Comics Art Museum, Brussels. April 16th 2023

https://www.comicscenter.net/en/home

This was a fascinating place. I love the way adults in places like these are smiling all the time as they recognise the characters from their childhood – and of course children riveted by the excerpts from a vast range of cartoons over a very long period o/f time. There are a number of small exhibitions within the museum as a whole and the one featuring Edgar P Jacobs was riveting. It was revelatory to me as to how influential he is and was. His work recalled King Kong/Jules Verne/Herge (of course) and Indiana Jones. A direct descendant, re style and subject matter it seemed to me.

I also loved the nuggets of fascinating information dotted throughout. Medieval monks essentially created comic strips by using images to tell stories for the illiterate and they, it seems, used all the techniques that are now common practice. And who knew that the unit of measurement for the height of Smurfs is apples?

I did not have enough time here and will certainly go back to it when I return to the city.

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. May 22nd 2023.

Peter Lindbergh. Untold Stories. Espace Vanderborght, Brussels. April 16th 2023