'Vivre à FranDisco'.
Thierry Van Hasselt is a graphic artist and painter, who is also active as a comic artist and publisher. Compared with other people in his field who try to make a comic strip, the difference between the two artistic fields is less distinctive in his work. His comics look like individual paintings put in a narrative sequence. Van Hasselt feels that both genres blend naturally. His best known titles are 'Gloria Lopez' (2000), 'Brutalis' (2000) and 'Heureux, Alright!' (2008).
Early life and career
Van Hasselt was born in 1969. He admired both classic masters such as Hieronymus Bosch, Francis Bacon and Pierre Bonnard as well as comic artists like Hermann, Moebius, Marcel Gotlib, Alberto Breccia, José Muñoz, Art Spiegelman and particularly Lorenzo Mattotti and Alex Barbier. Van Hasselt's uncle, François Schuiten, introduced him to magazines such as Pilote, Métal Hurlant and À Suivre. While studying graphic arts at Brussels he discovered the experimental comic magazine R.A.W. He also met Denis Deprez, Olivier Deprez, Vincent Fortemps, Jean-Christophe Long and Olivier Poppe there, with whom he founded the group Frigoproduction and published the first issue of the magazine Frigorevue in 1991. In 1994 Frigoproduction was renamed Freon and later Frémok, after fusing with the Parisian company Amok.
Comics career
Van Hasselt's first two books for Frémok, 'Gloria Lopez' (2000) and 'Brutalis' (2002), the latter co-created with choreographer Karine Ponties, surprised readers with their experimental spirit. In 'Gloria Lopez' (2000) comic panels gradually disappear and the images within grow and grow until they fill entire double pages. 'Brutalis' was a visualization of emotions occuring while a human body dances. In 2006 Van Hasselt and Ponties created a ballet piece for two dancers, "Holeulone", where his imagery was projected in the background while the dancers performed. The piece was inspired by Daniel Keyes' science fiction novel 'Flowers for Algernon' (1959) and won the Prix de la Critique of the French community in Belgium as "Best Dance Performance" in 2007. Van Hasselt's 'Heureux, Alright!' (2008) combined film imagery he used for Karine Ponties with text by the Canadian poet Mylène Lauzon. He worked with Lauzon again to create the photo comic 'Les Images Volées' (2008), about an actress and art photographer whose intimate pictures are stolen. The comic was published in the magazine Frigo-box. In 2016 he made the illustrations for the graphic novel 'Vivre à FranDisco' by Marcel Schmitz (Fremok, 2016).
'Gloria Lopez'.