Belgium’s contemporary comic artists: Wauter Mannaert
Belgian comics are famous worldwide thanks to giants from the past like Hergé and Franquin, but many local artists have followed in their footsteps. In this series, Belga English draws the profiles of four contemporary Dutch-speaking comic artists and graphic novelists with international appeal. Today: Wauter Mannaert, whose career is currently in the spotlight at Brussels’ Comic Art Museum.
After Wauter Mannaert graduated from the Sint-Lukas School of Arts in Brussels in 2002, obtaining a master’s in animated film, he worked as a media educator and youth worker. He also made music, performing with Game Boy consoles converted into musical instruments. His playful attitude, social commitment and sensitivity to the needs of young people would also mark his comics and graphic novels.
"Through my work, I call on people to enrich the world with magic and hope, to never stop believing that we can change things for the better"
In his first graphic novels, Mannaert looked far beyond Belgium’s borders. He made his debut in 2011 with Ondergronds (Underground), an adventurous graphic novel about an unemployed instrument maker in 1930s USA, who takes on a job in a factory but ends up part of a small community trying to survive the crisis years of the Great Depression underground.
His next work, El Mesías, was set in Spain. Specifically in a small Andalusian village, organised as a cooperative and led by a mayor with an utopian project to be an island of social justice in a capitalist sea. The plot was written by author Mark Bellido, who comes from the Andalusian region himself. In 2017, the book was translated into English.
For Weegee, Mannaert returned to the US, to New York before the Second World War. In it, he sketches the hectic life of the iconic street photographer Arthur Fellig, nicknamed Weegee. Fellig was known for appearing on the scene immediately after accidents and crimes, often before the police got there – and for staging his images a little as well.
Afterwards, Mannaert would increasingly draw inspiration from his own environment: Brussels. “For Weegee, I spent countless hours staring at archive photos. It was a relief to then find inspiration on my wanderings around Brussels,” he explained in an interview with Bruzz, the Brussels news platform for which he worked as a cartoonist for many years.
In his Yasmina series, Mannaert uses his experience as a youth worker in Brussels and expresses his ecological concerns. Yasmina is a young girl who can perform magic in the kitchen with natural ingredients. Widely praised, Mannaert’s first Yasmina album, Yasmina and the Potato Eaters, was awarded the prestigious Willy Vandersteen Prize for Best Dutch-language album in 2019. It was also translated into various languages.
After Yasmina, Mannaert continued making children’s comic books that combined playfulness with a social message. “I increasingly wonder what kind of world they [children] will inherit,” he told Bruzz. “Through my work, I call on people to enrich the world with magic and hope, to never stop believing that we can change things for the better.”
"I don’t draw a post-apocalyptic world. I like to take a positive approach"
His next series, The Quest, is a trilogy whose final album is appearing in February. It’s inspired by a book by TH White, Arthur: The Once and Future King, and features the adventures of a young boy who is forced to follow in the footsteps of King Arthur. Mannaert transferred the medieval narrative to today, addressing issues such as pollution and animal welfare with plenty of humour.
“I wanted to reflect on today’s society, in which ecological issues play a major role, but without doom-mongering,” he said. “I don’t draw a post-apocalyptic world. I like to take a positive approach.”
Apart from reading his books, people can also immerse themselves in Mannaert’s universe at Brussels’ Comic Art Museum, where the exhibition The Nature of Wauter Mannaert offers an overview of his work until September.
© PHOTO DANIEL FOUSS / STRIPMUSEUM
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