And even more Blex Bolex! 23:32

And finally, in what has become a little Blex Bolex-special by now, some examples of his comics and some of his older work.

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More Blex Bolex 22:57

 

 

 

No, of course it’s not his real name. Who would be so lucky to actually be named like that? Not Bernard Granger. But being an artist, he figured he needed a nom-de-plume, so…there you go.

Mr. Bolex was born in France, in Douai, in 1966. He studied at the “Beaux-arts” in Angoulême where he discovered screen-printing, which to this day keeps being an influence on his illustration style. Later on, he works as a screen printer and as an editor at Cornélius, a French publishing house well known for it’s exquisite comic books. Eventually he becomes a full fledged illustrator but keeps on making books, which he considers to be his main artistic outlet. They are published by  Le Dernier Cri and Les Requins Marteaux or the children’s books department of Albin Michel.

The following examples of his work are taken from “Destination: Abecederia”, a noirish adventure story in which every page features a letter of the alphabet (hence the name), and from “L’imagier des gens” (or rather the Dutch translation “Allemaal mensen”) which won the prestigious bookdesign-award “The most beautiful book of the world” at the 2009 Leipziger Buchmesse. It’s a children’s book, but it does not tell a story. Instead, every double page shows us two persons which have some kind of connection between them. Sometimes these connections are obvious, sometimes farfetched, sometimes they are funny or beautiful, but always they can act as food for thought and the starting point for a conversation or discussion.

 

Dancers – Warriors                                                 A football player – A bad boy

A conductor – A dictator                                          A blind person – Someone distracted

Someone curious – A spy                                        A biologist – An astronomer

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Blex Bolex’s cookbook 20:56

 

Oh, for crying out loud, I got fired yesterday! By my own girlfriend, no less. What? No,no,no, we are fine… It’s not that. Wait, let me explain…

You might remember I told you she worked as a cook in a restaurant and I made these little signs for her, to announce the special of the day. You can see some of them back here. See? There fine, no? I mean, I’m not going to win any prices with them, sure, I know. But hey, they are usually made at 4 in the morning, because that’s when she thinks of telling me she needs one for her exotic chicken with coconut milk or whatever. Puh.

So yesterday, she’s working on her computer and I bring her a cup of coffee, ‘cause you know, that’s me, warm and caring, and I ask her what she’s doing. You know what she was doing? She was making a sign. For spinach. And sausages.

Turns out she didn’t like my stuff anymore. Said she got bored because I always use only letters and never any pictures. Pictures? Yes, pictures. Photographs. Photographs? Puh! For food? Come on, how… how… I mean. Puh!

So I say something mean about classy restaurants and something snooty about the noble art of typography and she finishes up her poster with obnoxiously well-photographed and tasty looking spinach leaves, gives me a kiss on the cheek and we forget the whole deal. Well, she does.

Flash forward. This afternoon. I’m walking around in the cookbook section of the bookstore, looking for inspiration. I am not going to use photographs. I am no photographer so… Most cookbooks are filled with photographs, of course. So that’s no help. Why is it that almost all these books take the same approach? For instance, why don’t any of them use illustrations instead. I mean, sure, some of these photos are incredible, but… Hé, wait a minute…

Ginette Mathiot’s “I Know How to Cook”, with illustrations (aha!) by Blex Bolex. Oh, ok, well yes, there are still photographs in the book, but…also: illustrations! By Blex Bolex! And they are gorgeous!

And mind you, this book is not just some ordinary cookbook. This is the first translation into English of “Je sais cuisiner” which is the French cookery-bible. It has been around since 1932 and sold over six million copies. Every French woman worth her “sel” has one of these, probably given to her by her grandmother on her deathbed or something. This is the cookbook of cookbooks. And it has illustrations in it.

Vive la France! Vive Ginette and Blex! Vive Phaidon who published the book!  Now let’s look at the pictures…

 

 

Right. So, what’s for diner?

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Video-glitch 14:50

Sometimes, things are just more beautiful when everything goes wrong…

haruka_glitch from Bonsajo on Vimeo.

 

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Book: Spanish Graphic Pioneers 01:19

 

 

“Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design” is a big and handsome book written and designed by Emilio Gil, founder of the Spanish design company Tau Diseno. The book shows us the work of 15 graphic designers who worked in Spain between 1939 and 1975, a time when the material and social conditions were not favorable and Spain was more or less isolated from the world. Nevertheless the book clearly shows what excellent work was being produced at the time, by people who did not consider themselves as pioneers at all, but were simply doing their job as well as they could.

“Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design” was published by MBP (Mark Batty Publisher).

More Spanish design? Be sure to check out our 4-part series on graphic designer and comics-creator Isidro Ferrer starting here.

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Comics: Dupuy & Berberian 14:09

 

There is nothing uncommon about long time collaborating duo’s in comics but the way Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian work together keeps surprising people. You would expect one of them to be the artist and the other the writer but they do things differently: both of them work as artist and as writer, on the same comic, in such a way that you cannot tell by looking at the end result who did what. Their styles have merged into one. Some people even thought “Dupuy-Berberian” to be the fancy hyphenated surname of a single person.

When this Mr. Dupuy-Berberian is being interviewed, because by now he/they are considered to be prime  examples of the new French comics-scene, they invariably get asked the same questions about their peculiar way of collaborating, over and over again. In response, they started to display little automatons at exhibitions of their work and even made this short mockumentary which you can watch right here and now:

 

Bicephale (Dupuy & Berberian) (english subtitles)
door ozeb14

If you are new to the work of Dupuy and Berberian, maybe you can best start by reading the lovely “Monsieur Jean” books (available in English as published by Drawn & Quarterly in their magazine and as a collection of three early stories in “Get a life”) or check out their diverse illustration work in "The Complete Universe of Dupuy & Berberian" published by the Dutch Oog & Blik. After those do check out "Maybe Later" (also published by D & Q, translated from “Journal d’un album”) in which both of them work separately and comment on their collaboration. Advanced reading: "Haunted", solo work by Philippe Dupuy and advanced viewing: the travel-sketchbooks published by Cornelius (lovely site!)

 

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The “koffieprut”-poster 13:45

Something I made myself this time (it has been a while…): a poster for a theatre performance, a comedy, staged by a local amateur group.  I don’t think I would really enjoy the play but I ended up having a good time making the poster. I especially like the little fish. And the bra.

All in Gimp, original photographs by the client.

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