No, that’s not one of my drawings there… I WISH I could make it look so easy… *SIGH*
It’s by one of my all-time favourite cartoonists; the comics artist DENIS BODART. He is having an exhibition in Europe at the moment. But even for those of us who don’t live there, you can get a marvellous sample of what’s on show ONLINE.
I first became aware of his work when I was working at the DISNEY studio in Paris in 1990. I found a book he had drawn called CELESTIN SPECULOOS: Les Affreaux, in one of those fantastic comic-book stores they have in France. Soon after I picked up another book with the same character called MAI 1968. They both feature a spunky reporter/photgrapher gal called MAITE and her boyfriend Celestin Speculoos.
Since I no longer live in Europe it’s a little hard to keep up with what he does these days, but when visiting my sister in France last year, I was able to pick up some more BODART books: a series called GREEN MANOR. As far as I know, thats all he’s had published in book form, though he regularly does strips for magazines, or so I hear.
Anyway, I highly recommend looking at his work. It has a wonderful loose quality to the line, it is very vigorous and fresh, and the looseness is never at the cost of specificity…
here are some links to books available on AMAZON CANADA (a bilingual site for those of us who may not be able to navigate on a fully French website)
Green Manor
Celestin Speculoos
There are one or two other things by BODART available:
Nicotine Goudron
Sales petits contes. 1
I have this collection of humorous short stories based on Hans Christian Anderson. It contains a story By Bodart and as a bonus has a Little Mermaid story by Claire Wendling!