Some things the Belgians will always be better at doing than us, like waffles and uh, more waffles. Oh, and cartooning. The best cartoonist in the world seem to all come from that tiny, little European country. Today’s case in point: André Franquin (January 3, 1924 – January 5, 1997) could be the finest draftsmen to ever dip his pen in the ‘bigfoot’ well.
Franquin cut his teeth on children’s comics,from a early age, first appearing in the pages of Spirou from the 40’s through the 60’s, drawing and scribing such hits as Spirou et Fantasio and Gaston Lagaffe.
After Franquin’s second nervous breakdown (cartoonist are the neurotic types), he started work on his finest and most personal strip yet, Idées Noires (aka “Dark Thoughts”). It’s a shame these strips haven’t been translated into English, or actually, the shame is that I don’t read a word of French.
Despite my lack of worldliness, I really connect with these strips, and if you read my blog, chances are, you will too.
That’s some fantastic looking stuff. If I were not just a poor illiterate heathen I’d try to track it down. Why couldn’t George Bush invade some country with something of value like Belgium and then force them to give us free comics the way Iraq has to give us free oil. Oh wait. Never mind.