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Harry Buckinx (1944-1995)

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Harry Buckinx is one of the leading comic book artist from the late Sixties /early Seventies. Together with Joost Swarte he is responsisible for developing Comic art into a mature form of contemposrary art. here is what the Lambiek site tells about the artist.

Harry Buckinx was a Dutch underground artist, best known for his contributions to Hitweek and Tante Leny Presenteert. Born in Geleen, Buckinx attended the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. His career took off when his drawings were published in the Dutch magazine Hitweek in 1968, and in Aloha in 1971-72.

Titula by Harry Buckinx

He was present in Evert Geradts‘ underground magazine Tante Leny Presenteert from the start in 1970. Together with Marc Smeets, he formed the Limburg delegation of the magazine. Buckinx created surreal stories about the world he knew, that of art dealing, nightlife and difficult relations with lovers. His main characters were ‘Titul’ and ‘Titula’. ‘Titula’ was also present in Aloha from 1972.

comic art by Harry Buckinx

Between 1972 and 1974 Buckinx drew the comic ‘De Familie Aepebroeck’ for the VPRO magazine Vrije Geluiden. The comic deals with the chaotic and intimate escapades of the Bertus and Truus Aepebroeck and gives a good portrait of Holland in the 1960s and 1970s. Harry Buckinx was one of the artists involved in the ‘Toon en Toos Brodeloos’ strip, which a team of seven artists produced in 1976 for VPRO-Gids, the magazine of broadcasting company VPRO. Each episode was a satirical story about one of the Dutch broadcasting companies, drawn by a different artist. Buckinx did the one about VPRO, while the other artists were Joost Swarte (AVRO), Evert Geradts (KRO), Joost Troost (EO), Rob Gorter (NCRV), Aart Clerkx (VARA) and Fred Julsing (TROS). The stories were collected in a book by Har van Fulpen’s Drukwerk in 1976.

www.ftn-books.com has one Buckinx title available.

titula

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Tante Leny ( from 1971-2000 )

tante leny 26 a

In total 26 volumes within the series were published over nearly 30 years.

This ante Leny magazine was first published in 1971 modelled after the great american underground like  ZAP and YELLOW DOG .

The dutch youth and music magazine Aloha had its own group of illustratores who regularly were invited to illustrate in Aloha. These artist were among the best and most controversial in the Netherlands and include Joost Swarte, Ever  Meulen and from later on Peter Pontiac.

They were invited to participate with a short comic in ethe first Tante Leny magazine. The initiatave was taken by Willem de Ridder and Ever Geradt , who would contribute to all volumes within the series. The series was at that time ” vanat garde” not only the subjects, but also their artistic approach in drawing text and size was completely new for the dutch readers. These series has become a classic in dutch comic art and was published irregularly until  2000 when the last number was published. This last number is something of  a special volume. It contains the very best comic artist who all had a complete free hand . The best story….one by Joost Swarte who’s main character Jopo de Pojo is strugling with a rubber condom. This latest number 26 of the Tante Leny series is now available at www.ftn-books.com.

tante leny 26 b

 

 

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Joost Swarte….RRRRRRR

Joost Swarte is one of those rare multi talented artists which have become now world famous and have a very loyal following. Swarte started in the very early seventies with a magazine named # TANTE LENY ” and was almost immediately recognized as one of the true talents in this comic magazine. During these first few years he was very much influenced by Herge, but within this style ( Klare lijn) he developed his very own signature.

What makes Swarte drawings and projects so special?…… From a mile distance you can see that it is a Swarte drawing,….. subject, style, design,  Swarte signature, use of perspective and detail are very much Swarte’s own and are combined into one original work of art. Because he masters so many disciplines his projects are not only limited to books and posters, but during the last decades he even progressed to design and architecture.

One of the first projects in which he has everything in hand was the RRRRRRR 1 & 2 projects in which he depicted a population of “human” cats in different settings.

Joost Swarte has drawn the specially executed prints, designed the special container, supervised the printing and ….. perfection…..put a little feather within the container of the bird which was eaten by the cats. A superb publication resulted and is nowadays sought and collected by many.

 

www.ftn-books.com

has still one of these in stock so please visit my site and find this and more items by Joost Swarte.

wilfried