Jean Dulieu

All-round artist Jean Dulieu is the creator of the famous little goblin 'Paulus de Boskabouter'. He was born as Jan van Oort in Amsterdam, as the son of singer Hendrik van Oort. Before his days as a comic artist, he played the second violin in the Concertgebouworkest, Holland's most famous orchestra. But he left the orchestra during the Hunger winter of 1944 to become a draughtsman, inspired by his grandfather Johan Braakensiek who was an illustrator for De Groene Amsterdammer.

He developed a couple of goblins, and shortly afterwards 'Paulus de Boskabouter' was born. The first episodes of the 'Paulus' strip appeared in newspaper Het Vrije Volk in 1946. Dulieu created a great many stories with Paulus until 1984, all characterized by the artist's large imagination and love for nature. Over the years, many classic side characters were introduced, such as Oehoeroeboeroe the owl, Pieter de Veldkabouter, Salomo the raven, Gregorius the badger and the evil witch Eucalypta.

Being a versatile artist allowed Jean Dulieu to use his Paulus character in various projects: illustrated stories, puppet shows, radio plays, puppet movies, animated movies and of course, in his comics. All of those projects (except the puppet movies) he made completely on his own. Besides as a newspaper comic, Paulus appeared in full-color in magazines like Kris-kras, De Varagids, Eva, Fix en Fox, Margriet, Avrobode, Bobo and Striprofiel. The many stories with 'Paulus de Boskabouter' have been translated to German, English, Swedish and Japanese.

In addition to Paulus, Dulieu has made the comic story 'Boffie en Buikie In de Knoop' for supermarket Albert Heijn in 1953. In 1956, he published a book about the life of St. Francis of Asisi.

Jean Dulieu's work has been awarded many times: he got the Literature Prize of the Youth Friends Association of New York, an Edison (a Dutch television award) for a vinyl record adaptation of one of his stories, and a prize for the best children's book in Holland. He lived in reclusion after his wife's death in the late 1980s, and passed away in Arnhem at the age of 85 in November 2006.