COMICA NEWS

Jean Van Hamme & Largo Winch

Posted: March 26, 2010

You may not have heard of Jean Van Hamme (and no, he’s not “the muscles from Brussels”, that’s Jean-Claude Van Damme), but he is a hugely popular, superstar scriptwriter of a string of hit Belgian bandes dessinées series, including: the heroic fantasy saga Thorgal, high-finance thriller Largo Winch, amnesiac mystery XIII, enigmatic secret agent Lady S. and brand-new exploits of thoroughly British partnership Blake & Mortimer (all of these series are being published in English from CineBook). Another of Van Hamme’s credits is co-writer of the screenplay for Jean-Jacques Beineix’s ultimate-cool 1981 movie Diva.

Now Van Hamme makes his first major UK appearance at last on May 5th at a special Comica Event, in conversation after an exclusive big-screen showing of the 2008 (yes, 2008) lavish, live-action, English-language movie adaptation of Largo Winch, out soon directly on DVD. More details here…

Earlier on the evening of May 5th, from 5.30pm to 7pm, Van Hamme will also be signing his books at The French Bookshop in Bute Street, South Kensington. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet this major author of mainstream French-language comics.

While we wait for the Anglophone audience to wake up and discover these comics and their spin-offs, the latest word is that a second Largo Winch is underway with Sharon Stone joining the cast, based on the albums Fort Makiling and The Hour of Tiger, compiled in the fourth of Cinebook’s translatons.