Idulfania

Between 2009 and 2011, Brecht Evens created a series of comics for a Brussels-based youth magazine. These hilarious gags about the magic island of Idulfania have now finally been compiled into one book. Evens brilliantly subverts the conventions of the fairy-tale and fantasy genres in ‘Idulfania’. Populated by trolls, giants, kings, witches and dwarves, Idulfania is a land where high hopes tend to be quickly and painfully dashed.

In just three frames, Evens starts by establishing a fairy-tale setting, which he then follows with an extreme realism that inevitably clashes with the rules of the genre. More often than not, the reader can’t help but laugh out loud at the escapades of characters with names such as Orgbald, Hugo or Strongulor, who frequently meet with a violent death. Evens’ distinctive and vivid style of painting, with its many colours and layers, is a wonderful foil for the disappointing fairy-tale land he has created. Dark humour at its best.