In the context of the “Boekenbeurs” (for non-Flemish: the biggest book event in Flanders) Boek.be organizes this year also an
election of the best Belgian comic book.
That is: a jury of “comic experts” has come up with a shortlist, five
wildcards have been added to it, and now the public can choose from that
list.
On
the shortlist are these books (unless the titles have been translated
in English, we’ll give them in Dutch): “The yellow ‘M’” by Edgar P.
Jacobs, “De inwijding” by Comès, “Brüsel” by Benoit Peeters and François
Schuiten, “Album 26” by Merho, “De liefhebbers” by Brecht Evens, “The
black Smurfs” by Peyo, “Grand Prix” by Marvano, “Het zotte geweld” by
Joris Vermassen, “The heirs” by Hermann, “De koningin van Onderland” by
Jef Nys, “The Castafiore Emerald” by Hergé, “The Daltons’ escape” by
Morris and Goscinny, “De hoed van Geeraard de Duivel” by Marc Sleen,
“QRN op Bretzelburg” by Franquin and Greg, “De zwarte madam” by Willy
Vandersteen, “The archers” by Rosinski and Van Hamme, “When David lost
his voice” by Judith Vanistendael, Peter Verwey and Christel Geelen,
“The day of the black sun” by Vance and Van Hamme, “Zoo, deel 3” by
Frank and Bonifay, “Zwartkijken” by Franquin (again), “De ‘U’-straal” by
Edgar P. Jacobs (again), “Frommeltje en Viola – Integraal” by Hislaire,
“Avontuur in San Doremi” by Pom, “Rumberley” by Lambil and Cauvin, and
“Chninkel”by Rosinski (again)
Admitted,
we don’t know a few of these books, but that’s not one of the reasons
why we can’t make a choice from this shortlist. Amongst those reasons
there’s the fact that standalone graphic novels are compared to one book
in a series, that some artists get a clear advance to others, that the
best work of some artists often is not even in the list, and that other –
far from unknown – artists with to our opinion great work are not in
that list.
Even
apart from the fact that we get the impression that in composing the
shortlist the jury apparently chose for a more or less balanced mix of
“classical” authors and new ones, mass produced series and rather
“artistic” productions, new books and old ones, we thus object to
choosing, for example, “Brüsel” from the “Obscure cities”-series (the
art of Schuiten and Peeters is always of a very high level and we see no
reason to prefer “Brüsel” above, for example, “De Archivaris), “The
heirs” from the “Jeremiah”-series (not only because Hermanns work gets
better and better, but also because, for example “De bloedbruiloft”, one
of his one-shots, is not in the list), or “QRN op Bretzelburg”, because
apart from Franquin many other artist have done fantastic work on the
“Spirou and Fantasio”-series.
We
would have liked an election of the best Belgian comic artist better,
but we still would have missed people like François Craenhals (De Koene
ridder”, “Pom en Teddy”), Paul Cuvelier (“Corentin”, “Epoxy”), Renaud
Denauw (“Jessica Blandy”, “Venus H.”), Dupa (“Dommel”), Serge Ernst
(“Knipoogje”, “William Hazehart”), Jean-Claude Fournier (“Spirou and
Fantasio”), Tome and Janry (again “Spirou and Fantasio”), Jean-Claude
Servais (“Bosliefje”), Franz Drappier (“Lester Cockney”, “Lotusbloem”),
Philippe Francq (“Largo Winch”), Yves Swolfs (“Durango”, “De prins van
de nacht”, “Legende”), Ptiluc (“Pacush Blues”), Philippe Delaby
(“Murena”, “De klaagzang der verloren gewesten”), Griffo (“Vlad”),
Gazzotti (“Soda”), Bernard Vrancken (“I.R.$.”), Olivier Grenson (“Niklos
Koda”), and Sokal (“Canardo”) in the shortlist.
No,
there’s too much work and too much people missing in the shortlist to
be able to make an honest choice. That’s why we add one possibility:
Book 1 of The Maier-Files (to appear very, very soon): “The Initiation”.
Who wants a taste of it already can
read the free prequel to The Maier-Files here.
