Otto

...and now I'm gone for real- out of the door, bye !

No, it's not really a year of blogging, is it ?

After blogging for a whole year now, and drawing and drawing on end like a lunatic for the last couple of month, characters, commercials, movies and mainly comicstrips for the last couple of weeks, I think its time for a nice vacation.



This is, where I'll be for the next two or three weeks, with a good or maybe even mediocre book by the poolside and a nice icecold drink at my side. There are a few things to finish first, but I'll be gone by the end of the week and I don't expect I'll have much time for blogging before I go.
So, thanks for a year of reading and stopping by and I'll see you soon, I hope, H

Birthday

That was a quickie for Herman's birthday a couple o' years back

It just doesn't stop

Web 2.0 is going Kwak-crazy....

I do need a break

Just to make you think ...

Your weekly Sundaymorning Ricky

I wish....

....I could show you more of what I have been doing lately and I appreciate your demand for more of my own stuff, but 99.9 % of what I've been working on for more than a year is still under disclosure. All I can show you is the little things, that I do the side, like this comicstrip, or the old, outdated stuff. Anyway, the time will come, be patient, meanwhile enjoy the crumbs and my random thoughts on popculture...

Comic

Spent the last couple of days working on a comicstrip for a special-themed book, which I will let you know about, when the time has come, which will be pretty soon, since I am - as usual- veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery late.
Here are some of the sketches I did today.









Have a nice weekend !

A look back ....

From the premiere of our first Kwak-schoolbook, "Wat Wijzer met Alfred Jodocus Kwak", ca 1990.

Rudi Carrell

Über Geschmack und Niveau läßt sich streiten, aber wenn es um Professionalität, Fleiß und Perfektionismus geht, können auch wir Zeichner viel von Rudi lernen. Rudis Ziel war immer die perfekte, scheinbar mühelose Show und nicht seine Person.Er verkörpert zu 100% das, was Glen Keane meint, wenn er sagt: "You gotta be sincere", also sich, seine Arbeit und vor allem sein Publikum ernst zu nehmen. Außerdem ist er ein elementarer Teil meiner Kindheit. Ich hab ihn zuletzt vor einem Jahr bei " Herman van Veen & Friends" gesehen und da war er schon schwer von seiner Krankheit gezeichnet. Was mir an ihm immer schon extrem gefallen hat, war, daß er in Interviews immer supercool war, geraucht hat wie ein Schlot, und er hat, anders als andere, nicht versucht, im Interview noch seine Bühnenpersona aufrechtzuerhalten, also noch irgendwelche Witzchen oder Teile des Programms unterzubringen, sondern er war auf eine charmante Art arrogant und knallhart, ehrlich, gnadenlos kritisch sich und seinen Kollegen gegenüber und rücksichtslos angesichts von Unprofessionalität . Cool eben,...Hut ab und tschüss, Rudi.

Mein Mitgefühl gilt an dieser Stelle auch meinem lieben Freund Thomas -Wann wirds mal wieder richtig Sommer-Woitkewitsch, der jahrelang mit Rudi gearbeitet hat und auch seit mehr als 40 Jahren sämtliche Texte von Herman ( und somit auch Kwak ) ins Deutsche übersetzt.

The French !? I don't know ....

They seem to be reminating their pop-culture-past in special-effects-heavy movies. They did it to Blueberry, they did it to Belphegor ( The original TV-series is still one of my most haunting childhood memories, I'm still afraid of nuns in the dark...),they did it to Francois Vidocq, ....and they are doing it to Asterix again and again. I don't know, maybe I'm getting old or something, but I like the originals much much better, this feels like blasphemiy to me and who is this guy anyway, looks like the french Jack Black ...what will they do next , wait , I know, ...Fantomas !

And a little bit beside the point but not totally : Brotherhood of Wolfes = probably the worst movie I've ever seen. It had Monica Bellucci in it , though ...but she also was in Passion of Christ.




La Bellucci, she should be in every movie, I wouldn't mind.


Belphegor .....huuuuh, scary ............

A Richter darkly

Sorry for being away for so long, guys. I've been terribly busy lately, within more or less a month I've seen the Bosporus, the Kattegatt, the Eiffeltower and the Brandenburg Gate, there was a lot of work, teaching in Ludwigsburg and the Festival of Annecy. I have been wrapping up my current Disney-assignment this week and been picking up some new ones. And I have been enjoying the lot of it, I like it like that, don't stop please.
Anyway , I have been so busy, that it was this very morning, that I found time to look at the trailer of "A Scanner Darkly" for the first time. I don't know what to think about it, to be honest, may you know more than me. It looks visually interesting, a bit like a videoclip, I hope that the story is clever enough to keep me interested for 90 minutes or however long this thing is. I'm really, really curious about this one. Hit or flop, I don't know yet. What do you think ? There are bits of Robert Downey's acting in the trailer for example. where I feel that the "animation" takes away from his performance, don't you think?
Whatever, as I said, I'll have to wait and see.
Anyway, what it much more weird and funny , is that it reminds me a hellavalot of the comics of my good friend Jan Michael Richter aka Jamiri. Jan is drawing and publishing his autobiograhical strips in magazines and books for a couple of years now, ( link above ) and judge for yourself, they look the same, Keanu Reeves is not in them, but I can't help thinking that they are funnier. As I said, go and judge for yourself .








The Master himself ....

R.I.P. Robert Gernhardt

Was einer ist, was einer war,
beim Scheiden wird es offenbar.
Ruft er "Auf Nimmerwiedersehen",
dann laß ihn frohen Herzens gehn.

Sagt er: "Lebt wohl, so leid mir's tut",
dann sei mal lieber auf der Hut.

Tut er nur "Tschau, bis dann dann" brommen,
dann will das Arschloch wiederkommen.

Halbfinale !!!

Yeahhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!