'LIMBO - Lux in Tenebris?' (2019).
Stephan Louwes is a Belgian artist, who publishes his work online under the pen name Slartz. He made his official debut as a comic creator with the graphic novel trilogy 'LIMBO' (Oogachtend, 2019-2023), which was followed by the cyberpunk comic series 'Moon'.
Early life and career
Stephan Louwes was born in 1993 in Leuven, Flemish Brabant, as the son of a Dutch father and Surinamese mother. Growing up in this Belgian city, he became an avid comic reader, with Grzegorz Rosinski, Régis Loisel, Moebius and Frank Frazetta among his favorite creators. Fully focusing on drawing since age sixteen, he also takes inspiration from films, series, everyday life, absurdism and random items. After a first Applied Arts education at the local De Wijnpers school, Louwes studied Comics & Illustration at the LUCA School of Arts in Brussels between 2013 and 2018, graduating with a Master in Graphic Storytelling. Living in the Leuven suburb of Kessel-Lo, he has since then been combining his day job at a supermarket with independent graphic projects. Between 2021 and 2024, Louwes was the bass player for Tragic Eyes, the solo project of singer/songwriter Wendel Berckmans.
LIMBO
Louwes' graduation project was the graphic novel 'LIMBO - Lux in Tenebris?', subsequently published in book format by Oogachtend. A wordless graphic novel, each page is a full panel that tells the story of a boy who sees his friends disappear in the darkness one by one, leaving him wondering whether he'd risk his life to save them. To add to the overall mysterious atmosphere, both the cover and the interior of the book are printed on a thick type of kraft paper, while the author only used black ink and white paint. The first 2019 book release was followed by two more 'LIMBO' installments, subsequently 'Vox Aquarum' (2021) and 'Legatum' (2023).
'Moon' (sample art).
Other activities
Since 2014, Stephan Louwes has been posting his artwork online under the pen name Slartz. He has specialized in drawing wild nature scenery and "indecent wenches", like his mascot character Elin. Around the same time, he also began working with youth novel author Johan Vandevelde on developing the cyberpunk comic series 'Moon', of the first book edition was published by Menlu in May 2023, with the second volume following in 2024. The series has been published in the French language by Editions Anspach. Louwes has additionally self-published the comic books 'Amazine' and 'The Tale of the Woodsman', and had his comics published on the online Pulp de Luxe comics portal.
Graphic contributions
In 2020, Stephan Louwes joined 75 Dutch & Flemish comic artists to make a graphic contribution to 'Striphelden versus Corona' (Oogachtend/Uitgeverij L, 2020), a free collective comic book in support of the comic stores that had to close their doors during the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
'Limbo'.