Third page:

	"I'll call you and wake you in the morning. And I can't wait to see you, darling."
"Me neither, sweetie!"*
	"Till tomorrow. Sleep well!"
"See you tomorrow, sweetie!"
		(ring tone)
Impossible to translate the "Ik zie je graag"/"Ik zie je graager" exchange accurately. And the pet names are much more bokeworthy than my translation.

I was blown away by Evens’ previous book, Ergens waar je niet wil zijn (The Wrong Place), and grabbed this as well; it won the Fauve d’Angoulême: Prix Spécial du Jury at the Angoulême International Comic Book Festival. Here’s a (wordless) trailer for it:

Before I get into substance, I’m really intrigued by the three different titles in three languages of publication. The Dutch original can be translated as “The Entertainment” though the connotation is of a particular event rather than an ongoing activity. In French, the book’s title is “Les Rigoles”, which literally means “The Gutters” but more slangily could be “The Laughs” or perhaps “The Larfs”, close to the sense of the Dutch (if plural rather than singular); but “Les Rigoles” is also the name of the author’s favourite cafe in Paris. The English title, “The City of Belgium”, weirdly contradicts the spirit of the story which is that the events (and the gutters) could be set in any western European large city that isn’t Berlin, and the setting nods to Paris, Antwerp and Brussels (as well as being closer to the beach than any of those three cities actually is). So there’s a strange ambiguity about what story is really being told here.

Anyway. As with Ergens waar je niet wil zijn, we have a story with three main characters, Jona, Victoria and Rodolphe, who meander across their unnamed city finding (or avoiding) deeper truths about their lives, with again the vortex of carnality and enjoyment that is Disco Harem providing a geographical anchor for the narrative strands. Robbie from Ergens waar je niet wil zijn puts in a guest appearance at one point. Evens’ watercolour style is arresting and intriguing, and his gimmick of giving each of his protagonists a primary colour (Jona blue, Victoria yellow and Rodolphe red) works well to convey their very different perspectives. He gives his minor characters more of a voice here too, each of the three protagonists acquiring a strange sidekick, and also each getting rides with the same mysterious taxi driver, who tells each of them different stories. I enjoyed most of it; I felt that the three stories did not all end equally satisfactorily – in particular the last 40 pages (of 300) follow just one of the three protagonists on his personal path to enlightenment, which felt unbalanced. But in general it’s pretty good. You can get the Dutch original here and the English translation here.

This was my top unread non-English comic. Next on that list is Oyasumi, by Renee Rienties.

Second frame of third section (Gert's new boss is explaining the school philosophy to him):

School principal: I believe that in this school we are doing a reasonable job of preparing* the boys and girls for the challenges of the adult world.
They are sweet children, most of them anyway… You know how it is at that age, you're finding out where the boundaries are, and at first they'll try and see what you will let them get away with. You just have to show them that there are limits.
* The verb "klaarstomen" actually implies much more energy than the simple English “to prepare”, suggesting that the preparations are steam-powered. It is mainly used in edcuational contexts, sometimes as an equivalent of "to cram", but that would not have been correct here.

This won the first Willy Vandersteen Prize for the best Dutch-language comic of the previous two years (annual since 2014). It also won a Prix de l'Audace at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, and an Eisner nomination (for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art), in 2011). I thought it was really good.

It's a story in three parts. First, Gert throws a party in his attic apartment; all his old friends have come in the hope of catching up with Robbie, the most popular chap in the class. Lots of views of stilted conversation through the empty chair where Robbie is not sitting. In the second part, Robbie works his charm on lonely Noemie, who casts her inhibitions aside for some wild sex with him. And thirdly, Gert catches up with Robbie after checking in grayly and anonymously for his new job as a school administrator, and their relationship is laid much more open to us as readers than to them as characters. Robbie's favourite night club, Disco Harem, lurks in the anecdotes told by guests in the first part, and is the setting for most of the second and third parts; it is lushly realised and almost qualifies as a character on its own.

The extraordinarily expressive watercolour art (see here for some sample frames) is what puts this album a cut above the usual Flemish reality comic (which I tend to enjoy anyway). Here are the guests filing up the stairs to Gert's party, for instance:

And the graphic story medium, done well as it is here, can catch nuances of characterisation that the printed page cannot (look for instance at the faceless silhouette of the principal as he talks to Gert). I strongly recommend this. You can get it in Dutch here and in English here.

I may try and read the other Vandersteen Prize winners. Amoras vol 5: Wiske is on my list anyway as I have been working through that series. Unfortunately the 2011 winner, Terug naar Johan, by Michiel van de Pol, seems to be out of print.