As part of the Comics Picturing Gilrhood international symposium, Eva Van de Wiele and Benoît Crucifix interviewed two cartoonists trained in Ghent and based in Belgium, Mathilde Van Gheluwe and Valentine Gallardo (who drew the poster for the conference) about their book Pendant que le loup n’y est pas, originally published through Atrabile in 2016. Their graphic novel recounts the experience of growing up in the 1990s amidst horrific cases of child abuse, creating a media frenzy and a range of adult concerns. The book intersperses viewpoints form two pre-teen girls in Brussels, over a couple of years, creating snapshots of this period through different stories seen and drawn from a child’s perspective.
If you are interested in buying the comic we discussed, this is where you can order it
Mathilde Van Gheluwe’s blog can be found here. Follow her on Instagram. Mathilde has published another comic on coming-of-age girlhood, discover it here.
Find Valentine Gallardo’s website or Instagram for more posters, zines, festival news, etc.