Robert van der Kroft (born

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, 1 April 1952) is a Dutch

comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literar ...

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

. He has been drawing the longstanding ''

Sjors & Sjimmie ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' (''George & Jimmy'') is a Dutch adaptation of the comic strip '' Winnie Winkle'', specifically the character Perry Winkle from that strip. The difference between the American original and the Dutch adaptation is that Sjors (Per ...

'' comic strip since 1977, and '' Claire'' since 1988. Beside his work for other comics and commercial work, he co-founded the Dutch comics magazines '' De Vrije Balloen'' in 1975 and '' Zone 5300'' in 1994. More recently he has been promoting the Cross Comix Festival in Rotterdam since 2016.

Biography

Van der Kroft was born and raised in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

as son of an

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

. From early on he was inspired by comics, particularly the works of

Frans Piët Frans Piët (17 February 1905, Haarlem – 5 January 1997) was a Dutch comics artist, most famous as the original creator of the longest-running Dutch comics series of all time: ''Sjors & Sjimmie''. Biography He was born in 1905 as the son of a ...

André Franquin André Franquin (; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are ''Gaston (comics), Gaston'' and ''Marsupilami''. He also produced the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' comic strip from 1946 to ...

, François Walthéry,

Roy Crane Royston Campbell Crane (November 22, 1901 – July 7, 1977), who signed his work Roy Crane, was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip characters Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer. He pioneered the adventure comic strip, estab ...

and

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé ( ; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian comic strip artist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of T ...

. Van der Kroft started drawing at his

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

newspaper. He got admitted to the Rotterdam Art Academy, where he only spend less than two months the first two years. After some freelance work he got a job for the weekly Donald Duck magazine from 1973 to 1977. There he drew covers, posters and comic scenes starring Disney characters such as

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

and The Big Bad Wolf. With the launch of the '' Eppo'' comics magazine in 1975 Van der Kroft came into prominence, when he was offered to draw the

comic. This comic had started by

in 1938, and had been modernized with drawings by

Jan Kruis Johannes Andries "Jan" Kruis (; 8 June 1933 – 19 January 2017) was a Dutch comics artist best known for the family strip '' Jack, Jacky and the Juniors'' (''Jan, Jans en de Kinderen''). Biography He began creating comics as a child. Later he ...

and later

Jan Steeman Jan Steeman (23 May 1933 – 24 January 2018) was a Dutch comics artist, best known for his association football comic '' Roel Dijkstra'' and '' Noortje'', a comic strip about a bumbling teenage girl published in ''Tina''. The latter runs for more ...

with writings by

Martin Lodewijk Martinus Spyridon Johannes Lodewijk (born 30 April 1939) is a Dutch comics writer and cartoonist, and advertising illustrator. Martin Lodewijk was born in Rotterdam. He dropped out of high school in 1957, and started drawing cartoons, notably of ...

. A longstanding cooperation with Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die started under the name the Wiroja's. They established a new clear line-approach for the Sjors en Sjimmie comic, which was published from 1975 to 2001. They also created the ''Claire'' comic series which ran from 1988 to 2017. In 1995 their cooperation was awarded the

Stripschapprijs The Stripschapprijs is a Dutch prize awarded to List of comic creators, comic creators for their entire body of work. It is awarded annually by the ''Stripschap'', the Dutch Society of comics fans, since 1974. The prize is non-pecuniary, but is con ...

1995 at the

comic book convention A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention emphasizing comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events h ...

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

for their successful resurrection of the ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' comic strip. Both ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' and ''Claire'' made comebacks in the quarterly magazine '' StripGlossy'' in 2019. Over the years Van der Kroft did a lot of work for other comics and commercial work. In between he played the guitar in some bands, and more recently works as a DJ. In 1975 he was one of the founders of the Dutch comics magazine '' De Vrije Balloen,'' which was resolved in 1983. In 1994 he cofounded the '' Zone 5300'' with Tonio van Vugt. More recently he has been promoting the Cross Comix Festival in Rotterdam since 2016.

Works, a selection

Photo Gallery

File:Robert van der Kroft (2).jpg, Signing work at the 10th comic convention Gouda, 2016 File:Jazzroute-Piet le Blanc by Robert van der Kroft.jpg, Jazzroute Piet le Blanc by Robert van der Kroft, 2016 File:DJ Robert van der Kroft, 2018.jpg, Sjors & Sjimmie disc jockey in

Delfshaven Delfshaven () is a borough of Rotterdam, Netherlands, on the right bank of river Nieuwe Maas. It was a separate municipality until 1886. The town of Delfshaven grew around the port of the city of Delft. Delft itself was not located on a major ri ...

, 2018

References

External links

Robert van der Kroft
at lambiek.net, 1994-2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kroft, Robert van der 1952 births Living people Dutch comics writers Dutch comics artists Dutch illustrators Dutch humorists Dutch rock guitarists Dutch DJs Artists from Rotterdam Winners of the Stripschapsprijs Dutch advertising artists and illustrators