Well, what do you know, I got my first comment !!! And he's cutting right to the chase : What exactly is going to happen with Kwak in the future ?

Well, let me just briefly recapitulate on what has happend in the very recent past :
As I said before, Kwak was nominated Unicef Ambassador for the rights of children. This makes me prouder, than I can actually say. As far as I know , this is the first time, that an honor and office like this is put on the shoulders of a cartoon-character. If I'm wrong, please correct me...

What you see above is an illustration I did for the so called "School in a Box ", a campaign to restore and build schools in Sri Lanka after the desastrous tsunami last year.
But the first illustration I ever did for Unicef was - sadly enough- the little epitaph after Peter Ustinov's death, which also became the dedication for the second Kwak- book "Abgemacht ist abgemacht", also initiated by Unicef and dealing with the rights of children and howmuch they are shamefully neglected by world politics.



The first one, "Lachen Verboten " was published in connection to Herman's latest Kwak-Stage-Show about the HIV-issue in Africa.
For next year, we are planning a very big Kwak-Stage event in Linz in collaboration with "Klangwolke", so keep your eyes open for that. There will be another book coming along with that, most propably.



Just a couple of weeks ago , we celebrated a great evening in Essen's Philharmonie , "Herman van Veen and Friends" in favor of the planned "Alfred Jodocus Kwak-House" in Goch, close to the Dutch border. Amongst the guests were Klaus Hoffmann, Heinz Rudolph Kunze, Zap, Harry Sacksioni and Reinhard Mey, which was a great pleasure for me, because Klaus, Herman and Reinhard, that was the diet that I grew up with, "Wie vor Jahr und Tag" actually was the very first record , I ever owned. Funny how life goes, sometimes. I am very thankful for this little capriole of life. If you would go back in time and ask the 15 year old Harald in whose company, he would like to spend an evening, it would have been exactly the same group of people. Inspite of terrible backproblems I enjoyed myself " like a Schneekönig" that night, and it was a long night....



Lets talk a little bit about the Kwak-house as well : The municipality of Goch provided us with a plot of land to build the Alfred Jodocus Kwak House, or as Herman says : its not a house , its .....different ....
It will be a place for children in need, children for example, who have no chance to go a holiday with their parents, maybe because they are sick, or poor or what reason ever, there will be doctors, therapists, entertainers and if everything goes well, also a delfinarium in a little Kwak-Theme-Park.
I will post a link soon, so you can find out everything you need and want to know about it.



Last but not least : I'm busy doing a new Comicstrip."Alfred Jodocus Kwak -Junior", I'm working on the layout at the moment , but we are not going to stop there, the comicbook will only be the first step on the way to the movie. This is of course " Zukunftsmusik" , but we have taken the first steps, we're on our way, and lets see, where it will take us.
As a matter of fact, I created this blog mainly to post the progress, the sketches, the entire development and you will see this project happen right here before your very eyes, you will even be able to read the comicbook, online. I have no idea yet, how that is going to work technically , but we will find a way.
Well, I'm going to leave you on that bombshell, go and spread the news, don't forget to tune in next time,
Seeya, H