Hanco Kolk (born 11 March 1957,

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

) is a Dutch

cartoonist 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 comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

and

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 comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

. He is best known for his collaborations with

Peter de Wit Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

, with who he made '' Gilles de Geus'' and ''

S1NGLE S1NGLE is a Dutch gag-a-day comic series, created in 2000 by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit. It centers on three women and their endless endeavours to find the right male partner. The popularity of the series inspired a TV sitcom series of the same n ...

' Kolk married author Isabelle Rosselin in 2016.

Biography

Kolk made his debut in the Dutch

underground comics Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

magazine ''Tante Leny presenteert!''. In 1980 he was one of the founders of ''Studio Arnhem'', a collective of comics artists and writers. After working anonymous for the magazine ''

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

'' for several years he went to the magazine '' Eppo'', where he made the humoristic historical adventure comics series '' Gilles de Geus'' together with

from 1983 to 2003. Kolk and De Wit often work together and have created comics such as the photo novel ''Mannetje & Mannetje'' (''Sidekicks'' in English; 1988), which was adapted into a TV sketch show for

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more soc ...

in 1989 and the

gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of ...

comic ''

'' (2001), which was also adapted for television as a sitcom on

NET 5 Net5 is a Dutch free-to-cable commercial TV channel and is part of Talpa TV, formerly a part of SBS Broadcasting B.V. and now owned by Talpa Network. Other channels of the group in the Netherlands are SBS6, Veronica, and SBS9. It is aimed at ...

. The men also presented an educational TV documentary series about drawing comics and cartoons for Teleac in 1992. They also made a comics adaptation of the TV series ''Laat Maar Zitten'' for ''VARA TV Magazine''. In 1988 they founded their own publishing company ''De Plaatjesmaker''. A solo creation by Kolk is his 1992 strip ''Meccano'', which had tremendous success in France. This abstract and stylistic comic set in a fictional country was originally published in ''

L'Echo des Savanes ''L'Echo'' is a Belgian business newspaper, published by Mediafin and mainly distributed in Wallonia and Brussels. It is the French counterpart of the Flemish daily '' De Tijd'' which is its sister paper. History and profile ''L'Echo'' origina ...

'' and won Kolk enormous acclaim. He also created the

comic ''Cor Daad'' in 1984 until 1998 for the Dutch children's magazine ''Taptoe''. and ''Inspecteur Netjes'' (1989) for ''Sjors and Sjimmie Magazine'' (which later became ''Sjosji Striparazzi'') In 2006 he drew a series of cartoons for the magazine ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. In the 2000s he made several autobiographical comics, many about travels to foreign countries like his journalistic voyage from

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

to Bagdad in 2010 with Dutch author

Arnon Grunberg Arnon Yasha Yves Grunberg (; born 22 February 1971) is a Dutch writer of novels, essays, and columns, as well as a journalist. He published some of his work under the heteronym Marek van der Jagt. He lives in New York. His work has been transla ...

. Kolk also writes comics series for other artists, such as ''Falco & Donjon'' for Uco Egmond, ''De Muziekbuurters'' for Ben Westervoorde, ''De Familie Sloterdijk'' and ''Hello You!'' for Michiel de Jong and ''De Kleine Dood'' for Hans van Oudenaarden. He is also active as a painter and restyled the children's section in the Academic Hospital in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

. He also designed the album cover of

Spinvis Spinvis is a Dutch one-man music project centred on Erik de Jong (born 2 February 1961, Spijkenisse). Using experimental, lo-fi music, Spinvis has earned two gold records in the Netherlands, and performed sold-out tours in both the Netherlands ...

' record ''Tot ziens, Justine Keller''. Kolk is the winner of the 1996

Stripschapprijs The Stripschapprijs is a Dutch prize awarded to 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 considered the most import ...

References

External links

* https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kolk1.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolk, Hanco 1957 births Living people Dutch comics artists Dutch comics writers Dutch cartoonists Dutch humorists Dutch painters Dutch male painters People from Den Helder Album-cover and concert-poster artists Winners of the Stripschapsprijs