Comic Art

It’s been awhile since our last post, mostly because out lives have been relatively boring lately. No major trips, no fun mishaps, everythgn has been more or less work, school, and language classes. The summer will certainly bring more interesting episodes with all of the activity we’ll be doing.

That being said, this weekend we did hop over to Brussels for a day. We decided to finally go to the “Belgian Center for Comic Strip Art”, which contains informative, historic, and collected displays of the Belgian “strip” tradition. They also have other European and American originals in their archives. As most of you know, Judi and I are consumers of the format and it was interesting to see comic development in Europe. Belgium paralleled the U.S. in creating syndicated “strips” as they are called here, and began creating books of collections or “albums” (a local term) at about the same time. One of the most famous comics locally, the youth oriented “Archie” like comic Spirou, began distribution in the graphic novel format in 1929, the same year the first “The Funnies” insert appeared in the U.S., and seven years before The Funnies albums appeared.

The Belgian strip (along with their French counterparts) was an extension of the spirit of Art Nouveau. As the artistic movement fell out of vogue, the strip market nonetheless continued to grow and the popular art form, both in syndication and graphic novels, became marketable. There are series still running after many years here, for young and old, and all of the local comics are translated into both Dutch and French. Strips are one of those cultural ties that both Flanders and Wallonia have in common- both regions (and Brussels) produce artists and they all by and large form one national industry identity.

Of course, there are spheres of influence of all of the comics. Most Belgian comics are popular only in Belgium and France. There are some, however, that are known world wide. Two in particular- Tintin and The Smurfs, are well known in the U.S. The Smurfs (1963+), were created by Peyo, perhaps the most famous of all Belgian strip artists, and are of course the little blue forest dwelling kabouters (gnome-like creatures) that eventually claimed a cartoon and merchandising empire. Tintin, “the everyman” adventurer and his dog Snowy, were created by Georges Remi in 1946 after the end of WWII.

Does Whatever a Spider Can

In continuing our tradition of watching key Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and comic-book blockbuster “midnight showings”, Judi and I purchased tickets for the Gent special event for Spider-Man 3. We bought the tickets the previous week in a last minute bid to get seats for the three film screening. Spiderman one and two were shown back to back starting at 7:30, and at 12:01 Spider-Man 3 began. Thankfully May 1 is a holiday in Europe, so it was easy to pull off. As you’ll see later, we needed the extra time.

The kinepolis in Gent is amazing. I always assumed Americans would have the best multiplexes since we pretty much invented the movie industry and dominate the overall market. The kinepolis quite honestly put the best I have ever seen in the U.S. into the margins. The long, broad hallway along the screens is lined with distractions. They have a wall-screen panel of video game consoles that anyone can pick up to play Soul Caliber II, racing games, or whatever else is plugged in at the time. People lay sprawled in dozens of bean bag chairs in the little alcoves, watching film shorts and upcoming attractions on monitors as they wait to enter their hall. There are several mini stores in the theater, which include traditional fare such as popcorn (kettle corn!), sodas, and nachos, to a separate candy store and even a bar. All seating is assigned, so there is no worry about being separated from your group, or having to force a row to “squeeze in” to eliminate the heterosexual chairs. (Heterosexual chair. Noun. Slang. The unoccupied chair between two persons of the same sex.) The theaters have special events too, such as women’s night, and the monthly Nestle night, where the hideous giant NesQuick rabbit dispenses free choco to the children.

The movie itself was pretty good. We decided it wasn’t “great”, each for our own reasons, but it was a respectable end to the series unlike the closing third film of another comic book movie trilogy. The ending-that-shall-not-be-named. We’ll just substitute “X” and call it “X3”. There were many story threads running through it that made the movie rather long, but I appreciate the fact they didn’t shirk on story.

The most… interesting, and ironic, part of the evening was the fact that Judi and I had to play Spider-Man after we got home. The busses stop running at midnight, so we walked back from the theater to our apartment. Somebody had locked the outer door, and our keys weren’t working in it (it tends to jam all the time). That door has been notoriously picky before, and once I couldn’t get it open and had to wait for someone else to go through. After forty-five minutes of messing about trying to unlock it and looking for hidden keys, Judi declared we could use a ladder. Yet no ladder was to be found. So I walked around the block to the construction zone, disassembled a piece of the modular fencing there, and dragged it around to the front of the building. I leaned it lengthwise up against the wall and climbed up into the second story window, which was thankfully still open. I couldn’t get the door open from the inside, so much to Judi’s dismay, she too had to play spider and climb up the improvised ladder. And she did it in a skirt! Judi is hardcore.

We slept well that night.