Fantomia

‘Fantomia’ provides hours of viewing pleasure, with lots of silliness, creativity and visual spectacle. Author Dieter VDO first caught the attention with his debut book ‘Snow’. With its colourful, eccentric style, his work is brimming with references to cartoon characters and popular culture. Reviewers have compared him to the likes of German artist ATAK, Basil Wolverton and medieval painter Jeroen Bosch.

‘Fantomia’ consists of two short stories: ‘Attack on Bloemhoven’ and ‘Enchanted Rock’. What links these stories, and Dieter VDO’s earlier works, is the protagonist Snow. In the first story, he and his friends come to the aid of an inhabitant of Bloemhoeven village to save him from the evil Professor Bibdus. In ‘Enchanted Rock’ Snow and his friends attend a rock festival/talent show which spirals badly out of control.

No, ‘Fantomia’ doesn’t seek to reflect the mundane. The reader is introduced to the so-called ‘HoHos’ (Hominis Hommages), as well as extravagant illustrations, games, the latest fashion trends among the snow and ice people and other cartoons. At the end there’s even an extremely accurate personality test.