3 years since the invasion of Iraq.

 

George Bush... Just not very good, are you ?

 

Seriously, this is also why I would never go on dates.

 

 

Hindus in the UK want to cremate their dead outdoors like they do in India.

 

 

Today I got Matisyahu's new album. Not only am I a warm supporter of the jewish people and their culture as well as Israel, but I love music comming in from unexpected corners. I hate the way the music industry, specialy in the US, seems to have desided what we should listen to, and what people fit in what roles. Normaly I hate all things rap, but reggae I don't mind, and this is just fresh and new to me, love it !

 

This drawing is Matisyahu in the guise of Rocky, the swedish cartoon character by martin Kellerman. He [Kellerman] loves inserting Rocky in cd/album covers by famour hip/hop artists, so I thought, instead of the usual gagsta rap pose, let's make him a hasidic reggae dog !

 

Hope Matisyahu and Martin Kellerman will forgive me, he he.

 

 

I just asked our friend Chloë to give us an oppinion on freedom on this Womens Day. I guess I expected too much of her, what with the spring line comming in.

 

 

I'm a big fan of Kevin Smith and his movies and characters. Here's a drawing I made of Silent Bob.

What if World War 2 took place during the late 60's early 70's ?

 

 

The Depeche Mode concert in Oslo on Febaury 28th was an almost religious and most definatly sexually charged experience. I enjoyed every moment of it and I am so happy I finally got to see them, after having been a fan for 21 years.

 

Depeche Mode es lebe !

 

 

More and more tv channels demand that you subscribe to watch them, but they still feed us comercials an masse.

This is now comming to Norway as well, where channels who live on the side of public service channels now demand a future license as well.

 

 

Sometimes I just hate living in the city.

I think this one explains itself.

I got a phonecall on Thursday, telling me I had won a prize, one ticket to the Depeche Mode concert in Oslo on Tuesday! I had a ticket allready, but now I got a better one as well as a signed photo of the band and a few other goodies.

I couldn't remember when I won this prize at first, but it was back in November, and I was having a burger at Burger King. While there I was reading one of those free newspapers called Plan B. They asked people to text in the answer to a Depeche Mode question, so I did. I'd forgotten all about it, so it was a real nice surprice! :o)

 

 

 

 

I love Belgian/French cartoons. Tintin is of course a cartoon I love a lot, but maybe even more is the adventures of the intrepid journalist Spirou (Sprint/Splint in Norwegian/Danish) and his friend Fantasio (Kvikk in Norwegian Kvik in Danish). The original comic began around 1938 and was created by Robert Velter (Rob-Vel). He also launched the cartoon magazin Spirou which still comes out today. However Velter, who served in the army and was wounded in 1940, was french, and it was increasingly difficult to get the cartoons to Belgium where it was printed, so he sold his rights to the whole undertaking in 1943 and Jijé (Joseph Gillain) took over the strip. Jijé was the man who introduced Spirou's friend Fantasio. This didn't last long howver, in 1946, André Franquin took the reins and made the character his very own. He made the strip into what it is today, long stories with adventerous storylines. Franquin also went on to create the The Marsupilami (Spiralis in Norwegian Spirilen in Danish) a small monkey like creature, with jaguar style fur and a tail some 10 meters long that gave the creature some amazing abilities (it could also it seems live and maybe even breathe under water). Franquin also created one of the most popular european comic characters in Gaston La Gaffe (Viggo in Norwegian/Danish). It was this character and other concerns which made Franquin grow tired of Spirou, and in 1969 he handed the series to Jean-Claude Fournier. This also meant that the Marsupilami left the series, only featuring in the first Fournier story 'Le faiseur d'or' because Franquin helped draw it. Franquin did not want to let anyone else draw it and wanted to retain the rights to the character himself, which mean that Spirou and Fantasio would have to go on with just their little squirrel friend Spip (same in Norwegian and Danish) and the series took quite a nosedive. Fournier lacked the spring in his drawings that Franquin had, the stories were not as good and the series suffered.

 

Fournier left after 1979 and the series was in a bit of a creative vaacum for a while. A few artists and authors were tried out, but nothing reallt gelled.

 

Finally after a few years towards the mid of the 80's the Spirou comic was once again given a makeover with the arrival of the writer Philippe Tome and the artist Jean-Richard Geurt working together as Tome & Janry. Together they made several remarkable stories, introducing funny new characters, and sending them on outragous journeys to both strange and familiar places. Janry would also go on to create 'Le Petit Spirou' (Lille Sprint/Lille Splint) a kindergarden/elementary school version of the grown Spirou.

 

However, in 1998, the team launched into a completly new vision of Spirou with the release of Machine qui rêve. This was an attempt to change the comic into an adult cartoon, with the characters now looking far more realistic and love and violence being a much larger part (not to mention depression). This shocked the readers (not least me) and the series lay more or less dead for 6 years. The series is now again revived with the first new album comming out in 2004. It is now drawn by cartoonist José-Luis Munuera and written by Jean-David Morvan. Some say it's a return to Franquins style, I don't know if I agree, I found the latest story dull, indulgent and somewhat overly french.

 

I do hope this cartoon will go on, and that it will still come out in Norway and Denmark (so far so good). In english speaking countries it is largely unknown, the US don't read these kind of cartoons, and so far only two albums have come out in the UK and they are out of print.

 

Here follows a test drawing I made of Spirou, the way I see him, trying out my brand new Inkbrushpen.

 

 

 

 

A lot of children in Denmark and Norway have a hard time coping with the news, seeing the flag of their countries burned, and a lot of angry and bloodthirsty foreign people on tv threatening to kill anyone who are Danish and Norwegian, it must be tough on them.

 

 

The Norwegians are out with some sort of stumach trouble.

 

I wonder why... ?*

 

*Well, it's Italy, so not really, but then again, that's no fun.

I read this editorial in a norwegian newspaper that said something along these lines. When the editor of the Christian right wing newspaper 'Magazinet' apologised to the muslims for printing the cartoons of, the one who I now find so offensive I won't use his name, he basically made 'muslims råd' (islamic council of Norway) co-editors in matters relating to freedom of press in Norway.

 

This drawing is my comment to that. It reads "Is this ok with you people ?!?"

 

And no... it's NOT ok.

 

 

My little rascal, the Moment After Kid, makes a long awaited return in this drawing; Shopping trip to Teheran.

 

Why he arrives in France I don't know, I felt like drawing a french gendarme. Police looks funnier when they are french, it also gave me an excuse to draw characters who smoke.

 

 

You think apologising actually helps ?

 

I don't...