BrechtEvens
The Making of
Douban
Evens, Brecht translator: Laura Watkinson / Michele Hutchison publishing house: Drawn & Quarterly Pubns 2012 - 8
AN ANGOULEME AWARD WINNER RETURNS WITH A PARABLE ABOUT LIFE IN THE ART WORLD "The Making Of" is the follow-up to international sensation Brecht Evens's Eisner-nominated debut, "The Wrong Place." With lush watercolors and his characteristic wit, Evens details the fumbling, amateurish foibles of the participants of a small art festival in the Flemish countryside. Pieterjan is invited to the festival as an honored guest. From the moment he arrives, things start going wrong, and since no one seems ready to step in, Pieterjan takes over the show. He decides to build a giant garden gnome as a symbol of Flemish identity, but the construction process brings buried tensions to the surface as the other artists become jealous of Pieterjan's authority. In "The Making Of," Evens delves deep into the petty tensions, small misunderstandings, and deadpan humor that pervade modern relationships. With a keen eye for the subtleties of body language, Evens's "The Making Of "builds on the iconic visual style showcased in "The Wrong Place." Sweeping watercolors jump off the page, surrealist scenery intermingles with crowds of people, and small suburban plot homes have never looked so lovely.
Panther
Douban
Brecht Evens translator: Michele Hutchison / Laura Watkinson publishing house: Drawn and Quarterly 2016 - 3
Brecht Evens, the award-winning author of The Wrong Place and The Making Of, returns with an unsettling graphic novel about a little girl and her imaginary feline companion. Iconoclastic in his cartooning and page layouts, subtle in his plotting, and deft in his capturing of the human experience, Evens has crafted a tangled, dark masterwork. Christine lives in a big house with her father and her cat, Lucy. When Lucy gets sick and dies, Christine is devastated. But alone in her room, something special happens: a panther pops out of her dresser drawer and begins to tell her stories of distant Pantherland, where he is the crown prince. A shape-shifter who tells Christine anything she wants to hear, Panther begins taking over Christine's life, alienating her from her other toys and friends. As Christine's world spirals out of control, so does the world Panther has created for her. Panther is a chilling voyage into the shadowy corners of the human psyche. The Drawn & Quarterly edition of Panther is an extended "director's cut," featuring additional material not included in the original book.