[Servalan]

Johanna Spaey, flämische Krimiautorin und Journalistin.
Gerolf Van de Perre, Bildender Künstler und Autor, Dozent an der Sint-Lucasacademie im belgischen Gent.
Paul Gravett und Gert Meesters empfehlen das gemeinsame Comicdebüt von Spaey (Szenario) und Van de Perre (Zeichnungen) bei Bezige Bij 2014.

Gewonde stad (‘Wounded City’)
by Johanna Spaey & Gerolf Van de Perre

An interesting collaboration by a painter and a novelist, this book recounts the fire of Leuven during the Great War. Several characters tell their experiences, ranging from King Albert I and an intellectual German soldier to a simple woman who lives in Leuven and even a sort of Greek chorus. Each tells in a beautiful poetic language how they lived through the events that ended with burning the university library and the execution of innocent inhabitants. As a result, Leuven became an international symbol of the cruelty of war at that time. The words are beautifully chosen by Spaey, who previously already wrote fiction about the Great War. Gerolf Van de Perre is her ideal companion for this book, not only because he paints his own town, but because ruins are a continuous source of inspiration in his comics and paintings. In his previous books, he documented the changes in the Chinese cityscapes just before the Olympics in Bejing and he put together an illustrated version of the single prose book by Rainer Maria Rilke. In Gewonde stad, both writer and artist are at their best in a book that is definitely not just another addition to the endless list of books about the Great War. It is focused, inspired and needs a translation to reach an international audience.

Trailer zum Buch bei Vimeo (3:40 min) leider nur auf Flämisch.