Judith Vanistendael

Judith Irene Vanistendael is the daughter of the Flemish poet-journalist Geert van Istendael.^[1] After her secondary studies, she attended an art school in Ghent,^[2] and spent a year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.^[3] Returning to Ghent, she resumed artistic studies for four years before continuing her studies in Seville, Spain.^[2] She learned comics creation at the Institut des arts graphiques Sint-Lukas Bruxelles in 2000,^[2] with teachers, Nix [fr] and Johan De Moor [fr] before publishing in journals such as Ink, Demo, Zone 53001, and Bruxxxel Noord.^[2]

Vanistendael's career began with the illustration of Flemish tales written by her father, Vlaamse Sprookjes (1995), then Het Koeienboek by Bibi Dumon Tak (2000).^[2] She also worked for a time as a children's book illustrator.^[2]

She wrote and drew La Jeune fille et le nègre, an autobiographical story in two volumes about the love between a young Togolese and a young Belgian.^[1] The narration depicts "the absurdity of the regularization procedures for undocumented migrants in Belgium", which multiply the obstacles facing this political refugee.^[1] The book, which mixes drama, humor, love, and lightness, according to Le Soir, immediately won several cultural prizes and was part of the selection for the Essentiels d'Angoulême in 2009,^[1] and for the Prix Tournesol [fr].^[4] The storyline echoes a novel by Geert van Istendael, Bericht uit de burcht (News from the citadel), which expresses his dismay at his daughter's relationship with an undocumented man.^[1]

In 2012, Vanistendael published Toen David zijn stem verloor (David, women and death), whose hero is suffering from cancer and undertakes to change his life,^[5] without succeeding in protecting the women who are close to him from the effects of his agony:—"The disease is the tragedy of the patient, but also of those around him."^[6] The work, which is inspired by the death of Vanistendael's father-in-law, took two years to complete.^[6] Her preference was using watercolor.^[7] The work was one of the five finalists for the critics' grand prize.^[8] She has been nominated for the Eisner Award on three occasions.^[9]

Based on a screenplay by Mark Bellido, Vanistendael drew and colored Salto - L'Histoire du marchand de bonbons qui disparut sous la pluie (Salto - The Story of the Candy Merchant Who Disappeared in the Rain) (2016), which features a candy seller turned bodyguard in Spain of the 1990s.^[10] The main character, Miquel, is a failed writer who sells candy to support his family and agrees to become a bodyguard for a politician threatened by ETA, which ends up destroying his life.^[11][12] Vanistendael uses several processes and formats, in particular the colored pencil.^[12]

Vanistendael joined forces with Michael De Cock [nl] for a children's series, Rosie et Moussa, which appears in Dutch and as a serial in Brussel Deze Week before being the subject of four volumes.^[13] The story tells of the great friendship between two children from Brussels.^[13] The series was translated into many languages and received several awards.^[13] Director Dorothée Van Den Berghe [nl] was inspired by it to create the film Rosie et Moussa, released in theaters in October 2018.^[14]

In 2019, inspired by the character of Penelope in the Odyssey, Vanistendael delivers Les Deux Vies de Pénélope, where a doctor mother engages in humanitarian work and distances herself from her family, especially her daughter. Vanistendael opted for a treatment with "watercolor stains".^[15] Vanistendael long wanted to describe the life of a woman who, due to an intense job, cannot invest herself with her daughter.^[16] Having read the work of Homer, Vanistendael was struck by the role of Penelope, who limits herself to keeping the hearth, while her husband has increasing adventures.^[16] Nevertheless, Vanistendael retains that Odysseus left his family because a higher interest required it.^[15] In Vanistendael's album, Penelope's husband is responsible for watching over the home, while Penelope, haunted by her missions in countries at war, "refuses to let herself be reduced to her dimension as a mother" and returns to her humanitarian activities.^[15] During the production of the work, Vanistendael went to a refugee camp and drew a graphic report: Moria, the hell of Lesbos.^[17][18] For this work, she received the "Bulles d'Humanité" prize, awarded by the newspaper, L'Humanité.^[19]

In 2021, at the Prix Atomium [fr], Vanistendael won the Prix Willy-Vandersteen [fr] with Zidrou for La Baleine-bibliothèque (Le Lombard).^[20]

Vanistendael has a daughter.^[15]

• La Jeune fille et le nègre (scriptwriter and designer), éd. Actes Sud - L'An 2

1. Papa et Sophie, April 2008 ISBN 978-2-7427-7330-5
2. Babette et Sophie, September 2009 ISBN 978-2-7427-7959-8

• David les femmes et la mort (scriptwriter, designer, and colorist), trans. Hélène Robbe, Le Lombard, January 2012 ISBN 978-2-8036-3024-0
• Salto - L'histoire du marchand de bonbons qui disparut sous la pluie (designer and colorist), scriptwriter by Mark Bellido, Le Lombard, June 2016 ISBN 978-2-8036-3384-5
• Rosie et Moussa, Bayard Jeunesse

1. La rencontre, January 2018
2. Une lettre de Papa, May 2018

• Les Deux Vies de Pénélope (scriptwriter), Le Lombard, September 2019 ISBN 978-2-8036-7225-7. Finalist, Prix de la critique, 2020^[21]