'Rampokan-Java' (1998).
Peter van Dongen is a Dutch illustrator, commercial artist and graphic novelist from Amsterdam, working in the "Clear Line" style in the tradition of Hergé. Despite being active as a comic creator since the 1980s, the meticulous Van Dongen has a small but widely praised body of work. After coming to notice with his debut graphic novel 'Muizentheater' (1990), Van Dongen became a forerunner in the Dutch reflection on the bloody colonial separation of Indonesia. As a graphic narrator, he has created several comics dealing with the former Dutch Indies, while his illustration work often breathes the atmosphere of that time period's graphics, coloring and typography. Van Dongen's masterpiece is the two-volume graphic novel 'Rampokan' (1998, 2004), in which he explored the history of Indonesia, the land of his ancestors. To similar acclaim, he worked with the writer Adriaan van Dis on a graphic adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel 'Familieziek' (2017), which dealt with the often problematic repatriations of families from Indonesia to the Netherlands after the separation. In 2018, Peter van Dongen and his colleague Teun Berserik formed one of the artist teams for the international hit series 'Blake & Mortimer', originally created by Edgar P. Jacobs.
Early life and career
Peter van Dongen was born in 1966 in Amsterdam's Rivierenbuurt neighborhood as the son of an Indonesian mother and Dutch father. He and his twin brother Robbie also had an older brother called Arnold. When the boys were six years old, their parents divorced. Their mother remarried and had another child, his half-brother Eddy, with her second husband. At primary school, Van Dongen wanted to become a painter, like Rembrandt, and spent his afternoons making sketches in the Rijksmuseum. Sometimes, he even sold them to tourists for a couple of guilders.
Early work by Van Dongen for Rebel Comix #2.
Van Dongen's fascination for comics started when he discovered Hergé's 'Tintin', and at age 12, he began making his own comic stories. Initially copying existing artwork, he drew four pages of a comic version of the 1961 live-action film 'Tintin and the Golden Fleece', which he didn't finish, but cemented Hergé's influence on his own style. Another inspiration for Van Dongen's early comics was Willem Vleeschouwer, whose depictions of the dirty streets and shabby neighborhoods of Amsterdam left a lasting impression on him. Further influences on his comic art have been Willy Vandersteen, Edgar P. Jacobs, Moebius, Maurice Tillieux and Hugo Pratt, as well as the inking and color work of Yves Chaland and the storytelling of Hermann.
At age sixteen, Van Dongen saw his first comic stories printed in amateur and alternative magazines like Rebel Comix and De Balloen. Between 1983 and 1985, he studied advertising art at the Amsterdam Graphic School, after which he began working as an independent commercial artist, illustrator and comic creator. In the late 1980s, one of his childhood comics, 'Bieboh in Leh', was published in book format by the publishing imprint De Blancoos in Amsterdam, as supplement to their WOW! magazine.
In 2015, The Original Talkatives briefly reunited for the vinyl release of 'Squeeze Louise', a single recorded in 1986, which remained unreleased. The vinyl single came with the original 1986 cover illustration by Peter van Dongen.
The Original Talkatives
Besides comics, Van Dongen has a strong fascination for music. During the 1980s, he was the drummer with the pop/ska band The Original Talkatives, an initiative of his brother Arnold van Dongen (guitar) and Jurre Hogervorst (bass). Among the other band members were singer Carmen Gomes and Peter's twin brother Rob (b. 1966), who was the keyboard player. The band performed internationally and released a couple of singles to moderate success, even winning the 1984 "Grand Prize of the Netherlands", before disbanding in 1986. Arnold van Dongen (b. 1964) continued his career in music as a popular session guitarist nicknamed "one-take-Arnold". He has played in the bands Loïs Lane, Mathilde Santing, Hero, Total Touch and Ilse DeLange. Rob van Dongen became a prominent attorney in the field of media and entertainment, while Peter focused on his work as a graphic artist.
'Prince en Buster' (Wordt Vervolgd #63, June 1986).
Wordt Vervolgd: Muizentheater
Through his friend Willem Vleeschouwer, Peter van Dongen was introduced to the editors of Wordt Vervolgd magazine, the Dutch edition of the Belgian comic magazine (À Suivre). At age nineteen, he was the youngest artist to debut in its pages with the two-page Great Depression-era story 'Prince en Buster' (issue #63, June 1986). Until early 1987, the characters reappeared in subsequent issues in three back-cover stories promoting the magazine's subscriptions.
In a way, his 'Prince en Buster' strips can be considered finger exercises for Peter van Dongen's breakthrough graphic novel 'Muizentheater' ("Theater of Mice", 1990), which appeared in Dutch in Casterman's "Wordt Vervolgd Roman" collection. Again, the comic starts off in 1930s Amsterdam, but this time, Van Dongen dropped the more dynamic Vleeschouwer influences and settled upon a Clear Line approach in the tradition of Hergé. Over the course of several short stories, 'Muizentheater' tells the coming-of-age of the brothers Daan and Henkie - one rebellious and unpleasant, the other shy and compliant. Starting their story during the Great Depression, the boys live in one of Amsterdam's poor working class neighborhoods, where their father works in the harbor and is always drunk. 'Muizentheater' follows the boys as they get older and grow apart, and finishes just before World War II. The epilogue tells what happens to them during the war. Appearing one year after Lian Ong's 'Stuifmeel' (1989), Van Dongen's debut was heralded as part of a new wave that elevated Dutch comics into adulthood.
'Muizentheater' (1990).
Further early comics
Peter van Dongen spent most of the 1990s working as a commercial illustrator, using his spare time to prepare his next graphic novel project. His activities within the comics industry were limited during this period. In the early 1990s, he was an assistant for the cartoonist Gerrit de Jager, the creator of the successful 'De Familie Doorzon' comics. One of his jobs under De Jager's wings was drawing the 1992 safe sex brochure for the STD Foundation Utrecht, featuring the character of Doortje Doorzon. Between 1994 and 1996, Van Dongen worked together with the journalist Martijn Daalder in writing the 'Cat Banda' comic for SjoSji magazine, about an everyday man who is confronted with his family history of spies and gangsters. While Daalder created the stories, Van Dongen made the storyboards, after which the finished art was provided by Teun Berserik. Although the series lasted only six short stories and one 45-page serial, it marked the first collaboration between Peter van Dongen and Teun Berserik.
'Rampokan-Java' (colored edition, 2018). French-language edition.
Rampokan
It took almost a decade before Van Dongen finished his next graphic novel, 'Rampokan-Java' (Oog & Blik/De Harmonie, 1998). The title was derived from the traditional Javanese tiger fight, called the "Rampok macan", held at the end of the fasting month. Right after the release of 'Muizentheater', Van Dongen was looking for a new subject until a childhood memory pushed him into the right direction. His mother was born in Indonesia, and had told him the story of the Dutch marines bombing the harbor city of Makassar in East Indonesia in 1950. Realizing he didn't know that much about the Dutch colonization of Indonesia, he started to collect documentation about the War of Independence in the former Dutch Indies.
For the plot of his new graphic novel, Van Dongen relied heavily on the stories of his mother and grandmother. Set during the second half of the 1940s, the main character of 'Rampokan-Java' is the Dutchman Johan Knevel, who returns to the country of his youth after his studies in the Netherlands. Volunteering in the Dutch army and working as a truck driver, he is also looking for his "babu", the native woman who raised him. Ultimately, when he finds her in the independent fighters' camp, the reunion turns out differently than he had envisioned. Upon its release, Van Dongen's historical and psychological graphic novel about the loss of heritage, the past and identity, earned even more praise than for his debut.
'Rampokan-Celebes' (2005).
'Rampokan' was told in a Clear Line style with sepia spot colors, while the book design was made in collaboration with Joost Swarte, earning both the author and the publisher the 1999 Dutch Prize for "Best Book Design". In 2004, the second part appeared, 'Rampokan-Celebes'. A French translation of 'Rampokan' by Jean Delahaye was published by Vertige Graphic in 2003 and 2005. A complete and fully colored edition in both Dutch and French was published in 2018 by Éditions Dupuis in its Aire Libre collection. For the occasion, the story received a new coloring by Van Dongen and Marloes Dekkers.
Stamp designs by Peter van Dongen.
Rampokan: legacy
Generally considered his magnum opus, the 'Rampokan' project has accompanied Peter van Dongen during his further career. Starting the project when he was 23, he was 31 when the first installment appeared. Even decades later, Van Dongen is still invited to panels to talk about the book, or go to other countries to promote it. In the era of social media, he has regularly received feedback from new readers, most notably from Indonesian readers, who were only familiar with the Indonesian point of view.
Following the release of the second 'Rampokan' installment, Van Dongen organized a series of expositions with artwork by Indonesian artists like Tita and Anto Motulz, held on several locations in Java. His thorough research for the book has also resulted in an ongoing influence of the style, atmosphere and typography from the pre-war Dutch in his commercial artwork.
'Drie Dagen in Rio' (2013).
Drie Dagen in Rio
After finishing his 'Rampokan' diptych, it again took several years before Van Dongen's next comic. Commissioned by the clothing brand Gant International, he created 'Drie Dagen in Rio' ("Three Days in Rio", 2013), a story loosely based on an event from the traveling early years of Gant's retiring director Lennart Björk. Besides a Dutch release by Oog & Blik/De Bezige Bij, the book was also translated into English and Swedish for the Gant stores worldwide.
'Familieziek' (2017).
Familieziek
Impressed by 'Rampokan', the Dutch novelist Adriaan van Dis approached Van Dongen for an adaptation of his semi-autobiographical 2002 novel 'Familieziek'. Set in the 1950s, the novel revolved around the struggles of a traumatized family after moving from the Dutch Indies (Indonesia) to the Netherlands. At the time, Van Dongen was already working on 'Morotai', a solo graphic novel about repatriation from the Dutch East Indies, but since both stories had many similarities, Van Dongen canceled his own project and teamed up with Van Dis instead. The artist accepted and spent nearly ten years working on the project, always in a steady collaboration with the author. Van Dongen initially considered using elements from his own family background, but Van Dis opted against it. He was however free to take a more liberal approach to the novel than for instance Dick Matena did in his adaptations of literary works, which include the full original text.
In 2017, the 'Familieziek' graphic novel was released by Scratch Books to wide media coverage, including an appearance on the popular prime time TV talk show 'De Wereld Draait Door'. As a result, the book sold out in a week, and was ready for a second print run. In 2020, the French translation appeared under the title 'Fichue Famille' in the Dupuis collection Aire Libre.
Blake et Mortimer - 'La Vallée des Immortels 1' (2018).
Blake & Mortimer
Collaborating again with fellow artist Teun Berserik, Van Dongen further established his international visibility as one of the new artists for the 'Blake & Mortimer' series. In 2015, the two artists learned that the publisher Dargaud in Brussels was searching for new artists to secure the production of this classic Franco-Belgian comic. After applying, they were sent a script page for a try-out, and passed the test. Working with writer Yves Sente, their first story was the two-volume 'La Vallée des Immortels' ("The Valley of the Immortals", 2018-2019), a direct sequel to the comic's 1940s debut story 'The Secret of the Swordfish' by Edgar P. Jacobs. For their next installment, they worked with the veteran scriptwriter Jean Van Hamme on 'Le Dernier Espadon' ("The Last Swordfish"), which takes place between 'The Valley of the Immortals' and Jacobs' second serial, 'The Mystery of the Great Pyramid' (1950-1951).
Equally dividing their workload, Van Dongen and Berserik each created half of the pages for each album. In between, other creator teams worked on their own installments with Jacobs' classic heroes. After their original French-langauge release, the 'Blake & Mortimer' books were subsequently translated into Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German and English.
"Library street", illustration by Peter van Dongen.
Illustrator and graphic designer
As a commercial artist and illustrator, Van Dongen's artwork has appeared in magazines and newspapers like Onze Taal, Het Parool, VPRO Gids, Vrij Nederland and NRC Handelsblad. Between 2007 and 2009, Van Dongen made about fifty portraits for the Books supplement of the latter newspaper. Among his commercial clients have been insurance company DSW, Martinair and Capgemini, for which he drew the comic strip 'Capman en Femini'. He has also made an oil painting for The National Maritime Museum of Amsterdam. In addition to illustrations, Peter van Dongen has done graphic design work for posters, book covers, vignettes, postcards and serigraphs, often provided with typography designed and drawn by him.
He notably illustrated the album covers for the albums 'Molenbeekstraat' (2006), 'De Overkant' (2009) and 'Dromen van Johanna' (2010) by Ernst Jansz (of CCC Inc. and Doe Maar fame).
Graphic contributions
In 1991, Van Dongen participated in the thematic series 'Een Hollands Drama' ("A Dutch Drama") of newspaper De Volkskrant, in which 10 Dutch artists were challenged to create a comic page starting with the sentence "That day there was a strong breeze on the dike". In 2010, he honored Jan Kruis in the tribute book 'Jan, Kruis, Die Kan Tekenen'. Along with several other Dutch artists, Van Dongen contributed to 'Bommel en de Bovenbazen', a collectively redrawn version of Marten Toonder's classic 'Tom Poes' story, serialized in NRC Handelsblad between 2 May through 21 September 2012.
Together with writer Martijn Daalder, he wrote the story 'Ereschuld' for 'Wortels in Nederlands-Indië' (2019), a small press collection initiated by Stijn Schenk with 13 artistic co-creations based on the culture and colonial history of the former Dutch Indies (Indonesia). The artwork was provided by Jeroen Steehouwer. His artwork appeared on the cover of the 2024 study 'Getekend Verleden: Strips, Stripmakers en Kolonialisme' ("Drawn History: Comics, Comic Artists and Colonialism") by Tom van der Geugten.
Tribute drawing to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Amsterdam comic store Lambiek in 2008, parodying Hergé's 'Quick & Flupke'. The two boys here are characters from Van Dongen's 'Muizentheater', chased by Lambiek store founder Kees Kousemaker.
Recognition
In 1991, Peter van Dongen's 'Muizentheater' won the Dutch "Stripschappenning" for "Best Comic Book of the Year". His 'Rampokan-Java' graphic novel was awarded the 1998 prize as "One of the Best Designed Books of 1998", the 1999 Prize De Leeuw and the 1999 "Stripschappenning" in the category "Originally Dutch". The follow-up 'Rampokan-Celebes' won the 2005 "Stripschappenning" for "Original Dutch Literary". In 2002, Van Dongen received the "Incentive Prize Illustration" from the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts Foundation. In 2018, Van Dongen was awarded the Stripschapprijs for his entire body of work, handed to him on 31 March 2018 during the Stripdagen comic festival in Utrecht.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Van Dongen's professional career, Concerto Books released the voluminous overview book 'Voldongen: 40 Jaar Werk' (2024), a "visual biography" that covers the artist's rich career both chronologically and thematically.
Peter van Dongen signing at the Angoulême comics festival in 2019. Photo © Erwin Suvaal.