Hubert – Gijsemans Ben (2021)

Hubert, an introverted middle-aged man, lives in Brussels but has never settled there. Every weekend, he visits the museum of old and modern art, seeking solace in the paintings. One simple incident can shake his closed world quite significantly. In this meditative debut by the talented young Belgian author, we follow a lonely art lover who visits museums and avoids people. Hubert is one of those beautiful books where almost nothing happens, and that doesn't matter at all. Gijsemans, in his meditative debut, follows Hubert, a solitary man whose world is limited to a few galleries and his own quiet apartment. Throughout the book, he engages in only two real conversations. One with a talkative hitchhiker and the other with a neighbor from downstairs who tries to seduce him. He feels relieved when he manages to escape both. James Smart, The Guardian. Suddenly, loneliness is everywhere. Some people write about it, and others make it the subject of films. Meanwhile, some simply try to cope with it as they have always done. Hubert, debuting Ben Gijsemans as a graphic novel author, is, among other things, about the isolation that city life brings. However, this beautiful, poignant book is not just about what it is like to be too alone;…