Ever Meulen

Ever Meulen (born Eddy Vermeulen on 12 February 1946 in Kuurne, Belgium ^[1]) is a Belgian illustrator, cartoonist, caricaturist and comic strip artist. His pseudonym is based on his shortened name E. Vermeulen.^[2]

Biography

Vermeulen studied graphic arts at the St. Lucas Institute in Ghent and the Luca School of Arts in Brussels. He debuted in 1970, working for the magazine HUMO, where he drew both comics ("Balthazar de Groene Steenvreter" ("Balthasar the Green Stone Eater") and "Piet Peuk" ("Pete Stub")),^[3] as well as cover illustrations, caricatures ^[4] and illustrations to articles.^[5] Whenever Humo published books or CD's Meulen often provided the cover illustration.^[6] In 1983 Humo won a Gold Award for a magazine cover created by Meulen about the visit of pope John-Paul II to Poland, which featured a photograph of His Holiness sporting Lech Walesa's moustache.^[7]

Meulen also had success abroad. In the Netherlands his work was published in the underground comix magazine Tante Leny presenteert!, as well as Vrij Nederland ^[8] and OOR.^[9] In France he published in Libération ^[10] and Télé-Moustique.^[11] During the 1980s his work appeared in Raw and New Yorker.^[12] One of his covers for RAW won the Certificate of Design Excellence.^[13] His work has been exhibited in London, Liverpool, Angoulême, New York, Genève, Amsterdam, Lyon and Turku, Finland. Meulen's book Verve (2006), collecting his most important graphic work from 1988 to 2005, had a foreword by Art Spiegelman.^[14][15] Other artists who praised his work were Saul Steinberg and Andy Warhol.^[16]

Meulen also designed the annual Gouden Uil award ^[17] and made album covers for the Belgian band Telex.

Meulen is known for his love of stylish cars and motorcycles,^[18] as well as old Belgian comics from Tintin and Spirou, two elements he frequently pays homage to in his work. He owns a private Oldsmobile.^[19] His early work is elegant and extravagant, while from 1979 he became more sober, sharper and hookier.^[20]

He taught at St. Lucas in Ghent,^[21] where one of his students was Jeroom.

In 2013 Meulen received the Henry Van de Velde Award for his entire career.^[22]

Sources

External links

• Short biography
• Original art
• Images and short bio
• His page at Lambiek Comiclopedia