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Mi pequeño

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Con un estilo gráfico tomado de los maestros americanos de principios del siglo XX, Olivier Schrauwen propone una serie de historias decididamente imprevisibles en las que aflora la herencia del surrealismo belga. Unas originales páginas que nos dejan a medio camino entre la hilaridad, la incomodidad y el estupor.

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

262 people want to read

About the author

Olivier Schrauwen

32 books198 followers
Olivier Schrauwen is a Belgian cartoonist and musician, currently based in Berlin.
Schrauwen was born in 1977 in Bruges, a city in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. He studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, then obtained a master degree in comics at the 'École superieure des Art Saint-Luc' in Brussels.
His works include the surreal Arsène Schrauwen (2014), the six sci-fi stories collected in Parallel Lives (2018), the pirate story Portrait of a Drunk (2019) in collaboration with French cartoonists Ruppert and Mulot, and his slice-of-life magnum opus Sunday (2024).

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5 stars
108 (31%)
4 stars
133 (38%)
3 stars
72 (20%)
2 stars
25 (7%)
1 star
6 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for karen.
4,012 reviews172k followers
October 16, 2011
this book is great - its got a real winsor mccay-ish feeling to it. my best find at mocca, by far. i urge you all to track it down because the fact that i had to add it to goodreads.com myself means not enough of you are reading it. and no fair borrowing mine.

oh, and i wrote this so long ago that it was before i even knew how to add pictures to reviews, but now i know, so to sweeten the request, here are some images from the book! which is probably still hard to find (but worth it), but fortunately, he has a new book out:

Man Who Grew His Beard, The

which you can buy at any halfway decent barnes and noble, because it is not like it is a dc title or anything.

but look!! artwork!! you will love it!!

[image error]





i haven't read the new one yet, but i can at least vouch for this one.
it is "national trust a karen day."
let me be your karen.
Profile Image for Adrián Ciutat.
202 reviews31 followers
July 22, 2020
Una segunda lectura le ha sentado estupendamente para apreciar algunos matices de su particular surrealismo que se me habían pasado en la primera.
Sin menospreciar el guión, de este tomo destaco el dibujo y el color, ambos maravillosos y fieles a la tradición europea.
Profile Image for Leopoldo.
Author 13 books117 followers
May 1, 2025
El debut del genio del cómic belga, aunque menos propositivo y con una visión de lo colonial mucho menos desarrollada que en trabajos siguientes (véase su brillante "Arsene Schrauwen"), hace evidente ya su talento para el tratamiento de la figura humana y la expresión facial, además de tener una historia entrañable y un personaje principal simpatiquísimo.
Profile Image for Reggie.
144 reviews
January 23, 2018
Obra maestra, como todo lo que sale de las manos de Schrauwen. Delirante el episodio en el zoológico.
Profile Image for Guillermo.
299 reviews168 followers
December 21, 2022
Schrauwen es un genio y este cómic es otra buena muestra de ello.
Profile Image for Laurent De Maertelaer.
821 reviews170 followers
April 27, 2019
Schrauwens debuut uit 2006, hier in een Engelstalige herdruk uit 2014. Een absurdistisch en bevreemdend verhaal over een jongetje dat niet mag opgroeien van zijn overbezorgde en neurotische vader. De klare lijn overheerst, de kleuren zijn met opzet vaag maar steeds subliem gebruikt.
Profile Image for Titus.
440 reviews60 followers
September 16, 2021
This is one of Olivier Schrauwen’s earlier works, originally published in 2006, and it employs what I believe was his signature art style at the time: gloriously old-fashioned, reminiscent of US newspaper strips and Franco-Belgian comics from the first half of the twentieth century. I absolutely love this aesthetic, which is similar to (but less varied and ambitious than) the art in The Man Who Grew His Beard (which remains my favourite of the Schrauwen comics I’ve read). I much prefer it to the cruder, more stripped-down style that he uses in his more recent work.

My Boy consists of six short comics about an oafish aristocrat and his miniscule, indeterminately aged son. They’re basically surrealist humour comics, gently amusing and pleasingly bizarre, but not really connecting with me on any deeper level – at least not on first read. There are some hints of underlying existential dread, and of seriously exploring father-son relationships, but they feel less developed than the intellectual and emotional themes in The Man Who Grew His Beard and Parallel Lives. That said, I could see it growing on me with a second read.
Profile Image for Troy.
300 reviews195 followers
April 24, 2010
Olivier Schrauwen is one of my new favorite comic book artists, but I've only read three of his stories: this book, two connected stories in MOME 12 and MOME 14 , and a story in (the ridiculously awesome) Glomp 9 . Oh, and he's also got a blog. And the blog and each of those stories are damn perfect. Schrauwen changes styles from heavy metal notebook-drawings to Winsor McCay impersonations to I-don't-know-what-the-hell-that-is. He's damn awesome. Gocheckhimout.

Also check out Yuichi Yokoyama, Amanda Vähämäki and Laura Park. All recent faves; all awesome.

I hope they all go down the path of my earlier faves, Kevin Huizenga, Andres Neilson, or Dan Zettwoch, and not abandon comics like the ridiculously talented Genevieve Elverum or Edie Fake.
Profile Image for Peanut.
74 reviews
July 13, 2020
He really never disappoints does he :'•)

this was so funny, the zoo comic in partic, estupendo
Profile Image for Juan Fuentes.
Author 7 books83 followers
September 28, 2022
La mezcla entre el dibujo de estilo 'vintage' y la historia llena de humor negro funciona de maravilla.
Profile Image for Jose Brox.
217 reviews26 followers
April 26, 2018
En mi opinión la calidad de su guion es muy variable y va más o menos in crescendo: lamentablemente la historia de apertura no me gustó nada (nacimiento, 1 estrella), la segunda me dejó frío (vida diaria, 2 estrellas), la tercera me pareció desternillante en su segunda parte (zoo, 4 estrellas), y la última es muy típica pero tiene un detalle realmente genial (crecimiento, 3.5 estrellas). El dibujo es muy bueno en su estilo, que es una copia del viñetismo americano clásico, pero yo prefiero un dibujo detallado y realista, o en su defecto que al menos presente cierta originalidad.
Profile Image for Mark.
Author 1 book16 followers
Read
February 2, 2013
A bizarre, wonderful, and strangely sweet collection of stories that's also an homage to the great American strip masters Feininger and McKay, through Schrauwen's own eccentric lens. This one is a favorite of mine. [Disclaimer: I was the translation editor of the English edition.]
Profile Image for Fugo Feedback.
5,210 reviews175 followers
February 18, 2011
Impresionante primer encuentro con este Windsor del s. XXI que conjuga lo mejor de la estética de Little Nemo con un humor negro 100% ingenioso y efectivo. A ver qué más encuentro de este señor.
Profile Image for Sam.
135 reviews45 followers
December 2, 2015
"Mein Gott, ist der Junge hässlich." Wunderbare Illustrationen die den absurden Humor dieses leider viel zu kurzen Graphic Novels perfekt unterstreichen.
Profile Image for Rick Ray.
3,548 reviews40 followers
June 25, 2023
A series of bizarre short stories about a man and his young son, ranging from trips to the zoo and leaving the boy in the care of a babysitter as the man goes out on a date. The entire set of stories are highly surreal and have a dream quality to it, and reminscent of what its like reading many early newspaper strip comics like Winsor McCay's Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend and Little Nemo in Slumberland or George Herriman's Krazy Kat strips. Schrauwen adds his own twist to the strip format to great effect, with expert panel layouts and color separations. My Boy isn't as fully realized as some of Schrauwen's later works, but it's still a masterful display of creativity in the comics medium.
Profile Image for Przemysław Skoczyński.
1,460 reviews52 followers
August 5, 2019
Z absurdalnej i utrzymanej trochę w poetyce snu opowieści można wyłapać kilka obsesji, jakie każdego rodzica kiedyś w końcu dopadną. Jest obawa o to czy dziecko będzie "ładne" i jak jest postrzegane przez innych, chorobliwy strach przed czyhającymi niebezpieczeństwami, panika na myśl, że kiedyś dorośnie czy w końcu przelewanie na nie naszych fascynacji, zainteresowań i upodobań. Nic się jednak nie stanie jeśli ktoś odczyta to po prostu jako odjechany strumień nonsensownych wydarzeń powstałych w chorej wyobraźni autora. Nasz komiksowy rynek potrzebuje więcej Schrauwena
Profile Image for Mel.
1,014 reviews38 followers
January 24, 2022
This book is too bizarre to describe. I loved everything about it, except for the cringey/slightly (very?) racist pygmies.

A favorite because I’ve never read anything like this before and I kept going “WHAT” over and over as it continued to outdo itself.
Profile Image for Andreea.
105 reviews2 followers
September 4, 2023
Tasteful dark humour, smart arrangement of pannels and intriguing dynamic, ironic take on Begian culture yet still not far from historic accuracy, sensitive use of imagery and clues, deeply haunting plot twist.
Profile Image for Maricruz.
541 reviews67 followers
November 30, 2019
Dibujo estilo Winsor McKay al servicio de una historia delirante, brutal a ratos y conmovedora. Una maravilla.
Profile Image for D.F. Gallardo.
Author 5 books50 followers
February 22, 2025
Una maravilla absoluta tanto en dibujo como historia, me encanta la pareja protagonista que forman padre e hijo, lástima que sea tan corto, solo espero que haya más. Indagaré.
Profile Image for Drew Canole.
3,210 reviews48 followers
December 12, 2025
Fanastic artwork by Schrauwen in the style of the early Sunday newspaper strips. A bizarre goofy tale of a weird little boy.
Profile Image for Ricardo Baptista.
268 reviews8 followers
February 15, 2012
São sempre marcadas pela surpresa as minhas visitas a alguns portais de banda desenhada espanhóis. A surpresa advém da diversidade e qualidade das coisas que lá encontro. É que os "nuestros hermanos" cultivam um mercado editorial de bd que não acusa a sua proximidade geográfica à nossa "mercearia de bd".
Há dois anos recebi como prenda de aniversário um volume massudo do Little Nemo, de Winsor McCay, uma obra-prima do início do século XX, nos primórdios da arte, que primava pela sua estética deslumbrante e o seu assunto surrealista. Confesso que mal toquei no tomo, não por falta de interesse mas pelo medo de o estragar, até hoje mantém o plástico que o envolve, de vez em quando tiro-o religiosamente e faço os possíveis para não danificá-lo com um olhar demasiado abrasivo.
Embora aparentemente sem ligação, os parágrafos anteriores têm em comum este "Mi Pequeño". Passo a explicar.
Olivier Schrauwen é belga, não como as bolachas mas como os nativos da Bélgica, mas em vez de recorrer ao longo e nuclear património da bd belga (não é à toa que usamos o termo franco-belga para falar de um tipo de bd), decidiu atravessar o oceano para encontrar a sua inspiração para este livro. Winsor McCay, Richard F. Outcalt e George MacManus são os nomes citados na nota biográfica do autor e, para além de serem alguns dos grandes pioneiros da bd americana, parecem também ter possuído Schrauwen, notoriamente, pelo aspecto e estrutura desta bd.
A esta "pureza" de estilo gráfico contrasta-se o seu conteúdo, esse sim, de Schrauwen, que chega ao ponto de ser macabro, com mortes inúmeras e violência gratuita. A intercalar (aqui exagero) o mórbido, a história de um pai e um filho e da sua relação através de aventuras episódicas que mimetizam na perfeição os velhos mestres: no traço, nas cores esbatidas, na ausência de calhas e até nos balões rectangulares. Há pequenos pormenores como o capítulo inaugural, referência a uma era anterior da bd e como entre cada capítulo, as ilustrações esquemáticas que parecem pertencer a manuais ou revistas científicas dos anos cinquenta.
E o humor, de um absurdismo hilário a um sadismo delicioso que faz rir à gargalhada. A caricatura de criança que é o filho, imutável desde o nascimento e que leva ao desespero do seu pai no último episódio quando começa a crescer e envelhecer sem freio.
A narrativa atinge o seu clímax na ida ao jardim zoológico, Schrauwen aumenta a parada e continua até à genialidade, surpreendendo com a sua capacidade para ligar vinhetas e personagens, literalmente neste último caso.
É igualmente curioso que consiga notar semelhanças físicas entre o bebé e Jimmy Corrigan, personagem de Chris Ware - que mais que autor é um estudioso da bd -, será partilha de herança memética?
Em suma, uma bem conseguida e bem-humorada homenagem a um passado que poucos, mas em número crescente, vêm a recordar com saudade.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Gala.
76 reviews108 followers
December 29, 2020
el estilo y el color <33
No soy fan de las historietas cortas en el punto medio entre lo surreal y tener sentido, se debe eligir un bando (no es un deber pero a mi me gustaría)

Lo revisitaré porque me estoy sintiendo culpable ahora mismo
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews