Frederik Van den Stock

Graphic novellist - Illustrations - Drawings - Birding & Cycling enthousiast

 Buck, the First Man on Earth
Kievitsbroek
Short Comics
Illustrations
Sketchbook


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©2024 Mag-Ex

Database & Resources

Sharing is caring. A collection of references, recomendations, friends, important or less important stuff. 
Since it takes a long time looking for and finding useful software, fun & non-fascist online spaces, information etc. I’ll go a head and share my favorite links in a very web 1.0 way. Since every online search for good stuff results in AI-generated slop or sponsored links or a combination of both.

In short: 
Never forget we are an altruistic species. Let’s try and find places and people to share with. Let’s build things together. Stay positive. 

Some friends:
Charlotte Dumortier
Sander 
Loïc Guyon
J. Krisis
Hannah Verbeke

Aline Magazine 
Oogachtend
Même Pas Mal
Vonk & Zonen

Software
Step #1 in browsing the internet: Get Firefox and the uBlock Origin addon to remove the cancer of advertising from the internet. Uninstal Chrome.
Step #2: Get the NoScript addon to remove the thousands of javascripts creepily stalking you on practicaly every website. You can mannualy allow scripts of trusted websites or to make some sites work without all the stupid tracking. It’s kinda more advanced and it sometimes takes a while to figure out which 2-3 of the thousand scripts active on a website are needed to make it work. You get used to it. 
Mastodon: I’m going to post sketchbook stuff and short comics there. Join up! I also made a Bluesky account, but changing from one tech idiot’s playground to another tech idiot’s seems kinda pointless. Whatever. For now I’m also keeping my Instagram online, but I’ve always hated that site. Some great comic book artists have figured it out beter than me and I truly think that’s great, though. There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism.
Blender: Excellent Oopensource 3D-program. My hobby project is building a rainy night scene set in a desolate Ardennes town, but I frequently get lost Geometry Noding asbestos roof coverings for an empty garage somewhere in the background of the scene. It’s a lot of fun. Youtube has a huge database of tutorials, so go tehre after you’ve installed uBlock origin. 
Affinity: Cheap Adobe alternatives. See also: Krita, Gimp. Back when I graduated I bought Photoshop CS4, but when my pc died a couple of years ago Adobe removed to option to download it again so fuck them. Wouldn’t trust them training their AI on everything you make in their software either. But what do I know?
PIA VPN: €70 for three year membership seemed like a good deal and I guess I feel better browsing anonymously. 
OpenOffice: Opensource alternative for MS Office. 
Opentoonz: Free animation program developed and used by Studio Ghibli. Haven’t used it yet, but making animations is somewhere on my long to-do-list. 
AntennaPod: Opensource podcast app for Android. 

Music
Radio Centraal: Free radio in Antwerp. Crazy sounds.  Together with J. Krisis I host Atelier Central, wed. 21h30-22h30 pm CET.
NTS, Kiosk, Radio Panik...: great and unique radio. 
Mixxx: Opensource DJ- program. Works great. 
Soulseek: Music sharing program, still active after all these years. Nicotine+ is a more modern skin. 
Bandcamp: Great place for discovering new music, browsing through labels’ catalogues and supporting independent music. My account is voederbak.bandcamp.com and I’m really into trashy French post-punk. 
Foobar: Opensource music player. 
yt-dlp: A way to download videos from Youtube. 

Letterboxd account.
La Commune by Peter Watkins: A truly unique film about the Paris Commune of 1870 in documentary style. 

Donoteat01’s Franklin & Power, Politics, Planning series: The history of a fictional North American city from pre-columbian to modern times, with a focus on urban planning, development and social issues, recreated in City: Skylines. Informative and funny. Highly recommended. 
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: A blog by historian Dr. Bret Deveraux, with a lot of focus on daily life in the classical age Meditarrenean. A lot of comparing what different sources say and how to interpret them. 
Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t: Great channel about botany. His Destroy your Lawn, Illegal Gardening and Railyard Camp Botany videos are a good entry point. 
Not Just Bikes: Solid information about good urban planning and road safety. Something I like to nerd about. 
The Field Guides Podcast: Two guys go walking in the field while talking about the sience behing a natural history topic. Very informative and easily digestible. They constantly talk about the uncertainity of scientific studies, which is a good indicator. 
TyfusTyd: Dennis Tyfus’ fantastisch programma op Radio Centraal. Zijn luistersoap De Poepslinger, over het reilen en zeilen van de winkel van fopartikelen van Frank Prank & Frank Mangelschots in de Antwerpse binnenstad is écht verslavend. 

Art & Fear: If you’re ever down about your art and making it read this book.