How comics became Abel’s gateway to the art world

Believe it or not, but in the fourth year of secondary school Abel hated drawing as a subject. That only changed when he discovered the world of comics years later. Until then, he was still searching for his own path. Abel tried a number of university courses, including Religious Studies, but nothing felt right for him. “I found the way they conducted research at the university exhausting”, he explains. 

Comics as a gateway to the art world 

The turning point in his life came when Abel walked into a comic shop for the first time. At that moment, he still had no idea there was so much going on in the medium. “Suddenly I could see and feel the potential of what you can convey with comic art. Everything is possible. It felt like a calling. Without that experience, I don’t know how long it would have taken before I would have found another way in.” It was not until a year after his ‘minor revelation’ that he discovered the Comic Design course at ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design, Zwolle. “I’m from Amsterdam and my gaze didn’t extend to Zwolle. But when I found this course I immediately thought – this is it, I have to go there. So I applied straight away. Once I was at the academy, I pretty soon realised I was interested in a broader range of things than just comics.” Comics proved to be a gateway to the art world for Abel. Although his love of visual art is still developing, comics are the foundation for his work. 

Other People 

That work found a place in the magazine Other People, set up by Mara Joustra, head of the Comic Design course. It bundles work by students of Comic Design and the Graphic Storytelling course at the LUCA School of Arts in Brussels. Each student gets to fill four pages based on a theme. Abel: “We were able to take the publication to the comic festival in Angoulême. Through Other People, we got author’s passes and were able to move around the festival freely. We got to meet our comic heroes there. People who I only knew from their work, which I had often admired in the multimedia library, were there in real life, beer in hand, and I got to chat to them. That really was a highlight.” 

Magazine Lovely

A personal highlight for Abel was the release of his magazine Lovely. It is an initiative he set up himself to provide a platform for comic and visual art. In it you will find publications that Abel has curated himself. He is involved in the project from A to Z: “I conceived it, pitched it and worked out the practicalities and I set the deadlines. I also do the design and printing and I bind it at the academy. But its strength actually lies in the collaboration.” Abel put together a team, which helped the project to really take off: “For instance, I don’t really like promoting the magazine. So another member of the team handles the socials. Everyone has their own role.” The magazine comes out once every three months.

Counter-reaction

As far as Abel is concerned, his main role is at the front end. Curating exceptional work: “I’m more about the editorial side. I hope to be able to take that further in the future.” Lovely is much more than a magazine to Abel. He considers it an invitation to fellow students to join forces creatively: “Who knows, perhaps as a kind of counter-reaction to Lovely. Maybe there might be students who think: ‘That’s cool, but we could do it much better’, and they actually go and do it!"

The course is a playground and it has given me the essential confidence to tackle this project”

At the start of his Comic Design course, Abel wouldn’t have been able to pull that off, he says: “I think that at the start of the course, everyone is still full of insecurities. You first have to find your place. Gradually, you learn that the course is a kind of playground. That you can do and organise whatever you want. The course has given me the essential confidence to tackle this project. There is a significant autonomous aspect to the course, which I have found to be very liberating.” 

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