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Christophe Marchetti is a Belgian comics creator and ten year veteran of video game character design and background painting.
Christophe has been sharing his beautiful artwork on Flickr. Go! Be inspired!

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Tags: Belgium, Christophe Marchetti, Comics, European, Flickr, Illustration

The Soviet-looking, retro space-age, bright red and turquoise staircases did it for me, but the renovated Atomium in Brussels had me dashing about like a drunk squirrel trying to see everything all at once. Here are some postcards of the Atomium when it originally opened in 1958 for the Brussels World's Fair:



While unfortunately I didn't manage to get over to Brussels in time to see Rian and Woodrow's exhibition, In Search of the Atom Style, there was still loads to look at. Here's the view above our heads just before we shoot up the central lift shaft. It felt like being swallowed up by a huge pipe organ:



The current exhibition, Ludic Modernism in Belgium, 1955-1963, featured pieces of furniture I remember well from my parents' friends' houses. It's funny to see them in an exhibition context; it makes me look at them so differently and appreciate them more abstractly for their shapes, instead of viewing them as tedious things I had to sit on or next to, behaving myself, when I really wanted to be sprawling on their floor watching The Flinstones and The Jetsons on their television.



But I liked the optimistic, brightly coloured emphasis of this Ludic stuff over other modernist things I've seen. One of the placards in the exhibition explained the contrast:

Orthodox modernism advocated geometric rigour. It stemmed directly from the modern movement of the inter-war period. Marked by uncompromising simplicity, its forms were pure and strictly orthogonal.

Ludic modernism, on the other hand, preferred cheerful and decorative forms. Full of freshness and imagination, it flourished in the graphic arts and design as well as in architecture. Reflecting the prevailing optimistm of the times, its colours were joyful, its lines dynamic and its volumes airy.



The Atomium's a temple celebrating humanity's strides in space and science, with no trace of irony; I wish I could've been around to see what it was like when people first thought they might be able to put someone on the moon. I had a sort of false nostalgia for it, watching the Gagarin references in the German film Goodbye Lenin. And I caught a distinct whiff of it in the faded glory of Moscow's VDNKh exhibition centre. It was achingly poignant, the way they had all this cool space stuff pushed into a corner to make way for kiosks selling mobile phones and office chairs.









Much like walking through Moscow's VDNKh, t

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm still catching up with the Christmas posts. Stuart and I went to our friend Manoelle's mum's house up on the hill in Namur (south of Brussels). We'd spent Christmas there once before, which was the first time they'd ever had any non-family guests at Christmas, so on both visits we felt very honoured to be there. That's Mano's mum (Bonne-Mamy to the grandchildren) in the middle.



I could understand a good bit of the French, but couldn't remember words to say much, so I was a bit of a conversational bore at the table, while happily tucking into my salmon mousse. (New year's resolution: practice French!) But a couple of the granddaughters were drawing after dinner, so I joined in, and ending up sketching the whole family:



Nineteen of us at dinner, that was no mean feat!







Noam got a bit obsessed with putting a certain box on everyone's head, so here we are, posing with the box:







Interesting links:
Thanks to _w_o_o_d_ for flagging this great looking new comic by Kris Dresen, She Said.

And I liked this article pointed out by Woodrow Phoenix about Lady Gaga: There’s a limit to how subversive a blonde skinny white pop star can be.

During the holidays, Stuart and I took the train out from Brussels to the Flemmish town of Ghent and spent the afternoon wandering along the canals, craning our necks to look at buildings, and trying not to get run over by bicycles.
















There was even puke lobbed onto the window of this clothing shop, it was a lovely display:








We spotted these two Flemmish comic book shops on main roads, and loads of other bookshops with comics displayed prominently in their front windows.

Stuart and I just came back on the Eurostar from Brussels, where we stayed with two of our best friends, Mags and Manoelle. (Mags was my flatmate during the second year I lived in Moscow; she's the one I poured out my heart to when I had a major crush on this Stuart chappie, but didn't want to wreck a great friendship by telling him so. Mags advised me to be honest with him, which worked out very well!)
Our major duty as house guests was going to the patisserie at the top of the road and bringing back breakfast.



I'll post more photos later, but here are some lovely lamps we saw on the way to a Christmas carol service:



And a few more photos from the nearby tram museum, where we wandered on Boxing Day. It was closed, but the guy doing maintenance on the tram out front let us in if we promised not to touch anything. Stuart thinks trams are the best things ever, and I loved the way the light was coming through the windows, and the old adverts.

This video was made in the Antwerp, Belgium Central Train Station on March 23, 2009.
With no warning to the passengers passing through the station,
at 8:00 AM., a recording of Julie Andrews singing 'Do, Re, Mi'
begins to play on the public address system.
As the bemused passengers watch in amazement,
some 200 dancers begin to appear from the crowd and station entrances.
They created this amazing stunt with just two rehearsals! Turn up the volume & Enjoy!

Well, not exactly paddling--but here are photos from our recent trip to Bruge in Belgium as we traverse some of the local waterways.

Check out the lovely trailer Kim McDougall of Blazing Trailers made of my Christmas picture book, The Magic Violin. Make sure your volume is up so you can hear the second movement of Vivaldi's "Winter".




The Magic Violin is available on Amazon, B&N, the Publisher, and your local bookstore.

Eeckhout, Emmanuelle. 2008. There's No Such Thing As Ghosts!

This is a small picture book with big charm. I didn't think I'd like it all that much, but it surprised me in a way. I'll try to explain. It's very simple. And simple can sometimes be a very good thing. In this story, the words say one thing, but the illustrations say something very different. There are two stories going on essentially--one revealed by text, one revealed through art. And for some reason or other, this really worked for me. I can't quite explain why.

"When we moved to our new neighborhood, I had to promise my mother that I wouldn't go near the strange old house on the corner. "People say it's haunted," she whispered. Haunted? There's no such thing as ghosts! But if there is...I'm going to catch one!"

So this little boy goes on a ghost-hunt in this house...room by room by room with no luck. But as the illustrations show, there were ghosts here, there, and everywhere.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

This animation for the Belgian Book Fair is all kinds of awesome. Check out more from animator/illustrator Mark Borgions, including the event’s poster.

Bruges, Belgium

Coordinates: 51 13 N 3 13 E

Population: 117,025 (2004 est.)

Earlier this month a new crime caper opened in theaters across the country with a rather unusual setting. Instead of a menacing metropolis teeming with villains and oozing with urban grit and gloom, director Martin McDonagh chose to shoot his film in the medieval Belgian city that appears in the title: Bruges. (more…)

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Pino Tovaglia book - The rule that corrects emotion

In addition to this blog, I own a small design bookstore. As a bookseller, I find it hard to find publishers that consistently produce quality titles. Italian publisher Edizioni Corraini is one of a few publishers that I look forward to their new releases each year. If you own or have seen any Bruno Munari books, you are most likely familiar with their work. They have reproduced dozens of Munari’s books, many of which I own in my personal collection. In addition to the Munari collection, they have produced books on or by Martí Guixé, Enzo Mari, Aoi Huber-Kono (Max Huber’s wife),Taro Miura, Albe Steiner and many others. With this in mind, I was delighted when I received an email from them mentioning that they had been reading Grain Edit and that they would like to send a package my way.

I will cover the contents of the package in several posts. The first being the Pino Tavaglia book seen above.

(more…)

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Continued from the Previous Post...

Picture Books
From Spain

Sebastian's Roller Skates
Written by Joan de Deu Prats
Illustrated by Francesc Rovira

Picture Books for Older Readers
From Australia

Fox
Written by Margaret Wild
Illustrated by Ron Brooks

I need to tred lightly when discussing this title, because it is dark, sad, and ultimately, a tale of deception. I don't want to give away the storyline for those who have not read it, but it is certainly a book that will haunt readers and have you thinking about friendship, temptation and betrayal long after the book has been closed.

Several middle school teachers - upon first reading Fox - mentioned the story's similiarities to Shakespeare's Macbeth and several of these teachers use Fox in their classroom as an introduction to this classic work.

Whether you're dealing with playground disagreements or boardroom arguments, this book is an emotional and startling look at the realities of life and working or dealing with others.

First Fiction
From Australia
Jack Russell: Dog Detective
(Book 4): The Lying Postman

The Lying Postman is - by far - my favorite book from the Jack Russell series. Involving a new postman to Jack's route, and a "he said," "she-said" situation, Book #4 in this canine caper series keeps readers guessing until the end as to whether or not the postman is telling the truth.

Also introduced in this mystery is a new character - Ralf Boxer - a little chihuahua who surprises Jack with his courage and shatters every stereotype that Jack has regarding these small dogs.

Gift Books
From Australia

Could You? Would You?
by Trudy White

Trudy has made a fine book for readers of all ages with Could You? Would You? I've personally used this book as a discussion starter with both my four-year-old son and with adult friends. Others that I know have used this book in writing workshops to help get through writer's block.

Be careful though - many of these questions will bring up childhood memories which may have you longing for the times when you could cuddle in a sheet-made fortress under the stars or thinking about what you'd like to do with the time you have left.

What's your favorite Kane/Miller book?