Spotlight: PIEPKE

Belgium is full of rich culture which is evident in it's great authors, artists, and delicious cuisine (among many other things!). Today we spotlight the world of Belgium's 'Piepke', bursting at the seams with sass and attitude and not feeling bad about it in the process.




QueerTrash-For those who aren't familiar with your characters, can you tell us a little bit about them and the world that surrounds them?

Piepke-My boys are all living in a fantasy world of make up and costume, on the surface a very colorful and sparkling world, but often there's a second layer. Sarcasm and cynism are not strangers to them, and they say thank-you-but-NOT-for-me to political correctness. It's time to have fun again!

QT-Tell us of this exciting comic magazine project you have coming up. What's that all about?

P-The comic magazine is a coming together of many different concepts and collaborations that I worked on the last 5 years. Twelve amazing creatures like Gazelle, Kenny Kenny, Tasty Tim (too name a few) have written short stories with themselves as main characters. Those stories will be featured amongst new projects like the La Page Aux Folles cartoon column, which is running for a while now on the BlitzKids site. Also propaganda toons, a music profile, What's NOT on TV and new collaborations... So instead of a comic book it will be a magazine full of different things, all in multi rainbow color!!!

QT-What inspired you as a child?

P-The whole Blitz Kids scene. People like Divine, Klaus Nomi, Leigh Bowery, Boy George, ...
People who where different and stood out. Since an early age I was scared of growing up 'normal'. I didn't had the fear for not fitting in, i feared the opposite, being 'normal'. So discovering as a child that I was gay was a good thing, that made me already 'different' then other children in school. A good thing, but not always easy.



QT-If we were to spy on some of your characters, what music might they be listening to when hanging out?

P-I guess they listen to the music I use to create them, music is an imported part of my work, of my inspiration... old Malcolm McLarens, Bowie, Blondie, Grace Jones, Boy George (from way back till The Twin). It all depends of the mood, it can go from The Cure to Kylie to Divine. Never say NO to a good old Shoot Your Shot!

QT-For fans of Piepke, where can we get our hands on some of your artwork!?

P-At the moment there are some digital prints at a few group exhibitions (check out www.piepke.org to find out where and when) and for new stuff, like the comic magazine, it's coming at ya in 2009. Info about commissioned work for private clients can go via discomonsters@aim.com
Also features in Gazelland magazine and Lube magazine in November, so go get them via there myspace or site...