I have always been interested in comics and movies. From 1993 until 1997 I went to art school (Academie Minerva in Groningen) and after that I worked a few years as an illustrator and comic artist. I slowly discovered that the act of drawing was something I did out of a necessity. It enabled me to tell stories with images. I noticed that most of my fellow comic artists seemed to enjoy every minute of the process, making drawings and sketches all the time. Even if they were not working on a specific story or character. But to me those things were the primary goal to pick up a pencil. I had a passion for the result, but I didn't really enjoy the process.
Since 2009 I started writing about the history of Dutch comics and animation and of this process I enjoyed every minute! I chronicled an important part of our cultural herritage and met a lot of nice people in the meantime.
More recently I started to write comic books again, but this time for other artists to draw. These collaborations are wonderful and I am exactly doing what I like most: writing, structuring and sometimes a little layout or graphic design.
I still have a lot of stories to tell and in the following years I hope to spend more time working on them.
Left: page from my script. Right: final page, drawn by Ben Westervoorde.
Destination Unknown. Two pages of an unused scenario.
Some of my early comic work
After I graduated art school I created a lot of comics. It was fun to make short gag strips for a while, but I preferred bigger projects and longer stories. In 2006 and 2007 I teamed up with colleagues Eric Snelleman and Jan Krol to create the daily newspaper comic Zapklaar. It was published in five Dutch newspapers.
MEDI-GEIN
Published in magazines for hospital employees.
Text and drawings:
Jan-Willem de Vries
CORAL & COMPANY
Ideas: Jan Krol
Drawings: Jan-Willem de Vries
ZAPKLAAR
Published in: De Leidsche Courant, Het Noordhollands Dagblad and het Haarlems Dagblad.
Ideas: Jan Krol
Layout: Jan-Willem
de Vries
Drawings: Eric Snelleman
06-21349322
Jan-Willem de Vries
Jan-Willem de Vries
CONTACT
Telefoon: 06-21349322
E-mail: jw@janwillemdevries.nl