to see again today as I realize I've been somewhat consistent in my foolish artistic ambitions. I was mainly reading Moebius, Richard Corben, old Creepy's and Eerie's at the time (and I still do) but for my own work I choose to get entangled in my love for literature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I drew the 15 pages with reed pen and Indian ink. It appeared photocopied in the amateur comic magazine Incognito and that was that!

Bumpy road ahead!

 

Leslie

A creature I've called Leslie. I drew the thing using the Balinese mask I found at the thrift a few months ago. Illustration for filmmagazine Schokkend Nieuws for a program with Indonesian horror movies at the Imagine filmfestival 2021.

Stad van Klei reprinted on the more appropriate size of my last albums, published by Scratch books. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The endband - Spaans Rood

The best part of making a book: choosing the endband. When I finally receive the samples to choose from, at the end of the production process, I know the book is really finished!

 

Fresh from the printer

Received a box with the new book on a beautiful autumn day.  

Spaans Rood

 The new book went to the printer!

Two pages from Spaans Rood

 I've finished my new book, Spaans Rood (Spanish Red) and it is due in November (in The Netherlands and Belgium). Stay tuned!

In preparation

Planned for autumn 2020, The Smuggler in Arabic (Nool Books).

L'Attentat

My graphic novel based on the Harry Mulisch book, soon also in a French edition.

Jungle River Boat - new exotica mix

I've been a long time collector of exotica records. Here are forgotten and obscure tracks in a mix I did inspired by Love in times of cholera.



Recorded from 78rpm

dennis farnon - a casual affair/don banks - revolutionary research 1/frank rothman - jazz mysterioso/steve race - sioux night ride/don banks - revolutionary research 3/eric delaney - midnight melancholy/dennis farnon - the last voyage/don banks - fear/russ garcia - border trouble/library 78 - african rhythm 1 and 2/nino nardini - melody tropicale/e. sendel - astronautics/Horst Jankowski - haunting melody/library 78 - mallets/dennis farnon - in piper's wood/ralph dollimore - toady/don banks - revolutionary research 2/Ivor Slaney - carrasco/nino nardini - laguna beach/sam fonteyn - design for mambo/Ivor Slaney - jungle flute/don banks - revolutionary research 4/dennis farnon - monday's child/J. Scott - percussion abstraction/wolf droysen - uneasy dream/J. Scott - percussion fast-ride/gert wilden - belly dance/don banks - revolutionary research 5/freddie philips - el souk

On the road

Naomi

Pop-Art

The Smuggler: a few influences #3

Zdeněk Burian

If Zdeněk Burian (1905 - 1981, Czechoslovakia) had worked in the comics industry, he would have undoubtedly been employed in the cover-department. Of course Burian did loads of filler illustrations in pen for the books he illustrated, but these are forgettable when compared to the covers and splash pages he did in color or in greys. I think Richard Corben is the only comic artist I know who could do a whole comic book rendered like a cover. 

Here I talked about the Octobriana hoax of 1971, how Burian (and others) became a victim in this Cold War drama and how I used this historical event for my book De Smokkelaar (The smuggler). I dedicated the book to Burian because of how he inspired me when I was a child and because of how heroically he dedicated his life to illustration and how injustly he was treated because of his works inclusion in the hoax. He's the kind of artist you'd better not try to imitate but I can point out a few things I tried to at least incorporate.

 

 

Probably Burians style is best recognized by how his image is build up quite watery and misty. Some of it is as confidently splashed on watery paper as caligraphy from the Far East. The details were then added by applying light on parts and shading. Not only direct light, but all kinds of reflections and dilluted lights. Add to this vividness his sense of drama and the level becomes unreachable for most artists, so trying would be foolish.

In my book De Smokkelaar there are, luckily, quite a few underwater scenes where I could ommit the heavy contours typical for the rest of the book. This allowed for a bit of direct influence.

Burian illustrated classic science fction authors and early 'pulps' and some of his most enigmatic work was for Czech editions of Jules Verne books. His 20.000 leagues underwater is a book one could marvel at for hours on end.

In my book unfortunatetly there are no giant squids. In an earlier illustration for filmmagazine Schokkend Nieuws I did use these creatures.

In passing, there is a little reference to the many books Burian illustrated by the German writer Karl May. Karl May was very popular among Czechs (here the cover is in Hungarian, made by professor Kalman, a character I based loosely on Burian). When holidaying in Czechoslovakia in the 70s and 80s we always wondered at the amount of Wild West themed holiday parks and the amount of Czech country music on the radio. Burians influence was felt throughout.

Of course Burians best known work is of the prehistoric world. His work is scientific and heavily researched. What strikes you when you see his portraits of Neanderthals and Australopithecusses, is the kindness Burian added to their features. The one caveman-like portrait I did for De Smokkelaar, a cover for the ficticious Z.O.L.T.A.N. comic that features in it, doesn't have this quality I'm afraid.

This kindness extends to the Tarzan illustrations Burian did.

In conclusion, here's one of Burians most lurid illustrations, done for a Robinson Crusoe edition. You'd have to see it printed on paper to fully appreciate it, but still. And another very enigmatic one for the Verne book, in which you can clearly see how much Richard Corben was influenced by him.

And a feeble attempt of mine to do something just a little similar for the comic within a comic in De Smokkelaar.