His graphic novels have been a little hard for me to get in to so far, but one thing’s for sure-- at his best, Evens’ watercolors are gorgeous, striking and lush.
I see him as sort of an ‘anti-ligne claire’ artist. One who deliberately avoids clean, straight pen lines, and enjoys experimenting with color, blank space and storytelling innovation. Maybe a little bit like if Marc Chagall had done comics?
Evens’ work has won him several awards in the comics industry, including the Prix de L’Audace at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for The Wrong Place in 2011 (also nominated for an Eisner Award), and in 2019 the Special Jury Prize at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for Les Rigoles (translated in to English as The City of Belgium, 2021). --WP
More samples of his work HERE.
Also, maybe people didn’t like the ‘harem’ and ‘sexy legs’ concepts side-by-side?
And maybe they got kind of overloaded by the amount of crazy angles and colors, all vying for attention? Personally I’m in a sort of awe about how Evens pulled it all off so wonderfully, but I’m a lifelong artist who’s used to seeing some pretty crazy stuff on a regular basis. :P