COMIC TAGE
Seminal Belgian comic artist Judith Vanistendael is known for her intriguing fiction, intimate drawings and splash pages that are actually paintings. In "The Two Lives of Penelope" ("Penelopes zwei Leben", original "Les deux vies de Pénélopé"), she tells the story of a fictional doctor who is torn between her important and selfless work in war-torn Syria and her private life with husband and daughter back home in Brussels. In how far is her 13-year-old designed after the artist's own daughter? Watch the video, listen and see!
Inviting us into her kitchen in her beautiful old farmhouse in the middle of Brussels, Judith can't prevent her husband's first video talk cameo! Our interviewer Markus Pfalzgraf, sometimes giggling like a fanboy, also tries to point out parallels and differences between her latest volume and one of her previous books, "Mikel" (original: "SALTO"), for which she collaborated with another author for the first time, and who knows, maybe the last. It's about a writer who starts working as a bodyguard for politicians threatened by Basque terror group ETA.
In this video talk, Belgian artist Judith Vanistendael explains us why she writes in Dutch but gets published in French first. She reveals that she was a late bloomer as a comic book artist - and, talking about revelations: She's offering us a sneak peek into her upcoming book, hopefully soon to be translated into English, German and/or other languages.
