Author: rogerklaassen

Daily progress pictures of Ivan Micello. The wall painting becomes more and more colourful!

I didn’t know these YouTube-broadcasts, but I enjoyed no. 32 of the Journal de la BD, made by Pal Degome. A ‘Spécial Confinement’ with an interview with Cosey.

Links to the interview, click here.

Link to all ‘Journal de la BD’ by Pal Degome: click here.

Progress until Friday, made on the wall painting in Pully. Ivan Micello told me that he will need five more days to complete the mural. Below, you see the very start of the process on Ivan Micello’s computer screen. You will notice how extremely oblong the image is.

At the College Arnold Reymond in Pully (Switzereland), an enormous mural painting of a drawing by Cosey is being made by Ivan Micello. A few days ago, Cosey himself came to assist in the painting work – more or less camouflaged by his blue outfit.

The painting will be 57 meters long and 3,4 meters high – this must be the largest work of Cosey ever.

You can follow the works on the Facebook-page of Ivan Micello.

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Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret

At this moment, you can visit an exposition in Grenoble, titled ‘Derrière la Montagne’ (Behind the Mountains). In the exposition, 27 comic artists interpret paintings of mountain landscapes. See also my previous message about it.

Cosey went to work on Gustave Doré’s painting ‘L’Arc en Ciel’ (‘The Rainbow’). He saw all kinds of shapes and forms in the painting: a nude (a sleeping woman, according to the catalogue, but I rather see something less innocent), some dogs, fishes, a bridge and figures of people and animals – I would say fairy tale and comic characters.

I leave it up to psycho-analysts to discover hidden Freudian messages in Cosey’s interpretation.

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Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret

This is the silk screen print that was presented last Friday at Galerie-Librairie Raspoutine in Lausanne, during its closing event. It shows a possible epilogue to ‘La Saveur du Songrong’.

The drawing was published in ‘Echo’, in black & white. For this special print, colours were added. 99 prints, size approximately 60 cm high.

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Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret

Founder of Glénat publisher (publisher of Cosey’s Disney albums), Jacques Glénat, is also founder of a cultural foundation ‘Fonds Glénat Patrimoine + Culture’. It has its own exposition center in a former abby in Grenoble, the Couvent Sainte Cécile – where also the offices of the publisher are established.

Starting today (and until 14 march 2020), you can visit the exposition ‘Derrière la Montagne – La face cachée du tableau’ (Behind the Mountains – The hidden side of the painting’). In the exposition, you will see how 27 comic artists have re-interpreted 28 mountain landscape paintings. The result is an exposition of 28 diptyques.

Among the artists, Cosey – of course. Other comic artists whose work you will see: François Boucq, Jacques de Loustal, Christophe Chabouté and Nicolas Keramides (who made the drawing on the poster).

More info about the exposition on the site of Couvent Sainte Cécile: click here.

Also, a catalogue will be published: click here for more information.

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Thanks to Philippe Regottaz

Sad news from Lausanne: after 30 years, Galerie Librairie Raspoutine will close down. Another victim of online bookstores.

Raspoutine has for 30 years been a great promotor of swiss comic authors (and not only swiss, of course), among which Cosey. Raspoutine and Cosey published numerous ex-librises, special prints and luxurious albums, and organised expositions, book presentations and signing sessions.

Next Friday 13th (how symbolic) 2019, a special ‘Apéro d’Adieu’ will be the closing event for Raspoutine. Special prints will be published and an exposition of the work of to swiss comic giants, Cosey and Zep, can be seen.

We wish Lorenzo and his team good luck and thank them for 30 years of Raspoutine!

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Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret and Dinu Logoz

I have written an article about the new Minnie Mouse album, focusing on scenes and images that echo other works of Cosey, ‘Tintin in Tibet’ and other works of art, films, etc. Read it here. Enjoy!

Watch maker Zenith celebrates the 50th birthday of its ‘El Primero’, an automatic chronograph. The story behind it is quite remarkable: company directors wanted to phase out the product because they saw no future for it, when quartz watches became popular. Enters the story: Charles Vermot, an employee, who did something absolutely extraordinary… Cosey was asked to illustrate the story.

He made a series of drawings of which some have little animations. Look at it via this link.

Among all the news about the new Minnie-album, we might easily oversee the publication by Niffle publishers of the black and white edition of ‘À la recherche de Peter Pan’. The project for this album was originally announced for 2018, with a different cover image. For several marketing related reasons the project was put on hold, but finally, it is there.

Niffle is a publisher that specialises in black and white editions of classic comic albums, like Blake & Mortimer, Thorgal and others. This ‘À la recherche de Peter Pan’ album is not the first black & white edition: Raspoutine was first with a luxurious album, but this Niffle edition is much more affordable.

Even if I admire this edition, I have mixed feelings about black & white editions of albums that were meant to be coloured. It is an adventure to look through the album and compare it to the coloured album, and you will discover details that went unnoticed in the coloured edition… but still: after reading this edition, you realise even more how beautiful the colours of Cosey are.

Also, comparing this edition to Calypso shows how different the approach to drawing is when Cosey intends to make a black & white album and when he is drawing while having colours in his mind.

Having said this, this black and white edition is beautifully executed. The drawings bring you very close to the originals you will see in expositions. It makes you see the album in a new light – which in itself is worth the purchase.

‘Minnie Mouse – Le Secret de Tante Miranda’ is available in bookstores since last wednesday. As soon as I have read it, I will start making an article about it, of course. Until then, you can enjoy reading or listening to some interviews – all in french.

For the Cosey-fans that are not fluent in french, here are some highlights from the interviews:

• Just as with the Mickey album, Cosey declares his love for Walt Disney’s works. Making the Mickey and Minnie albums was a dream come true.
• Cosey came up with the idea for a Minnie album, because he discovered there didn’t exist an album with Minnie as the main star.
• Cosey tells he enjoyed working on Minnie, and to play with her character – one side timid and cautious, the other side full of temperament.
• Asked if he would like to make a Spirou album, Cosey says that he thinks Spirou is more defined by the drawing style of Franquin. He doesn’t see how he could make a Spirou that feels like Spirou.
• And what about making a Tintin album? Cosey says the question is not asked because of the Hergé’s wish that other artists would not continue Tintin. But if he was asked, he would think about it.
• Jonathan: Cosey tells that during a recent visit to Tibet, he maybe has got a little idea for a new Jonathan album. Who knows?

The interviews

You can read a nice interview by Alexis Seny on the site of Branchés Culture.

Cosey was a guest in the RT-France tv-show ‘Interdit d’interdire‘. He is one of four guests, but after short introductions of the guests, he is the first to be interviewed.

In the tv-show LCR of the Brussels BX1, Cosey is received by David Courier.

Last week, Cosey visited Copenhagen for the Art Bubble Festival.

Since a few weeks, Jonathan 13 (La Saveur du Songrong) is finally available to danish readers. Among others, Cosey signed some of his books. Danish Cosey-fan Thomas Geerts made a photo of Cosey at work, and of the coloured stamp in his book.

Cosey also received a prize, the Hanne Hansen prize. This danish prize exists since 2014 and is named after Hanne Hansen, a danish comic character that was published between 1935 and 1959. Albert Uderzo and Hermann are earlier winners of the prize. Cosey has received the prize for his entire works.

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Tusind tak, Thomas Geertz!

I am happy to announce a new exposition (our fifth) on ‘The World of Cosey’, with sketches and drawings of the new album ‘Minnie Mouse et le Secret de Tante Miranda’. Click here to visit the exposition!

Special thanks to Cosey for providing the images.

The album will be in shops on 13 november.

And if you want to see a preview of the first 15 pages, visit the site of BD Gest’.

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Thanks to Cosey and Ralph Doumit

Edition Niffle announces the release of a black and white edition of ‘À la recherche de Peter Pan’ for 31 october. The album has been announced before, but was postponed. The picture is convincing that this time it is a ‘go’.

Thanks to Ralph Doumit