Jan Romare (3 January 1936 – 31 August 2017) was a Swedish diplomat and cartoonist.

Biography

Romare sold his first cartoon, ''Igelkotten Hubert'' ("Hubert the Hedgehog") to the magazine '' Folket i Bild'' in 1953, when he was seventeen years old. He created a few other cartoons for ''Folket i Bild'' and the teenage magazine ''Fickjournalen'' during the 1950s. Having finished his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

, he began working for the

Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral rela ...

and received his first foreign posting at the Swedish embassy in Paris in 1963. During his time as a diplomat he had several postings and served as the head of the Swedish delegation to the

UNCHR The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the United Nations System, overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a ...

. In 1987, Romare's comic strip ''Pyton'', about a man and his python snake, premiered in the daily newspaper ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

''. This was Romare's breakthrough as a cartoonist. It was followed by the comic strip ''Himlens änglar'' (''Heaven's Angels''), a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of life after death. In 1991, Romare took a leave of absence from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to focus on his drawing and when he retired in 1998 he began working as a cartoonist on a full-time basis. Romare received the

Adamson Award Adamson Awards is a Swedish award awarded to notable cartoonists, named after the famous Swedish comic strip "Adamson" (Silent Sam). There are two award categories: International and Swedish cartoonist. They have been presented by the Swedish A ...

for Best Swedish Comic-Strip Cartoonist in 1996. His cartoons have been collected in a number of albums.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romare, Jan 1936 births 2017 deaths Swedish editorial cartoonists Swedish comics artists Diplomats for Sweden