OPIUM HEATHEN - Opium Heathen [FULL ALBUM] 2025

https://peertube.gravitywell.xyz/w/3jiEUa2NUMrHtP4PKwUQ4d

#EU races to win #Belgian backing for €140B #Ukraine loan

by Bjarke Smith-Meyer, Camille Gijs, Gregorio Sorgi, and Giovanna Faggionato

The European Commission will try on Friday to assuage Belgium's concerns over the legal and financial risks of repurposing russian assets.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-races-to-win-belgian-backing-for-ukraine-loan

#Belgian security services believe a state actor, most likely #russia, is behind a series of recent #drone incidents that disrupted air traffic and #military operations

#EU #hybrid #war

https://www.belganewsagency.eu/belgian-security-services-suspect-russian-involvement-in-drone-incidents

THROYA HANDS INNA AIR LIKYA JUST DON'T CARE, from Alix Garin's superb "Impénétrable." (5 pages total, plus notes)

https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Impenetrable-503154.html

This image hit me fairly early-on as I was reading what I would later realise was a super-wonderful BD. But why this particular pic? Welp, because I absolutely LOVE it when comics artists find ways to reduce image detail in order to convey a clear message.

And meanwhile, as the reader, there’s really nothing to complain about! Everything makes sense, and there’s really no particularly good reason to add extra detail, at least as I see it.

Eh, here’s the full page, anyway, in which both the author and subject Alix Garin are livin’ it up in a Berlin nightclub:

https://i.imgur.com/eBdWFql.jpeg

Anyway, BDT has this to say about the album: (with a little translation help from some idiot)

]> In a deeply intimate and moving narrative, Alix Garin tells us about her liberating journey through the meandering, baffling nature of sexual disorders. About the struggle to regain possession of one’s body and sexual desire. It is in fact a highly-moving quest for healing, emancipation and love.
]>
]> Through ups and downs, failures and victories, Alix explores the depths of her own psyche, the links between the physical and the mind, and the complexity of sexuality.

Anyway, more later on this magnificent, significant work, but here’s a few more ’nightlife Berlin-style’ pages I thought you might like. I know I did: :D

https://imgur.com/a/alix-enjoying-berlin-nightlife-from-superb-gn-bd-imp-n-trable-2024-jOj3luS

Gaston's pigeon takes the initiative. (8 comics, with intro notes)

Mssr De MesMaeker is of course one of Spirou Magazine’s most important clients, perpetually on the verge of signing lucrative contracts with office-boss Fantasio.

For those unfamiliar with this classic André Franquin series, it’s a spinoff of *Spirou et Fantasio*, set in a cartoon depiction of the real-life Spirou offices in Brussels. The main character is “Gaston Lagaffe,” a lazy, accident-prone, yet relentlessly inventive junior office worker who reports to Fantasio.

Unlike some of the longer narratives seen in S&F, this comic simply aims for light, familiar, amiable humor. It’s not necessarily wickedly clever nor side-splitting, rather the pleasure mostly comes from seeing whatever lunatic scheme Gaston is working on, usually to someone’s detriment.

Btw, these all come from Cinebook’s Mind the Goof album, in which Gaston’s name is translated to “Gomer Goof” for English-speaking audiences. To me that happens to sound ridiculous, but oh well.

Certainly, one of the first questions any reader will ask is: why the hell wasn’t Gaston fired long, long ago? Or: is Fantasio the most patient, long-suffering boss in the world, with a natural immunity to cardiovascular events?

Gaston’s *official* backstory is that one day he showed up in the mailroom, started working, and for whatever reasons got hired. But let’s face it– he’s almost certainly a ’nepo-baby,’ and the whole office is simply forced to put up with his antics, other than Miss Jeanne (seen above), who thinks he’s a genius.

Haha. Gotta love it when the tables turn, as with these last two…

"Rork" chilling in the trees with four of his besties (a brief intro to Andreas' character)

Oof… I’ve some serious egg on my face for not previously mentioning German-Belgian Andreas Martens’ weird and wonderful Rork sci-fi character here before. I’m afraid my pitiful excuse in this case is that I simply haven’t read much of the material. So far!

“Rork” is a series of 8 GN’s about a white-haired wizard-type from another dimension who solves supernatural mysteries, before embarking on a quest to discover his origins. During his quest, he’s assisted by a cast of characters including occult detective Raffington*, astrologer *Capricorn*, psychic *Deliah*, the immortal *Yosta*, and others. His enemies are the mysterious *Pharass & Dahmaloch, revealed to be an analogy for the Devil himself in the later, twin “Capricorne” series. –WP and Johnny

The Rork series is notable for its use of allegory, mysticism, visual sequencing and unusual “dynamic” framing, with a visual structure and rhythm rather uncommon in Euro comics.

Many mysteries explored in the various albums are not revealed until the 7th album and some albums of the twin “Capricorne” series, and even then many enigmas remain unanswered for the reader. –WP

Andreas’ LBK entry:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/a/andreas.htm

Signature sounds of the fifties? (a little intro to "Greenwich Village;" art by Antonio Lapone)

“Bebe,” one of our two protags, is sort of a ‘celebrity flight-attendant,’ who is in fact a fashion model in high demand. She’s temporarily moved to NYC to get away from various distractions and unwanted suitors, such as “Massimo,” an Italian nobleman endlessly in pursuit of her.

(right-click as needed)

In the above page, he’s managed to track her down to her apt in Greenwich Village. Finally, they can get hitched! (whether or not Bebe has the slightest interest, which she mostly doesn’t) But he’s a powerful man, who can make her life hell if he chooses.

In that first page above, she blurts out that she’d already gotten married a few days prior. Enraged, he doesn’t believe her, and now she’s on the spot, needing to produce a proxy. Fortunately, her neighbor and fellow protag “Norman,” a strapping young journalist, fits the bill rather well. In the second page we see him going about his day, in his office-apt.

The story is a classic, surely right out of the golden-age Hollywood playbook. I found it fun to read, and not too taxing on my modest ‘A1/A2’-level French. Most of all, I really dig Italian Lapone’s art, which I find to be a sort of jet-set, googie, retro-futuristic variant of late-stage LC art.

More on the book: (oh, is it a series?)
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-48979-BD-Greenwich-village.html

And more on Lapone:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/lapone_antonio.htm

Btw, I’ve only read ~3 of his works so far, but found his “Adam Clarks” spy/heist-thriller to be a modern BD masterpiece. I hope to share more on that one… er, one of these days! 😅

Drones spotted over Belgian military base 3rd night in row; #espionage suspected

Incidents appear part of espionage operation, #Belgian Defense Minister said, without naming the culprit but linking the incidents to recent Russian #AirspaceViolations in #Europe

The #Russians are trying to do this in all #European countries. Is it the Russians now? I can’t say that but motives are clear & ways of doing things like this are very clear

https://kyivindependent.com/drones-spotted-over-military-base-in-belgium/

#RussianAggression #RussianInvasion

"I like the cut of his jib!" 😬😬😬

From https://t.me/United24media

#NATO will “wipe #Moscow off the face of the earth” if #Putin decides to attack the Alliance, #Belgian Defence Minister #Theo_Francken said.

Commenting on #Putin’s threats over potential #Tomahawk supplies to #Ukraine, he added that “the lesson is that we must not give in to threats.”

“#Putin said the same thing when #Finland and #Sweden joined #NATO, and when we supplied tanks, missiles, and #F_16 fighter jets,” he said.