The Monarch Matador

Again I was asked to do a cover for anti-monarchist magazine ' De Republikein', this time about the consequences a united Europe will have for the crowns on the assorted royal heads, and for their so-called subjects.
Europe, in Greek mythology, was abducted by Zeus in the shape of a bull. ( 'Signal' , the 'Newsweek' of the nazi's, used her and her kidnapping beast as a logo, by the way.)
In my first sketch the king was deemed too positive, too powerful, 'his' people too weak.
The final image is more true to the facts: out of fear of change and loss of independence the people cling to 'their' monarch, not necessarily out of love for the monarchy.

Cover Republikein

Unable to resist Mr. 7's relentless invitations to take part in this blog , for starters I submit this cover I did for 'De Republikein', a magazine devoted to topple the queen's throne. This particular issue dealt with the royal claims to a divine connection. To this day every royal decree in the Netherlands begins with the phrase: 'By the grace of God'...
(I wont deny sharing the views of this magazine, but at the same time I'm not so sure I'm all for an elected president, seeing who would be likely candidates in this country. Not to mention certain presidents ruling elsewhere... Also I don't mind admitting that prince Willem-Alexander, heir to the Dutch throne, impressed me when right after 9/11 he called for a redistribution of wealth, believing a world less unfair would reduce violence, before he was apparently told to keep his royal mouth shut, because of course violent retaliation is far more effective than sharing more equally! Why give millions to the poor when the arms-industry is dying for profit?)
The drawing was done with a very fine ballpoint-pen (the 'Pilot FEED-White Line', fountainpen-shaped, containing 3 colours (black, blue & red) and white correction-tape-dispenser), that a friend had just given me. The line it produces is too skinny at times, I think, but it's delicate too. Still being a digital rookie myself, the colouring , purposely cheapy digi-kitsch, was done with Pablo Hermano.