92. Keep it simple to avoid getting into a mess

---

---

I.

Ward Wijndelts wrote a book about Joost Swarte, one of the Netherlands’ best-known artists and the originator of the term ‘clear line’. Swarte began with underground comics and later drew covers for publications including The New Yorker. He also created stained-glass art and designed the Toneelschuur theatre in Haarlem.

The book is a quest to uncover the origins of the artist Joost Swarte, Wijndelts said recently on the radio programme Nieuwsweekend (a Saturday fixture for me, by the way). It focuses on the key moments that made his career as an artist possible. Swarte spent hours being interviewed for this, but his colleagues also have their say.

I found it interesting how Wijndelts and Swarte describe the Dutch underground comic scene of the 1960s and 1970s. I only wish Das Mag had printed this book in a larger format with more space for illustrations. I’d like to have a better look at Swarte’s work discussed in the book, without constantly having to flip to the front and back to read, for example, the story of Richard Hanglul in such a tiny format.

That aside, Wijndelts describes Swarte’s development in clear terms (couldn’t resist). The work that lies behind the seemingly effortless final result of his drawings is well explained. Writing is editing, but according to Swarte, so is illustrating. A drawing ultimately revolves around the story you tell with it, he explains. That must be as clear as possible.

“Such a story gains power when it is clearly defined,” writes Wijndelts. “That definition is even crucial. In Joost Swarte’s studio stands an attempt to capture this idea in an object. It is a bicycle with four wheels. A vélo à quatre vents. Each wheel points to a cardinal direction: north, east, south and west. If you can go in all directions, you’ll just stand still,’ he says. ‘Limit yourself, otherwise you’ll get tangled up.’

Wijndelts probably chose to focus on just a few highlights from Swarte’s working life for the same reason. It is therefore not a comprehensive biography, Wijndelts emphasises in the afterword (although Das Mag seems to think otherwise on the back cover). As a result, the narrative sometimes feels a bit disjointed, but it does provide a fine overview of an artist’s development.

---

II.

Just a quick gaming update. I finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard this week and the final chapters were incredibly gripping, just as you’d hope for from a fantasy story in which the world is on the brink of destruction. Just as important, if not more so, is whether all your friends – with whom you’ve formed a bond over the course of dozens of hours – make it out in one piece. That’s not exactly a given, you see.

Next, I’m starting Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, which I’m really looking forward to. Looking back, I realise I haven’t played quite a few of this year’s potential favourites yet. Titles like Astro Bot, Neva, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Animal Well and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth are therefore going on the backlog, but you simply can’t do everything at once. “You miss more than you experience,” Martin Bril once wrote. “Not a problem at all.”

Last week saw the presentation of the Game Awards, the prizes for the best games of the past year. Astro Bot was the big winner. Trailers for upcoming titles were also shown during the event. Here’s what I’m most looking forward to:

Intergalactic is the new game from developer Naughty Dog, the studio behind the Uncharted and The Last of Us games. The trailer looks amazing. It promises to be an action-adventure with a good dose of retrowave thrown in. Can’t wait for this Guardians of the Star Wars.

I never expected the nearly 20-year-old *Okami* to get a sequel, but it’s happening. *Okami* was a PlayStation 2 game about a Japanese goddess in the form of a white wolf. Using a magical brush, you solved puzzles and defeated enemies. I thought it was a brilliant adventure in the tradition of *The Legend of Zelda*. For now, we’ll have to make do with this short teaser for *Okami 2*. Still, the announcement of a ***yet-untitled project from studio genDESIGN*** was *my favourite. Game designer Fumito Ueda is at the helm of this studio. He previously created the beautiful *Ico*, *Shadow of the Colossus* and *The Last Guardian*. This too promises to be something special, even though we’ve only got two minutes of footage and a beautiful piece of music. ---

PS.

Van Dale shut down its Word of the Year vote because it was “hijacked by activist groups”. And so Van Dale itself came up with a word of the year: polarisation. Journalist Menno van den Bos wrote an excellent analysis in his newsletter about what actually happened here.

---

I love restoration videos. Here’s one in which a rare Star Wars poster (signed by the artist) is spruced up. Tears removed, grime scrubbed off, and it’s as good as new.

---

28 Days Later is a brilliant British horror film from 2002. Written by Alex Garland, directed by Danny Boyle, starring Cillian Murphy. There was a sequel, made by different people, called 28 Weeks Later, which most people didn’t rate quite as highly. Now the original creators are reuniting for 28 Years Later and, to be honest, I already find the trailer absolutely terrifying. Can’t wait!

---

A few blokes had the brilliant idea of staging William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in GTA V during the coronavirus pandemic. A documentary has been made about it that I’d love to see, but for now we’ll have to make do with the trailer.

---

There’s a new instalment in the Monument Valley series. As far as I’m concerned, these are the most beautiful mobile games out there. In each instalment, you guide a character through M.C. Escher-esque puzzles. This third instalment also looks stunning and, despite the faceless characters and minimal dialogue, still manages to move you. Monument Valley 3 is playable on Netflix (which made the short video below to promote it).

---

Thanks for reading! Are you already a subscriber?