Comic Art Museum - Brussels

In 1998, the Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel established a comic strip department.

Its first graduates were able to show off their skills in the Demo and Ink magazines.
They were seen, read and approved. Olivier Schrauwen, Conz, Judith Van Istendael, Simon Spruyt, Kristof Spaey and others can now call themselves fully-fledged comic strip authors.

However, traditional newspaper comic strips or magazine pages are no longer the norm because literary comic strips literally offer authors the opportunity to break out of their boxes.
The transition from comic strip artist to illustrator and back has become very small indeed. Hence, the logical choice to create a synergy between Comic Strip and Illustration within the higher education Graphic Design Department at Sint-Lukas.

bing combines both the work produced by bachelor and master degree students. It reflects the output of intensive workshop activity, with in addition guest colleges and workshops held by top contemporary professionals.

Brussels is also home to the Belgian Comic Strip Center [BCSC]. This magnificent comic strip museum is not only the treasure trove of the Belgian Comic Strip but also an open house for contemporary followers of the ninth art.

The bing presentation at this Art Nouveau temple is a great honour and a wonderful promotional opportunity for 15 debutants.

This publication, with its associated exhibition at the Belgian Comic Strip Center, represents the start of our links with our Dutch colleagues at ArtEZ; the only Comic Design course in the Netherlands.

Johan Stuyck

Lecturer Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel

Publisher of ‘Oogachtend’

Oogst [Harvest] – in Dutch, ‘Oog’ [Eye] in the superlative - is the Dutch supporter of bing. This is a biannual publication since 2009.

The content of Oogst consists of comic strips by Comic Design students at the ArtEZ art academy in Zwolle, and it offers an overview of the new talent that is developing there. Throughout the entire production process, students come in touch with all the various aspects of comic strip production, including editing and design.

Oogst is both the experimental garden for new talent but also forms the backbone of the course in Zwolle. The wide-ranging stories that it publishes demonstrate how versatile and diverse this new generation of comic strip designers is becoming.

Hanco Kolk

Lecturer Comic Design ArtEZ, Zwolle

Bing is more than an attractive sounding acronym, because it guarantees a highly promising group of young talent. The BSC is therefore extremely pleased to welcome these young comic strip lions to the Gallery. Within the walls of the comic strip centre, they are in the good company of the grand masters of the Ninth Art, including Hergé, Marc Sleen, Franquin, and many others. It is the sincere wish of the BCSC that the authors of Bing will follow in their footsteps and that this exhibition will for them be the start of a brilliant career.

Willem De Graeve, Belgian Comic Strip Center